Construction of Culture

I have always tended to think of culture in terms of societies—"the ideas, customs, skills, arts, etc. of a people or group that are transferred, communicated, or passed along, as in or to succeeding generations" (Webster's). This certainly is one dictionary definition of culture. However, the first definition of the word culture actually has to do with "cultivation of the soil" (Webster's). Culture then, I may surmise, first has to do with a preparing of an environment with conditions for growth.

In the book, Leadership that Matters by Sashkin and Sashkin, we find a new way of defining and measuring leadership. The authors discuss how leaders may construct or cultivate the conditions for living in and growing an organization. "There are three basic ways that leaders construct culture, that is, define values and beliefs and make them 'live' in the actions of people in an organization" (122). These three ways are . . .

• Define the organizational philosophy.
• Develop policies, programs and procedures to carry out the philosophy.
• Personally model the philosophy by actions and practices. (121)*

I have seen the value of these concepts in serving as a pastor. For example, in my last pastorate, together with the leadership of the church, we defined our vision and mission for the church and the community. We identified our core values as a people. We began measuring every program of the church against our vision, mission and values. Those programs that were not in alignment with the stated philosophy were dropped or re-focused. As the pastor, I tried to model the vision in my teaching, preaching and actions.

At the time, I never thought of these steps as "constructing culture".  In retrospect, I see that is precisely what we were doing. The word culture in this particular church was significant. Specifically, this was a long-standing southern white church in a community that over the years had become largely Hispanic. Our vision and goals were to reach our community for Christ. To do this, we had to become multi-cultural; that is, we had to create or cultivate a culture that was conducive to growth of people of different societal backgrounds (mostly Southern Caucasians and Mexican Latinos).

Understanding that we were not merely blending cultures but actually constructing an environment conducive to growth for the people God had called us to reach, offered a fresh perspective of the challenges in building Christ's church in a multi-cultural community. 

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* Sashkin, M. and Sashkin M.G., Leadership that Matters, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2003.