Why a Chief Culture Officer should be part of Global Enterprises

The lack of cultural executives in the C-suite of global enterprises is painfully visible despite the fact that we all (at some level) know how strong the influence of culture is on our global work environments and corporate performance. More than ever, culture is an essential element of organisational branding, of retaining employees in a transactional global work place, and of successfully implementing corporate strategies. Yet, only a handful of major players such as Google and Microsoft have realised what this role can do for their organisations.

Can Culture be Managed?

The short answer is yes, but only if you elevate culture to the corporate scorecard. Becoming a Chief Culture Officer (CCO) is a dream job for someone like me who studied organisational culture, intercultural communication and spent over 20 years in global enterprises. Yet, when I did a search on LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor for this role, I got zero hits. Zero! Why is this?

• Is it because culture is so intangible and complex that executives do not know how to make it part of the corporate scorecard?

• Is it because the CEOs think of this as a HR responsibility?

• Or, is it because we tend to see culture more as a barrier than an asset?

Answers to such questions can only be found within the organisation itself and by allowing the time to analyse these. Some of the cultural questions, you could start asking to understand your organisational culture could be:

• What is our current organisational culture and how is it expressed in our behaviours?

• What are the stories we tell the world about our company?

• How can our culture help us adapt in an ever changing (and hybrid) work place?

• How does our culture impact our brand and external relations?

• How does culture correlate with performance?

• Who are the ‘carriers’ of our culture and what are their 'cultural' behaviours?

• How should culture influence the way we recruit and onboard new employees?

• Does “culture eat strategy for breakfast" in our organisation?

• Which cultural goals could make our organisation thrive and grow internally and externally?

Asking such questions that focus on our behaviours and implementation is a means to understand how organisational culture can be operationalised and how we want to leverage the asset that culture can be.

A Truly Cross-Functional Role

Understanding what a Chief Culture Officer can do for your organisation may best be achieved by defining what it is not. It is not a traditional responsibility of HR which is a professional discipline that primarily focuses on recruitment and staffing, compensation and benefits, labour and employee relations, and talent management. Many HR executives are tasked with added responsibilities of cross-cultural and intercultural alignment in the organisation but they often do not have the cultural expertise to carry this through; let alone the resources it demands. Also, it is not a traditional Corporate Communications responsibility although communication is a key component of culture and branding. Corporate Communications spend their time driving public and media relations, customer and marketing communications. Sometimes, cultural initiatives are part of internal communications but this function is often not well-staffed or focused on the exchange of information on a day-to-day basis rather than underlying intercultural interactions and organisational identity.

While there are very few actual jobs of cultural executives, there are more suggestions of what the responsibilities of a CCO could be. For example, to ensure that all departments align with the organisation’s mission, vision, and values; to faciliate communication across the organisation; to implement corporate strategy, to define ‘culturally fit’ employees and to establish onboarding practices in their organisations. Below is a proposal for the focus areas I believe a Chief Culture Officer should own. Indeed, these responsibilities run across the organisation.

The Cross-Functional Role of the Chief Culture Officer

From Barrier to Asset

The global work place is faced with so many ongoing changes that are beyond the control of the CEO. Work places are becoming hybrid, new generations of employees are becoming more selective, machines and AI are redefining our tasks, and we see a rising instability in global commercial and political landscapes. In addition, the pandemic has demonstrated how interdependent we are and how quickly we can actually move if we work towards common values and goals.

There is no better time to take a strong look at your organisational culture and turn it into the asset it is instead of seeing it as a barrier to cross.