Understanding Organization Culture and How it Applies to Your Business
While it’s rarely discussed in the workplace, the importance of organizational culture shouldn’t go unrecognized considering its impact on businesses of all sizes. When it comes to its definition, there’s a lack of clarity.
What is Organizational Culture?
There are various views on what organizational culture truly is. In the simplest of terms, organizational culture sets the context for everything a company does.
That is because of the variety of industries out there – there isn’t necessarily a template that meets the need of every organization in existence. Organizational culture can be defined strictly based on values of these societal attributes:
- The company’s relationship to its environment. How exactly does the company define its business?
- Effectiveness. Which metrics showcase whether the company and its components are performing well? A business is successfully when it’s supported by an effective business strategy.
- Human nature. Basic assumptions about people in general can generate certain beliefs about how employees, suppliers, and customers should interact.
Technically speaking, organizational culture refers to a system of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that show people what behavior is deemed appropriate and inappropriate.
A company’s culture acts as a general roadmap or a guide for employees to know how to behave and communicate around others at work.
How Organizational Culture Impacts Your Business
Your culture and brand tie in with a strong organizational culture. That is because a strong organizational culture often has positive brand identities.
To further elaborate, these companies are investing their time into the values they strive for and explaining how they function.
Brands that are memorable communicate the driving forces behind their every effort, including the people who make them exceptional. When an organizational culture has consistency and clarity, a company will have an acceptable brand story to tell.
Hiring Top Talent
The industry’s highest performing recruiting tools are undoubtedly leveraging organizational culture. In such a competitive hiring market, the companies where employees feel appreciated and valued are going to be the most sought after.
With this in mind, organizational culture should remain at the forefront of your onboarding process. In fact, it could be your strongest recruiting tool. Prioritizing your company’s culture framework can benefit its recruiting and retention strategies.
Motivating Employees
One of the biggest challenges for business owners is motivating their employees to perform to the best of their ability on a daily basis. In reality, you have to adopt a system that’s balances how an employee feels and the quality of work they can produce.
Your organizational culture must be aligned with your employee’s motivation to generate a successful outcome.
How to Identify Your Organizational Culture
To properly identify your company’s culture, it’s best to understand the three concepts comprising your organizational culture. Garner an understanding of how these three concepts affect every aspect of your company, from its employees to its principles.
Observe the ways in which you can sustain a culture.
Social Culture: Social culture centers around each team member’s goals and key responsibilities.
Ideological Culture: Ideological culture focuses on group beliefs and values, in other words, the things that people identify as fundamental. It primarily includes the intellectual and emotional aspects that govern people’s daily interactions and decisions.
Material Culture: Material culture refers to all the ways that people work with and support one another during an exchanging of goods and services.
It’s important to note that over time, your organization’s culture will most likely evolve. For example, when your company experiences an acquisition, this is a time when organizational culture evaluations take a seat at the table.
Make sure you’ve adopted regular ways of identifying just how your culture may shift during such circumstances. Regardless, be prepared to experience some bumps in the road.
The Foundation of the Employee Experience
Organizational culture serves as the foundation of the employee experience. It begins at an employee’s very first interview until their last day on the job. There’s an impressive difference between an engaged workforce and a disengaged one.
Bottom line – don’t underestimate organizational culture.
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