"cultural fit" opinion

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dotnetguy

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Jan 25, 2015, 9:31:11 PM1/25/15
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Hello, what is your opinion on the concept of "cultural fit" in an organization? On one hand I could see how this concept could be exclusionary. On the other hand I have seen many examples where cultural fit and cultural misfit have had a huge impact.

Rohan D'Sa

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Jan 26, 2015, 5:10:53 AM1/26/15
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I don't see why you consider it exclusionary. If a new hire does not fit in to the corporate culture, he / she might not last anyway. So it makes sense for both parties to seek a cultural fit. I've seen a number of candidates also reject job offers for this reason.

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 3:31 AM, dotnetguy <andrew.d....@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, what is your opinion on the concept of "cultural fit" in an organization?  On one hand I could see how this concept could be exclusionary.  On the other hand I have seen many examples where cultural fit and cultural misfit have had a huge impact.

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Ron Jeffries

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Jan 26, 2015, 5:20:09 AM1/26/15
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Rohan,

On Jan 26, 2015, at 5:10 AM, Rohan D'Sa <roha...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't see why you consider it exclusionary. If a new hire does not fit in to the corporate culture, he / she might not last anyway. So it makes sense for both parties to seek a cultural fit. I've seen a number of candidates also reject job offers for this reason.

Generally speaking, I’d agree that we want people who will fit in “well enough” but not too well. A static culture is generally not a good thing, IMO.

It seems to me that one risk is that we’ll exclude talented people whom we think won’t “fit in”, for reasons bordering on prejudice and even racism. 

Ron Jeffries
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor -- Anne Lamott

Rohan D'Sa

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Jan 26, 2015, 6:56:35 AM1/26/15
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On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Ron Jeffries <ronje...@acm.org> wrote:
It seems to me that one risk is that we’ll exclude talented people whom we think won’t “fit in”, for reasons bordering on prejudice and even racism. 

​I agree, but those matters can be worked around by making them explicit, using say an equal opportunity policy. And prejudice is a difficult one to list. Not when it comes to race, for example, but say you are recruiting for a sales ​role, would you call an extrovert personality a skill or would looking for that be considered prejudice? Or should a manager look at direct reports that work with his / her manager style, of course not extending to racism or sexism?

Cheers,
Rohan

Howard Sublett

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Jan 26, 2015, 10:29:27 AM1/26/15
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Sometimes, cultures need a jolt. 

Howard Sublett
Sent from my iPhone

Rohan D'Sa

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Jan 26, 2015, 10:36:35 AM1/26/15
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On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 4:29 PM, Howard Sublett <howard...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sometimes, cultures need a jolt. 

​Sometimes, it can be the veritable wall against the head.​

Steve Berczuk

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Jan 26, 2015, 1:06:33 PM1/26/15
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On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 5:20 AM, Ron Jeffries <ronje...@acm.org> wrote:

>
> Generally speaking, I’d agree that we want people who will fit in “well
> enough” but not too well. A static culture is generally not a good thing,
> IMO.

Yes, that's key. "Fit" != "exactly the same" since that can be counter
productive.
I think that once you have a mix of people, subsequent interviewing
can avoid this trap.

> It seems to me that one risk is that we’ll exclude talented people whom we
> think won’t “fit in”, for reasons bordering on prejudice and even racism.

This is a tough question, since it can be hard to evaluate (well,
anything, but cultural issues in particular) during an interview. On
the on hand, someone who insists that Agile isn't at all valuable (but
can code, write unit tests, etc...) would not probably safely fall
into the "not a cultural fit" bin. But excluding someone who, say,
isn't a sports fan (say) would be a bad reason (arguably even if the
company was one dedicated to serving sports fans..., as long as they
could demonstrate that they understand the domain). And some
exclusions would be illegal.

I'm not really sure how to decide what the relative importance of fit
criteria are. Though in many cases I've seem the judgment was mutual.
That may well be luck over design.

So "Fit" criteria would matter, and which would not? (hypothetical or
from experience)

Steve




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Aaron Sanders

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Jan 27, 2015, 9:24:41 PM1/27/15
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This sounds like an Organizational Design kind of question. And according to an OD colleague, cultural fit is determined by company values. Those should be the things people are hired/fired by. Which is a good litmus test for company values. Would (or do) you hire/fire by them?

Pierre Neis

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Jan 28, 2015, 4:25:16 AM1/28/15
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Aaron

Cultural fit means that company values are clear and shared. To test this ask the housekeeper if (s)he knows it. (Hoshin Kanri).
Transforming corporate culture in an agile or scrum means that you need to understand first what is the actual state of the culture. Sociograms are helpful to draw the "real" existing culture.
Then Inspect-and-Adapt with good sense. 



      
PierreNEIS
Lean Agile Coach | Scrum Coach&Trainer | Agile Management Catalyst
M+352 / 661 727 867
pie...@wecompany.me
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Have a great new Year!

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