Organizational Culture

Week after week, I observe my teenage children wake up early, don their soccer uniforms, and head to their games excited to execute their plan with their teammates. They are excited because they’ve trained hard, practicing week after week honing their soccer skills. But they are also building and nurturing more intangible traits and behaviors that are crucial to the team’s success such as, trust, confidence, synergy, effort and communication. The coaches inculcate the values that underpin this team. Over time, these values, traits and behaviors result in the formation of a winning team culture. But this positive team culture is not unique to team sports. They also exist in the workforce. Still, some studies show that approximately 50 percent of workers do not feel fully engaged or motivated at work.

How many of us wake up in the morning excited to spend time with our team? It’s such a great feeling to be part of a team that not only gets the job done, but also fosters and shapes a positive work environment. The key to unlocking the secrets to creating this kind of environment in the work setting is creating a positive organizational culture.

There are some tangible factors that directly contribute to workforce satisfaction, but they don’t guarantee engagement. They include pay, medical benefits, work hours, distance from work, ease in commute, etc. But these items alone don’t lead to or sustain an engaged and productive workforce. I’ve been fortunate to be part of organizations where teams carry out their mission while also building unity, trust and cohesion; the feeling was truly enriching and exciting.

Much has been written about organizational culture, but employees often have difficulties describing it. Even when culture might be contributing to the success of the company, leaders might not fully understand or be able to replicate it if they had to. Leaders must know what contributes to culture, especially if they are new to the organization, as they are key to ensuring it is nurtured and sustained.

What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture is the behaviors that form the workforce’s heartbeat, energy, narrative, history, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Many of these factors are more intangible, and more difficult to measure than the ones mentioned above like pay, benefits, vacation days, etc. However, they are absolutely critical to organizational success.

Culture is typically infused into the organization by its founder and key leaders who help define the organization’s values. If culture is a priority, aside  from specific skills and talents necessary to fill positions, employees must possess behavioral attributes that support the desired culture. Those who consistently poison its culture should be weeded out when counseling and mentorship fail to influence change.

Positive organizational cultures are not monolithic across organizations. Some organizations might adopt different elements within their cultures that contribute significantly to a successful organizational environment. But there are commonalities across cultures that produce a great recipe for positive organizational cultures, such as collaboration, empowerment, diversity of thought, creativity, mutual respect, growth mindset, etc. Conversely, there are negative factors across organizations that contribute to ineffective organizational cultures for example, lack of workforce empowerment, isolation or silos, trust issues, too much centralized control (micromanagement), blame game (us vs them mentality), etc.

Why is organizational culture important?

Culture is important because it shapes the team’s identity, their feelings, and behaviors as a team or an organization. An effective culture creates behaviors within the team and routine interactions between members of the workforce, as well as dynamics between organizations and their stakeholders. Moreover, a positive culture has a direct effect on businesses’ bottom dollar. It enables creativity, collaboration, communication, trust, belonging, and inclusivity, which inevitably have a positive influence on the services or products the organization offers, employee turnover rate, productivity, sense of agency and ownership.

It is one thing to understand organizational culture and its importance. It is quite another to fully grasp its design, shaping and assessing it. I’ll address these in another blog. For now, I can appreciate the fact that organizational culture can seem too abstract to fully grasp, and challenging to piece together. While some leaders and managers might place more emphasis on achieving workforce engagement and satisfaction through pay, compensation, training and other related human resource employment packages, failing to develop and shape an organizational culture can be detrimental to the long-term success of the organization.

There are lessons to be learned in observing my children’s excitement, engagement and satisfaction every weekend. Even though they are doing something challenging, they are doing it with the team they love, trust and depend on. While coaches are central to the development of team culture, parents, team managers, and players contribute to its development, shaping and sustainability. Likewise, a dynamic approach where leaders, managers, human resource department, and team members play critical roles in fostering a positive organizational culture.

– How do you contribute to organizational culture?