Corporate Culture Defined

A basic definition of organizational culture is the collective way we do things around here. It involves a learned set of behaviors that is common knowledge to all the participants. These behaviors are based on a shared system of meanings which guide our perceptions, understanding of events, and what we pay attention to. As Sun Tzu, a Chinese military general from 3000 BC, indicated in his explanation of strategy, culture forms an integral part of any organizational strategy. It consists of Tao – the created and shared beliefs, values, and glue that holds an organization together, and it also involves the very nature of the organization. Culture is about individuals in a group sharing patterns of behavior. There is no cultural absolute. Because culture is relative, we have the power to create a culture that is the best fit for an organization’s future direction.

Observing Culture

Culture plays out in a variety of ways. We can identify the specifics of it from how information is communicated, feedback is given, performance is managed, and projects are co-coordinated within the organization. It is reflected in the way the corporation or institution is structured; whether work is conducted cross-functionally or within silos, how the hierarchical levels are set up, and the types of job titles used. Culture is often defined by the systems that are used, the processes that are followed, and the rituals, symbols, and stories that abound in the organization. It is even reflected in how meetings are held in an organization.

Corporate Culture as an Obstacle

When working towards company goals or when trying to effect change in the organization, your organizational culture can be the very thing that trips you up. If insufficient effort is put towards identifying aspects of the culture that may impact on what you are trying to achieve, then insufficient actions will be taken to circumvent obstacles in a timely manner or harness the way things are done in an opportune direction. This is best explained through an example.

An organization espouses that “people are our most important asset” as part of its new philosophy. However, employees witness a senior executive being escorted off site with his belongings by security guards after being laid off. They receive an e-mail explaining where they will be sitting and who they will be reporting to in the future restructure – with no fore-warning or personal contact. Training and development opportunities for employees are stopped in order to cut costs. Actions that consistently reflect a certain core culture will more effectively emphasize to employees what the leadership’s true values are than any widely publicized statement. If a direction is truly desired, then all actions that will reflect the required culture need to be considered and instituted accordingly.

Aligning Culture for Success

Once a strategy is set for the organization, the way deliverables are produced in the organization needs to be examined and challenged. This is to ensure that every process is geared towards achieving the strategy.

Every component of the corporate culture needs to underpin what is required from all stakeholders in order to realize the strategic goals. There must be a reinforcing stream of communications. All the actions in the organization need to translate into the cultural realities. A culture can be created or reinforced through the use of socialization. Avenues for socialization abound in functions like selection, placement on the job, job mastery, the measurement and rewarding of performance, and recognition and promotion. Reinforcing a culture can emerge through the stories told and the folklore propagated and, most importantly, through the adherence to chosen important values. The key to the success of the above is to ensure that the culture you wish to socialize others into is an ideal one, necessary for breakthrough performance in your work area or organization. If it is not, then you need to involve everyone in the evaluation and creation of a more suitable culture.

Strong Leadership is Required

One of the surest ways to align the culture to the organization’s strategy is to apply leadership practices that are also aligned. The leaders, at all levels, need to know what the required culture is and then determine ways of establishing practices and procedures in all operations that will closely reflect the desired culture. They also need to role model the very behaviors they wish exhibited by everyone in the organization and provide the necessary support to others that will enable them to function accordingly as well. Particular attention also needs to be given to all communications.

Leadership needs to be front and center to create a corporate culture that works.

For a graphical view of the Cultural Paradigm, click here, http://www.sergaygroup.com/what_is_corporate_culture.html

Janine is an organizational strategy and development expert who has helped myriad individuals, teams, and organizations across a wide range of industries for more than 20 years. She has hands-on experience at every managerial level. http://www.sergaygroup.com

By following a few basic principles of parking lot lights recommended by RLLD Commercial Lighting, you can quickly determine what your client will need and choose fixtures from any number of US light fixture manufacturers. The following points are a few things to keep in mind that will make the process easier for both you and your clients.

#1-As a general rule, it is best to use American made parking lot lighting fixtures for garages and lots.

The quality controls mandated by multiple layers of government, and the warranties that major US manufacturers back their products up with, are unsurpassed in most of the world. Using American made parking lot lights also offers your client the best engineering, maintenance, and replacement options available on a domestic and local level. It helps ensure that parts can be maintained and expeditiously replaced if something does go wrong, because we are dealing with domestic entities who can deliver parts in a timely manner without the complications of overseas shipping.

#2-Most cities mandate that parking lot lighting be evenly distributed at 3-4 foot candles throughout the lot.

Many businesses might not be aware that their parking lot lighting levels have fallen below minimum levels. This happens when lamps deteriorate over an extended period of time. When this happens, lighting levels become uneven and pockets of shadow form. Adjacent areas of brightness distort perspective, and drivers find it difficult to accurately judge distances. Pockets of shadow form when foot candles drop below acceptable levels and become dangerous potential hiding places for vandals and assailants.

If you have found that your client’s parking lights are not generating the required level of lighting, or determine that illumination is being unevenly distributed throughout the facility, the first step in correcting the problem is to have a photometric analysis conducted on the facility. This will chart where foot candle levels need to be improved to overcome problem areas of shadow, and it greatly help in choosing fixtures that provide optimal directional placement of lighting into parking areas where obstructions are present or where the facility features and irregular design.

#3- Parking lights may need to be replaced to prevent your client from violating dark sky laws.

The dark sky movement has gained global momentum and shows no signs of slowing down. Dark sky laws have been passed in most major cities. These regulations have precipitated changes in a number of luminaire types, and parking light fixtures are among those most significantly impacted by this legislation. New luminaires favor semi-cutoff or full cutoff designs that direct the light downward into a predictable foot candle plot. Fixtures also feature advanced reflectors and optics that diffuse intense light into a more even spread of photons. This prevents light from spilling out of the parking area into adjacent streets and buildings, and it also works to reduce glare that was common in more primitive fixture designs that relied upon high levels of light as opposed to precision placement of light.

#4-Parking lot lighting needs to be as energy efficient as possible without sacrificing the quality of light.

The most obvious for this is reducing your clients’ power bills as much as possible. While the cost of a parking light upgrade may intimate many organizations, technology already exists that can pay for such an investment. LED parking lights can operate on solar batteries or standard low voltage transformers and have already proven themselves to produce better lighting in some cases than other parking lot fixtures, as well as lowering costs of operation by 60-80%. Solar lighting poles are an entirely new innovation that requires no electricity from the public energy grid.

#5-Parking lot lighting may require a highly aesthetic element in certain situations.

In some environments, this will matter much more than others. College campuses, public schools, and government buildings should be lit with fixtures that offer a design element that is complimentary to the geometric proportions and architectural style of the adjacent buildings. Retail stores require aesthetic architectural and parking lot lighting to attract customers. The only thing a person may see when they drive by is the parking lot, and decorative lighting fixtures that are professionally designed and finished with attractive colors will often be enough to catch a person’s eye.

Corporate headquarters often look much better and more professional with aesthetic or decorative parking lights in the very front of the building where investors, clients, and visitors are most likely to park. Warehouses and factories require the least amount of decoration, but still require their parking lights to look professional and presentable.

rlldesign.com. For more information on Parking Lot Lighting and Commercial Lighting, or to read Parking Lot Lighting Case Studies, visit us online today.

It is always advisable to use parking lot lights and poles that are made in the United States. American made equipment offers a greater variety of optics and reflectors. These luminaires and poles typically have 3-5 year written warranties (some poles have warranties of up to 10 years) that make domestically manufactured equipment a much better investment for you and your client.

Before purchasing equipment, a careful study of parking lot lighting standards in your client’s region should be conducted to avoid purchasing the wrong equipment for the project. Dark sky laws are being passed throughout the nation that affect parking lot lighting systems from Coast to Coast. Many contractors work in multiple cities and sometimes multiple states. They may not always have the time to research the details of local lighting regulations. Working with a lighting design specialist can eliminate the need to do so, and it can ensure that the luminaires, mounts, and poles that you propose to your client are already in full compliance with all local codes.

Parking lot lighting design services are the key to achieving compliance with all lighting regulations and client expectations. Lighting Design Software can provide an amazing calculation and rendering tool that can take the raw data of a CAD document and turn it into a three-dimensional model of the parking lot lighting system you are proposing to your client. We charge a nominal fee for this design service, which we deduct from your invoice should you decide to purchase equipment through us.

The advantage of buying parking lot lights and poles through us becomes readily apparent when you consider the fact that the photometric analysis we provide for you pinpoints exactly what you need to install and where to install it to get the best foot candle spread and lighting control for your client’s facility. This will help you avoid over purchasing equipment and help you develop a more streamlined, cost effective system for you to propose.

By matching parking lot lighting fixtures to an advanced design layout, we help you achieve a higher level of precision functionality and aesthetics for your clients.

There are small details that are critical to the entirety of every project, and letting our design team also function as a procurement channel will ensure these details are attended to in such a way that every aspect of luminance, glare control, and light spillage containment has been addressed.

Parking lot lighting poles often play much more of a key role than you might expect them to play in creating a truly superior commercial outdoor lighting system.Balancing foot candle spread with lighting standards can often place a contractor in a procurement dilemma. If fixtures alone are used as the determining factor in creating appropriate luminance, the proposal may wind up being outside of the client’s price range because more powerful—and therefore more expensive fixtures—have to be installed.

On the other hand, having access to a wide range of pole heights and pole mounting options allows you to combine elevation and angles of incidence with lower wattage luminaires. This can and does in many cases reduce overall operating costs, because more light can be produced with more sophisticated, lower wattage fixtures that provide superior illumination, visibility, safety, and directional lighting control.

rlldesign.com. For more information on Parking Lot Lighting and Parking Lot Lighting Case Studies visit us online.

Because of its bulk, furniture is often the first in the large item category to require additional storage away from the home. Furniture in a storage can be quite involved, requiring the storage climate to be within favorable tolerances for the cloth, wood, finish and metal that comprise the makeup of most furniture.

Before considering a furniture storage option for your furniture, ask yourself a few questions. The following are meant to be guidelines for safe storage of furniture:

Most UK storage centers do not offer climate controlled rooms – we do not have the US extremes of temperature. Therefore these bullets are not appropriate. We do have a local museum storing some of their exhibits with us and they monitored humidity and temperature levels for 2 months before moving in. They reported stable conditions ideally suited to storing their artifacts.

• Will you need the room where your furniture is stored to be kept at a certain temperature and away from moisture? If the answer is yes, you will need to search for storage facilities that offer climate controlled units to ensure consistent temperature and humidity levels.

• Excessive moisture can lead having issues with mold and mildew in fabrics. However, wood generally needs to be a bit more breathable in terms of moisture, especially in hot conditions. In any event, try not to store unfinished wood for long periods of time. It is best to cover all exposed wooden surfaces with the appropriate oil, varnish, wax or other sealing agent.

• If you need secure, safe furniture storage but are unconcerned about special climate controls, a suitable storage unit of sufficient capacity is all you need to consider.

Determine how much storage space will need to store your furniture. A small amount of measurement and rough sketch is all you need to ascertain the amount of furniture storage area you need. The sketch will help you stack and organize your space to fit the most furniture into the available area. You will save money in the end by not overestimating and renting a larger unit than necessary and wasting money.

Should you choose (not – remove) to rent a unit (with a controlled environment – remove), consider the following suggestions for safe furniture storage:

• Place a pallet or plastic sheet or some other suitable covering on the floor to raise your furniture away from potentially damp areas.

• Disassemble beds, tables and whatever else you can to save space and to make your furniture storage area more space efficient. Be certain to retain all nuts, bolts, screws and other hardware; a good option is to store them in plastic bags and tape them directly to the appropriate pieces. This makes reassembly easy and keeps the bits out of harms way.

• To protect the finish, wrap all areas that are exposed surfaces when assembled. This includes table tops and legs, decorative cabinet surfaces, glass areas and so on. Heavy paper or sturdy cloth works well for most things; glass is best protected with packaging materials or blankets.

•Upholstered items should be kept off the floor.

• Be certain to add extra padding (bits of cloth, old linens or pieces of carpet work well) between pieces as needed to eliminate possible jostling and subsequent scratches or breakage.

• Finally, cover everything with a dust cover or old bed sheets.

Use large armories and cupboards as convenient extra storage for smaller items. They are also excellent for storing old linens, clothes and fabrics. Because of their size and shape, they also make ideal platforms to stack smaller boxes on. For more information visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

For more information on furniture storage visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

Kangaroo Self Storage presents the ideal way to store your items in your own personal or business storage unit. Self storage is excellent for a variety of reasons. Having your own storage unit means not having to contend with limited space, unloading unwanted possessions or dealing with seasonal or other fluctuations in your storage needs. Kangaroo takes the worry and most of the work out of securing your possessions, allowing you to free up more room at work, home, dorm room, office or other business.

When considering a self storage option, security is what is usually on everyone’s mind. Your storage unit should be protected against the elements and also against human incursion. All of your stored items will be safe at Kangaroo Self Storage and securely protected in a private storage unit under lock and key. Our facilities are also protected by secure entry and exit systems and video surveillance.

Convenient access to your unit is another factor to consider when determining how to store your possessions. Kangaroo Self Storage allows access to your belongings whenever you need them – seven days a week. In addition, our self storage facilities are clean, secure, well-maintained and efficiently operated to ensure your complete peace of mind. Kangaroo staff are available to help you with anything you might need.

Kangaroo Self Storage has facilities in several locations, making us ideally situated within easy driving distance for your convenience. Your unit is accessible in convenient locations in Dundee and Glasgow, making it easy for you to access your items at any time, seven days a week. Generous trade hours mean extreme convenience for you whenever you need access to your belongings.

Kangaroo self storage has units that are available in over 25 sizes, and we proudly offer a variety of warehousing and bulk item packages in addition to general storage for personal use. Kangaroo Self Storage utilizes modern storage techniques to guarantee just the right storage options for various needs. If you are moving a business or a household, storing things short term because of remodeling or other building issues, or for any other reason, an appropriate storage unit can save you lots of headache.

The Kangaroo staff play important roles in keeping our customers happy. You can rest assured that your storage items are in good hands with Kangaroo Self Storage. We cultivate an environment of courteous helpfulness and encourage our staff to lend a hand wherever needed. Friendly, helpful staff are usually a good sign that all is well and we encourage that caring attitude as much as possible.

Whether you need short term or long term storage, you will feel much better about housing your belongings in a facility that is well maintained and run efficiently. Kangaroo Self Storage takes pride in maintaining the most stringent levels of excellence in these areas.

Self storage units are the ideal solution for both your personal belongings and business effects. Kangaroo works hard to provide the services and products to meet any and all storage needs. Offering over 25 room sizes to select from, extended hours with access seven days a week, and occasional rate promotions along with our guaranteed low-cost basic rates, Kangaroo Self Storage ensures that your items are safe and secure with minimal fuss and reasonable expense. For more information visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

For more information on a storage unit visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

Storage is probably one of those things you never think about until you need it. All it takes to make a move into or out of storage a pleasant experience is a bit of ingenuity, a dash of common sense and the right attitude. Of course, a good supply of marking pens, labels, packing tape and protective wrap doesn’t hurt either. The following is a brief guide to packing, storing and moving your things painlessly.

Packing

Make certain to give yourself plenty of time to organize and pack your belongings prior to going into storage. Somehow, it always seems to take more time to pack up than we usually anticipate. Making sure you have the time allocated to do a good job will make the process that much smoother in the end.

Disassemble any furniture, equipment or devices into basic components. Use clear plastic bags to hold parts and tape them to the area where they originated. This will make things much easier to assemble later.

Take extra care to pack up particularly fragile items in suitable packing materials, cloth or blanket wraps or bubble wrap.

Labeling

Efficient storage comes down to clear labeling. Label everything. Group similar items together and label the boxes appropriately. One tired and true method of labeling is by room or function. For example, small kitchen appliances might go in a box clearly labeled ‘kitchen appliances’. Room labeling ensures that everything ends up in the right place when taking your items out of storage and moving them into a new place. It is then easy to place the appropriate boxes where they belong. If your labeling is precise enough, you can instantly know which boxes you wish to unpack immediately and which ones can be saved for later.

Don’t be afraid to make your labels detailed and descriptive. Mark any boxes with particularly fragile contest as ‘Fragile’ and don’t be afraid to apply similar designations to other boxes as needed.

Moving

When you finally move your belongings into storage, try to plan ahead as to where the bulky items go, the heavy ones, the fragile ones and so on. Again, give yourself plenty of time and, if you are moving your things to storage by yourself, allow your back and muscles to adjust to the extra strain of lifting and toting. Many facilities offer the use of hand-trucks and elevators to help save your aching back.

Supplies

Consider bringing along a bag filled with packing supplies and extra markers and leave the supplies in the unit itself. If you are like most people, you will use them sooner or later as you pack and repack items you need to bring out of storage.

We offer immediate move-in and provide private, secure access to your storage during our long trade hours seven days a week. As your storage company, Kangaroo can secure your items for as little or as long as you like, based on your particular requirements. Our staff is standing by to offer immediate assistance to you during the move-in, ongoing storage and move-out periods.

Company storage of your business items should be the least of your worries - and we guarantee that by offering worry-free, safe and secure company storage for businesses and similar options for students, householders and individuals. We have over 25 sizes of storage rooms to choose from, so selecting one right for you is no problem. For more information visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

For more information on storage visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

There are many reasons to choose Kangaroo Self Storage for your storage needs. Self storage is an excellent solution for individual and business storage needs for a variety of reasons. By taking the worry and most of the work out of securing your possessions, a self storage company can provide a highly desirable place and allow you to free up extra space in your home, student flat, office, workshop or business.

When considering a storage option, security is what comes to mind most often. Your storage facility should be not only protected against the elements but also secure to guard against theft and vandalism. All of your stored items will be safe when securely stored in their own storage room under lock and key and behind secure gates.

Another factor to consider is convenient access. Kangaroo Self Storage allows access to your belongings whenever you need them – seven days a week. In addition, Kangaroo staff are available to help you with anything that arises. With facilities in several locations, Kangaroo Self Storage is generally well within driving distance for your convenience. Our facilities are clean, secure, well-maintained and efficiently operated to ensure your complete peace of mind.

Self storage by Kangaroo is accessible in convenient locations in Dundee and Glasgow, making it easy for you to easily access your store room. That, along with easy access seven days a week and our generous trade hours mean extreme convenience for you whenever you need access to your belongings.

Yet another factor in picking the perfect storage solution is the range of service options. Kangaroo Self Storage offers pick up and delivery services, storage rooms in over 25 sizes, a variety of warehousing packages and a friendly staff to assist you in orchestrating your storage activities.

Whether moving a business or a household, perhaps one of the most pressing self storage needs, in addition to security and convenience, will be the attitudes and friendliness of the staff. You will be much less inclined to worry about your storage items in an environment of courteous helpfulness than one that involves an obvious uncaring attitude towards the customers. Friendly, helpful staff are usually a good sign that all is well and that competent individuals are ready to help when needed.

Finally, and going hand-in-hand with staff attitudes, is the issue of operational efficiency. Efficient operations are generally clean, well maintained and otherwise appealing as a temporary home for your possessions. Kangaroo Self Storage exercises the strictest quality standards in this respect. Long gone are the days when your valuable possessions had to make do with rotten pallet and dingy mold-infested warehouses.

Immediate move-in is available and you can come and go as you please. You will enjoy easy access to private and secure storage. In addition, your belongings will be safe for as long or as little as you like. It is completely up to your own requirements.

Kangaroo accepts deliveries and can even arrange to collect your items if you do not have the time to arrange your own transportation. If you have a small self-storage requirement, you might consider having us deliver a storage crate for you to load. After we pick up, you have the option of emptying the crate yourself or having us simply store it until you need it. For more information visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

For more information on self storage visit http://www.kangarooselfstorage.co.uk.

At first glance, big picture thinking and customer focus would seem to be mutually exclusive terms. After all, the first phrase connotes a farsighted, panoramic view of business, while the second implies an intense, laser-beam-like concentration on the customer. Yet as revealed in Magnifying Customer Focus: A Study of Current Trends and Future Possibilities 2006-2016, a global study commissioned by American Management Association and conducted by The Human Resource Institute, the terms are not only compatible, they are inseparable.

The study finds that customer focus is a top strategic concern for many businesses today and is ranked as one of the most important needs concerning issues ranging from leadership challenges to ethical behavior and innovation. Yet it also reveals that there is a wide disparity between what activities companies practice when it comes to customer focus and what they should be practicing.

The study asked respondents to rank a variety of strategic actions in each of five areas environment/culture, communications, HR practices, measurement and organizational practices in terms of what their companies are doing now and then to rank those same actions in terms of what their companies should be doing. Here is a closer look at the results for each of the five areas.

In environment/culture, having the support of top management ranked number one in both the should-do and doing-it-now categories. On the surface this would appear to be a heartening result leadership is doing what it should be doing.

But that good news is undercut by the number two should-do action: having leaders set the example with customer-focused behaviors. This is only number four in the doing-it-now category, meaning that while leadership may nominally support customer focus, it is not necessarily supporting it with its actions. Perhaps that helps explain why including customers in our corporate value statements ranked number two in the doing-it-now category but only number six in the should-do category; mission statements are all well and good, but its action that counts.

In the communications area, Magnifying Customer Focus finds that companies are falling short of communicating the customer focus message internally. Respondents ranked the action of having an internal plan in place to communicate customer insights number four in the should-do category, but only number seven in the doing-it-now category, suggesting that many companies are missing this crucial component. Its important to note that this doesn’t simply mean leadership handing down memos. It means employees at all levels of the organization must share their perspective and facilitate feedback from the customer so the company can get a true picture of the state of its customer service.

Companies are placing too much emphasis on market share as an indicator of customer satisfaction, according to respondents results in the area of measurement. Regularly measuring market share ranked third in the doing-it-now category, but eighth in the should-do category, strongly suggesting that respondents believe this particular metric is of little value when it comes to gauging customer satisfaction. Bain & Co.s Fred Reich held has gone even further in questioning the relevance of market share as a reliable measurement of customer satisfaction. Reichheld maintains that although companies may capture market share and generate considerable revenue from dissatisfied customers, it is actually more costly than profitable in the long run to do so.

When it comes to HR, expecting employees to anticipate customer needs ranked number one in the doing-it-now category and number three in the should-do category. It seems that while the respondents believe this strategic action is important enough to be included in the top three of actions that should be taken, it is not the overall most important action. That distinction belongs to providing customer-oriented employee training, an action that ranked number one in the should-do category and number three in the doing-it-now category, a surprising result considering the number of customer service training programs currently in place. The takeaway from this seems to be that while companies may think that they’re addressing customer service training needs, they are in reality falling far short.

While the organizational practices area is a broadly defined subgroup with substantial overlap with the other four areas, it did produce some interesting results of its own. For example, responding to demands for customization and personalization ranked eighth in the doing-it-now category but ranked only twentieth in the should-do category. Customization and personalization have been hot topics lately, with many proclaiming them the next big thing, but clearly the survey respondents consider them overrated as a customer focus issue.

Conversely, the tactic of being customer-focused at all customer touch points, not just sales and customer service ranked fourth in the should-do category and twelfth in the doing-it-now category, revealing a large disparity between its perceived importance and the extent to which its executed.

That point an urgent reminder that customer focus needs to be instilled throughout the organization and not isolated in one or two departments serves well to sum up the entire survey.

Management Training Centre provides professional development, management and sales training, leadership and executive training and career training programs for HR professionals, supervisors and employers.