What is Culture? 

By Tracie Shepherd 

HR professionals are often tasked with driving or changing organizational culture. While culture is not the sole responsibility of HR, we can play a very pivotal role in shaping a positive and healthy organizational culture. A great HR department will be proactive in promoting the factors that can be the basis for shaping the culture.

Before we look at these factors, let’s define culture. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, culture is “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organizational corporate culture focused on the bottom line.” Does the organizational culture affect the bottom line? If the culture is “good,” will we make a profit? If it’s “bad,” are we going to lose money?

Why does Culture Matter?

I’ve worked at several organizations where the culture is excellent, and also at organizations where it was not that great. Culture helps individuals find purpose in their work. Research has shown that employees who connect with the company culture have higher performance levels. Furthermore, younger workers have an increasingly higher expectation of a healthy corporate culture. 

Not only does a strong culture help with employee satisfaction, productivity and retention, it can also help an organization differentiate itself in the marketplace. Let’s look at some examples of companies whose culture is closely associated with their brand.

Examples of Culture

Numerous studies on organizational culture have let us see that a “good” culture can help an organization succeed and make money. According to Unemsh Lamture of Corporate Culture (2022), examples of good organizational culture include:

• Disney – Disney takes pride in its roots, what it does for people, how it makes people feel, and fostering creativity and growth. 
• Nike – Nike has many great rewards and a pretty pumped-up work environment. 
• Google – Google is the pioneer of great workplaces, giving employees sleep pods, free food, promoting casual attire, amazing gyms, and even allowing pets at the workplace. 

What makes these organizations truly amazing is their focus on openness. They encourage employees to always be open with each other. They also focus on peer coaching, encouraging employees to learn from and help each other.

A “bad” culture can affect the bottom line. A few indicators of a bad culture include: 

• High turnover
• Unethical behavior 
• Poor management
• Harassment
• Discrimination

When an organization experiences a bad culture, employees disengage and may look for other employment. Trust is lost and can be exceedingly difficult to regain. An organization can get a bad reputation, which can affect customers and employees.

Curating Culture – Formulation

It’s important to learn how the HR department can most effectively work with leaders and employees to craft the desired culture of an organization and ensure best practices for strategic HR to align with mission, vision and goals.

The first step in the curation of culture is to evaluate the current culture. An organization needs a clearly defined mission and set of values as the foundation of the cultural goals. Once it has defined this foundation, the next step is to determine what it wants the culture to be. It’s important to note that many organizations have a stated desired culture, but the expected outcomes don’t support the development of this culture. 

Once the current and desired cultures are understood, they can be compared to see where gaps exist. Leadership should then put together a plan that should not only include how they will communicate these values and the behaviors needed to live them, but also a plan for measuring progress. Benchmarks and key indicators of success need to be defined so that leaders and employees understand what is expected. 

Every level needs to buy-in to cultural beliefs. This requires intentional effort by leaders. It’s critical to seek input from all levels of leadership regarding what success in their departments will look like, what the benchmarks will be, etc. The primary influence on an employee’s experience is their direct leader. Employees who perceive that their direct leaders don’t agree with a new practice are less likely to adopt it themselves. 

Curating Culture – Implementation

It’s important to realize that everything leadership does impacts culture. The tone of an email, the formality of a meeting, even casual conversations between leaders and subordinates will impact the culture. For example, if an organization wants to create an innovative culture where it’s encouraged to take risks, meetings should highlight not only obvious successes, but lessons learned when endeavors fail. 

Storytelling can be an important way to develop culture. Individuals relate to stories as they identify with the individuals, experiences and emotions in the story. Storytelling has the potential to have a strong impact on attitude. 

Reinforcement is critical during the implementation phase. Employees who exemplify a corporate value should be reinforced and celebrated. Telling the story (via email, in meetings, etc.) of how a successful project benefitted individuals in the organization or made a positive difference for the customer would help individuals connect emotionally to the demonstrated value. 

Curating Culture – Evaluation

In order to successfully transform culture, organizations must be constantly mindful of progress. It’s essential to develop metrics appropriate to the goals. For example, if the organization has a goal of developing a culture where every voice is heard and valued, they could measure this through employee surveys. If an organization has a goal of cross-departmental partnerships, they could have a target for three projects in the next fiscal year.

Companies should not become overly concerned if the desired changes don’t occur immediately. Gallup research has indicated that companies start to see significant progress after three years. Cultural shifts are often like turning a cruise ship and rarely like turning a speed boat. 

Curating Culture – Continuation

The curation of culture is a never-ending endeavor. Once an organization neglects intentionality, the culture is likely to head in a different direction. The constant evaluation of culture for gaps and the development of new strategies will help an organization stay on their chosen path.