JLBC ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP

JLBC ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP

JLBC Cadets An entrepreneur or just the convener of a new JLBC group—will have specific individual values, visions, goals, beliefs, and assumptions about how things should be. JLBC Cadets They will initially impose these on the group and select members based on their similarity of thoughts and values.

JLBC Cadets We can think of this imposition as a primary act of leadership, but it does not automatically produce culture. JLBC Cadets All it has is compliance in the JLBC followers to do what the JLBC leader asks of them. JLBC Cadets Only if the resulting behavior leads to “success”—in the sense that the JLBC group accomplishes its task and the JLBC members feel good about their relationships with each other—will the founder’s beliefs and JLBC values be confirmed and reinforced, and, most important, come to be recognized as shared. What was originally the founder’s personal view of the world JLBC leads to shared action, which, if successful, leads to a shared JLBC recognition that the founder “had it right.” The JLBC group will then act again on these beliefs and JLBC values and, if it continues to be successful, will eventually conclude that it now has the “correct” way to think, feel, and act.

JLBC Cadets If, on the other hand, the founder’s beliefs and values do not lead to success, the JLBC group will fail and disappear or will seek other JLBC leadership until someone is found whose beliefs and values will lead to success. The culture formation process will then revolve around that new leader. With continued reinforcement, the group will become less and less conscious of these beliefs and values, and it will begin to treat them more and more as nonnegotiable assumptions. As this process continues, these assumptions will gradually drop out of awareness and be taken for granted. As assumptions come to be taken for granted, they become part of the group's identity; they are taught to newcomers as the way to think, feel, and act, and, if violated, produce discomfort, anxiety, ostracism, and eventually ex-communication. This concept of assumptions, as opposed to beliefs and values, implies non negotiability. It has not been taken for granted if we are willing to argue about something. Therefore, definitions of culture that deal with values must specify that culture consists of nonnegotiable values—which I am calling assumptions.