Positive Organisational Culture

On the 6 April 2008, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force throughout the UK and with it came a refreshingly re-modelled view of the benefits and value of developing and nurturing a positive culture within an organisation. One of the essential elements of the offence is that there was a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased. In other words, once a relevant duty of care has been established any breach must fall far below what could reasonably be expected of the organisation in the circumstances. Section 8 of the Act sets out factors for the jury which must consider whether health and safety legislation was breached, and if so, how serious the breach was and how much of a risk of death it posed. The breach which causes the death, in any event, must be directly attributable to the senior management failure. The Act goes on to say that the jury may also consider the attitudes, policies, systems or accepted practices of the organisation, that were likely to have encouraged the breach or produced a tolerance of it. In this context it would therefore appear that the culture of an organisation may be considered by the jury, if the culture encouraged the breach or contributed to the safety failure, giving rise to the gross breach of a relevant duty of care. In this respect there has never been a more apt time for organisations’ to consider what type of culture exists within their working environment.

So what is really meant by a 'Positive Organisational Culture' and where does an organisation start when assessing their base-line culture, before developing and nurturing a culture that has real value to the business?

Organisational culture performs a number of functions including defining organisational boundaries, conveying a sense of identity to organisational members, encouraging commitment to the larger entity and enhancing stability. While there are many definitions of corporate culture, it is generally recognised to comprise the attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and customs of an organisation. Culture determines how fully people take ownership for the success of the business. In an unhealthy culture you find decision-paralysis, poor accountability, blame shifting and hiding mistakes, use of fear to motivate, and an insular attitude of "we know better than our customers". Lost productivity, sickness and absence costs, litigation costs and administrative costs, for example, adjusting staff rotas to cover for absent employees, filling in statutory forms, are all, also factors that can create a negative organisational culture that can cause significant cost to the business.

A positive culture has a very different feeling. The business regularly meets its targets, work is purposeful and focused, there is pride and energy, and people have a sincere positive connection with the customer. Employees tend to know what is expected of them and are capable of delivery, communication is open and transparent and the work burden is shared and discussed freely. A psychologically healthy workplace fosters employee health and well-being while enhancing organisational performance, thereby benefiting both employees and the organisation.

There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to creating a positive culture within the workplace. Success is based, in part, on addressing the challenges unique to the particular organisation and tailoring programs and policies to meet the specific needs. Key to the success of any workplace program or policy that serves as the foundation for a healthy workplace culture is a focus on the following six elements:

• Control
• Cooperation and Consultation
• Communication
• Competence
• Coordination
• Checking, Monitoring and Feedback

Control

In healthy organisations a culture of empowerment exists and meetings are focussed mainly on problem solving and decision making at the lowest possible levels. In healthy cultures empowerment happens through using meetings and other interactions to teach people to make quality decisions and to have more discretion in determining how they fulfil the requirements of their job. Employees will be clear about their job roles and responsibilities and any changes will be mutually agreed and communicated clearly.

Cooperation and Consultation

In healthy cultures team spirit is strong and employees support and trust each other. This usually is as a result of the organisation collaborating and consulting with employees to enhance the level of engagement, cooperation and team work. Teams need to cooperate well and support one another. This can only happen if there is a common understanding of the purpose and value of each team role, and teams need to understand the repercussions of not cooperating or delivering a quality service to each other. The best work environments are often those in which there are a lot of real, genuine friendships. Some people would argue that there is no place for friendships at work as it is a serious business, but this argument has its own short-comings. Human Beings are most productive when they cooperate, when they combine their efforts, and when there is no need to waste time watching their backs. Friendship is the gateway to trust and the more trust there is in an organisation, the more productive the work environment will be.

Communication

Communication also plays a key role in the success of any workplace program or policy and serves as the foundation for psychologically healthy workplace practices. Communication should be frequent and timely and should allow employees to raise concerns in a non-threatening or adversarial way. Organisations that have positive working cultures are able to demonstrate evidence of the following practices:

• Praise, thanks and recognition being the norm
• Open door policy / Accessibility – 2 way dialogue between managers and team members which is necessary to achieve buy in from team members and to establish loyalty and commitment
• Regular Staff Opinion surveys with results published and visibly acted upon
• Sufficient, appropriate and accurate information flowing across the organisation using a variety of communication vehicles to ensure messages reach all categories of staff
• Information prioritisation, to allow employees to clearly differentiate between essential and non-essential information

Coordination

To promote a strong culture an organisation needs to be cohesive in its approach and needs to ensure that all employees work towards common goals for the overall success of the business. In order to do this organisations need to move away froman over-reliance on bureaucratic and disjointed systems and processes and adopt processes that are more successful in engaging employees and that promote shared accountability and team working.

Policies, procedures and "Best Practice" arrangements should be document managed and subject to audits across the organisation to ensure consistency of approach.

Checking, Monitoring and Feedback

Healthy organisations actively promote the need for teams and individuals to continuously evaluate what is working and what is not. In order to do this it is essential to ensure that organisation wide systems and a common language for giving feedback is established as people do not naturally and easily give useful feedback. In a healthy culture leaders build the skill and expectation into the culture. When people have experienced the benefits they stop being afraid of it.