Policies- A form of Organizational Culture Scarring?

Jan 22, 2011 by kaizenkoh

I just read something interesting about policies in organizations in the book “Rework” by Jason Fried. He suggests that the urge to create a policy because someone did something wrong or when something goes wrong, it amounts to scarring the organization. “Someone slept on the couch till 5 mins after lunch!”, New Policy- “Every time you want to use a couch, you need to have an alarm beside you to wake you up.” How ridiculous is that?

It does suck, especially when it’s not your fault
Why is there a need to have a collective punishment for all just because of an individual’s misdeed? You could give a stern warning at first or tell the person not to do it again. If he/she persists, then it’s the problem with him or her. Nothing really to do with the whole team. It is not only unfair to punish the whole team but it creates the much hated culture of bureaucracy, one policy at a time. Tragic.

When to have policies then?
The above is how policies can ruin or degenerate a good culture. However, I do agree that policies are important for certain situations though. If the problem is collective and keeps coming up over and over again. If something keeps going wrong, it might be the system or the lack of checks put in place which affects everyone, not only a certain individual. You will see this when something goes wrong very often or people get recalcitrant. Thus, it becomes a collective problem and maybe a policy to correct or put certain regulation in place for people to follow and solve the problem.

Find the policy/welfare sweet spot.
There is big talk about welfare too. Policies and welfare don’t exactly go hand in hand but I think by considering welfare of the people before implementing a policy, it will make a policy seem less invasive and more respectable. Welfare usually means that there is a chance to bend the rules a little to give people some breathing space to take a step back and enjoy certain privileges. Policies tend to crush welfare, strangle it by the neck and control it, leading to mistrust and negativity. What can be done is to complement the policies and welfare. There can be some give and take when it comes to being stringent or flexible. Make some policies stretchable or less stringent while making welfare more accessible while still observing some rules in the policies made.

Yes, there might be scarring in an organization’s culture through the wrong implementation of policies. I believe that finding the balance between welfare and policies might just do the trick of creating a better and more versatile culture. This can allow the people to express themselves better, fear less and do more, feeling less forced and more motivated.

Love,?Kelvin Kaizen Koh

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