Defining, Measuring, and Changing Workplace Culture
Key Takeaways
- Workplace culture can feel intangible, but organizations must make their culture visible in order to shape it.
- Methods like pulse surveys, interviews, and behavioral data can help direct choices around culture in the workplace.
- Once cultural goals are defined, companies can use tools like DiSC® to figure out how to achieve them.
Workplace culture is the unspoken rules, shared values, and collective behaviors that define how work gets done in an organization. It’s what makes one workplace thrive while another falters. The impact of workplace culture stretches far beyond employee satisfaction to influence productivity, innovation, and even the bottom line.
But what exactly is workplace culture? And how can something so intangible be defined, measured, or improved? While it’s often easier to recognize a toxic culture—with its hallmarks of disrespect, inequity, and unethical behavior—a positive culture might be harder to articulate but is no less impactful. Hallmarks of a thriving culture include trust, respect, collaboration, and a commitment to shared goals and values.
To grow their culture, organizations must first identify their cultural strengths and weaknesses. They must commit to taking actionable steps to shape a healthier, more effective environment.
Whether you’re seeking to resolve challenges or build on what’s working, understanding and actively managing your culture is key to organizational success. Let’s dive into what makes culture tick—and how you can ensure yours is driving your team forward.
Toxic vs positive workplace culture
It’s easier, perhaps, to identify a toxic culture than a positive one. In toxic cultures, there is:
- a lack of respect for workers
- a failure to recognize and reward top performance
- a lack of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
- unethical behavior
Positive workplace culture examples could include such things as:
- manageable workloads
- promotion of work-life balance
- candid and frequent communication from top leaders
- celebration of teamwork
- productive conflict
- joint accountability
- generous interactions with customers or clients
Can organizational culture be measured?
Culture is as challenging to measure as it is to define. But you can measure its results or outputs.
Organizations can find clues to their culture in a few different ways.
Surveys
Surveys can provide a general rating for the quality of the culture. They are usually inadequate on their own, though. Typical questions around well-being include:
- How meaningful is your work?
- Do your colleagues offer kindness and compassion to each other?
- Do you respect and trust your leadership?
With surveys, you can sometimes discover major shifts in sentiment within departments or locations. Interpreting those results can be challenging. A shift might reflect the departure of a disruptive worker, better management training, or recent bonuses.
Interviews
Data you can act upon is difficult to find with just a sentiment survey. Anecdotal feedback can often supply more actionable items. Some companies have found interviews conducted by someone outside the organization to be more insightful than those done internally.
Anecdotal feedback can uncover patterns or common themes to help define your culture. You can investigate how well these themes match the organization’s mission and stated values.
Howard-Grenville suggests you engage in story-gathering. Ask your employees to share situations where an action or decision felt particularly informed by culture, by “the way we do things.”
Another good way to get a fresh view on your culture is to answer the question: What would a newcomer need to know to operate in this organization?
Behavioral data
Behavioral or communication data is even more revealing, but harder to gather. Consultants and tools are available to help you gather and analyze data such as:
- lateral moves and promotions
- retention numbers
- number of interns hired
- rates of absenteeism
- number of customer interactions
- customer retention rate
- the language employees use in electronic communication
- employee networks
Relationship data shows how employees interact with their colleagues and customers. Keep track of anecdotal feedback to uncover patterns or common themes.
What you measure should reflect what the organization’s leadership values most. What you measure is, indeed, part of the culture.
Can workplace culture be changed?
Culture alters as people are hired, promoted, leave, or make internal moves. New technologies and a changing economy can also cause it to change. To maintain a healthy culture, you must cultivate it, rather than leave it to chance.
Define the culture you want and the culture you have. Then you can create interventions or support efforts to shape or maintain the culture. You can create metrics that reflect the organization’s values.
Let’s look at a few examples. If the organization values diversity but doesn’t see it reflected in its workforce, it might:
- change where and how they recruit talent
- establish a mentoring program
- add a statement like “I feel my unique background and identity are valued” to a pulse survey
- measure diversity in future hiring and promotion decisions
- create Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for underrepresented employees
- prioritize diversity training throughout the organization
- have an external party run an audit of their hiring and promotion processes to ensure fairness and equal opportunities
If several employees share stories about a lack of collaboration, the organization might:
- offer a program like The Five Behaviors® Team Development or Everything DiSC®
- include creating psychological safety as a measurement in manager evaluations
- add teams to their recognition and reward program, rather than limiting those programs to individuals
Those in leadership, including managers, have a strong role in shaping culture. Their leadership styles, behaviors, and values model the culture that will develop around them.
DiSC as a culture catalyst
The DiSC model is an effective tool for growing workplace culture—particularly research-backed tools like Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors®. These tools help illuminate workplace culture by focusing on the behaviors and interpersonal dynamics that shape day-to-day interactions. With these insights, organizations can implement targeted strategies to address cultural gaps, such as improving psychological safety or fostering greater collaboration.
DiSC fosters self-awareness and helps team members understand the diverse approaches of their colleagues. Organizations using DiSC have a shared language for discussing and aligning cultural expectations. This clarity allows them to move from aspirational values to actionable behaviors.
Posted 12/03/2022
