Culture is one of the essential building blocks for a thriving organization. The culture consists of shared beliefs and behaviour. An organization needs to change to accommodate new people, ideas, and technologies to be productive.

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 traits that make your company what it is.

To understand organizational culture, let’s do a reality check.

Considering the current reality of your own company, could you answer these questions for yourself?

Does your organization embody its mission?

• If you asked ten or n employees about your organization’s mission, would you get ten similar responses or ten different ones?
• Is your organization people-oriented or task-oriented?

To further assess this, consider the following question:

• Does your organization’s orientation make sense, considering your industry and mission?

Is your company collaborative or competitive?

• Would your organization benefit more from the collaboration between team members or competition between team members?

What does leadership look like in your company?

For this part of your organizational culture assessment, you could ask the following questions:

• Do managers lead by example?
• Do they delegate tasks efficiently?
• Are there any power struggles within the leadership team?
• Is there a positive dynamic between leaders and their teams?
• Are there any organizational subcultures?
• Do different leaders have different cultures under one roof?
• How is failure addressed?
• Is failure viewed as an opportunity to strengthen bonds within the organization and as a lesson to learn from and grow?
• Or do moments of failure divide the organization and lower morale?
• What motivates employees?
• Are your employees motivated intrinsically? Are they working because they find satisfaction and fulfilment from within?
• If they are motivated extrinsically, do they work for external rewards (recognition, benefits, etc.)?

After analyzing the questions mentioned above, you must wonder what is right and what is the wrong form of culture. So I would like to give you a bigger perspective.

Today, if you visualize what your organization should look like, do you see the above analysis in line with the same? If yes, then that’s the culture working for you. If not, then your cultural pillars need to be stronger.

There are ways to set up a more robust and healthier work culture. Let’s get in touch if you want to dive deep into understanding your organization’s culture.