Organizational culture: Making the intangible graspable

Written by: Maaike van der Scheer, August 2023

“Culture is everywhere. If you do nothing with it as a company, the corporate culture will run away with you instead of the other way around.” states corporate anthropologist Walter Faaij (Trends in HR, 2020). Especially with current digitalization developments, hybrid working and more remote communication, it is important not to lose sight of organizational culture.

Every company, every team and every employee has to deal with organizational culture. If everyone has to deal with it, you would expect that culture has become a simple jigsaw puzzle in the organization by now. But nothing could be further from the truth. Culture is often seen as a difficult and abstract concept. Many people find the concept itself difficult to grasp and if there is something on paper about culture, it does not always mean that it is actually experienced and lived through.

Organizational culture is often unspoken and invisible, but it has a powerful influence on how people perform and on organizational outcomes. A strong organizational culture has a positive impact on employee well-being, helps increase employee motivation and productivity, and can contribute to achieving organizational goals (Gregory et al., 2009; Zheng, Yang, & McLean, 2010; Hofstede, 2016). A relevant question, then, is how to make this elusive culture more graspable. In this article, we discuss what organizational culture means, what often goes wrong, why organizational culture is important, and how organizations can make their organizational culture more tangible.

The unwritten rules

Let’s start at the beginning. How do we define the term organizational culture? The literature says the following: Organizational culture includes the basic values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors of an organization. It is the sum of all the shared ways of thinking,beliefs, habits, attitudes, and traditions that determine the way people interact with each other and how they act in the organization. It is the unwritten rules within the organization. Those unwritten rules form the basis for decisions and problem solving, but they also teach new employees, for example, what behavior is expected of them.

What often goes wrong?

We see that companies find it difficult to identify the right buttons when it comes to organizational culture or they do not know which way to turn it. This can cause problems since without a visible organizational culture, there are no clear norms and values for employees to adhere to.

We would like to take you through some of the pitfalls when it comes to establishing organizational culture. These mostly involve organizations that make an attempt to build a strong culture, but fail to achieve the desired results in doing so.

Top-down values
In principle, there’s nothing wrong with values initiated by senior management or the management team. Where things go wrong, however, is when those values are devised and imposed without involving the staff. The organization’s core values are displayed on the wall at the reception desk, listed on the website, and featured on a nice poster, but they aren’t actually lived out within the organization. 80% of companies have core values, but in almost none of them are those core values actually lived out. Core values are often formulated in a way that’s too complicated or too general. For example, the value “transparency” is very difficult to truly live out. It’s easy to be transparent when the company is doing well, the numbers are positive, and employees are happy. It’s just a lot harder to actually be transparent when the company is struggling.

Setting Up a Ping-Pong Table
Fancy a quick game of ping-pong or foosball? It’s a great way to take a short break, boost concentration, and foster a fun and lighthearted atmosphere at work. However, simply setting up a ping-pong table won’t help you create a positive workplace culture or attract the right people. If employees don’t feel the freedom and security to play ping-pong, or if the company doesn’t grant that freedom—for example, by setting specific times for use—such a ping-pong table won’t have the desired effect. Although it encourages informal interaction, it’s not enough to create a sustainable environment where employees feel engaged and motivated.

The ping pong table is used here as a metaphor and shows what goes wrong a lot in organizations. Initiatives are conceived, but then it is made almost impossible to use them because the different values in the organization contradict each other.

Poor Communication
A common pitfall that often comes up when we discuss organizational culture is that there isn’t enough communication within the organization about the desired culture and—in line with that—the desired and expected behavior. Organizations often believe they communicate frequently and clearly, but in practice, we see that this is often not the case—even when it comes to the culture within the organization. There are always people absent from the presentation, and there are always people who happen to miss that one email or don’t read it. To bring core values to life within the organization and to build a strong culture, it’s important to clearly communicate what the desired culture is. This isn’t a one-time effort. It must be a recurring theme in everything we do.

Why is attention to culture important?

Organizational culture is important not only for the well-being of employees, but also for the results of the organization. Culture can affect various aspects of the organization.

A good organizational culture provides employees with a safe environment where they feel comfortable and they can learn, experiment and develop their competencies. Attention to open and honest communication between employees and managers, leads to a better working atmosphere and improves cooperation between employees (Van den Steen, 2010). A culture of respect, appreciation and trust, with room for creativity, innovation and collaboration helps increase a team’s productivity. A good organizational culture encourages employees to try new ideas and initiatives leading to more innovation and improved performance (Nguyen et al., 2019; Hofstede, 2016).

Organizational culture additionally has a direct effect on organizational turnover. A positive organizational culture can lead to lower turnover rates (Dyer, 2017; Brislin, 2017). Thus, an important issue for organizations during times of high turnover and labor market tightness. At the same time, a negative organizational culture based on lack of appreciation and respect or perceived oppression can lead to higher turnover rates. An organizational culture can also lead to higher turnover if there is a lack of clear goals, appreciation and incentive. When employees feel connected to their work and the organization, they are more motivated and more likely to be committed to their work and complete their tasks on time (Zheng, Yang, & McLean, 2010). This contributes to the achievement of goals within the organization.

How do you make culture more tangible?

So to work on building a strong culture … but how? Every organization, and therefore every organizational culture is different. Nevertheless, there are some overarching points that are important in identifying and strengthening the culture in the organization. Namely, the foundation and the behaviors that go along with it.

The Foundation
The foundation consists of the organization’s mission, vision, and core values. These must be clear and communicated effectively to all employees and other stakeholders. This provides employees with the initial guidance they need to understand what is important within the organization and what behavior is expected of them. It is important to regularly assess whether the organization’s direction is sufficiently understood and what, if anything, is needed to raise awareness of the foundation so that the organization’s purpose and direction are clear.

Are any of these factors not yet clear? Get to work on it. Look at what you as an organization consider important and, for example, organize a focus group or meeting to determine the most important values within the organization. It is important to get input from employees from different levels of the organization.

The behavior

Open communication:
Open communication is essential for a strong organizational culture. Encourage employees to share their ideas and opinions and to provide feedback. Communicate about the organizational culture through newsletters, the intranet, or social media. By communicating regularly about the culture, it stays top of mind for employees, and they remain motivated to behave in a way that aligns with that culture. Provide employees with concrete guidance on behavior by sharing success stories about actions that reinforce the culture.

Promote collaboration and a culture of trust and respect:
Collaboration is one of the keys to a successful organizational culture. Encourage employees to work together and exchange ideas. Focus on respect, appreciation, and trust. Ensure clear and open communication, recognize your employees’ contributions, and consider appropriate rewards where appropriate.

Continuous learning and development:
Foster a learning environment within the organization. Encourage employees to acquire new skills and knowledge and to continue developing themselves. In addition, give employees the freedom to proactively address problems and challenges. This leads to greater innovation. Focus on psychological safety and create a culture in which employees feel safe to make mistakes, ask for help, and continue to grow.

This can be done through training and development programs, mentoring and other activities.

Take advantage of a learning platform. A learning platform provides a central place where employees can access training materials, courses, webinars, videos and other learning resources. It also provides a platform for employees to communicate with each other and exchange knowledge.

Mentors/buddies. Mentoring offers employees a chance to learn from experienced colleagues and supervisors. It also provides an opportunity to develop new ideas and learn how to work together effectively.

Encourage team building. Team building activities help employees communicate better with each other, work together and improve their skills. By organizing team-building activities, employees can learn how to use their knowledge and skills to work together toward a common goal.

Show that the organization itself considers this important. By regularly collecting feedback from employees, for example through an Engagement & E-NPS (employee net promoter score) survey, you show that asking for feedback, doing something with it and continuing to develop is important for the organization.

Reward Desired Behavior:
Culture is reflected in behavior. To build a strong organizational culture, it is important to encourage desired and appropriate behavior among employees. This can be done by recognizing and acknowledging the behavior and giving the employee recognition and appreciation for it. By rewarding positive behavior, the organization encourages this behavior among employees. At Rvdb, for example, rotating trophies are awarded every quarter. There is a rotating trophy for each of Rvdb’s core values. Each quarter, these trophies are awarded to employees who, during that quarter, demonstrated behavior consistent with one of the core values. The awards are presented with a brief explanation and in front of the entire organization. In this way, a number of employees are recognized by their colleagues each quarter.

Do you want to get started creating a strong organizational culture, but are still unsure what is needed in your organization? You can always contact us without obligation. We like to think along with you based on our expertise.