What is Workplace Culture and Why Does it Matter?

Workplace culture is the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that characterize an organization and shape the work environment. It encompasses the norms, traditions, and unwritten rules that guide interactions among employees, as well as the organization’s overall identity and ethos. It is the alignment, or lack thereof, between what leaders say and what they do and the alignment of worldviews. Workplace culture influences how employees perceive their work, interact with colleagues and leadership, and approach tasks and challenges.

In most organizations, workplace culture emerges organically, without much thought given to the desired environment and quality of interactions amongst people. This means that challenging behaviors can take root and become embedded in the patterns and interactions within the organization. Without intervention, these patterns will impact everything from how people treat each other, to morale, workplace incidents or accidents, and the health and well-being of employees, often manifesting in high levels of stress and even illness.

The stories that employees share about their experiences in the workplace amplify existing patterns, regardless of the quality of those interactions. Paying attention to the stories people tell provides insight into their experiences, as does taking note of communication patterns. Do people talk about each other or with each other? What are the patterns of communication from leaders, directors or managers? are they on a “need-to-know” basis or are they frequent, transparent and address what is present, while also communicating about vision, values and imminent changes?

Being intentional about workplace culture means developing a consistent approach to creating and sustaining the desired behaviors and interactions across the entire organization, creating and sustaining the processes and practices needed for the desired culture to be a reality. Then, the stories that are told amplify this intentional culture, the organization grows its reputation as a good organization to work for and this attracts not just employees, but customers too.  

Cultivating a Strategic Workplace Culture: Embracing Diverse Worldviews for Organizational Success

The purpose of a Strategic Workplace Culture is to create an environment where employees feel empowered, are motivated, and inspired to contribute their best efforts towards achieving organizational goals, where it feels like a win-win for everyone across the organization. People want to work in environments where they feel valued, their contributions matter, they are encouraged to speak up, they have some say in decisions directly impacting their work, they can bring their full authentic selves to their roles and where health and well-being are a priority. In these environments people consistently deliver their best work, are inspired to be creative, innovative, resilient, and to engage in ethical conduct that sustains long-term success and societal impact.

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