Culture and Alignment

Culture and the aligning elements dictate what we can and cannot do in an organization.

Culture is the unwritten law, the expectations, standards, the self-policing imperatives that everyone holds himself and others to. It's the verbal and non-verbal message that you receive in a thousand ways that a certain action is expected and another action is unacceptable. It's the collective heart of an organization; heart in the sense that it's what an organization wants, likes, and expects of itself and what it dislikes.

Aligning elements are the formal systems, procedures, incentives, structures, etc. that facilitate, guide, and point to the achievement of an organizations goals. They are the body and mind of an organization.

An organization's culture is stronger than its aligning elements. And, usually, no single person can go against an organization's culture or formal systems unless he exhibits exceptional selflessness in order to gain the trust of others and, subsequently, moral authority. If he can achieve that, perhaps he might receive formal authority and then he has potential to powerfully influence both an organization's culture and systems.

One more difference between the two: both are contracts in a sense, a mutual understanding... but culture is a system comprised of moral contracts and expectations while, on the other hand, systems are formal contracts. Allah the all mighty comands us to fulfil our contracts in every sense of the word.

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