Africa-Press – Namibia. Organizational culture is the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways of interacting that contribute to an organization’s unique social and psychological environment. Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organisation. Culture is one of those terms that is difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large organisation is quite different from that of a hospital which is quite different from that of a university. You can tell an organization’s culture by looking at the leadership team’s effectiveness and how they behave, what employees recognize each other for, what employees wear, and so forth.
Companies often take a passive approach to culture. They figure it’s not something they can control or that they need to control. They believe that if they leave it alone, it’ll all work itself out. But leaving culture to chance does more harm than good for your organisation. Culture has always been important, but today, it’s becoming more than just a buzzword. Culture is an important differentiator to set your company apart from the competition. It’s also what attracts the right talent and brings in the right customers. When an organisation is not intentional with its core values and culture initiatives, employees may fall into the trap of negative behaviours and attitudes that badly affect their output. Conversely, being intentional about culture can create a positive work culture that will inspire and build trust and high levels of engagement.
Characteristics of Organizational Culture
Organizational culture can further be viewed as a system and includes an organization’s expectations, experiences, philosophy, and the values that guide employee behaviour, and is expressed through various ways, including employee self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world and future expectations. Culture is based on shared behaviours, beliefs, norms, customs and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are known to be true. It also includes the organization’s purpose, systems, symbols, language, and habits. Simply stated, organizational culture is “the way we do things around here”.
10 ways to create and live a positive culture
Organizational cultures are very dynamic. They shift incrementally and constantly in response to external and internal changes. So, assessing organizational culture is complicated because you are trying to hit a moving target. But it also opens the possibility that culture change can be managed as a continuous process rather than through significant shifts (often in response to crises). Likewise, it highlights the idea that a stable “destination” may never — indeed should never — be reached. Therefore, the culture of the organisation should always be about learning and developing. Here are 10 ways to create and live out a positive culture in your organisation:
Building the right workplace culture is a big responsibility, and everybody in the organisation owns it. Leading with culture may be among the few sources of sustainable competitive advantage left to companies today. Successful leaders will stop regarding culture with frustration and instead use it as a fundamental management tool.
