The need for a cultural shift in organisations

Organisational culture plays an optimal role in creating the right people experience and maximising organisational performance. 72% of C-suite and board members agree that organisational culture significantly influences a prospective employee when choosing an organisation to work for. However, despite the recognised importance of culture, PWC’s Katzenbach Center Global Culture Survey 2018 finds that 80% of respondents believe their organisation’s culture needs to evolve in the next five years if the organisation plans to grow and retain talent. This is a staggering increase to results obtained in 2013, where only 51% of respondents thought changes to organisational culture were necessary.

Culture has a large impact on organisational performance. In fact, 65% of respondents agree that culture has more of an influence on performance than an organisation’s strategy or operating model. Given these findings, it is understandable that a notable increase in the importance given to culture is noted amongst responses. 71% of C-suite and board members stated that culture is an important topic on their agenda in today’s evolving business word. Having said this, in order to positively impact business results through culture, leaders need to achieve alignment between culture, strategy and operations. This requires understanding the gap between the current state and ideal state of an organisation’s culture.

Another distinct gap that needs to be given importance is the distinction between how culture is viewed by leaders and employees. In fact, while 63% of C-suite and board members think their organisations encompass a strong culture, only 41% of employees agree. Moreover, the survey indicates that only 57% of employees feel proud of their workplace when compared to the 87% of C-suite and board member. These gaps highlight a challenge faced by leaders in translating their vision for culture into practical actions and fostering employee buy-in. In order to bridge this gap, leaders must encourage feedback from varying employees to gain insight on issues that are important to the workforce.

This insight will set the foundation on which to initiate changes in behaviour that will evolve the culture in organisations. Leaders must identify these critical behaviours and reward people who begin to adopt such behavioural characteristics. This will accelerate the change in culture and get people involved in the initiative. Leaders must also lead by example by demonstrating these behaviours as this will encourage others to follow suit. Such efforts by leaders will ensure a consistent and credible message about the cultural shift. Additionally, if leaders ae seen to be committed to evolving their culture, employees are more likely to contribute to the change and appreciate the effort.

Although these actions will help shift culture, such changes require continued efforts and perseverance. Bringing about a change in culture is not easy. In fact, 23% of respondents acknowledged that leaders have tried to make changes to the organisational culture but such efforts fell short as no evident improvements were achieved. Additionally, 42% of respondents stated that their organisation’s culture has not changed in the last five years. In improving these findings, leaders need to be aware that achieving a sustainable change in culture must not be a top-down initiative but rather involve people from all levels.

Organisational culture has become the foundation on which many factors within organisations, such as employer branding and people experience, are built. With this in mind, leaders need to ensure that they are prioritising the continuous evolution of their organisational culture in order to reap the benefits of such efforts in terms of employee satisfaction, talent retention and attraction as well as increased organisational performance. Organisational culture isn’t just about choosing a set of values. Leaders need to ensure that the values are translated into behaviours that each employee in the organisation, starting with themselves, is demonstrating whether it is with customers, other employees or wider stakeholders. These behaviours then need to be re-enforced through training, performance management, and other initiatives.

Claudine Attard, Senior Manager, People and Organisation Advisory, PwC Malta

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