Culture includes our inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge derived from our experiences. It is a very powerful force — surrounding us and pressing us to conform to what is expected by the majority.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. — Peter Drucker
We can speak of a national culture or a company culture or a religious culture, but in practical terms, think of the culture of a community. Like communities, you may operate in multiple cultures — one at home and a different one at work. Culture contains art, music, dance, and literature. It is not monolithic; there are many layers within a culture, such as the sub-culture of teenagers or bikers or suburban moms in a certain part of town.
Politics operates within and around culture. Culture constitutes those common practices that are so pervasive in the environment that they need not be written, but are universally understood. Culture is a product of socialization. Our socialization affects what we value, how we seek power, how we use influence, and how we respond to authority. The culture describes the "what is" — the actuality of how an organizational environment operates: the patterns created as everyone interacts.
In addition to common practices, every culture also has policies, processes, and procedures that are the result of persons acting on their own priorities and interacting with others in the same environment over time. Policies, processes, and procedures are the result of organizational politics over time — they make up the "rules of the game of politics."
The rules might not be written and they may or may not be consistently followed, but players know the rules exist. They represent "what ought to be" as modeled by the organization's leaders. Understanding the culture you are operating in — and respecting it — is essential to playing positive politics effectively.
Positive politics may take longer — but we achieve more and have more fun doing it.