Cultural Web Model

Cultural Web Model: A Strategy for Corporate Culture
What is the cultural web model? Well, a company’s strategic direction and success are very often a byproduct of its corporate culture. Therefore, it is beneficial for organizations to not only think about culture but also analyze it.

The Cultural Web model is just one way to understand corporate culture as part of organizational development. In this article, we introduce it, break it down into its essential elements, and show you how you can use it to rethink and question your own culture.

What is the Cultural Web Model?
The Cultural Web model is a framework that defines the paradigm – the lived experience of employees – of an organization. It examines the interrelated elements that shape an organization’s culture, including symbols, rituals, power structures, and more.

The Cultural Web model, developed in 1992 by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes, is a method for exploring the various elements of a company. And how these elements can influence the experiences of employees (or the customers who buy from them).

In addition, the Cultural Web model offers opportunities to investigate:

• What power structures exist within a company
• The collective “history” of a company
• How behaviors or “rituals” emerge

Ultimately, the model itself is a way to understand a company’s current culture and the elements that can help define it in the future.

The six key elements of the Cultural Web model
At the center of the Cultural Web is a paradigm that is also referred to as the company’s lived reality. By this we can understand what it is like to come to work every day, from the perspective of an employee.

There are six critical elements that help illustrate and color this reality. This includes…

1.Stories
Think of this as the collective “memory” of an organization. For this element, it is helpful to think about the “stories that organizations tell.” The narrative or words used to describe the company, its history and its future.

This could include how the company was founded, how it got this far, the key players and their actions, and how employees describe working in that organization. Anything that can be put into words can find its place here.

The idea is that these stories often illuminate a company’s core values and what behaviors they consider to be exemplary. The stories encourage employees to take certain paths to become part of the company’s history.

2.Rituals and routines
These are the different behaviors and actions that are acceptable in a company. Routines can also be understood as expectations, e.g. For example, what an employee can expect when they come to work each day, when they leave work, or what activities look like throughout the day.

In various recurring scenarios, employees learn how they should behave and what “normal” behavior is. Whether this behavior is productive or not is debatable, but it is what has become normalized as part of this type of corporate culture.

3.Symbols
Symbols play a role in the cultural network model as part of employer branding or the branding of an organization in general.

You can think of it as anything that is visual: logos, branding, the look of the office, the workplace dress code, advertising, and much more. Both internally and externally, it is the visual communication of a company that influences this element.

So ask yourself: When you see your business in your mind’s eye, what comes to mind? What images do you imagine? What does your company “look” to you?

4.Organizational structures
Two key elements play a role in this element of the cultural network, which we want to define right from the start. We have:

– Written influence

– Unwritten influence

The first element is as simple as an organizational chart. Whether it is a flat or hierarchical organizational chart, this is a very clear organizational structure that shows who works where, who reports to whom, and who ultimately has decision-making authority.

Beyond that, things get a little more unclear. That’s because Johnson and Scholes also carefully defined the concept of “unwritten influence” in an organization. This can include people who have incredible influence that is not reflected in an organizational chart.

Ultimately, this will determine whose contributions have the most value and who can be relied upon in decision-making, taking into account some of the political elements that may be at play.

For this reason, mapping both the written and unwritten influences in your organization can be a particularly productive exercise. It can also reveal where some employees feel blocked, trapped, or unclear about who is leading or owning what.

5.Control systems
The next element relates to the way control is exercised in an organization. We can also look at this in terms of performance management and how employees are judged on how they work and how successful they are in their various roles.

Think about things like financial systems, quality control, benefits and rewards. In this way, good performance is encouraged and poor performance is managed, corrected and treated (whether effective or ineffective).

6.Power structures
Last but not least, the power structures complete the model of the cultural network.

This is what some call “real power” within an organization. It is essentially the center of power, and it can take many different forms. It can be one person, a handful of managers, an entire group, or a department that has influence over the entire company.

The key is to know which people have the most say in how an organization works and how their opinions determine strategic direction.

How do you use the Cultural Web Model?
The Cultural Web model is best applied when looking at an organization’s current culture. This means going through each of the important elements and comparing them with how the company currently operates.

Then you need to think about the culture you want for your company. While this may include some of the elements already mentioned, you should want a little more when it comes to your company culture.

Now you need to determine the differences between the two. Where are you successful? Where do you have deficits? And how can you reconcile the difference between the two?

The cultural web is intended as an enlightening exercise, but it is not the end of the journey. Now you need to act and make some kind of plan.

Development of a strategy based on the Cultural Web
Once you have a better idea of where you are, where you want to be, and what’s in between, you can develop a path to get there.

This could include working on your company values or considering how best to prioritize and encourage the behaviors you want to see in your organization in the future.

Taken together, the culture web can help create a holistic vision and roadmap based on key areas to create real change in your company culture.