Organizational Culture and Structure

 Definition of Organizational Culture

 The Importance of Organizational Culture
 Categories of Organizational Culture
 Organizational Culture in the Philippines
 Management of Organizational Culture

What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture is the collection of values, expectations, and practices that guide and inform the actions of all team members.
Think of it as the collection of traits that make your company what it is. A great culture exemplifies positive traits that lead to
improved performance, while a dysfunctional company culture brings out qualities that can hinder even the most successful
organizations.

Don’t confuse culture with organizational goals or a mission statement, although both can help define it. Culture is created through
consistent and authentic behaviors, not press releases or policy documents. You can watch company culture in action when you see
how a CEO responds to a crisis, how a team adapts to new customer demands, or how a manager corrects an employee who makes a
mistake.

The importance of culture to your company

Organizational culture affects all aspects of your business, from punctuality and tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When
workplace culture aligns with your employees, they’re more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and valued. Companies that
prioritize culture can also weather difficult times and changes in the business environment and come out stronger.

Culture is a key advantage when it comes to attracting talent and outperforming the competition. 77 percent of workers consider a
company’s culture before applying, and almost half of employees would leave their current job for a lower-paying opportunity at an
organization with a better culture. The culture of an organization is also one of the top indicators of employee satisfaction and one of
the main reasons that almost two-thirds (65%) of employees stay in their job.

Consider Microsoft and Salesforce. Both technology-based companies are world-class performers and admired brands, and both owe
this in part to prioritizing culture. Microsoft, known for its cut-throat competitiveness under Steve Balmer, has been positively
transformed by Satya Nadella, who took over as CEO of the company in 2014. He embarked on a program to refine the company
culture, a process that upended competitiveness in favor of continuous learning. Instead of proving themselves, employees were
encouraged to improve themselves. Today Microsoft’s market cap flirts with $1 trillion and it is again competing with Apple and
Amazon as one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Salesforce puts corporate culture front and center and has experienced incredible growth throughout its history. Marc Benioff,
Salesforce’s founder and CEO, established philanthropic cultural norms that have guided the company over the past two decades. All
new Salesforce employees spend part of their first day volunteering and receive 56 hours of paid time to volunteer a year. This focus
on meaning and mission has made Salesforce one of the best places to work in America according to Fortune, and it hasn’t
compromised profits either: Salesforce’s stock price has surged year after year at an average of over 26% annually to date.

Qualities of a great organizational culture

Every organization’s culture is different, and it’s important to retain what makes your company unique. However, the cultures of high-
performing organizations consistently reflect certain qualities that you should seek to cultivate:

• Alignment comes when the company’s objectives and its employees’ motivations are all pulling in the same direction. Exceptional
organizations work to build continuous alignment to their vision, purpose, and goals.

• Appreciation can take many forms: a public kudos, a note of thanks, or a promotion. A culture of appreciation is one in which all
team members frequently provide recognition and thanks for the contributions of others.

• Trust is vital to an organization. With a culture of trust, team members can express themselves and rely on others to have their back
when they try something new.
Performance is key, as great companies create a culture that means business. In these companies, talented employees motivate each
other to excel, and, as shown above, greater profitability and productivity are the results.

• Resilience is a key quality in highly dynamic environments where change is continuous. A resilient culture will teach leaders to
watch for and respond to change with ease.

• Teamwork encompasses collaboration, communication, and respect between team members. When everyone on the team supports
each other, employees will get more done and feel happier while doing it.

• Integrity, like trust, is vital to all teams when they rely on each other to make decisions, interpret results, and form partnerships.
Honesty and transparency are critical components of this aspect of culture.

• Innovation leads organizations to get the most out of available technologies, resources, and markets. A culture of innovation means
that you apply creative thinking to all aspects of your business, even your own cultural initiatives.

• Psychological safety provides the support employees need to take risks and provide honest feedback. Remember that psychological
safety starts at the team level, not the individual level, so managers need to take the lead in creating a safe environment where
everyone feels comfortable contributing. Now that you know what a great culture looks like, let’s tackle how to build one in your
organization.

8 steps to building a high-performing organizational culture

Creating a great organizational culture requires developing and executing a plan with clear objectives that you can work towards and
measure. The 8 steps below should serve as a roadmap for building a culture of continuity that will deliver long-term benefits across
your company.

1. Excel in recognition
Recognizing the contributions of all team members has a far-reaching, positive effect on organizational culture. When everyone on the
team recognizes the accomplishments of others, individuals start to see how they’re part of a whole. Even the most jaded employees
want to know their work matters, and they notice when they aren’t appreciated — 76 percent of employees don’t feel especially
recognized by superiors. Experts agree that when an organization makes appreciating employees part of its culture, important metrics
like employee engagement, retention, and productivity improve.

Making recognition part of your culture means it must be a regular occurrence, not something that is only reserved for major
milestones or work anniversaries. Encourage team members to practice frequent social recognition in addition to monetary
recognition. Providing social recognition on a consistent basis has a remarkable business impact: companies that invest in social
recognition are four times more likely to increase stock prices, twice more likely to improve NPS scores, and twice more likely to
improve individual performances.

Monetary recognition is valuable as well. Consider a points-based recognition program that will allow employees to easily build up
substantial point balances. They’ll enjoy looking forward to redeeming their points for a reward that’s personally meaningful to them,
rather than being handed a generic mug or a years of service award that will gather dust on a shelf.

To foster other cultural traits, recognition should also be clearly tied to company values and specific actions. After all, 92 percent of
employees agree when they’re recognized for a specific action, they’re more likely to take that action again in the future.

Last but not least, leadership needs to take center stage in your recognition efforts, as they’re the cultural trendsetters for your entire
company. Incorporate a recognition talk track into your leadership training and share top tips with managers on how to recognize
others and why it matters.

2. Enable employee voice

Creating a culture that values feedback and encourages employee voice is essential, as failing to do so can lead to lost revenue and
demotivated employees.

First, you need to collect feedback using the right listening tools that make it easy for employees to express what they’re feeling in the
moment, like pulse surveys and workplace chatbots. Then analyze the results to see what’s working and what isn’t in your
organization, and act on those findings while they’re still relevant. Not only does this strengthen your culture, it leads to benefits like
higher employee fulfillment and greater profitability. According to a Clutch survey, 68 percent of employees who receive regular
feedback feel fulfilled in their jobs, and Gallup found that organizations with managers who received feedback on their strengths
showed 8.9 percent greater profitability.

In addition to gathering feedback using the methods described above, make sure you’re paying attention to more subtle expressions of
feedback that can reveal cultural deficiencies. For example, pay attention to body language, as it can tell you much even when
employees aren’t willing to share. If you’re working with a remote team, video conferences can help keep this nonverbal channel of
communication open. Managers should treat all their sessions with employees as opportunities to gather and respond to feedback and
act as a trusted coach.

3. Make your leaders culture advocates

Your company’s success in building a strong workplace culture rests in the hands of team leaders and managers. For example, if your
workplace culture prioritizes certain values and your leadership team doesn’t exemplify them — or even displays behaviors that go
against them — it undermines the effort. Team members will recognize the dissonance between stated values and lived behaviors.
They may even start to emulate negative behaviors because they believe those behaviors have been rewarded by management.

Your leadership team can help build the culture you need by prioritizing it in every aspect of their work lives. They need to openly and
transparently discuss the organization’s culture and values, and they should also be prepared to incorporate feedback from employees
into their cultural advocacy efforts. Leaders need their employees’ perspective on culture — while 76 percent of executives believe
their organization has a well-communicated value system, only 31 percent of employees agree. When employees see leaders living
your culture, they’ll follow suit.

4. Live by your company values

Your company’s values are the foundation of its culture. While crafting a mission statement is a great start, living by company values
means weaving them into every aspect of your business. This includes support terms, HR policies, benefits programs, and even out-of-
office initiatives like volunteering. Your employees, partners, and customers will recognize and appreciate that your organization puts
its values into practice every day. You can also recognize employees for actions that exemplify your values to show that they’re more
than just words and incentivize employees to build the value-based culture you want to see.

5. Forge connections between team members

Building a workplace culture that can handle adversity requires establishing strong connections between team members, but with
increasingly remote and terse communication, creating those bonds can be challenging. Encouraging collaboration and engaging in
team building activities — even when working remote — are two effective ways to bring your team together and promote
communication.

Look for and encourage shared personal interests between team members as well, especially among those from different generations
that might otherwise have a difficult time relating to each other. This can create new pathways for understanding and empathy that are
vital to improving communication, creativity, and even conflict resolution.
6. Focus on learning and development
Great workplace cultures are formed by employees who are continually learning and companies that invest in staff development.
Training initiatives, coaching, and providing employees with new responsibilities are all great ways to show your team that you’re
invested in their success.

A culture of learning has a significant business impact. Find Courses’ most recent benchmark study found that companies with highly
engaged employees were 1.5 times more likely to prioritize soft skills development. It also found that companies that had experienced
revenue growth in the previous financial year were twice more likely to use innovative learning technologies and three times more
likely to increase their learning and development budgets.

7. Keep culture in mind from day one

When an employee’s perspective doesn’t match your company culture, internal discord is likely to be the result. Organizations should
hire for culture and reinforce it during the onboarding process and beyond. Practices and procedures must be taught, and values should
be shared.

When hiring, ask questions focused on cultural fit, like what matters to the interviewee and why they’re attracted to working at your
company. But these questions shouldn’t be the sole determining factor when evaluating a candidate, as the best organizations keep an
open mind to diverse perspectives that can help keep their culture fresh.

You should also prioritize building social relationships during the onboarding process so that employees have the insight necessary to
understand your company’s culture and values. These relationships will last throughout the employee’s time at the company, so that
cultural values are mutually reinforced on a continuous basis.

8. Personalize the employee experience

As modern consumers, your employees expect personalized experiences, so you need to focus on ways to help each team member
identify with your culture. Tools like pulse surveys and employee-journey mapping are great ways to discover what your employees
value and what their ideal corporate culture looks like. Take what you learn and tailor your actions to personalize the employee
experience for your team. Once you start treating your employees with the same care you treat your customers, a culture that
motivates each individual at your organization is sure to follow.

https://www.achievers.com/blog/organizational-culture-definition/

What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?

by Michael D. Watkins
May 15, 2013

If you want to provoke a vigorous debate, start a conversation on organizational culture. While there is universal agreement that (1) it
exists, and (2) that it plays a crucial role in shaping behavior in organizations, there is little consensus on what organizational culture
actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change.

This is a problem, because without a reasonable definition (or definitions) of culture, we cannot hope to understand its connections to
other key elements of the organization, such as structure and incentive systems. Nor can we develop good approaches to analyzing,
preserving and transforming cultures. If we can define what organizational culture is, it gives us a handle on how to diagnose
problems and even to design and develop better cultures.

Beginning May 1, 2013, I facilitated a discussion around this question on LinkedIn. The more than 300 responses included rich and
varied perspectives and opinions on organizational culture, its meaning and importance. I include several distinctive views below,
illustrated by direct quotes from the LinkedIn discussion thread — and then I offer my own synthesis of these views. (There often
were multiple postings with similar themes, so these are simply early selections; unfortunately it was not possible to acknowledge
everyone who made helpful contributions.)

“Culture is how organizations ‘do things’.” — Robbie Katanga

Culture is consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” This view
elevates repeated behavior or habits as the core of culture and deemphasizes what people feel, think or believe. It also focuses our
attention on the forces that shape behavior in organizations, and so highlights an important question: are all those forces (including
structure, processes, and incentives) “culture” or is culture simply the behavioral outputs?

“In large part, culture is a product of compensation.” — Alec Haverstick

Culture is powerfully shaped by incentives. The best predictor of what people will do is what they are incentivized to do. By
incentives, we mean here the full set of incentives — monetary rewards, non-monetary rewards such as status, recognition and
advancement, and sanctions — to which members of the organization are subject. But where do incentives come from? As with the
previous definition, there are potential chicken-and-egg issues. Are patterns of behavior the product of incentives, or have incentives
been shaped in fundamental ways by beliefs and values that underpin the culture?

“Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.” — Bruce Perron

Culture is a process of “sense-making” in organizations. Sense-making has been defined as “a collaborative process of creating shared
awareness and understanding out of different individuals’ perspectives and varied interests.” Note that this moves the definition of
culture beyond patterns of behavior into the realm of jointly-held beliefs and interpretations about “what is.” It says that a crucial
purpose of culture is to help orient its members to “reality” in ways that provide a basis for alignment of purpose and shared action.
“Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.” —
Richard Perrin

Culture is a carrier of meaning. Cultures provide not only a shared view of “what is” but also of “why is.” In this view, culture is about
“the story” in which people in the organization are embedded, and the values and rituals that reinforce that narrative. It also focuses
attention on the importance of symbols and the need to understand them — including the idiosyncratic languages used in
organizations — in order to understand culture.

“Organizational culture is civilization in the workplace.” — Alan Adler

Culture is a social control system. Here the focus is the role of culture in promoting and reinforcing “right” thinking and behaving, and
sanctioning “wrong” thinking and behaving. Key in this definition of culture is the idea of behavioral “norms” that must be upheld,
and associated social sanctions that are imposed on those who don’t “stay within the lines.” This view also focuses attention on how
the evolution of the organization shaped the culture. That is, how have the existing norms promoted the survival of the organization in
the past? Note: implicit in this evolutionary view is the idea that established cultures can become impediments to survival when there
are substantial environmental changes.

“Culture is the organization’s immune system.” — Michael Watkins

Culture is a form of protection that has evolved from situational pressures. It prevents “wrong thinking” and “wrong people” from
entering the organization in the first place. It says that organizational culture functions much like the human immune system in
preventing viruses and bacteria from taking hold and damaging the body. The problem, of course, is that organizational immune
systems also can attack agents of needed change, and this has important implications for on-boarding and integrating people into
organizations.

In the discussion, there were also some important observations pushing against the view of culture as something that it is unitary and
static, and toward a view that cultures are multiple, overlapping, and dynamic.

“Organizational culture [is shaped by] the main culture of the society we live in, albeit with greater emphasis on particular parts of it.”
— Elizabeth Skringar

Organizational culture is shaped by and overlaps with other cultures — especially the broader culture of the societies in which it
operates. This observation highlights the challenges that global organizations face in establishing and maintaining a unified culture
when operating in the context of multiple national, regional and local cultures. How should leaders strike the right balance between
promoting “one culture” in the organization, while still allowing for influences of local cultures?

“It over simplifies the situation in large organizations to assume there is only one culture… and it’s risky for new leaders to ignore the
sub-cultures.” — Rolf Winkler

The cultures of organizations are never monolithic. There are many factors that drive internal variations in the culture of business
functions (e.g. finance vs. marketing) and units (e.g. a fast-moving consumer products division vs. a pharmaceuticals division of a
diversified firm). A company’s history of acquisition also figures importantly in defining its culture and sub-cultures. Depending on
how acquisition and integration are managed, the legacy cultures of acquired units can persist for surprisingly long periods of time.

“An organization [is] a living culture… that can adapt to the reality as fast as possible.” — Abdi Osman Jama

Finally, cultures are dynamic. They shift, incrementally and constantly, in response to external and internal changes. So, trying to
assess organizational culture is complicated by the reality that 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 big shifts (often in response to crises). Likewise, it
highlights the idea that a stable “destination” may never — indeed should never — be reached. The culture of the organization should
always be learning and developing.

These perspectives provide the kind of holistic, nuanced view of organizational culture that is needed by leaders in order to truly
understand their organizations — and to have any hope of changing them for the better.

https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?

Organizational culture refers to the shared values, attitudes and practices that characterize an organization. It’s the personality of your
company and plays a large part in your employees’ overall satisfaction.

What Is Organizational Culture?

Before we dive into the different types, let’s go back to square one. Organizational culture — often called company culture — is
defined as the shared values, attitudes and practices that characterize an organization. It’s the personality of your company, and it
plays a large part in your employees’ overall satisfaction.

A common misconception is that core values, employee perks and the like are the cornerstone of a strong organizational culture. In
reality, your core values should guide your organizational culture, but are by no means an exhaustive effort, and benefit packages
should be a byproduct of your deliberate work to create an enjoyable office environment.

Why Is Organizational Culture Important?

A strong company culture will attract the right candidates for the job and keep them engaged as employees. According to a Glassdoor
study, 77 percent of adults would evaluate a company’s culture before applying to an open position. Perhaps more impactful, 56
percent rank an organization’s organizational culture as more important than compensation.

Creating a winning organizational culture takes a lot of time and effort — your culture must accurately reflect your values and align
with your overall mission. It’s a big to-do, but don’t get discouraged: your efforts will pay off in the long run.

Now, let’s dive into the four main organizational culture types.

4 Types of Organizational Culture

Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron of the University of Michigan investigated the qualities that make businesses effective. From a
list of 39 attributes, the researchers identified two key polarities: (1) internal focus and integration vs. external focus and
differentiation, and (2) flexibility and discretion vs. stability and control.

These qualities are visually represented within the Competing Values Framework, which is part of the validated and widely-used
Organizational Cultural Assessment Instrument. A quick Google search might pull up articles that mention anywhere from five to
eight types of corporate cultures. However, Quinn and Cameron’s four types are generally accepted and appear to influence any
variations.

TYPE 1: CLAN CULTURE

Primary Focus: Mentorship and teamwork.

Motto: “We’re all in this together.”

About Clan Culture: A clan culture is people-focused in the sense that the company feels family-like. This is a highly collaborative
work environment where every individual is valued and communication is a top priority. Clan culture is often paired with a horizontal
structure, which helps to break down barriers between the C-suite and employees, and it encourages mentorship opportunities. These
companies are action-oriented and embrace change, a testament to their highly flexible nature.

Benefits: Clan cultures boast high rates of employee engagement, and happy employees make for happy customers. Because of its
highly adaptable environment, there’s a great possibility for market growth within a clan culture.

Drawbacks: A family-style corporate culture is difficult to maintain as the company grows. Plus, with a horizontal leadership
structure, day-to-day operations can seem cluttered and lacking direction.

Where You’ll Find Clan Culture: It’s no surprise that clan cultures are often seen in startups and smaller companies. Young
organizations that are just starting out put a heavy emphasis on collaboration and communication, leadership looks to employees for
feedback and ideas and companies prioritize team-building.

For companies with a large percentage of employees working remotely like HR tech provider Hireology, creating an empathetic and
communicative organizational culture is key to success. “When you have a blended team, your local staff can help bridge gaps and
build empathy,” said Joel Schlundt, vice president of engineering at Hireology. The team coordinated job swaps to help employees
better understand and appreciate their peers’ roles.

How to Create This Culture Within Your Organization: To cultivate a clan culture within your company, your first step is to turn to
your employees. Communication is vital to a successful clan culture, so let your team know that you’re open to feedback. Find out
what they value, what they’d like to see change, what ideas they have to help push the company further. Step two: take their thoughts
into account and put them into action.

TYPE 2: ADHOCRACY CULTURE

Primary Focus: Risk-taking and innovation.

Motto: “Risk it to get the biscuit.”

About Adhocracy Culture: Adhocracy cultures are rooted in innovation and adaptability. These are the companies that are on the
cutting-edge of their industry — they’re looking to develop the next big thing before anyone else has even started asking the right
questions. To do so, they need to take risks. Adhocracy cultures value individuality in the sense that employees are encouraged to
think creatively and bring their ideas to the table. Because this type of organizational culture falls within the external focus and
differentiation category, new ideas need to be tied to market growth and company success.

Benefits: An adhocracy culture contributes to high profit margins and notoriety. Employees stay motivated with the goal of breaking
the mold. Plus, with a focus on creativity and new ideas, professional development opportunities are easy to justify.

Drawbacks: Risk is risk, so there’s always a chance that a new venture won’t pan out and may even hurt your business. Adhocracy
cultures can also foster competition between employees as the pressure to come up with new ideas mounts.

Where You’ll Find Adhocracy Culture: Think of Google or Apple — these are companies that embody the external focus and risk-
taking nature of adhocracy culture. They run on creative energy and doing what hasn’t been done before. Adhocracy cultures are
commonplace within the ever-changing tech industry where new products are being developed and released on a regular basis.

How to Create This Culture Within Your Organization: Depending on your industry, it may be hard to develop an authentic adhocracy
culture that includes a high-risk business strategy. However, implementing strategy and brainstorming sessions provides employees
with the opportunity to share big ideas that can help to propel the company further. Rewarding successful ideas encourages teams to
think outside of the box, too.

TYPE 3: MARKET CULTURE

Primary Focus: Competition and growth.

Motto: “We’re in it to win it.”

About Market Culture: Market culture prioritizes profitability. Everything is evaluated with the bottom line in mind; each position has
an objective that aligns with the company’s larger goal, and there are often several degrees of separation between employees and
leadership roles. These are results-oriented organizations that focus on external success rather than internal satisfaction. A market
culture stresses the importance of meeting quotas, reaching targets and getting results.

Benefits: Companies that boast market cultures are profitable and successful. Because the entire organization is externally focused,
there’s a key objective employees can get behind and work toward.

Drawbacks: On the other hand, because there’s a number tied to every decision, project and position within the company, it can be
difficult for employees to meaningfully engage with their work and live out their professional purpose. There is also risk for burnout
in this aggressive and fast-paced environment.

Where You’ll Find Market Culture: The goal of a market culture company is to be the best in its industry. Because of that, these are
often larger companies that are already leaders of the pack. They’re looking to compete and beat out anyone else that may compare.

For an industry leader like Bluecore, a retail marketing platform that utilizes AI technology, providing employees with clear objectives
helps the team provide all-star customer service. “Our team is clear on its goals, and we are incentivized through compensation
structure and recognition,” said Kim Surko vice president of customer success. “With that foundation, we can apply our personality
and values to define how we will accomplish those goals.”

How to Create This Culture Within Your Organization: Because every aspect of a market culture is tied to the company’s bottom line,
start by evaluating each position within your organization. Calculate the ROI of every role and ascribe reasonable benchmarks for
production. Consider rewarding top performers to encourage similar work.

TYPE 4: HIERARCHY CULTURE

Primary Focus: Structure and stability.

Motto: “Get it done right.”

About Hierarchy Culture: Companies with hierarchy cultures adhere to the traditional corporate structure. These are companies
focused on internal organization by way of a clear chain of command and multiple management tiers that separate employees and
leadership. In addition to a rigid structure, there’s often a dress code for employees to follow. Hierarchy cultures have a set way of
doing things, which makes them stable and risk-averse.

Benefits: With internal organization as a priority, hierarchy cultures have clear direction. There are well-defined processes that cater to
the company’s main objectives.

Drawbacks: The rigidity of hierarchy cultures leaves little room for creativity, making these companies relatively slow to adapt to the
changing marketplace. The company takes precedence over the individual, which doesn’t necessarily encourage employee feedback.

Where You’ll Find Hierarchy Culture: Hierarchy cultures can be found at both ends of the corporate spectrum, from old-school
organizations to those of the customer service industry, such as fast food restaurants. These are companies that are hyper-focused on
how day-to-day operations are carried out and aren’t interested in changing things up anytime soon.

How to Create This Culture Within Your Organization: The first step to establishing a hierarchy culture is to button up your processes.
If the chain of command has some gaps, fill them. Consider every team and department to ensure they have clear long- and short-term
goals.

Your organizational culture says a lot about your team and what you value, and job seekers can pick up on that almost immediately.
Evaluate your existing organizational culture and take stock of what truly matters to your organization — where are you aligned, and
what are your areas for improvement? While you can exert control over your organizational culture, keep in mind that the office
dynamic will shift as you onboard new team members, so hire for culture add, not fit.
https://builtin.com/company-culture/types-of-organizational-culture

Organizational culture is the sum of the values, beliefs, practices, and behaviors that contribute to the social and psychological
environment of an organization.

Social psychologist Geert Hofstede believed that while national cultures are based on deeply held values, organizational cultures are
more concerned with practices. The repetition of those practices or behaviors within a workplace help to define the organization’s
culture.

The culture of an organization is also influenced by a number of other people factors as well, including but not limited to the
personalities and leadership style of the founder(s) and executive team, the staff’s mindset, the dynamics within the teams and
departments, the presence of organization development (OD) professionals and processes, and the interconnectivity of the
organization as a whole.

Other factors such as the organization’s industry, the reward and incentive systems within the business, the benefits packages, the
politics of the time, the local culture, and the community involvement can all highly influence the organizational culture.

Types of Organizational Culture

A number of organizational cultures exist in the real world and remain fluid, dependent on a number of internal and external factors.
By putting OD processes in place, OD and human resources professionals can change the company culture, but it will take a lot of
action-planning. According to the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) distinguishes between four types culture:

· Clan: A clan culture is a friendly, almost family-like work environment. This culture focuses on morale of the employees and
relationships above all else.

· Adhocracy: Also called a create culture, this culture moves fast and fails fast. It is keen on innovation, agility, and learning from
failures.

· Market: A culture centered on results, or desired outcomes, and goals. Employees in this culture are highly driven and motivated.

· Hierarchy: A procedural-based culture that emphasizes structure, compliance, and stability over innovation.

How to Build Organizational Culture?

An organizational culture is dynamic; it evolves and adapts to the times and the organization’s leaders and staff. An OD practitioner
can help to create a great organizational culture by working to identify problems and putting structure and processes in place to ensure
the culture survives through the ebbs and flows of time. To be effective, OD practitioners should be knowledgeable in behavioral
science and OD interventions.

All organizations with great company culture must have shared values in place. These values help emphasize a common culture
throughout the organization and help recruiters find the right culture fit for the organization.

Along with shared values, an organization should have a shared mission or vision. Why does the organization matter? How does the
organization’s work matter? What does the future of the organization look like? Having a shared vision helps to foster unity and a
shared goal.

A strong culture or company brand attracts the right talent. Analyzing your company brand by doing a culture audit is critical to
knowing if your brand is strong and based on company values. Hiring based on values is important but having the values baked into
the brand for those applying to positions is just as important.

Once you have audited and identified areas that need work, create a culture committee or invite people in the company to act as the
culture liaisons. The culture liaisons do not have to be in human resources, but a reward and incentive system either through human
resources or through the culture liaisons should be in place as well. Those employees who are amplifying your company’s core values
should be rewarded for making the extra effort.
Perks are wonderful additions, but do not confuse them with culture. Having a ping-pong table in the office does not equal a good
company culture. How leadership communicates with individuals, the way teams work together, and the general mood of the
employees reveal a lot more about a company culture than field trips or happy hours. These incentives are great to have, but true
flexibility, well-being, and caring for your employees as people will create a lot more loyalty and engagement (and productivity) than
added perks.

Recognize your strong team players. If you cannot offer them growth at the company, help reskill them, offer them stretch
assignments, and at worst, help them move up in their careers outside the company. Creating a great organizational culture is really at
the end of the day caring for your staff as people.

https://www.td.org/talent-development-glossary-terms/what-is-organizational-culture

Workplace Culture
Workplace culture is best defined as the character and personality of your business. It is what makes your business unique from the
others. It comprises business practices, traditions, values, beliefs, interactions, and attitudes. Positive workplace culture attracts talent,
drives motivation, and boosts satisfaction that greatly affects the business performance.

The Filipino Business Culture

Filipino business culture is a mixture of various Eastern and Western influences. However, unlike their Western counterparts,
Filipinos tend to be indirect in approach. Filipinos are more inclined to talk freely with their peers, only after establishing a cordial
atmosphere. That is how rapport is being built.

How To Align With Filipino Culture

1.Recruit the Right People
Company culture is an important element that can effectively attract talent to your organization. People having the same traits, values,
beliefs, and preferences as the organization tend to be happier and more productive. Thus, it is necessary to look beyond the work
experiences and qualifications.

2. Get To Know The Filipino Culture

In establishing a Filipino workforce, it is essential to fully understand the Filipino culture. According to industry experts, the BPO
industry in the Philippines keeps on flourishing. It is forecasted to generate annual revenue of $40 billion by the end of 2023. If you
are planning to outsource in the Philippines, here are some of the things to know about the Filipino culture:

The Hospitality
Filipinos are usually hospitable to newcomers or colleagues. They frequently offer help, sometimes even inviting them for a meal,
drink, or a tour. Smiling is the most common way to reach out and say your hellos. Handshakes are often the most formal way of
welcoming new members and often followed with ‘how are you?’

The Unique Communication Style

The Philippines is known to be one of the best English-speaking countries. English is the second commonly used language among
Filipinos. Respect for seniors is shown by addressing them with ‘ma’am or sir’, ‘miss or mister’, as well as with the use of ‘po and
opo’. Filipinos in general hate confrontations. Instead, they tend to keep their reservations to themselves.

The Deep Sense of Camaraderie

Colleagues are not just simply from work. Usually, Filipinos consider their colleagues as family. There is also a so-called ‘Buddy
System’ which is an effective strategy to help newcomers adjust easily.

The Generosity
Filipinos are generous. Gift-giving is a common practice, especially during holidays, birthdays, and other special events. Even when
they go on trips, they always bring ‘pasalubong’ or gifts on their way home.

The Hard Work

Filipinos are usually okay to work beyond working hours to add value to their work. Often creative and resourceful, Filipinos love to
offer help to their colleagues on a difficult project.

3. Evaluate the Relevance of Values

After deeply understanding the Filipino culture and values, the next thing to do is to assess any relevant values. Establishing the right
Filipino values is also directing your business on the right path for its growth. However, if wrongly executed, those values may
negatively affect your business. Thus, it is essential to evaluate and identify the relevant values to your business. Through time, some
of those previously relevant values may become irrelevant for various reasons.

4. Ensure Leaders Share the Same Values

It is not enough that only employees are required to adapt to the culture and values set by the company. Leaders play an essential role
in the success of cultural adaptation. For instance, a toxic foreign leader leading a Filipino workforce will intentionally ruin the
credibility of the set cultural values. Even leaders must conform with the culture to effectively guide employees on the right path. This
will boost the visibility of the set culture and ignite your employees connected to the organization.

5. Monitor Culture Adoption

Various technological tools can also be used to monitor culture adoption. It can be through employee engagement software or survey
questionnaires. This practice greatly helps to measure the alignment of the employee as well as the leaders’ adoption of the set cultural
values. In implementing a change of culture, it is important to understand employees and their stand on the change.

6. Encourage Behavioral Change

Encouraging peer-to-peer recognition and manager-to-employee recognition increases employees’ desire to bring the company culture
to practice. Providing individual recognition or rewards to employees boost employee satisfaction and results in positive behaviors.
This will also enhance the bond between employees and managers.

Never Neglect the Culture

Company culture is one of the determining factors on the level of the business performance as well as the employees’ satisfaction.
However, most organizations fail to share their fundamental beliefs and values with their employees. Some do not even bother
defining their core values. This is where disconnection happens. This should not be the case. Cultural alignment is a strategic asset that
any business can take leverage on.

Do You Plan to Outsource in the Philippines?

Filipinos are not only hardworking employees but strong and independent leaders, too. Filipino values and culture in the workforce
also work wonders. It is never a difficult time to build rapport with your Filipino workforce. After understanding the Filipino culture,
it is easier to manage your Filipino team members.

https://flexisourceit.com.au/resources/blog/how-to-align-with-filipino-culture/

Understanding and Developing Organizational Culture

Overview

The key to a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by
strategy and structure. When an organization has a strong culture, three things happen: Employees know how top management wants
them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will
be rewarded for demonstrating the organization's values.

Employers have a vital role in perpetuating a strong culture, starting with recruiting and selecting applicants who will share the
organization's beliefs and thrive in that culture, developing orientation, training and performance management programs that outline
and reinforce the organization's core values and ensuring that appropriate rewards and recognition go to employees who truly embody
the values.

This article covers the following topics:

The importance of having a strong organizational culture.

The employer's role in fostering a high-performance culture.
Definitions of organizational culture.
Factors that shape an organization's culture.
Considerations in creating and managing organizational culture.
Practices to ensure the continuity and success of an organization's culture.
Communications, metrics, legal, technology and global issues pertaining to organizational culture.
See SHRM Resource Hub Page: Organizational Culture.

Background

An organization's culture defines the proper way to behave within the organization. This culture consists of shared beliefs and values
established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions,
behaviors and understanding. Organizational culture sets the context for everything an enterprise does. Because industries and
situations vary significantly, there is not a one-size-fits-all culture template that meets the needs of all organizations.

A strong culture is a common denominator among the most successful companies. All have consensus at the top regarding cultural
priorities, and those values focus not on individuals but on the organization and its goals. Leaders in successful companies live their
cultures every day and go out of their way to communicate their cultural identities to employees as well as prospective new hires.
They are clear about their values and how those values define their organizations and determine how the organizations run. See What
does it mean to be a values-based organization?

Conversely, an ineffective culture can bring down the organization and its leadership. Disengaged employees, high turnover, poor
customer relations and lower profits are examples of how the wrong culture can negatively impact the bottom line. See Toxic Culture
Top Reason People Quit.

Mergers and acquisitions are fraught with culture issues. Even organizational cultures that have worked well may develop into a
dysfunctional culture after a merger. Research has shown that two out of three mergers fail because of cultural problems. Blending and
redefining the cultures, and reconciling the differences between them, build a common platform for the future. In recent years, the fast
pace of mergers and acquisitions has changed the way businesses now meld. The focus in mergers has shifted away from blending
cultures and has moved toward meeting specific business objectives. Some experts believe that if the right business plan and agenda
are in place during a merger, a strong corporate culture will develop naturally. See Managing Organizational Change and Managing
Human Resources in Mergers and Acquisitions.

Business Case

If an organization's culture is going to improve the organization's overall performance, the culture must provide a strategic competitive
advantage, and beliefs and values must be widely shared and firmly upheld. A strong culture can bring benefits such as enhanced trust
and cooperation, fewer disagreements and more-efficient decision-making. Culture also provides an informal control mechanism, a
strong sense of identification with the organization and shared understanding among employees about what is important. Employees
whose organizations have strongly defined cultures can also justify their behaviors at work because those behaviors fit the culture. See
Toxic Workplace Cultures Hurt Workers and Company Profits.

Company leaders play an instrumental role in shaping and sustaining organizational culture. If the executives themselves do not fit
into an organization's culture, they often fail in their jobs or quit due to poor fit. Consequently, when organizations hire C-suite
executives, these individuals should have both the requisite skills and the ability to fit into the company culture.

What Is Organizational Culture?

An employer must begin with a thorough understanding of what culture is in a general sense and what their organization's specific
culture is. At the deepest level, an organization's culture is based on values derived from basic assumptions about the following:

Human nature. Are people inherently good or bad, mutable or immutable, proactive or reactive? These basic assumptions lead to
beliefs about how employees, customers and suppliers should interact and how they should be managed.

The organization's relationship to its environment. How does the organization define its business and its constituencies?

Appropriate emotions. Which emotions should people be encouraged to express, and which ones should be suppressed?

Effectiveness. What metrics show whether the organization and its individual components are doing well? An organization will be
effective only when the culture is supported by an appropriate business strategy and a structure that is appropriate for both the
business and the desired culture.
Culture is a nebulous concept and is often an undefined aspect of an organization. Although extensive academic literature exists
relating to the topic of organizational culture, there is no generally accepted definition of culture. Instead, the literature expresses
many different views as to what organizational culture is.

Organizational culture can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including leadership behaviors, communication styles, internally
distributed messages and corporate celebrations. Given that culture comprises so many elements, it is not surprising that terms for
describing specific cultures vary widely. Some commonly used terms for describing cultures include aggressive, customer-focused,
innovative, fun, ethical, research-driven, technology-driven, process-oriented, hierarchical, family-friendly and risk-taking. See 6
Ways to Become a More Empathetic Organization.

Because culture is difficult to define, organizations may have trouble maintaining consistency in their messages about culture.
Employees may also find it difficult to identify and communicate about perceived cultural inconsistencies. See Defining
Organizational Culture and Culture Conversation Starters.

Factors That Shape an Organization's Culture

Organizational leaders often speak about the unusual natures of their company cultures, seeing their domains as special places to
work. But organizations such as Disney and Nordstrom, which are well-known for their unique cultures, are rare.

Most company cultures are not that different from one another. Even organizations in disparate industries such as manufacturing and
health care tend to share a common core of cultural values. For example, most private-sector companies want to grow and increase
revenues. Most strive to be team-oriented and to demonstrate concern for others. Most are driven, rather than relaxed, because they are
competing for dollars and market share. Some of the cultural characteristics that distinguish most organizations include the following.

VALUES
At the heart of organizations' cultures are commonly shared values. None is right or wrong, but organizations need to decide which
values they will emphasize. These common values include:

Outcome orientation. Emphasizing achievements and results.

People orientation. Insisting on fairness, tolerance and respect for the individual.
Team orientation. Emphasizing and rewarding collaboration.
Attention to detail. Valuing precision and approaching situations and problems analytically.
Stability. Providing security and following a predictable course.
Innovation. Encouraging experimentation and risk-taking.
Aggressiveness. Stimulating a fiercely competitive spirit.

DEGREE OF HIERARCHY
The degree of hierarchy is the extent to which the organization values traditional channels of authority. The three distinct levels of
hierarchy are "high"—having a well-defined organizational structure and an expectation that people will work through official
channels; "moderate"—having a defined structure but an acceptance that people often work outside formal channels; and "low" —
having loosely defined job descriptions and accepting that people challenge authority.

An organization with a high level of hierarchy tends to be more formal and moves more slowly than an organization with a low level
of hierarchy.

DEGREE OF URGENCY
The degree of urgency defines how quickly the organization wants or needs to drive decision-making and innovation. Some
organizations choose their degree of urgency, but others have it thrust on them by the marketplace.

A culture with high levels of urgency has a need to push projects through quickly and a high need to respond to a changing
marketplace. A moderate level of urgency moves projects at a reasonable pace. A low level of urgency means people work slowly and
consistently, valuing quality over efficiency. An organization with high urgency tends to be fast-paced and supports a decisive
management style. An organization with low urgency tends to be more methodical and supports a more considered management style.

PEOPLE ORIENTATION OR TASK ORIENTATION

Organizations usually have a dominant way of valuing people and tasks. An organization with a strong people orientation tends to put
people first when making decisions and believes that people drive the organization's performance and productivity. An organization
with a strong task orientation tends to put tasks and processes first when making decisions and believes that efficiency and quality
drive organization performance and productivity.

Some organizations may get to choose their people and task orientations. But others may have to fit their orientation to the nature of
their industry, historical issues or operational processes.

FUNCTIONAL ORIENTATION
Every organization puts an emphasis on certain functional areas. Examples of functional orientations may include marketing,
operations, research and development, engineering or service. For example, an innovative organization known for its research and
development may have at its core a functional orientation toward R&D. A hospitality company may focus on operations or service,
depending on its historical choices and its definition in the marketplace.

Employees from different functions in the company may think that their functional areas are the ones that drive the organization.
Organizational leaders must understand what most employees perceive to be the company's functional orientation. See Building a
Customer-Centric Culture: Five Lessons Learned.

ORGANIZATIONAL SUBCULTURES
Any organization can have a mix of subcultures in addition to the dominant culture. Subcultures exist among groups or individuals
who may have their own rituals and traditions that, although not shared by the rest of the organization, can deepen and underscore the
organization's core values. Subcultures can also cause serious problems.

For example, regional cultures often differ from the overall culture that top leadership tries to instill. Perhaps aggressiveness that is
common in one area may not mesh with a culture emphasizing team building. Or an organization with a culture built around equality
may have trouble if the national culture emphasizes hierarchy and expects people to bow to authority. Employers must recognize those
differences and address them directly.

Creating and Managing Organizational Culture

An organizational culture tends to emerge over time, shaped by the organization's leadership and by actions and values perceived to
have contributed to earlier successes. A company culture can be managed through the cultural awareness of organizational leaders and
management. Managing a culture takes focused efforts to sustain elements of the culture that support organizational effectiveness. See
Addressing the Six Sources of Workplace Cultural Conflicts.

HOW CULTURE DEVELOPS

An organization's customs, traditions, rituals, behavioral norms, symbols and general way of doing things are the visible manifestation
of its culture; they are what one sees when walking into the organization. The current organizational culture is usually due to factors
that have worked well for the organization in the past. See How to Create a Culture of Civility.

Founders typically have a significant impact on an organization's early culture. Over time, behavioral norms develop that are
consistent with the organization's values. For example, in some organizations, resolution of conflicts is hashed out openly and noisily
to create widespread consensus, whereas in other places disputes are settled hierarchically and quietly behind closed doors.

Though culture emerges naturally in most organizations, strong cultures often begin with a process called "values blueprinting," which
involves a candid conversation with leaders from across the organization. Once the culture is framed, an organization may establish a
values committee that has a direct link to leadership. This group makes sure the desired culture is alive and well. For values
blueprinting to work, organizations must first hire people who live the values and have the competency needed to perform the job.

SUSTAINING A CULTURE
The management of organizational culture starts with identifying a company's organizational culture traits or "artifacts." Artifacts are
the core business activities, processes and philosophies that characterize how an organization does business day-to-day.

Identifying these traits—and assessing their importance in light of current business objectives—is a way to start managing culture.
Three broad concepts help identify the traits specific to a culture:

Social culture. This refers to group members' roles and responsibilities. It is the study of class distinctions and the distribution of
power that exists in any group.
Material culture. This involves examining everything that people in a group make or achieve and the ways people work with and
support one another in exchanging required goods and services.
Ideological culture. This is tied to a group's values, beliefs and ideals—the things people view as fundamental. It includes the
emotional and intellectual guidelines that govern people's daily existence and interactions.
Leaders and managers within an organization should approach culture management by initially gaining an understanding of the
common traits found in all businesses. Then, they should take the following steps to manage their organization's culture:

Identify common artifacts or traits, including those from the standpoint of an organization's social, material and ideological culture.

Convene groups of employees—representatives from all levels, functions and locations of the organization—to assess the validity,
significance and currency of key artifacts.
Subject those traits to a rigorous assessment of their underlying shared assumptions, values and beliefs.
Summarize findings and share them with all participants to solicit additional insights.
Create a culture management action plan. The plan should enhance traits that support corporate growth or organizational effectiveness
and correct traits that might hinder a company's advancement.
Typically, shared assumptions and beliefs originate with an organization's founders and leaders. Because those beliefs proved
successful (otherwise the company would not exist and the leaders would not be in their positions), often they go unchallenged;
however, those assumptions and beliefs might be outdated and may hinder future success. See 6 Steps for Building an Inclusive
Workplace and The Relationship Between Culture and DE&I.

Practices to Develop Culture

When an organization does a good job assessing its culture, it can then go on to establish policies, programs and strategies that support
and strengthen its core purpose and values. In aligned organizations, the same core characteristics or beliefs motivate and unite
everyone, cascading down from the C-suite to individual contributors.

There are many tools for developing and sustaining a high-performance organizational culture, including hiring practices, onboarding
efforts, recognition programs and performance management programs. The biggest challenge is deciding how to use these tools and
how to allocate resources appropriately.

HIRING PRACTICES
Effective hiring practices can help an organization capitalize on its culture. Traditionally, hiring focuses primarily on an applicant's
skills, but when a hire's personality also fits with the organization's culture, the employee will be more likely to deliver superior
performance.

On the other hand, ill-fitting hires and subsequent rapid departures cost approximately 50 percent to 150 percent of the position's
annual salary. Unfortunately, nearly one in three newly hired employees' leaves voluntarily or involuntarily within a year of hiring,
and this number has been increasing steadily in recent years.

Some hiring practices to ensure cultural fit include these:

Looking at each piece of the organization's vision, mission and values statements. Interview questions should hone in on behaviors
that complement these areas. For example, if the organization works with a lot of intensity, then job applicants should display that
natural intensity to be considered for hire.
Conducting a cultural fit interview. Ask questions that elicit comments about organizational values such as honesty or integrity. If a
candidate's description of the worst place he or she ever worked sounds just like the organization where he or she is interviewing, the
candidate probably will not be successful.
Leaving discussion of company culture for later. Do not tell candidates about culture up front. First, listen to what they have to say
about their experiences and beliefs. This tactic will reveal more candid responses to help determine whether they are a fit for the
organization.
Making sure at least three people are involved in the hiring process. Different people will see and hear different things. These varied
perspectives give a clearer understanding of the person being considered for hire.
Searching for employees who will fit in seamlessly can have drawbacks. The biggest mistake an organization can make is to paint an
inaccurate picture of itself as it tries to attract candidates. If new hires discover they have been sold a bill of goods, they will not be
happy; they will probably not stick around, and, while they are around, morale will decline.

Another possible drawback is that people are more reluctant to take negative actions against people like themselves. As a result,
mediocre workers are more likely to stay employed if they share the cultural values. Similarly, although an organization's comfort
level is palpable when the culture is aligned, experts say, too much comfort can result in groupthink and complacency.

ONBOARDING PROGRAMS
Onboarding teaches newcomers the employer's value system, norms and desired organizational behaviors. Employers must help
newcomers become part of social networks in the organization and make sure that they have early job experiences that reinforce the
culture. See Understanding Employee Onboarding.

REWARD AND RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

These programs are key mechanisms employers can use to motivate employees to act in accordance with the organization's culture and
values. For example, if teamwork is a core value, bonuses should value teamwork and not be based on individual performance.
Employers should also put the spotlight on those who personify the company's values. See Employee Recognition Tech Must Align
with Company Culture.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Employees who share values and aspirations tend to outperform those in environments that lack cohesiveness and common purposes.
Performance management programs can greatly affect corporate culture by clearly outlining what is expected from employees as well
as by providing a feedback tool that informs employees about proper behavior. See Performance Management That Makes a
Difference: An Evidence-Based Approach.

Communications

Conflicting messages regarding corporate culture may create distrust and cynicism, which can prompt, or help employees justify,
actions as deleterious as embezzlement. Experts say that cultural inconsistencies may also cause workers to grow discouraged, to
believe management is disingenuous, to doubt statements from higher-ups and to be less inclined to give their best effort.

Organizations may be investing significant time and money in creating a culture but may not be reaping the commensurate rewards—
especially if executives, supervisors and rank-and-file employees have differing perceptions of the company's culture. Employers must
therefore ensure that the organization clearly and consistently communicates its culture to all employees. See HR's Role in Creating a
Culture of High Trust: Q&A with Richard Fagerlin.

Metrics

Assessing organizational culture is a crucial step in developing sound strategies that support enterprise objectives and goals. But how
do you measure something as potentially tough to describe as culture? After identifying the key dimensions of culture such as values,
degree of hierarchy, and people and task orientations, performing these next steps will help organizations assess culture:

Develop a cultural assessment instrument. This instrument should enable members of the organization to rate the organization on the
key cultural dimensions, as well as on aspects of the organization not covered on the assessment.

Administer the assessment. Survey respondents should include individuals at all levels, functions, divisions and geographical units of
the organization.

Analyze and communicate about assessment results. Leaders and managers should discuss areas of agreement and disagreement about
the organization's culture.
Conduct employee focus groups. Just because top management leaders agree on organizational culture does not mean that all
employees see things that way.
Discuss culture until consensus forms around key issues. Focus on "Who are we?" and "What makes us who we are?" Organizations
that decide that where they are now is not where they want to be may need to look at moving the organization to embrace a different
culture.
Cultural assessments, and other activities such as cultural audits and 360-degree feedback, may also help uncover cultural
inconsistencies. Then leaders can eliminate the inconsistencies. For example, if customer service is a focus of the company's culture,
evaluate how much time employees spend visiting customer sites, how much interaction they have with customers, what customer
service training they receive and other indicators of a customer service focus. See The New Analytics of Workplace Culture and
Building a Data-Driven Culture Health Index.

Legal Issues

Employers that emphasize cultural fit in their recruitment and selection process can be vulnerable to discrimination claims if they are
not careful. Employers should ensure that hiring practices and selection decisions based on a cultural fit rationale do not result in
discriminating against any applicants who may not be "just like" the selectors.

Employers should also be aware that certain types of organizational cultures (for example, cultures that are highly paternalistic or
male-dominated) may tend to perpetuate disparities in promotions, compensation and other terms of employment. Those disparities
may violate anti-discrimination laws. See In Focus: Latest Lawsuits Shine Light on Racist, Sexist Workplace Cultures and Address the
Small Infractions to Create an Inclusive Culture.

Global Issues

Research suggests that national culture has a greater effect on employees than the culture of their organization. Organizational leaders
should understand the national cultural values in the countries in which the organization operates to ensure that management and
company practices are appropriate and will be effective in operations in those countries. National cultural differences should be
considered when implementing organizational culture management initiatives in global businesses.

Managers must be able to respond to nuances in communication styles, as well as deal with different expectations that employees have
of their leaders across national cultures. Not meeting those expectations may doom the global organization's chance for success in
particular countries.

These issues become even more complex in global business mergers. Success in international mergers depends on the merged
organization's willingness to enable people with different cultural perspectives to engage in meaningful and valuable discussions about
the new business.

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/understandinganddevelopingorganizationalculture.aspx

Organizational culture is the primary factor for determining how well an organization executes on every other aspect of
organizational performance. It is also the most important competitive advantage an organization can have because it’s what makes an
organization unique.

But developing a strong culture is just the first step of the process. To maintain a winning culture that helps employees thrive requires
effective management, not just of employees and strategy, but the culture itself.

Culture can be difficult for some leaders to establish, but it has a much greater impact on the organization’s results than strategy.
Though many leaders recognize the importance of developing a strong culture to the health of their organization, they can find the
long-term management of a sustainable, caring culture that engages employees a daunting task.

Core values are the building blocks of a strong organizational culture. When leaders effectively operationalize culture management by
authentically reinforcing core values with employees and “walking the talk” (as the saying goes), they see improvements at every level
of the organization.

A well-managed organizational culture can make business strategies more successful, boost employee engagement and retention, and
help the organization better serve customers.
Below are 11 essential steps that will help you operationalize core values to manage your organization’s culture.

Step 1: Refine and Reinforce Your Organization’s Mission and Vision

The key to getting employees to buy in and be conservators of your organization’s culture is to clearly define, regularly refine, and
continually reinforce the organization’s mission and vision.

The mission and vision serve as the foundation for the core values you will develop as a framework for culture. When employees
understand the mission and the individual roles they play in helping to achieve the organization’s vision, it gives the work they do
more purpose, which, in turn, will keep them engaged and motivated.

When interwoven with all aspects of a company’s strategy, including policies, procedures, benefits, and perks, culture will reflect an
awareness of employee needs and connect the dots between organizational core values and the work employees do.

Step 2: Consistently Model Core Values

A leader’s perceptions and values play a significant role in defining and developing organizational culture. Because of this, strong
leadership is key to managing organizational culture and continuously reinforcing those core values with employees.

Since organizational culture is embedded in unspoken behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns, it is important to guide employees
toward the behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns that you want to see more of in your organization through modeling core values.

Culture should not only develop in an authentic way, but it must be managed in an authentic way to produce long-term positive
results. Therefore, it is important for leaders to continually set the tone for the culture they want in their organization by demonstrating
their dedication to the values the culture is built on.

When senior leadership demonstrates dedication to core values by modeling behaviors that align with these values, it guides
employees toward similar behaviors. That dedication should be strong and observable by employees daily—whether in meetings,
emails, or one-to-one meetings.

Setting an example for employees to follow and reinforcing core values regularly will keep employees always mindful of culture and
how their behaviors align with the organization’s culture.

Step 3: Set Clear, Attainable, and Measurable Goals

When setting goals for the organization, consider the individual roles your team members will play in achieving those goals and
provide guidance in helping them set their own goals.

Setting clear, measurable goals that are aligned with core values and fostering accountability helps employees perform at a higher
level, better manage their workloads, and helps them identify where they need to make improvements.

Goal-setting also helps employees gain a better understanding of the important role they play in the organization and how essential
their jobs are to helping the organization realize its vision. This is another way to reinforce culture with teams while also boosting
performance.

We recently sat down with author Stacey Barr and discussed the value of utilizing effective measurement and measuring actions, not
people.

Barr pointed out ways in which goals and measures can positively impact culture, saying “Wherever we can encourage people to
create their own measures that are aligned with the goals of the organization, we can positively change the company culture.”

Step 4: Demonstrate Care for Employees

The most important aspect of culture is the level of care it consistently demonstrates for employees.

When leaders take care of employees, they feel more valued and are able to perform better. Ensuring employee well-being is a part of
your culture is essential to their success.

Understanding employees’ changing needs, especially during this era of constant change, and being aware of their need for a work-life
balance that supports their mental and physical health is so important.

According to author Linda Holbeche, “Managers need to be able to show empathy and provide the kind of support that people might
need. Not everybody, not all the time, but to understand what each person needs.”

As we’ve mentioned before, the most important part of a strong company culture is having a senior management team that truly cares
about employees and understands their needs.

Senior leadership should consistently demonstrate that care since all other aspects of company culture are improved when
organizations put people first.

Step 5: Deal Swiftly with Toxic Situations

Despite our best efforts to avoid them, toxic situations can arise and can adversely impact employee engagement, performance, and
well-being.
Top leadership can ensure organizational culture stays true to a company’s mission, vision, and values by addressing toxic situations
as soon as they arise so they don’t impact morale or cause irreparable damage to the positive culture leaders and their teams have
worked to create.

Toxic situations can involve harassment, microaggressions, unequal treatment of staff members, or behaviors from senior management
that devalue employees and make them feel expendable. These issues can do significant damage to organizational culture.

When not managed properly, a company’s culture can make it less adaptable to change, and it can alienate employees.

To weather the future, it is essential for leaders to nurture the development of a culture that consistently demonstrates to employees
that they are valued and vital to the success of the organization.

Step 6: Give Feedback Regularly

Feedback is essential to maintaining a high-performing team of engaged employees and is a great way to reinforce cultural values.

Whether your feedback is praise for the accomplishments of an employee or a constructive critique of their performance, employees
need feedback.

In a feedback-rich culture, employees receive regular, helpful feedback from direct supervisors. In turn, they are empowered and
encouraged to provide meaningful feedback to co-workers and leadership.

This can keep a healthy culture on track or help leaders see where improvements can be made.

While all forms of feedback are important for managing organizational culture, recognition is particularly important because it meets a
core human need for both the employee and the manager.

Meeting this need is a key aspect of a strong company culture and is essential to the successful management of organizational culture
because it increases job satisfaction, employee engagement and retention, and quality of work.

Step 7: Maintain Alignment Between Philosophy and Practice

Leaders should constantly fine-tune culture. This means providing what employees need to succeed but also addressing
inconsistencies between cultural philosophy and daily practice that could create a less-than-engaging environment for employees.

It is your job as a leader to ensure you provide the ideal working conditions for employees to thrive. But it is also leadership’s role to
identify and eliminate inconsistencies between cultural philosophy and daily practice that could create a toxic environment for
employees.

Policies and procedures should be revisited regularly to ensure there is alignment between the systems that have been implemented
and core values.

An organization that doesn’t have a culture that authentically demonstrates core values by putting those values into practice on a daily
basis will see high turnover rates, lack of employee engagement, actively disengaged employees, and poor performance.

These kinds of inconsistencies can lead to a work environment that is toxic and undermines any efforts of senior leadership to
maintain a people-focused culture.

Step 8: Offer Learning and Development Opportunities

According to a recent survey, 80% of CEOs cite the need for new skills as their biggest business challenge.

New research has also shown that the second most important factor in workplace happiness for employees is the opportunity for
development.

Because learning is essential for employees to develop new skills and find fulfillment in their work, companies that offer learning and
development opportunities to their employees are laying the groundwork for long-term success with a team of engaged employees
who do their jobs well and have cultural buy-in.

Learning is a particularly important element of a sustainable business culture because it positively impacts strategy, innovation,
employee engagement, employee retention, and many other elements of an organization.

Whether it’s through onsite training, online courses, or just re-examining current processes and past mistakes in an effort to reinforce a
continuous improvement mindset informed by core values, the value of providing these unique learning opportunities for employees to
grow and develop is immeasurable.

Step 9: Build Trust

In order to keep culture always fresh on the minds of employees, trust in leadership is a necessity.

Modeling core values, demonstrating care for employees, offering them flexibility and autonomy when possible, and providing regular
feedback are all ways leaders can build and maintain trusting relationships with employees.

To build trust with employees requires leaders to embrace conflict and crisis, rather than punishing dissent or burying conflict.

Marissa Levin, founder and CEO of Successful Culture says, “The organizations with the highest trust recognize that asking for help is
a two-way street. The most emotionally connected leaders let their employees know that they need their help to build the best
organizations possible.”
When employees trust leadership, they trust the organization’s culture to provide a satisfying and harmonious work environment for
them. Leaders who continually work on trust-building are ensuring a strong organizational culture that will keep employees engaged.

Step 10: Coaching and Mentoring

Employees can benefit greatly from coaching and mentoring. It can help them improve their performance, and it helps to reinforce
core values.

When you reinforce core values through coaching, you reinforce culture by continually showing that you are invested in guiding
employees in their behaviors, recognizing them for their contributions, and suggesting areas for improvement.

This level of attention to an employee’s professional development makes them feel like a valued member of the team, engages them in
their work, and helps them see the impact they are making within the organization.

Through coaching, leaders support and help employees understand the why and how of an organization, which helps reinforce culture
and improve core value alignment. Coaching heightens employee awareness and has a tremendous impact on employees’ sense of
belonging.

Step 11: Make Inclusion a Priority

You may see the words “inclusion” and “diversity” used interchangeably, but, as a Gallup article on the subject points out, they are
not the same thing.

According to the article, inclusion refers to a cultural and environmental feeling of belonging: “Inclusion has to be understood as very
different from diversity because simply having a wide roster of demographic characteristics won’t make a difference to an
organization’s bottom line unless the people who fall into any one demographic feel welcomed.”

Inclusion can be defined as the extent to which employees feel accepted, respected, and valued. It can also help gauge the extent to
which employees feel encouraged to fully participate in the organization.

As it turns out, inclusion is extremely important to many workers just entering the workforce. According to a recent article in Big
Think, an organization’s commitment to inclusion and diversity is important to 83% of Gen Z job seekers.

Part of culture management is ensuring your organization’s culture fosters an inclusive work environment in which employees feel
appreciated for their unique traits and skills and comfortable showing up every day as their authentic selves.

An important, but often overlooked, aspect of culture management is regularly re-evaluating seemingly innocuous practices embedded
in a company’s culture that could potentially make employees feel less welcome.

Employees who feel a sense of belonging in the organization will experience more alignment between their values and the
organization’s core values.

Managing Organizational Culture Takes a Team Effort

Frances Hesselbein once said, “A single person doesn’t change an organization, but culture and good people do.”

An organization will experience many changes, but staying true to the culture and core values that have guided it toward success can
create change that will not only positively impact employees, but can also create a ripple effect of positive change in society.

In managing organizational culture, leaders will find that their employees are their greatest assets and greatest allies.

As with organizational culture development, managing organizational culture starts with strong leadership that provides the
framework for an authentic, caring culture to flourish—and continues to grow organically from the bottom up.

When managed well, a strong organizational culture will keep employees united with a shared sense of purpose that motivates them
and gives meaning to their work.

This is why culture management isn’t just the responsibility of leadership; it is the responsibility of every team member in the
organization. When well-managed and reinforced often, employees will ensure that the organization stays true to its mission, vision,
and values.

https://businessleadershiptoday.com/how-do-you-manage-organizational-culture/