Organizational culture is one of the most important aspects of company success to consider when growing your company. It can be a powerful tool for growth and achievement but must be handled correctly.
Moreover, it can be tricky to get right, but there are some actions you can take to quickly establish an organizational culture that will help sustain growth over time.
In this blog post, we’ll be discussing how to best use organizational culture theory for company growth and much more.
What is Organizational Culture?
Organizational culture is defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, and beliefs that characterize an organization. It is the way a group of people experience and understand their environment.
This shared understanding determines how everyone in the organization responds to movements in the company, which is why it is so important. If you can get the organizational culture to suit your company’s unique needs, your chances of growing successfully over time increase exponentially.
How Does an Organization’s Culture Affect Growth?
The culture within the workplace has been found to have significant effects on overall company success and growth. It has a direct connection to the company’s ability to innovate and problem-solve.
Studies have shown that high-performing organizations have more open cultures and provide opportunities for innovation. This is mainly due to the value of taking risks for companies to grow.
Moreover, having a positive foundation of trust between employees and leadership within a strong organizational culture demonstrates the power of having everyone work together towards common goals. The result of this group efficiency is usually an increase in productivity, which can lead to great company success.
Benefits of a Good Organizational Culture
There are several other ways in which organizational culture theory can benefit companies:
It Helps Build Trust and Respect Among Employees
Trust can be built when an organization’s culture supports everyone’s ideas, even if they are different from the status quo. It will help employees feel safe to voice their opinions without fear of being judged or ridiculed. As well, it can encourage creativity and innovation.
A Good Organizational Culture Can Attract New Talent
If individuals with talent see that your company has a strong corporate culture, they will be more likely to join your team. It can help you attract the best employees who align with your culture’s values and keep them in your company longer.
It Creates an Environment Where Employees Feel Comfortable Taking Risks
In order for companies to grow and improve internally, all team members need to take chances. It can help employees feel more comfortable taking risks and progress by working on new ideas. It is crucial that they feel they can be successful doing this and will not get in trouble for trying.
It Increases Productivity
When employees feel good about the culture in a company, they are more likely to work harder and increase their productivity. It can help create better relationships among co-workers, making it easier for them to get things done together.
It Encourages Innovation and Creativity
In order to stay competitive in your industry, you must continue to innovate and create new products. It can help promote a company culture when employees feel free to experiment with ideas for improving the business.
Moreover, when companies are transparent with their goals, employees can better understand their company’s vision. They’ll be able to view problems from different angles.
Viewing the problems from different angles allows employees to develop creative solutions that can help them achieve success for themselves and their team members. With a clear path laid out in front of them, it will be easier for workers to take chances and try new things.
It Helps Develop Long-Term Relationships With Customers/Clients
When employees feel good about the company they work for it can help them deliver better service to customers. Indeed, exemplifying a sense of pride and excitement within their jobs makes people want to come back for more in the future.
Moreover, it can help employees experience a stronger sense of loyalty towards the company they work for, and in effect, positively impact customer service levels.
It Can Help a Company Avoid Costly Mistakes
As previously stated, when employees understand the vision of their business and what needs to be done for those goals to be met, it provides them with clear direction, so they don’t waste time trying to figure out how best to move forward. This means less time spent on trial and error, which can ultimately save the company money.
It Helps to Reduce Employee Turnover
When employees are aware of what is expected of them and how they should go about completing tasks for everyone to be successful, it decreases the likelihood that they will decide to look elsewhere for work. Some companies may consider using organizational culture theory as a way to help them grow their business in this regard.
It Provides Employees With Clear Expectations and Directions
If new hires are not aware of how the company operates, they may be confused about what is expected of them or how best to complete specific tasks. This can cause some workers to feel aimless and ineffective, which can ultimately decrease overall company productivity.
It Helps Employees Stay Motivated
If an employee feels that they are not contributing or moving towards a goal, it may cause them to feel unmotivated and unproductive. However, when employees understand what they need to do for the company to be successful, it can help them feel more motivated and excited about their work.
Tips on How to Use Your Existing Organizational Culture for Growing Your Company
Organizational culture can facilitate company growth as long as it is appropriately implemented. It can help employees feel more comfortable taking risks and trying new things, ultimately leading to increased productivity throughout the business.
1. Define Your Organizational Culture
Defining your organizational culture will help you understand the general attitude and current feelings towards work in your company. It can also provide a clear look at how company goals are set, communicated to everyone on staff, and if outcomes of those goals are being met or not.
This is a crucial step because it sets up guidelines for future efforts in this process. It’s important to understand your organizational culture to backtrack and figure out why it is the way it is.
2. Analyze the Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Current Organizational Culture
Once you have defined your organizational culture, it is important to take some time and analyze how it got to be that way. This will be the foundation for developing new steps towards improving what already exists.
You can use surveys or interviews with employees to help figure out where there may be strengths and weaknesses within the current company culture.
3. Determine What You Want to Change to Reach Your Goals
Now that you have analyzed where your organization stands and determined what needs to change, it will be much easier to develop a plan of action for implementing those changes. It is necessary to focus not only on the negative aspects, but to also maximize on the existing strengths within your organizational culture.
4. Create a Plan for How to Implement Changes and Monitor Progress
Once you have determined what the changes will be, it’s important to take time and develop a specific plan for putting those steps into action. It can also help to designate a timeframe within which progress should be made so that everyone is on track.
5. Evaluate the Effectiveness of These Changes Over Time, Make Adjustments as Needed
Allow ample time for the changes you have made to take effect. You want to give everything a chance before evaluating how it is working out and make any adjustments.
In order to stay on track, many companies may find that evaluation periods should be set up at regular intervals so that everyone may determine what changes need to be made.
How to Create a Positive Organizational Culture?
A positive organizational culture can be achieved by creating clear expectations and directions. Having new hires feel like they are part of the team will help them access their maximum potential, increasing productivity across the board.
A positive organizational culture is also created through motivation; if employees understand what they need to do for the company to be successful, it can help them feel more motivated and excited about their work.
Successful leaders will also create a positive organizational culture by allowing for flexibility within the company structure and making sure there is open communication between all employees. If everyone knows what to expect from one another and how to communicate effectively, this will also help create a positive organizational culture.
Conclusion
Organizational culture theory can be an effective method used to improve your workplace environment. Not only does it allow you to understand how your employees feel about their work, it also helps set the foundation for positive change within your existing company culture.
Growth is the process of continuous improvement. You should always be looking for ways to make your product or service better. One way you can do this is by improving the workplace environment through organizational culture theory.