Building and Strengthening II: Knowledge and Behavior

Abstract

We saw in the previous chapter that building and strengthening a culture relies in large measure on ensuring the right elements of structure and governance: the hard-and-fast rules and mechanisms that can be enacted through board resolutions, policy documents, corporate directives, human resource activities and other structural components of the corporate state. We now shift gears slightly, introducing imperatives that are primarily qualitative — specifically, knowledge and behaviors that can be instituted to help a firm build or strengthen its culture. It is worth reiterating the point from the previous chapter that these are general prescriptions that need to be believed, experienced and practiced so that they flow through the organization naturally.