Five guiding principles of culture management: A synthesis of best practice

Abstract

This paper offers a synthesis of best practice on how to build, maintain or modify an organisation’s culture. The image of a company in which all employees strive towards common goals is now a well‐established theme of management rhetoric. Teamwork has always been considered an adorned virtue of an organisation, where staff endeavour to work collectively as one body and stick together – whatever the outcome. This idealistic view is, however, a far cry from the real world. This paper provides a set of general guiding principles for culture management in organisations. Leaders and managers are advised to formulate an overall strategy, develop cultural leaders, share the culture by communicating effectively with staff, measure performance and communicate culture in all dealings with customers. These five distinct, yet related, elements are essential if culture management is to be successful, and so this paper argues that for organisational success, all five must ultimately merge to form one unified whole.