The culture of a company is said to play an important role in generating a successful workforce. It goes a long way starting from the recruitment and selection process to employee retention and satisfaction. The company culture helps define the organizational goals and business objectives an enterprise desires to achieve. Whether it’s the top executives of the company or the mid-tier managers, company culture gives an employee a purpose and assists in making himself to be a valuable asset.
Research suggests that companies with strong work culture are more likely to produce successful and competent employees, and more likely to be certified as “Best Place To Work”, than those which do not focus much on the culture.
But how does a company enhance their strong work culture ? Well, one should keep the following factors in mind while creating a workplace with a strong workforce and achievable work objectives, for a more efficient team performance. The factors work in a chain like manner, meaning one factor influences the other next to it.
1. RELATIONSHIPS:
Relationships are the foundation of any company culture. One has to focus on building relationships wherever he can in a professional environment. There are usually two types of relationships that come into play while at workplace, Responsive Relationships and Resistant Relationships.
Responsive relationships refer to the relationships where there is an atmosphere of mutual trust, mutual respect, genuine care and genuine connection. People take full responsibility of the relationship.
On the other hand, a resistant relationship is one where there is an atmosphere of groupism and egoism , and people often partake in conflicts and blame game with one another. This creates a negative and undesirable environment .
It is essential to create a responsive relationships with the employees, where the employees can motivate each other to work effectively. This can also help them to communicate with each other freely and openly.
2. STATE OF ENERGY:
State of energy helps determine whether an employee is resourceful or unresourceful . The state of energy of a person at the workplace is influenced by the relationships he has with his colleagues or even senior members.
A resourceful state of energy is one in which a person is motivated and driven to work efficiently and effectively, and it is a positive state of energy.
An unresourceful state of energy is one in which a person becomes lethargic and is not able to work to his full potential. Hence, it is a negative state of energy.
Therefore, it is important for any organization to create a company culture that influences a positive state of energy among its employees.
3. COMMITMENT:
Commitment is when people genuinely say yes and commit to the ideas and action plans. This factor is influenced by the state of energy of a person while at the workplace. Commitment level can be of two types : conditional and unconditional.
In a conditional commitment level, people have a tendency to agree with everything without any hesitation and do not build a rapport with each other. There is no sharing of ideas but grapevine and helplessness within the groups. More than often, an environment of only asking favors arises.
In an unconditional commitment level, people have conflicts in their ideas but in a healthy and respectable manner. Even if there is a difference of opinions, they still commit to their actions and take responsibility. There is a proper communication channel and an environment of genuine care is created.
4. PERFORMANCE:
Where there is genuine commitment, there is excellent performance. Performances can be measured as reasonable or unreasonable, based on the series of factors as described above.
Reasonable performance is when in a responsive relationships, an employee’s state of energy is resourceful, and has an unconditional commitment level, delivering a performance which is beyond reasons and expectations. Such employees do not limit themselves to excuses and take responsibility for their actions. This also involves feedback analysis and understanding the flaw in actions.
Unreasonable performance is when employees do not give their 100% in performance and the behavior is somewhat ego-centric and defensive. This performance affects the achievement of business objectives and may hinder the growth and progress of the company.
5. RESULTS:
Based on the performance, results can either be ordinary or extraordinary. Results can be optimized based on the approach and the constructiveness of the accountabilities.
Ordinary result is achieved when the approach becomes destructive in nature, leading to ego battles and loss of focus on the desired goal. This further leads to dismantling of the team and taking on an individual approach. The results might be achieved, but not in a way that would skyrocket the growth of the organization.
Extraordinary result is achieved when the approach is constructive in nature, and the focus is on problem solving and decision making. There is effective team effort and the performance is beyond reasons.
Each factor influences the one next to it, which is why it is important to maintain the foundation of a culture, that is relationships. While the factors may work independent of each other, they may not help achieve the desired results needed. Therefore, it is essential that a company culture be designed in such a way, that it aligns with the business objectives and maximizes the performance in the long run.
Well Said.
Nicely written.