What's a positive company culture?

Updated: 2 minutes ago

Many companies nowadays talk about company culture in the workplace in their employee handbooks and brochures. They emphasise things like teamwork, integrity, responsibility and even outline their values which serve as a guideline for their employees.

This is a big difference to how businesses used to operate just a few decades ago. But why is this the case?

If we dig into the concept of organisational culture and how it came about, we can understand the shift in the necessity that companies nowadays have to build a modern company culture.

In simple terms, every society and sub-group has a culture. Although company culture is hard to define, it's built on shared experience, beliefs, habits and patterns of behaviour of its members.

When people organise in sub-groups, they will inevitably build a culture born out of communication between its group members. Because no communication occurs in a vacuum, and exists in a particular environment, it has a big impact on culture. In fact, “…culture and communications are two sides of the same coin—one cannot exist without the other, and the lack of one will detrimentally affect the other.”

When we interact and this becomes a pattern, it becomes a part of, and formulates a culture. In a workplace environment, communication shapes the rules and norms which then become the company culture.

In modernity, which started at the end of nineteenth century, a big industrial boom gave rise to large corporations and the capitalist economic model.

A business back then had a very clear hierarchical structure and profit was its goal. There were very few benefits that employees enjoyed at the time. Increasing productivity meant long working hours, rigid social structure and very few days off.

However, with technological advances also came a shift in what workers expect at their workplace. Workers' rights, a better work-life balance and paid holidays are things employees nowadays expect.

With this shift in attitude and an ever-changing global world, companies are now competing for best talent and will therefore offer more benefits. An attractive workplace environment is one such benefit that companies nowadays can offer.

A positive company culture comes from an understanding that not only are companies competing for best talent, they can encourage productivity by keeping their employees happy.

In fact, studies into motivation at the workplace show that monetary rewards are not the main motivational factors. Employee engagement comes from feeling valued, having a certain amount of autonomy and having the ability to develop both personally and professionally. This is why having a positive company culture is so important for the said company to flourish.

Furthermore, the negative impact of burnout is now well-documented. Overworking your employees, not giving them any say in their work and zero work-life balance is simply not beneficial or sustainable.

Companies are nowadays dealing with a new kind of employee. One that is looking for more than merely a job with a paycheck, but is looking for job satisfaction, meaningful work and relationships in the workplace.

This shift means a big change in the company culture of today’s workplace. Since clear connection between job satisfaction and quality of work has been found, it developed a need for companies to understand how to satisfy their employees.

Next time you join a company, you now know why handbooks and brochures about company culture and values exist. It is important you can see yourself working in a particular company culture because it will shape your work experience and will impact whether you stay at the workplace long-term or not.