American Society for Quality Conference held Nov. 8, 2014 describes Corporate Culture and its Nexus to Quality

1. Corporate Culture and its Nexus to
Quality
7th Annual SoCal Quality Conference
“Building and Sustaining Quality Cultures”
Ronald J. Sasiela, President
Sasiela & Associates, LLC
www.seafoodconsultancy.com
November 8th, 2014
Copyright © 2014 Sasiela & Associates, LLC

2. Discussion outline
• What is “Corporate Culture”?
• Can CC be measured?
• Attendee mini survey
• An in-depth review of an actual CC survey
• A look at Asiana’s July 6th San Francisco
plane crash – case study
– News coverage
– Malcolm Gladwell’s crystal ball?
– Nexus to CC
• A close-to-home case study

3. Attendee Mini CC Survey
1. How well do YOU know YOUR company’s
core values?
2. “This call is being recorded for quality
proposes.”
3. “We only use the highest quality ingredients.”
4. How does YOUR company relate to Jobs?
5. Speed of decision making at YOUR company.

5. Definition
Web definition.1
Organizational culture is an idea in the field
of Organizational studies and management
which describes the psychology, attitudes,
experiences, beliefs and values (personal
and cultural values) of an organization. ...
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_culture

6. Definition cont.
Investopedia definition.2
The beliefs and behaviors that determine how a
company's employees and management interact
and handle outside business transactions. Often,
corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined,
and develops organically over time from the
cumulative traits of the people the company hires.
A company's culture will be reflected in its dress
code, business hours, office setup, employee
benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, treatment of
clients, client satisfaction and every other aspect
of operations.

7. Definition cont.
Ron’s definition.3
How we do things around here.

8. Definition cont.
Ernest Hemingway definition.4
“Don’t bother with churches,
government buildings or city
squares, if you want to know
about a culture, spend a night in
its bars.”

9. 9-
29-
14

10. A Plethora of CC Press References
• General Motors recall – 28 million+, NYT
4/12/2014 “G. M. Documents Reveal
Years of Talks on Defect”
• WSJ, 4/4/2014 Editorial – “The Culture of
General Motors”…CEO Mary Berra
testified…Members of Congress seized
the opportunity to attack the “culture”
of GM.

11. A Plethora of CC Press References
• WSJ, 4/16/2014 “Making Sure the
Boss Is the Right Fit…A poor cultural
fit is the primary reason top managers
fail…”
• LA Times, Lawyer files lawsuit against
Asiana Airlines for crash in San Francisco
stating that it was the cockpit culture that
contributed to the incident.
• BuzzFeed – Journalist fired for
plagiarism

12. Can Corporate Culture be
Measured?
?

13. A Post GraduateTerm Paper
• As required for course EMSE 274, Spring
2004, at The George Washington
University
• Professor Francesco Calabrese,
Department of Engineering Management
• Surveyor – Ronald J. Sasiela as a GWU
alumni auditor

14. Survey Design
• Respondents were assured complete
confidentiality and anonymity.
• Dr. Calabrese’s suggestion was intended to
enhance the survey’s privacy and its validity.
• Respondents were additionally requested to
indicate if they were “new” (<1 year) or “off
site” employees.
• The survey was tested on two volunteers, for
their completion time, and suggestions, which
were incorporated into the final email
distribution. . .

15. Survey Design
• The draft survey was first reviewed by the
company president who asked that it also be
first circulated to his other five reports for
comments before being broadcast. Those
concerns were also incorporated in the
survey.
• Initially a total of 64 surveys were emailed.
• Responses to the surveyor could be via email,
interoffice mail, or not replied at all –
confidentially being always assured.

16. Survey Design
• 33 Total Questions about the company
# 1 – 21 ask about Corporate Culture
# 22 – 33 ask about Knowledge
Management
• Completion Time ~25 minutes
• Response scale was Zero to Ten,
proportionally marked based on the
supplied anchored extremes.

17. Sample Questions
• Good ideas are ignored, ridiculed, smothered
by bureaucracy = 0. If good ideas are taken
seriously and people are willing to test ideas
out on others assign a 10. (CC)
• What is the primary emphasis at this
company, on individuals or teams? Score a 0
for individual emphasis and a 10 for team
emphasis. (KM)

18. Survey Results
• Reply Percentages:
– Total responses = 43/~90 = 48%
– “New” employees = 1/43 = 2.3%
– Off-site employees = 1/43 = 2.3%
• Now – how to display the results?

21. Average Score vs. Survey Question Number
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
18 17
19
20
21
22
28
23
27
26
25
24
29
30
31
32
33

22. Corporate Culture Survey
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
12 11
13
19
14
18
17
16
15
20
21

23. Knowledge Management Survey
10.0
9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33

24. Percent Extreme Responses
38
25
13
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

25. Extreme Survey Scores vs. Question No.
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
0 + 1 score 9 + 10 score

26. Question's Standard Deviation
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

27. What was the correlation between
the similar questions 11 and 33?
Correlation of reponse
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Respondant 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
Score
11
33
correlation

28. Some Conclusions
• The two-topic survey enjoyed a high 48%
return rate (Hawthorne effect?)
• The relative low average scores indicate there
is ample room for management intervention
• There were several survey questions that
produced very strong responses.
• There was a high correlation both in single
response std. deviation and in an inserted
repeatability question (#s11 and 33.)
• Possible errors were introduced by
untraceable survey duplication.

29. Understanding Alignment of Purpose
SSttrraatteeggyy
Perpetual
PPrroocceessss// AAccttiivviittiieess
Customer Value
CCuussttoommeerr
CCuullttuurree
Vertical
Integration
(How Well We
Do It)
Horizontal
Integration
(What We Do)
Creating the Learning Enterprise

30. July 6, 2013
Asiana Flt 254 Plane Crash; 3 Dead, 187 injured

31. Interviewed by CCN after the Asiana Plane Crash by CCN.
WHY?

32. GLADWELL
Copyright 2008

33. Chapter Seven
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes

34. Language as a Part of Culture
• Position
demonstration

35. Language as a Part of Culture
• In America: How are you?

36. Language as a Part of Culture
• In Spanish: Como esta usted? or Como
estas usted?

37. Language as a Part of Culture
• In Korean:
• Six levels of formality
– Most formal
– Next most formal
– 3rd most formal
– 4th most formal
– 5th most formal
– 6th most formal
• “Mitigated speech”

38. A NYC COOP – A Case Study

39. Undergoing Public Hall
Renovation
• Communicates by placing ballots by doors
are not received in up to 43% of residents
• Many residents do NOT live there, travel,..
• Email is not used to communicate
• “No one wants to receive email notices
because of secrecy concerns” -- yet
supply banking info for rent payment!
• A mini-survey proves otherwise

41. Takeaways
• Better understanding of what Corporate
Culture is
• Can it be measured? Yes, but be careful.
• Can it be changed? Yes, but slowly.
• Become a student of CC!

42. Thank you for your attention
Questions & Answers?