The Importance of a Consistent Workplace Culture

The Importance of a Consistent Workplace Culture
Employees want to be able to count on their leaders and on their organization to lead them in the right direction in the right way.  We know from Denison culture survey data that a consistent workplace helps to drive higher levels of employee engagement, retention, and performance. A well-defined and consistent workplace culture ensures that employees understand expectations, align with organizational values, and collaborate to contribute to business success.

While some cultural fragmentation is normal, overall cultural consistency gives employees a sense of purpose and belonging, creates clear team norms, reinforces aligned customer experiences, and promotes effective decision making that aligns with company principles and priorities.

How We Measure Workplace Culture Consistency
We use twelve research-backed questions to assess the level of workplace culture consistency across three areas: core values, agreement, and coordination.

Core Values Questions
Our organizational culture assessment data tells us that core values matter.  Along with your vision and mission statement, corporate values, are a key strategic driver that sets the organizational direction and expectations.

Done right, core values improve how people get hired, promoted, developed, managed, engaged, and retained.  Done wrong, core values create cynicism and are a waste of everyone’s time.  Use these four questions to assess the impact your core values are having on workplace consistency:

• Do leaders and managers “practice what they preach”?
• Is there a clear and consistent set of values that governs the way we do business?
• When people ignore our core values, are they held accountable?
• Is there an ethical code that guides our behavior and tells us right from wrong?

Agreement Questions
Agreement, commitment, and alignment directly impact employee buy-in, synergy, and motivation.  Our organizational alignment research found that strategic clarity, believability, and agreement account for 31% of the difference between high and low performing companies.  Use these four questions to assess your culture’s influence on how constructive debate and commitment play out:

• When disagreements occur, do people work hard to achieve “win-win” solutions?
• Is there a clearly defined culture?
• Is it easy to reach consensus, even on difficult issues?
• Is there a clear agreement about the right way and the wrong way to do things?

Coordination and Integration and  Questions
We know form business strategy simulations that how people accomplish shared goals across teams and functions impacts profitability, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.  High levels of organizational coordination and integration create operational leverage; low levels can cause unnecessary friction, dysfunction, and misalignment. Use these four questions to assess your culture’s level of coordination and integration:

• Is our approach to doing business very consistent and predictable?
• Do people from different parts of the organization share a common perspective?
• Is it easy to coordinate projects across different parts of the organization?
• Is there enough alignment of goals across levels?

How to Maintain a Consistent Workplace Culture

1. Define Strategic Priorities and Core Values Clearly
   Following strategy retreat best practices, leadership must articulate and document the organization’s mission, vision, core values, and strategic priorities. These principles should guide decision-making and employee interactions at all levels.
2. Define, Communicate, and Reinforce Your Needed Culture Regularly
   Cultural messaging should be integrated into daily business practices, from onboarding new hires to ongoing training and performance evaluations. Open communication ensures that employees understand and embrace the company’s desired culture.
3. Lead by Example
   Leadership must visibly and consistently model cultural values in their actions and decisions. When executives and managers embody the organization’s principles, employees are more likely to adopt and maintain them.
4. Align Policies and Practices with Cultural Values
   HR policies, recognition programs, and business strategies should all reflect the company’s culture. Misalignment between stated values and actual practices can erode trust and weaken cultural consistency.
5. Encourage Employee Involvement
   A thriving workplace culture is not solely dictated from the top down. Actively encouraging employees to participate in shaping cultural norms creates a sense of ownership and accountability, further reinforcing consistency across the organization.

The Bottom Line
Your strategies must go through your people and your culture to be successfully implemented.  A consistent workplace culture makes it easier to get work done; an inconsistent or fragmented culture hinders effectiveness.  Are your values and ways of working clearly defined and followed enough to get you where you want to go?

To learn more about creating a consistent workplace culture, download The 3 Research-backed Levels of a High Performance Culture to Get Right