“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.
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.
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.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with values initiated by management or the MT. What does go wrong is the moment when these values are conceived and imposed without involving the staff. The core values of the organization hang on the wall at the reception, are on the website and there is a nice poster, but they are not experienced as such in the organization. 80% of companies have core values, but almost none of them are actually lived. Core values are often made too complicated or too general. For example, the value “transparency” is very difficult to live out really well. It is easy to be transparent if the company is doing well, the numbers are positive and employees are enjoying themselves. It’s just a lot harder to actually be transparent when things are going worse in the company.
A quick game of ping pong or table football? A good idea for a short break, to increase concentration and to encourage fun and lightheartedness at work. Yet putting up a ping pong table is not going to help you create a good culture or attract the right people. If employees do not feel the freedom and safety to play ping pong, or the company does not give them that freedom by agreeing on times for use, for example, such a ping pong table will not have the desired effect. While it invites informal interaction, it is not enough to create a sustainable environment where employees experience engagement and motivation.
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.
A pitfall that also often comes up when talking about organizational culture is that there is not enough communication in the organization about the desired culture and, in line with this, desired and expected behavior. Organizations often have the idea that they communicate a lot 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 presentations and there are always people who just overlook or don’t read that one email. To make core values live in the organization and to build a strong culture, it is important to clearly communicate what the desired culture is. This does not stop at communicating it “just once. It must continue to be reflected in everything.
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.
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 consists of the organization’s mission, vision and core values. These must be clear and clearly communicated to all employees and other stakeholders. It gives employees the initial tools to know what is important within the organization and what behavior is expected of them. It is good to keep gauging whether the direction is sufficiently known within the organization and what, if anything, is needed to make the foundation more known 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.
– Open communication: Open communication is essential for a strong organizational culture. Encourage employees to share their ideas and opinions and provide feedback. Communicate organizational culture through newsletters, intranet or social media. Communicating regularly about the culture keeps it on top of mind for employees and keeps them motivated to behave according to it. Give employees concrete tools for behavior by sharing success stories about behaviors 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 collaborate and exchange ideas. In doing so, focus on respect, appreciation and trust. Ensure good and open communication, give recognition to your employees and look for appropriate rewards if necessary.
– Continue to learn and develop: Promote a learning environment within the organization. Encourage employees to learn new skills and knowledge and continue to develop. In addition, give employees the space to proactively respond to problems and challenges. This leads to more innovation. Pay attention to psychological safety and create a culture where employees feel safe to make mistakes, ask for help and continue to develop.
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 becomes visible in behavior. To build a strong organizational culture, it is important to simulate desired and appropriate behavior in employees. This can be done by recognizing the behavior, naming it and giving the employee recognition and appreciation for it. By rewarding positive behavior, the organization encourages this behavior in employees. At Rvdb, for example, challenge trophies are awarded quarterly. There is a challenge trophy for each core value at Rvdb. Every quarter these trophies are awarded to employees who have demonstrated behavior appropriate to one of the core values during that quarter. Complete with reasoning and in front of the entire organization. In this way, each quarter a number of employees are put in the limelight by their colleagues.
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.
References:
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