Organization Culture - II (Healthy Organizational Culture)

Link to the Previous Post : Organization Culture

In this post I am going to discuss the trademarks of a healthy organizational culture in comparison with the unhealthy ones. As I had earlier explained that there can be so many types of Organization Culture but we need to identify healthy/Good one from the unhealthy/Bad ones. 

We just can’t leave the discussion after categorizing the Organization Cultures as weak and strong, soft and hard or formal and informal as all have some advantages and disadvantages for e.g. as stated a strong culture has very hard lined processes and it acts as a drawback sometimes as it may be difficult for a new incumbent to adapt to this culture easily and such cultures are generally abstain from goodies in form of changes.

Hence, Organizations should strive for what is considered a “healthy” organizational culture in order to increase productivity, growth, efficiency and reduce employee turnover and other counterproductive behavior. On a broader prospect the following characteristics describe a healthy culture, including:

• Acceptance and appreciation for diversity
•  Regard for and fair treatment of each employee as well as respect for each employee’s contribution to the company
• Employee pride and enthusiasm for the organization and the work performed
• Equal opportunity for each employee to realize their full potential within the company
• Strong communication with all employees regarding policies and company issues
• Strong company leaders with a strong sense of direction and purpose
• Ability to compete in industry innovation and customer service, as well as price
• Lower than average turnover rates (perpetuated by a healthy culture)
• Investment in learning, training, and employee knowledge

Additionally, performance oriented cultures have been shown to possess statistically better financial growth. Such cultures possess high employee involvement, strong internal communications and an acceptance and encouragement of a healthy level of risk-taking in order to achieve innovation. Additionally, organizational cultures that explicitly emphasize factors related to the demands placed on them by industry technology and growth will be better performers in their industries.

According to Kotter and Heskett (1992), organizations with adaptive cultures perform much better than organizations with unadaptive cultures. An adaptive culture translates into organizational success; it is characterized by managers paying close attention to all of their constituencies, especially customers, initiating change when needed, and taking risks. An unadaptive culture can significantly reduce a firm's effectiveness, disabling the firm from pursuing all its competitive/operational options.

What is a healthy organizational culture? A healthy organizational culture is one which should help all the supervisors and employees of the company to be on the same page as those in charge. A good organizational culture is of benefit to every member of the company from the very top to the very bottom. If any group of workers feels marginalized, then the culture can be improved. A good organizational culture has the ability to maximize employees' creative ideas and strategies. There are certain behaviors that can undercut this type of a culture, and one way to get an idea of a healthy culture is to look at some of the common traits of an unhealthy culture. Some of the most common traits of a weak and ineffective organizational culture are: ·         Process is more importance than purpose. When supervisors are more concerned about doing x number of say lines of programming, or phone calls, versus how good the programming is or how effective the phone calls were, this is one example. Think of that English teacher who gave a six page essay an 'A' even if it didn't make any sense while a well thought out three page essay got a 'C' because it wasn't long enough. Same concept. ·         Authority is more important than service. Any time people in power positions feel that it is necessary for them to constantly exercise that power by riding the people under them, it is assumed that it’s their exercise of authority that makes them work or deliver. It's only a matter of time until the system collapses. ·         Form is more important than reality. Remember the recent global market collapse? Well people kept buying stock when a company talked about "new strategy to corner the market" but they never showed a profit in three years. What happened? They went broke. No fancy marketing plans can pull you out of that. Companies keep on saying that we are in a control of the situation while pieces are crumbling around. ·         Precedence is more important than adaptability. This often happens with really large companies and is always a warning sign. See IBM's fall from goliath, to another company, and how Microsoft took their place by being the most adaptable company out there. In contrast to this, a healthy organizational culture has several trademarks. Some of the most common include the following: ·         Clearly defined purpose. A company with a good organizational culture knows exactly what its goals are and what each employee's job entitles in order to get there. ·         Service. Service not only to customers, but a sense of service from each employee to the company itself. They should want to work for the company and want to see the company succeed. ·         Realistic. They know when they can expand, and when they can't. They can look at numbers and instead of giving a glowing report when it looks like recession to keep the stock up, they can analyze and see that hard times are coming and adjust accordingly. ·         Adaptability. Companies with healthy organizational cultures are very adaptable. They can roll with good and bad markets, seize an advantage/opportunity when one comes along, and can deal quickly with the unexpected. These are all the signs of a strong company with a healthy organizational culture. There are many different ways to measure a company's organizational culture. There are exceptional corporate cultures, as well as disastrously bad ones, and obviously most companies are going to fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. There are many characteristics that make up a healthy corporation, and here is a ten point list of some of the most common factors that will be found in virtually all healthy organizational cultures: Organizational pride. Employees who are embarrassed to mention where they work are obviously not in a good environment. Employees who work for a company that they are will defend against slander, libel, or just plain criticism are a good sign of a company doing something right with their culture. Ambition towards being better. The difference between ambition for the sake of power or respect and ambition to keep improving for the sake of improving is the difference between night and day. Strong company culture focuses on improving and getting better at every level. Obvious teamwork and communication. The more open discussion there is, the more open exchange of ideas, the more competitive and cutting edge that company is capable of becoming. Period, end of statement. Quality leadership. This isn't just at the very top. A brilliant CEO can have his greatest plans destroyed by a few low level managers who alienate employees and can't lead by example. Good managers are really interested in the problems that others are having, and are happy to offer help when asked. Constant review of profits and costs. It is not written in GEETA that it can be reviewed from year to year. All financial records are studied, and especially expenses. Are expenses justified? Are they really effective in making the company stronger and more profitable? If not, they look for alternatives. Employee relationships. A cut throat environment does not bring out the best in a company. The corporations with employees who work together is far more likely to succeed than a company where it's every man for themselves. Are employees willing to sacrifice their co-workers and advance themselves over other people's blunders, or do they aim for promotion through improvement? Huge difference. The team players will help a company out far more in the long run. Client and consumer relations. The customer is always right. As annoying as this can be at times, the company that takes customer service as their true motto and keeps that focus will succeed and create great organizational culture. Honesty and safety. No one should ever be asked to do anything unsafe or blatantly dangerous. Likewise, there are no five finger discounts from employees: they don't even think about stealing from an employer who is treating them so well. Education and developmental programs. The company is heavily invested in training its employees and providing whatever education is necessary for them to succeed. Cutting edge thinking. Companies with healthy organizational culture are innovative and can think outside of common trends to move ahead of the pack. New ideas are always considered, and employee participation in brain storming is encouraged. These are ten of the most common traits you will find among the companies with the healthiest organizational culture. A recent example of the effect of change in the Organization Culture was the news of the job market flooded with the Resumes of Senior Executives of Wipro after the change in the Top Leadership.