Is your corporate culture PCR test positive?

It is accepted that an organisation’s culture defines the proper way to behave within the organisation

There is profuse attention to curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and the economic downturn. We need to shed light on a wide array of human activities from households to the corporate sphere. Management professionals, thinkers, and academics need to come forward and address some of the key thematic areas that need pondering since they offer valuable considerations for both managers and leaders to realign their activities. We need more and more leaders who see the big picture through what appears to be rudimentary notions. The COVID-19 is transitional and transformational testing is imperative for us to learn fast and lead appropriately. The writer intends to bring a novel analogy of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test to corporate affairs.

The PCR test is extensively used as antibody testing and the dominant way global healthcare systems are testing citizens for COVID-19. According to the US National Library of Medicine, PCR tests are fast and highly accurate in diagnosing certain infectious diseases and genetic changes. The tests work by finding the DNA or RNA of a pathogen (disease-causing organism) or abnormal cells in a sample. Unlike many other tests, PCR tests can see evidence of disease in the earliest stages of infection. Other tests may miss early signs of disease because there aren’t enough viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens in the sample, or your body hasn’t had enough time to develop an antibody response. The PCR tests can detect disease when there is only a minimal amount of pathogens in your body. As a management practitioner, my intention is not to explain medical/scientific aspects of the PCR test.

This discussion is whether our corporate culture is negatively affected by external diseases or possesses adequate coping immunity. It is accepted that an organisation’s culture defines the proper way to behave within the organisation. It consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various means, eventually shaping employee perceptions, understanding and behaviours. Organisational culture sets the context for everything an enterprise does. Because contexts and industries vary significantly, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ culture template that meets the needs of all organisations. In such circumstances, a strong culture is a common denominator among the most successful companies. Leaders in successful companies maintain and make their cultures every possible day and go out of their way to communicate their cultural identities to employees and newcomers. They are clear about their priorities and know how to maintain a healthy balance and run the organisations.

I wish to relate the acronym PCR test as the “Philosophical Contended Realist” test for corporate culture management. Let me first simplify. Does it state that P means ‘Philosophical,’ which is related or devoted to studying the fundamental nature of knowledge (what is expected in a given situation?), reality (What is the current situation?), and existence (What is the gap between expectation and current level?)? 

Irrespective of the context, we need to ask these three fundamental questions in business when it relates to affairs in enterprises. Leaders are compelled to ask these three simple questions regularly. In essence, philosophy means asking basic questions about reality, the good life, and identity (‘who I am’), etc. 

The letter C means ‘Contended,’ which denotes the strategic aspect, asserting something as a position in an argument/struggle to surmount (a difficulty). ‘Contended’ depicts strategic questions that we should ask. These questions are fundamental to running our institutions, such as, how to grow in our business year-on-year, how to defend competitive moves in our industries, and how we should offer a Unique Value Proposition that makes us competitively ahead. The entire gamut of strategic management questions is based on these three fundamental questions. To go for blue ocean thinking or red ocean thinking is up to the leadership.

Finally, ‘R’ stands for ‘Realist,’ implying a person accepts a situation and is prepared to deal with it accordingly. The entrepreneurial domain goes as an entrepreneur who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. Entrepreneurs play a vital role in any economy, using the skills and initiative necessary to anticipate needs and bring new ideas to market. Entrepreneurs do not wait till all factors get settled. They take riskier decisions and strive to make things happen. That is the nature of the realist.

One needs a synthesised idea or approach to solve emerging problems in the COVID-19 pandemic transition and prepare for new everyday scenarios. They are unprecedented and unparalleled. We need to be ready for both managing the disruptions as well as leading in the new realities. Practitioners require a great degree of choices in selecting what to do and what not to do. Under these circumstances, the corporate culture PCR test should be enormously positive not in medical terms but through a management lens. Companies must ask profound yet straightforward questions to incorporate “Philosophical Contended Realists” for a new working model. In other words, companies should promote philosophical strategic entrepreneurial doers for generating results. Unlike on medical grounds, if the corporate cultural PCR test is positive (optimistic), the company can explore new initiatives under challenging conditions. 

The way of working, decision-making styles, leadership drive, etc., are paramount drivers in making it a reality. From short-term to long-term operations, companies do require it to enable and leverage initiatives to make things happen. This is the time for leaders to pay extraordinary attention to protecting companies by taking preventive measures and making a consolidated effort to keep people together, harnessing synergy and keeping the immune system strong, like in the body. Leaders need to make it philosophical but straightforward, strategic, and entrepreneurial (making the corporate PCR test positive). All of it depends on company culture. In essence, corporate culture matters!

(Dr. Samantha Rathnayake, Ph.D. is a Faculty Member/Management Consultant of the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. She can be reached via [email protected])