Improving Organizational Culture

The term 'organizational culture' refers to the norms and values of an organization, which together make the personality of the company. These values and norms are shared by people working throughout the organization. They govern the way employees interact with each other, within the workplace. Hence, improving organizational culture is the need of the hour, as people want to work for a company that enables them to maintain a balance between their work life and personal life. The organizations that treat their employees well and provide a good working atmosphere have shown an increase in the productivity of its employees. As a result, the attrition rates are also lowered, which saves a company the costs incurred in recruiting and training new employees. So, a healthy organizational culture is a win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved; the management, the customers, the shareholders and most importantly, the employees themselves. In the following lines, you will get tips on how to improve organizational culture.

Improving Organizational Culture

Training your employees in the right way is an important step towards improving your organization’s work culture. When your employees know how to do things the right way and what the company expects from them, the rate of conflicts and errors can be brought down significantly.
One of the best ways to bring about positive changes in the culture of the organization is by analyzing the existing culture and comparing it with the expectations and perceptions of your employees. Bring changes accordingly.
A basic requirement for a productive environment is a diverse team of enthusiastic people, who are interested in working as a team and improving the work atmosphere, as a whole.
Organize discussions with your team members and talk about matters pertaining to the current culture of the organization. Try to bring in the changes that you find justified.
Maintain healthy communication with your team. Tell the team members about the leadership of the organization and the strategies adopted to build a more attractive culture in the company.
Conflicts are an inevitable part of any organization and have a direct bearing on the health of its culture. How they are handled is an indicator of the prevalent organizational culture. Therefore, when conflicts do arise, the management must settle them quickly and amicably, lest they fester and tensions worsen over time.
Create an unbiased, transparent and impartial conflict resolution mechanism. If employees feel they are all being treated equally, they are more likely to accept their mistakes and the judgment of the management, at the end of the conflict resolution exercises. Needless to say, such a treatment makes employees feel both at home and indebted to the organization, which just goes a long way towards improve the work environment.
Since the organization is a collection of people, synergy is a must to attain the objectives. Team building is vital in this respect and the management must take the initiative to engage employees in such exercises. They may be fun activities, like sports or games or serious ones, such as projects executed for clients. At the end of the day, such exercises strengthen the spirit of esprit du corps and the employee’s allegiance towards the organization, because synergetic and cooperative teamwork is manifest to a healthy organizational climate.

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