It is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions and meanings that make a company unique

Why does it matter that your organizational culture is one way rather than another way?

It turns out it matters a lot. Organizational culture is hugely important to the success and overall health of your company, your people, and your customers. So it’s helpful to spend time considering why your company’s culture is the way it is, and why it’s important that it stays that way (or changes).

Let’s take a look at seven reasons why organizational culture is important.

1. It defines your company’s internal and external identity

Here’s a thought exercise: write down on a piece of paper five attributes that best describe your organization’s culture. You might write something like “good work-life balance” or “lots of meetings” or maybe “team-oriented.”

Now, spend a few minutes thinking about why each of those attributes is important to your organization in particular. Why is it significant that your company has a good work-life balance? What makes these culture attributes valuable to your people and customers?

Peter Ashworth explains that your organizational culture “defines for you and for all others, how your organization does business, how your organization interacts with one another and how the team interacts with the outside world, specifically your customers, employees, partners, suppliers, media and all other stakeholders.”

In other words, your organizational culture will reverberate across all aspects of your business because it represents the way you do business. It’s simultaneously your identity and your image, which means it determines how your people and customers perceive you.

2. Organizational culture is about living your company’s core values

Your culture can be a reflection (or a betrayal) of your company’s core values. The ways in which you conduct business, manage workflow, interact as a team, and treat your customers all add up to an experience that should represent who you are as an organization and how you believe a company should be run. In short, your culture is the sum of your company’s beliefs in action.

But if your espoused values don’t match your culture, that’s a problem. It could mean that your “core values” are a list of meaningless buzzwords, and your people know it.

A strong organizational culture keeps your company’s core values front and center in all aspects of its day-to-day operations and organizational structure. The value of doing so is incalculable.

3. Your culture can transform employees into advocates (or critics)

One of the greatest advantages of a strong organizational culture is that it has the power to turn employees into advocates.

Your people want more than a steady paycheck and good benefits; they want to feel like what they do matters. And when your people feel like they matter, they’re more likely to become culture advocates—that is, people who not only contribute to your organization’s culture, but also promote it and live it internally and externally.

How do you achieve this? One way is to recognize good work. A culture that celebrates individual and team successes, that gives credit when credit is due, is a culture that offers a sense of accomplishment. And that’s one way to turn employees into advocates.

Then again, if your company culture doesn’t do this, you may be inviting criticism.

4. A strong organizational culture helps you keep your best people

It should come as no surprise that employees who feel like they’re part of a community, rather than a cog in a wheel, are more likely to stay at your company. In fact, that’s what most job applicants are looking for in a company.

Ask any top performer what keeps them at their company and you’re bound to hear this answer: the people. It’s because a workplace culture focused on people has profound appeal. It helps improve engagement, deliver a unique employee experience, and makes your people feel more connected.

One way to attract top performers that are natural culture champions is to hire for cultural fit.

Want to learn how to build a strong organizational culture?

It is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions and meanings that make a company unique

PPT_Chapter52.pptx.pdf

IT286 Discussion Unit 4.docx

Deliverable 5 Instructions NGR7892.docx

Ch 9 Pain Management.pptx

UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL SOCIETY AND POLITICS.docx

Culture is the character and personality of your organization. It's what makes your business unique and is the sum of its values, traditions, beliefs, interactions, behaviors, and attitudes.

Positive workplace culture attracts talent, drives engagement, impacts happiness and satisfaction, and affects performance. The personality of your business is influenced by everything. Leadership, management, workplace practices, policies, people, and more impact culture significantly.

The biggest mistake organizations make is letting their workplace culture form naturally without first defining what they want it to be.

Why Workplace Culture is Important

Culture is as important as your business strategy because it either strengthens or undermines your objectives. Positive culture is significant, especially because:

  • It attracts talent. Job candidates evaluate your organization and its climate. A strong, positive, clearly defined and well-communicated culture attracts talent that fits.
  • It drives engagement and retention. Culture impacts how employees interact with their work and your organization.
  • It impacts happiness and satisfaction. Research shows that employee happiness and satisfaction are linked to strong workplace culture (Source: Deloitte).
  • It affects performance. Organizations with stronger cultures outperform their competitors financially and are generally more successful.

What Impacts Culture in the Workplace?

The short answer is everything. A multitude of factors play a role in developing workplace culture, including:

Leadership

The way your leaders communicate and interact with employees, what they communicate and emphasize, their vision for the future, what they celebrate and recognize, what they expect, the stories they tell, how they make decisions, the extent to which they are trusted, and the beliefs and perceptions they reinforce.

Become a Super Supervisor

Management

How your organization is managed—its systems, procedures, structure, hierarchy, controls, and goals. The degree to which managers empower employees to make decisions, support and interact with them, and act consistently.

Workplace Practices

Practices related to recruiting, selection, onboarding, compensation and benefits, rewards and recognition, training and development, advancement/promotion, performance management, wellness, and work/life balance (paid time off, leave, etc.), as well as workplace traditions.

Policies and Philosophies

Employment policies including, but not limited to, attendance, dress code, code of conduct, and scheduling, in addition to organizational philosophies such as hiring, compensation, pay for performance, and internal transfer and promotion.

People

The people you hire — their personalities, beliefs, values, diverse skills and experiences, and everyday behaviors. The types of interactions that occur between employees (collaborative versus confrontational, supportive versus non-supportive, social versus task-oriented, etc.).

Mission, Vision, and Values

Clarity of mission, vision, and values and whether they honestly reflect the beliefs and philosophies of your organization, how inspiring they are to your employees, and the extent to which the mission, vision, and values are stable, widely communicated, and continuously emphasized.

Work Environment

Objects, artifacts, and other physical signs in your workplace. These include what people place on their desks, what the organization hangs on its walls, how it allocates space and offices, what those offices look like (color, furniture, etc.), and how common areas are used.

Communications

The manner in which communication occurs in your workplace. Importantly, the degree, type, and frequency of interaction and communication between leaders and employees, and managers and employees, including the extent of transparency in sharing information and making decisions.

Defining Your Workplace Culture

Most of us let our workplace culture form naturally without defining what we want it to be, and that’s a mistake. For example:

  • We create policies and workplace programs based on what other employers do versus whether they fit our work environment.
  • We hire employees who don't fit.
  • We tolerate management styles that threaten employee engagement and retention.
  • We don't create and communicate a clear and inspiring mission, vision, and set of values.
  • Our work environments are lackluster.
  • We don’t consider how our everyday actions (or inactions) as leaders are affecting the formation of our culture.

For these reasons, it’s important to step back, evaluate, and define your workplace culture—both what it is now and what you want it to be in the future — and how all of these factors either contribute or take away from your desired culture.

Although it can be very difficult to define, assessment tools and surveys can help you gauge your culture. They may reveal gaps between the culture you want to attain and the culture you currently have. 

In addition, observation, examination of workplace behavior, meetings, discussions, and interviews can expose your workplace climate. The important part is to start somewhere and open a dialogue with your leadership team about it.

Keep in mind that culture is always a work in progress. It can and will change. Make culture as important as your business strategy. It’s too significant to ignore, and shaping it is one of your most important responsibilities as leaders and HR professionals.