What is Organisational Culture?
Organisational culture is an important concept for any business. A collection of shared values, beliefs, practices, and expectations. Organisational culture can define a company. While there is widespread agreement that organisational culture exists, and that it plays an integral part in shaping businesses, there is little clarity on its definition.
At WorkWell, we rounded up some of our preferred interpretations, which include:
- “Organisational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organisation from within” – Bruce Perron.
- “Organisational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organisation” – Richard Perrin.
However, we felt that the standout definition was this quote from management consultant, educator and author, Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
Why does organisational culture matter?
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, organisational culture is the core of a workplace and must be handled and established accordingly. In an interesting read in the Harvard Business Review, culture was labelled as a flagbearer for workplace values, offering employees a way to:
- Gauge their team dynamics
- Voice their perspectives
- Develop internal connections with a common purpose.
So, when businesses can’t articulate the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of workplace culture, their values remain unsteady.
Why culture is key at WorkWell
At WorkWell our goals and values impact the standard of our service and influence member engagement; hence culture building is one of our core propositions and is handled and established accordingly
For us, culture directly impacts the quality of the service we deliver, the satisfaction of our members as well as the overall success of the WorkWell team.
The tangible impact of organisational culture on engagement and retention
With respect to the above, member retention and member engagement via culture building is the norm for businesses today. Without events or discussions around culture, members feel unsatisfied and employees feel undervalued. According to the EY 2022 Work Reimagined Survey, there is a gap between management and employees in terms of contribution to work culture even after years of debate. The 2021 EY Empathy in Business Survey revealed that 48% of employees left a previous job because the company culture didn’t feel right, and the Global Culture Survey 2021 revealed that 72% of employees felt culture helps successful change happen within the business and 77% of members feel connected to the company’s purpose.
Speculations that organisational culture effects don’t affect team performance and team building are negated by these statistics. They provide us with a holistic view of the importance of workplace culture. They tell us how vital it is for every member to monitor and maintain their work culture.