Salz Review - Wall Street Journal

Salz Review
An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices
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For example, imagine a group who come together for the first time. The nominated leader
of the group typically reminds the group what they are there to achieve and may propose
that each group member introduce themselves as a way to get started. In response to this
request, another group member may suggests an alternative or an addition – for example
suggesting that group members say a bit about their reason for attending. If the group
accepts this suggestion, a norm is established that it is permissible to question the authority
of the leader with a suggested alternative. Whether the group accepts or rejects a suggestion
is important in terms of setting a precedent for matters of authority – whether leadership is
shared or located in one individual. Once matters of authority are resolved, the group turns
typically to norms around intimacy.
Turquet (1973) used the term ‘fusion’ to reflect the strong emotional need to feel
comfortable and at ease within a group. The degree of intimacy in a group is a function of
the intimacy needs of individual group members. Some members resolve conflicts by
avoiding intimacy, others by seeking it and attempting to maintain harmony at all costs.
Norms about intimacy evolve around incidents that involve aggression and/or
affection/affiliation. For example, if member A attacks member B (emotionally or
intellectually), it is what the group does after the attack that creates the norm. The group
may ignore the attack and move on, or someone may suggest that attack is an inappropriate
form of behaviour. Similarly, if there is a hostile interaction between two members, the
manner in which the group handles the expression of feeling matters. If group members
help to facilitate resolution, then norms get built that feelings can be expressed and worked
through; if feelings are ignored and conflicts brushed aside, this pattern of interaction
becomes the norm.
Cultural norms in groups are built through incidents and responses to them. Group
members learn through their shared experiences the norms which are the most successful
in helping the group to achieve a task (or lead to avoidance of failure). As groups mature,
their cultural assumptions become stable and enduring. Challenging and changing group
cultural norms, creates anxiety and instability. The quickest way for a group to become
unproductive is to question its cultural assumptions because the challenge re-arouses the
primary anxieties that the cultural norms dealt with when the group was formed.
Cultural norms are created and sustained by many interlocking elements which mutually
reinforce. People rapidly come to know and spread cultural norms as the accepted and
expected way to behave. Normal behaviour creates expectation – and from expectation
derives trust. We trust those who are similar to us, those who we are closest to and those
with whom we share common goals. 278 Because of these key elements of how groups
function, how behavioural norms and the bonds of trust are created, culture once created,
is resistant to change. Cultural stability sustains organisational identity and provides an
important sense of psychological security to organisational life.
Delivering Cultural Change
Paradoxically, the most important aspect of delivering cultural change is not to focus
explicitly on changing the culture, but rather to focus on what the exact nature of the
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Roderick Kramer, Collective Trust within Organisations: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Insights, 2011.