Culture Counts

Characteristics and Importance of a Healthy Work Culture

Organizational culture: It is a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Every organization develops and maintains a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the members of the organization.

Organizational culture is usually derived from the top down (i.e., upper management sets the tone) and comes in the form of expectation and consistency throughout the organization. All employees and managers must uphold these cultural expectations to generate a working environment that correlates to cultural expectations. The shared assumptions should be implicit in behavior and explicit in the mission, vision and ethics statements of the organization. 

Why Culture is Important?

Culture is important because it shapes:

1.    What the organization considers to be “right decisions”

2.    What employees consider to be appropriate behaviors and how they interact with each other within the organization

3.    How individuals, work groups and the organization as a whole deal with work assigned to them

4.    The speed and efficiency with which things get done

5.    The organization’s capacity for and receptiveness to change

6.    The attitudes of outside stakeholders to the organization

7.    The culture contributes to achieve business goals.

8.    A company’s culture is the only truly unique identifier of who they are.

9.    A company’s structure and design can be viewed as its body and its culture as its soul.

10. Provides an open communication that helps towards the achievement of company goals.

Functions of Organization Culture

1.    Culture provides a sense of identity to members and increases their commitment to the organization

2.    Culture is a sense-making device for organization members

3.    Culture reinforces the values of the organization

4.    Culture serves as a control mechanism for shaping behavior

5.    Culture unites the employees together as one united team.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

1. Innovation 

Companies with cultures that place a high value on innovation encourage their employees to take risks and innovate in the performance of their jobs. Companies with cultures that place a low value on innovation expect their employees to do their jobs the same way that they have been trained to do them, without looking for ways to improve their performance.

2. Respect

One of the most important aspects of promoting a positive culture is respect. While a hierarchy certainly exists at any job, that doesn't mean that management should look down on or mistreat any employees. An organization with a positive culture understands that its employees are unique individuals who bring their own skills and talents to the table. If those employees have been properly placed, the company is in a position to flourish. If management understands and acts like each employee is important to the company's functions, it will improve the culture and increase the odds of success.

3. Emphasis on People

Companies that place a high value on this characteristic of organizational culture place a great deal of importance on how their decisions will affect the people in their organizations. For these companies, it is important to treat their employees with respect and dignity.

4. Teamwork 

Companies that organize work activities around teams instead of individuals place a high value on this characteristic of organizational culture. People who work for these types of companies tend to have a positive relationship with their coworkers and managers.

5. Openness

Transparency and openness is a good first step toward promoting a positive organization culture. An organization that operates in secret and keeps in employees in the dark will foster mistrust. If a company is not upfront about its goals, expectations and concerns, its employees will be aimless and unsure of how to proceed.

Five Keys to creating a winning culture

Develop a culture deck.

A culture deck is a series of slides using short phrases, images or examples to define and describe the behavior of your organization. Business leaders should develop this unique to their firm, and then share it with everyone on your team, from top execs to new hires.

Don’t accommodate everyone.

Successful business cultures exist in many unique forms, and what works for one, may not work for another. Be unique, but be true to your values. Attempting to create an all-inclusive culture fit for any personality often leads to an uncomfortable work environment for everyone involved. When you determine what culture is right for your business, stick to it.

Let your leadership team show the way.

To develop a truly great culture, there can only be one model. This means no special rules or exceptions for any subgroup, including top executives. As such, your leadership team should consist of the strongest cultural fits. Often the faces of the company, they will show others how to live the corporate culture every day.

Create a disciplined hiring process

When businesses are growing rapidly, it’s easy to justify hiring candidates with impressive resumes or recommendations, without first considering cultural fit. Under pressure, some may even ignore obvious signs of a potential cultural clash just to get the hiring job done. Develop the discipline to consider new hire cultural compatibility and reinforce its importance to all involved in the onboarding process.

Recognize those who live your culture.

The most common mistake in regards to company culture is defining it, only to soon forget about it. If culture is important to your company’s success, address it often and often publicly recognize individuals, teams or units that exemplify or demonstrate what your culture is and what you aspire to be.

Components of Organizational Culture

1. Vision:

A great culture starts with a vision or mission statement. “When they are deeply authentic and prominently displayed, good vision statements can even help orient customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders,” writes Coleman. 

2. Values

A company's values are the core of its culture. While a vision articulates a company's purpose, values offer a set of guidelines on the behaviors and mindsets needed to achieve that vision.

3. Practices

Values are of little importance unless they are enshrined in a company's practices.

4. People: 

No Company can build a coherent culture without people who either share its core values or possess the willingness and ability to embrace those values.

5. Narrative: 

Any organization has a unique history — a unique story. And the ability to unearth that history and craft it into a narrative is a core element of culture creation.

6. Place: 

Whether geography, architecture, or aesthetic design, place impacts the values and behaviors of people in a workplace.

Challenges of Organization Culture

1.    Slow to react to external/internal changes as systems are designed for stability

2.    Too many structural layers slow down and reduce communication effectiveness

3.    Authority Is maintained centrally, reducing the effectiveness of front-line staff

4.    Problems take too long to solve and keep recurring, wasting time and resources

5.    Purposes are often in conflict (Ex: finance wants to save – depts. need to spend)

6.    The structures and systems create problems by dividing and boxing people

7.    Most people are excluded from the decision-making and thinking processes thereby limiting potential to change and adapt quickly

8.    People are not involved or included in the purpose of the organization and feel apart from it rather than a part of it

9.    Failure is a greater focus than success

10. The organization does not perform as well as it should or could.