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1. The concept and origin of corporate culture

Corporate culture refers to the sum of * * * common consciousness, values, professional ethics, codes of conduct and standards that are formed through social practice under certain social and economic conditions and followed by all members. It is a unique cultural management model with values as the core formed by enterprises or organizations in their own development process. Corporate culture is the product of the combination of social culture and organizational management practice. Corporate culture is a people-oriented management concept and a management method with the help of cultural power. It can be said that corporate culture is the soul of an enterprise. An enterprise without its own corporate culture often goes with the flow, and employees have no sense of ownership. Such an enterprise cannot last long. Looking at modern enterprise management at home and abroad, it has changed from material-centered management to people-centered management, thus more and more highlighting the role and strength of people in the survival and development of enterprises.

/kloc-from the end of 0/9 to the beginning of this century, western industrialization developed to the stage where large machines and production lines were the main modes of production. Business operators are mainly concerned with production efficiency and input-output ratio. Under this condition, Taylor's scientific management style and Weber's application of "bureaucracy" have led to a series of rational scientific management practices. However, they are all based on the assumption of "rational economic man", thinking that people's behavior motivation is to satisfy their own self-interest and the purpose of work is to. Scientific management theory had a far-reaching impact on the improvement of production efficiency and industrialization process at that time. From the 1920s to 1930s, "Hawthorne Experiment" made people pay attention to the influence of interpersonal relationships, informal groups and other factors on organizational benefits, and began to pay attention to people's social needs, including self-realization, which resulted in a series of incentive theories. These theories emphasize the importance of interpersonal relationship in management, and based on human sociality, put forward the hypothesis that the concept of "social man" replaces "economic man". The application of system theory and the development of contingency theory in 1950s and 1960s led to the "strategic fever" and "systematic fever" of western organizational management in 1970s, that is, the focus shifted from internal management to strategic management, emphasizing the coordination and adaptability of organizational structure and system. In the early 1980s, with the rise of Japanese enterprises, people noticed the influence of cultural differences on enterprise management, and then discovered the integration of social culture and organizational management-enterprise culture, which means that when the enterprise develops to a certain stage, enterprise leaders educate new members with their values and business ideas formed in the entrepreneurial stage. In this process, they integrate the value identification and behavior of all employees into a unified value system and code of conduct, thus forming a unique cultural management model, which is promoted by the power of culture. It can be seen that corporate culture is the product of the integration of social culture and organizational management practice, and it is a re-examination of the relationship between organizational cultural values, business philosophy, management process and long-term performance after the assumptions of "benefiting people", "social people", "self-fulfilling people" and "complex people" in western management theory.

2. The development of corporate culture in China and several misunderstandings.

As early as 1950s, some large state-owned enterprises in China had their own unique business ideas, such as the Constitution of Angang and the annual Iron Man Spirit. Although they were not given the concept of corporate culture at that time, they actually played the value function and integration function of corporate culture. Later, with people's objective understanding of the role of spiritual motivation and the use of material incentives, people quickly woke up from the zirconium controlled by the mind, and these "corporate cultures" gradually declined because they failed to adapt to the changes of the times. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, with the further deepening of China's reform and opening up, corporate culture, as a management model, was introduced to China enterprises in the process of introducing foreign capital and foreign advanced technology and management. For a time, many enterprises established corporate culture in a blustery way, which set off an upsurge of corporate culture in the whole country. Some enterprises imitate some forms of foreign-funded enterprise management and corporate culture, such as engaging in literary activities, shouting slogans, unifying clothing and logos, and some enterprises directly invite advertising companies to do CI image design, thinking that this is to shape corporate culture. Although these are the general ways to shape corporate culture, most enterprises ignore the connotation and foundation under these forms, giving people a misleading impression that corporate culture is only a cultural activity or corporate image design. It was not until the mid-1990s that the corporate culture boom in China gradually cooled down, and many star enterprises that rose in the corporate culture boom at that time also fell. What is the reason? In fact, during this period, some scholars expressed concern about the problems in the process of corporate culture construction, and they put forward the theory and practice of corporate culture and the misunderstanding of corporate culture construction. However, these problems did not attract enough attention at that time. Today, ten years later, when we look back and think calmly, it is not difficult to see several misunderstandings in the process of corporate culture construction in China:

1 Pay attention to the form of corporate culture and ignore the connotation of corporate culture. In the process of corporate culture construction in China, the most prominent problem is to blindly pursue the form of corporate culture and ignore the connotation of corporate culture. According to the hierarchy divided by Edgar Shane, the authority of corporate culture, the basic assumption is at the core of corporate culture, followed by the value level, and then the code of conduct and behavior. Various forms of corporate culture, including symbols, heroes and activities, are at the top. It can be seen that corporate cultural activities and corporate CI image design are all manifestations of the surface of corporate culture. Corporate culture is a unique value system formed by instilling the basic values of an enterprise in the process of starting and developing into all employees through education and integration. It is a series of norms and behaviors that affect enterprises' strategies to adapt to the market and deal with contradictions and conflicts within enterprises. It permeates the basic assumptions, values and world outlook of human nature formed by entrepreneurs in the process of socialization, and also condenses the business philosophy collectively formed by entrepreneurs in the process of starting a business. It is a relatively complete corporate culture to express these ideas and values through various activities and forms. If there is only a superficial form without showing the internal values and ideas, such a corporate culture is meaningless and unsustainable, so it cannot form a cultural driving force and has no far-reaching impact on the development of enterprises.

2 equate enterprise culture with enterprise spirit and separate enterprise culture from enterprise management. Some entrepreneurs believe that corporate culture is a model of enterprise spirit or enterprise bible, and has little to do with enterprise management. This understanding is very one-sided. Some scholars have pointed out that corporate culture takes culture as the means and management as the purpose. This understanding is reasonable, because both legal person organizations and institutions belong to substantive organizations, which are different from the beliefs of the church. According to the production and operation situation and certain performance evaluation. Of course, spiritual factors play an important role in the cohesion, production efficiency and development of enterprises, but this influence does not work alone, it is penetrating. The business philosophy and values of an enterprise run through every link and the whole process of its business activities and management, which is adapted to the changes of the enterprise environment, so it is inseparable from enterprise management.

3. Regard enterprise culture as the direct application of traditional culture in enterprise management. This view holds that corporate culture is to manage enterprises with culture. For example, some entrepreneurs think that Confucianism should be used to manage enterprises, while others think that Laozi's theory should be used to manage enterprises. As the ideological representative of China culture, these theories are used to guide enterprise management and business philosophy, which should be said to have China characteristics. But the crux of the problem lies in how to grasp the psychology of contemporary people with traditional culture, grasp the rapidly changing market demand, and adjust the work incentives for China employees. This requires finding a suitable starting point and finding many concrete connections. For example, the traditional culture of China emphasizes family affiliation and power dependence, feelings and face, and people-oriented and people-oriented. These cultural factors and traditional concepts are applied to enterprise management to create a cultural atmosphere full of emotion and harmony, in which human nature can be surpassed and the harmony between man and society and man and nature can be realized. This should be said to highlight the characteristics of China. China's traditional culture thought is full of philosophy and speculation, which can be described as two sides. When it is used to guide enterprise management practice, it needs to be transformed into specific code of conduct and business philosophy. In addition, there are many factors in China's traditional culture that are not conducive to the innovation and development of enterprises. Being content with Changle and patting the head are all hidden killers to inhibit enterprise innovation. Besides, interpersonal communication is the most important way of communication for China people. Many entrepreneurs have long relied on the social network woven by interpersonal communication, that is, social capital, instead of focusing on enterprise innovation, thinking that they can also make money in this way, which will gradually form dependence on relationships and weaken the innovation ability of enterprises themselves. The prevalence of this phenomenon has its social reasons. However, with the further deepening of system reform, the space for social capital expansion is getting narrower and narrower. After China's entry into WTO, the rules of the game in market competition have become more and more standardized, and it is inevitable that those enterprises that relish relying on social capital will be defeated. Therefore, we should distinguish the positive and negative factors in traditional culture, and we can't simply do it. Corporate culture is not to appreciate social culture, but to manage enterprises with cultural atmosphere and cultural value and create value for enterprises and society.

4. Ignore the innovation and personalization of corporate culture. Corporate culture is a unique management mode of an enterprise under a certain cultural background, a personalized expression of the enterprise, not a standard unified mode, nor a slogan that caters to fashion. Throughout the corporate culture of many enterprises, all aspects are generally similar, but they lack distinctive personality characteristics and unique styles. In fact, each enterprise has different development process, different components and different competitive pressures, so its strategies to deal with the environment and ways to deal with internal conflicts will have their own characteristics, and they cannot be exactly the same. Also belonging to Japanese culture, Sony's corporate culture emphasizes pioneering and innovation, while Nissan's corporate culture emphasizes customer first; Also belonging to American culture, HP's corporate culture emphasizes adaptability to the market and environment, while IBM's corporate culture emphasizes respect and trust, and is good at using incentives. This shows that corporate culture is a unique cultural management mode determined by considering the development stage, development goal, business strategy, internal and external environment and other factors in a certain cultural background. Therefore, the form of corporate culture can be standardized, but the focus is different, the value connotation and basic assumptions are different, and the type and intensity of corporate culture are different, which is why it constitutes the personalized characteristics of corporate culture.

3. How do China enterprises develop corporate culture?

Looking at the development of foreign corporate culture and the problems existing in the development of corporate culture in China, facing the arrival of 2 1 century and China's entry into WTO, China's enterprises and China's economy are facing unprecedented challenges, and China's enterprises and enterprise management are also facing the severe task of internationalization, fierce competition among enterprises in the same industry and challenges brought by the global economy and the Internet era. In this case, corporate culture innovation has become an inseparable and important part of corporate innovation. To develop corporate culture with China characteristics, we need to grasp the development direction of corporate culture in China from both theory and practice, strengthen corporate culture research, put forward corporate culture theory with China characteristics, and strengthen the guidance of scientific theory on corporate culture construction practice. Only in this way can the development of corporate culture in China meet the needs of China's reform, opening up and modernization.

Specifically, we need to grasp the following three aspects: First, we should strengthen the study of corporate culture. From the discovery of foreign corporate culture phenomenon to the rapid development of corporate culture research in recent 20 years, they have taken a road of combining theoretical research with applied research and qualitative research with quantitative research. In the mid-1980s, after discussing the concept and structure of corporate culture, it immediately turned to the research on the internal mechanism that affects corporate culture, and the relationship between corporate culture and corporate management processes such as corporate leadership, organizational climate, human resources, corporate environment and corporate strategy, and then made a quantitative follow-up study on the relationship between corporate culture and corporate performance. Quantitative research is to put forward a model for measuring, diagnosing and evaluating corporate culture on the basis of theoretical research on corporate culture, and then develop a series of scales to conduct operational and quantitative in-depth research on corporate culture. 2 1 century China's corporate culture research should adhere to the principle of combining theoretical research with applied research, and combining qualitative research with quantitative research, mainly focusing on the following three aspects: first, under the background of China culture, explore the basic theory of China's corporate culture, study the relationship between corporate culture and China's traditional culture and contemporary social culture, as well as the relationship between corporate culture and corporate management, corporate environment, corporate development and corporate innovation, and put forward corporate culture theory with China characteristics; Second, strengthen the applied research of corporate culture, conduct empirical research on the measurement, diagnosis, evaluation and consultation of corporate culture, and promote the development of corporate culture practice in this process; Third, strengthen the follow-up study of corporate culture. The shaping of corporate culture is not an overnight job. It should be adjusted and changed in time with the development and changes of enterprises, so as to have a far-reaching impact on the long-term development of enterprises. Therefore, the value of tracing corporate culture cannot be underestimated. Second, we should correctly handle the relationship between corporate culture and social culture. As an integral part of social culture, corporate culture is not only a microcosm of social and cultural changes, but also guides market trends and social fashions through the ideas advocated by its new technologies and new products, changing people's lifestyles and concepts, thus injecting new vitality into the development of social culture and enriching its connotation. One of the ways in which social culture influences corporate culture is to apply the basic assumptions, values, outlook on life, world outlook and human nature formed in long-term social life to the process of enterprise development and enterprise management, so as to form a unique and relatively stable code of conduct, code of conduct, cultural atmosphere within enterprises and cultural taste of enterprise products. This is an important form of social culture infiltrating into the operation process of market economy. An open, adaptable and innovative corporate culture is obviously the source and foundation for the continuous progress and innovation of most successful enterprises, and such corporate culture comes from entrepreneurs' grasp of the direction of social development, from their influence on traditional culture and their profound understanding of the process of contemporary social and cultural changes, and from their concepts and qualities formed in long-term social life. Without these profound social life accumulation, it is difficult to shape excellent corporate culture and grasp its development. Another way that social culture affects the development of corporate culture is the penetration of market and social environment. Different social cultures will affect people's value choice and adaptability to the market, and changes in social culture will also cause changes in people's value choice and adaptability to the market, affecting people's recognition of products and psychological needs. For example, since the 1990s, the consumption concept of urban residents in China has changed from paying attention to the use value of the product itself to paying more attention to the brand, after-sales service, environmental protection performance and upgrading prospect of the product on the basis of strict treatment of product quality. Personalization and diversification of products and services are increasingly welcomed by people. Therefore, enterprises must grasp the changing trend of social culture when shaping their own corporate culture and determining their business philosophy, and make corresponding adjustments in product target positioning, business strategy and new product research and development direction, so as to make products, business and social culture compatible. On this basis, enterprises can provide society with not only a product, but also a culture. Third, pay attention to the influence of corporate environment changes on the development of corporate culture. 2 1 century is a rapidly changing era. The enterprise environment, including the technical environment, human resources environment, financial environment, investment environment and market demand environment, is the objective environment on which the enterprise development depends, which directly affects the short-term benefit and survival of the enterprise. In addition, there are soft environments for social development such as policies, legal system, social evaluation, fair competition and social reputation, which are mainly controlled by human factors. The impact on the development of corporate culture seems to be implicit and indirect, but in fact it has a potential and profound impact on the long-term operating performance and competitiveness of enterprises. These environmental factors will present more complicated relations and unimaginable changes in 2 1 century. If an enterprise wants to be in an invincible position, it must make corresponding adjustments in development strategy, business strategy and management mode in time. The connotation of corporate culture should also reflect the challenges and pressures brought by the complexity and urgency of the environment, maintain a high degree of integration within the enterprise and have strong adaptability outside. Through the change of enterprise's leading values and business philosophy, we can promote the change of enterprise's development strategy and business strategy, make enterprise culture the source of enterprise innovation and development, and thus form the competitiveness of enterprise culture. Any management mode has its applicable conditions, advantages and disadvantages. As a cultural management mode, so is corporate culture.

The corporate culture phenomenon that attracted attention in the United States and Japan in the 1980s was the product of the economic and social development of Japan and the United States to a certain stage. At the same time, it is closely related to the modernization process in the post-industrial stage of western society and represents a trend of the development of western management theory. Because the effectiveness of a management model can't be separated from the matching mode of production and the development of social culture, we should correctly look at the social and economic conditions for the formation and development of foreign corporate culture, instead of simply affirming or denying the effectiveness of a certain management model, we should put it in the transformation of China's traditional culture and grasp the development trend of China's corporate culture in combination with China's modernization process. In a word, the development of corporate culture in China must be based on China culture, combined with China's corporate management practice and modernization process, and at the same time learn from foreign theories and methods on corporate culture research to build a socialist corporate culture with China characteristics.

How to establish corporate culture in small and medium-sized enterprises

First of all, the importance of corporate culture has been widely recognized.

Nowadays, the competition of enterprises has penetrated into the cultural level, and corporate culture has become the source of competitive advantage. Although corporate culture cannot produce direct economic benefits, it is a key factor for the prosperity and healthy development of enterprises. Jack, former president of General Electric? Welch said: "A healthy and progressive corporate culture is the source of power for an enterprise to be invincible." Yu Guangyuan, a famous economist in China, said: "With regard to development, third-rate enterprises rely on production, second-rate enterprises rely on marketing, and first-class enterprises rely on culture." Zhang Ruimin, CEO of Haier, said: "Corporate culture is Haier's core competitiveness." It can be seen that the importance of corporate culture is self-evident.

Second, do small and medium-sized enterprises need corporate culture construction?

Corporate culture exists in every enterprise. Whether this enterprise is a small enterprise, a medium-sized enterprise or a large enterprise, the enterprise is in the initial stage, growth stage or maturity stage. Every enterprise has its own unique cultural embryonic form in the development process. This embryonic form may come from an entrepreneur's intuition, which is used to guide and restrain employees' written and unwritten rules and norms, and instill them into employees consciously or unconsciously, so that they can integrate into enterprise management behavior and consciously and voluntarily abide by the incentive and restraint mechanism of enterprises. Over time, it has formed its own unique values and ethics, thus forming a cohesive force. Therefore, corporate culture is the same values and ways of doing things for employees.

In reality, many bosses of small and medium-sized enterprises often make such a statement after accepting the new term of corporate culture: this kind of thing called culture is a very good thing, but now that the enterprise is small, everything is simple and there is no need for corporate culture at all. This sentence sounds reasonable, but in fact it has made a serious mistake. Small enterprises should have culture from the beginning, just like people have thoughts in childhood, but at this time their thoughts are not systematic and mature.

"Corporate culture is not a movement," said Shi, chairman of Acer Computer in Taiwan Province. It will be realized in two or three years. It is best to start corporate culture construction when the enterprise is relatively small, and it is more difficult to build corporate culture when the enterprise is big. " He doesn't agree that when enterprises are relatively small, they can only pay attention to immediate interests and ignore the construction of corporate culture. He said: "From the day I started my business 20 years ago, I had a long-term vision. Only by taking a long-term view can we grow. For example, credit is very important to an enterprise. Even when our enterprise is relatively small, it will not damage the credit of the enterprise for short-term benefits, let alone damage the long-term development under the pretext of the short-term development of the enterprise. It is wrong for too many people to use this excuse. Many people like to solve problems in the simplest way. The simplest way is often not the best way and often fails to achieve the ultimate goal. " This is the best answer to whether small and medium-sized enterprises need corporate culture.

Small and medium-sized enterprises in China are mostly family businesses, and family businesses are only a stage for their development. With the expansion of enterprise scale and more complex market environment, the limitations of family business are exposed, and the cultural barriers caused by these limitations are the key factors restricting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. These limitations include: first, many enterprises make decisions by individuals, and once they make mistakes, the whole enterprise may cross over. After the successful "infancy", the scale of small and medium-sized enterprises continues to expand, power is concentrated in the hands of individuals, and decision-making is difficult to be democratic and scientific. Decision-making power and administrative power are concentrated in one person's hands without supervision, which is prone to decision-making mistakes. Second, family businesses tend to choose people with cronies, and it is difficult to optimize human resources. The key positions of such enterprises are often controlled by families, and when promoting talents, "consanguinity" is higher than "ability". Some people outside the family often feel hopeless and quit, especially those whose shares belong to the 100% family. When choosing business heirs, these companies often choose their own children, regardless of whether they are good at business or not, they are not interested in business. As a result, a large number of "dou" appeared. Wang An Computer Company of the United States and three domestic companies are typical examples. Experts say that only when the rich people in China give their business to people who are better than themselves, rather than their own blood relatives, can the family business in China become stronger and bigger. Third, the leaders of such enterprises also like to be the chairman and general manager themselves, and are unwilling or unwilling to hand over more rights to people outside the family. As a result, leaders are busy with fire fighting all day and have little time to consider strategic issues, which is not conducive to the long-term development of enterprises. In a word, the paternalistic decision-making culture, cronyism culture and distrust culture of family business are fatal from the beginning of its establishment. For these limitations, in addition to the innovation of property rights system, cultural construction should be an important way to change this limitation.

Third, how do small and medium-sized enterprises shape corporate culture?

Small and medium-sized enterprises' methods of shaping culture are different from those of large enterprises, which are more practical and simpler.

First, let employees have a sense of belonging, straighten out the relationship between enterprises and employees from social insurance such as labor contract, endowment insurance and industrial injury insurance, and create conditions for psychological tacit understanding culture. Generally, the labor relationship between SMEs and employees is very irregular, and the social treatment for employees is not "in place". Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises must establish and improve the "two interest mechanisms" of employee labor contracts and social insurance, so that employees can form a "sense of belonging" to your enterprise to a certain extent. Publicly organize all employees to explain to them why they should pay and handle the "two benefits", which is not the gift of the boss, but the necessity of the development of this enterprise. Once you enter my (our) enterprise, you will have a natural sense of security. The boss must fully communicate with the employees about the future development of the enterprise, that is, we usually say to establish a * * * vision to make the employees feel that they are part of the enterprise. This kind of incentive is irreplaceable by money. There are often many uncertain factors affecting the development of enterprises during the start-up period. If the boss can communicate with employees frequently and let them know the development direction of the enterprise, and it is effective, employees can quickly understand the boss's thinking, and there are not many formal rules and regulations, which will easily cause employees to scream.

Second, the determination of core values. Corporate culture is divided into three levels, namely, material level, system level and core level. The core layer is the most important, and small and medium-sized enterprises should make great efforts to build the core layer. With the core layer, there will be a system layer and a material layer. An enterprise that only cares about the material layer and the system layer is doomed to fail in its corporate culture construction.

Third, always embody core values in actions. As a boss, you should constantly practice and communicate with employees. Don't have too many forms, but the content should be simple and clear. The most basic core content should be reflected through action. In the future, we need to add some formal content, such as company publications and company songs.

Fourth, the system manages people. Small and medium-sized enterprises generally do not attach importance to system construction. When it comes to institutionalization, many bosses don't know what system their enterprises should establish and improve. In other words, only one or two of them are involved, and they are fragmented. Enterprise system is one of the important contents of enterprise culture, even more important than the "hardware" construction of enterprise culture. Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises should at least establish a "reward and punishment system" and an "assessment system". Accurate assessment and fair rewards are necessary. Nowadays, more and more small and medium-sized enterprises adopt the option reward system, which closely links managers with everyone. Moreover, it is not enough to establish a system. It should be strictly enforced, with clear rewards and punishments, and not afraid of trouble. If managers are introduced before the system is fully established, serious problems may occur. It is better to use the family to achieve more benefits. 1999, Lanzhou Yellow River Group was almost subverted by managers, and Chairman Yang Jiqiang once again put his sons in senior management positions. 200 1 Wang Weizun, a professional manager of Guangxi Penbao Company, was accused by his boss of embezzlement and commercial bribery for exposing the business owner to make false accounts. He was detained for 8 months and released on bail pending trial.

The construction of general corporate culture goes through several stages, first, spontaneous formation stage, second, shaping stage, cultivating stage, consolidating stage and innovation stage, and finally back to cultivating and consolidating stage. Spontaneous formation usually takes a long time, because this period is generally the initial stage of enterprises, and most entrepreneurs only pay attention to making money and ignore the importance of cultural construction. Therefore, if enterprises are far-sighted from the beginning, attach importance to the construction of corporate culture and shape a strong and personalized corporate culture, then the stage of spontaneous formation of culture will be greatly shortened, thus promoting the rapid and healthy development of enterprises. This is why some enterprises can not only be born.

Survive and become an excellent company, and some enterprises are just the best reason to be short-lived.