N
o two workplaces are exactly alike and each has its own culture. Some workplace cultures complement business goals and drive strategy forward. Others may have
important elements lacking or even unintentionally reward harmful behaviours, which could hold back progress or compromise the organisation. Cultural analytics has emerged as a vital area for
organisations to explore if they want to understand what role culture plays and how it affects employee behaviour and business outcomes. There is, however, a significant challenge in defining and measuring culture and reviews of culture in organisations are often backwards-looking. However, workplaces that understand their culture and take active steps to enhance it can leverage it as a strategic asset for their future success. Speaking at the CIPD conference in Manchester in
November, Hani Nabeel, chief behavioural and data scientist at iPsychTec, a world-leading people analytics and behavioural science company, explained how cultural analytics referred to the application of data- driven approaches to measure, understand and enhance an organisation’s culture in a way that directly aligns with its goals. He explained it is about actively connecting management styles, incentives and rewards with successful business outcomes. “We want culture to drive performance, to allow people to do great things every day at work, and also we want culture to stop us doing horrid things,” he said. “So it’s that continuous challenge between risk and reward that we want out of culture.” As part of the conference presentation on ‘Building
a future-ready workforce: a skills-based approach to strategic workforce planning’, Hani explained how the insights drawn from an analysis of workplace culture offer organisations a guide to improving learning, engagement and performance. However, because each organisation is unique, there is no universal approach, he explained. It isn’t possible to just copy another company’s blueprint for culture change and hope that it will work for you. “The uniqueness of what you have got – the uniqueness of the environment, your rules, your processes, your environment – are critical,” he says. “They are unique to your culture. It is not just robotic and you cannot borrow culture from somewhere or another company and try to cut, copy and paste. That will not get the outcome that you are hoping for.”
WHY YOUR ORGANISATION’S CULTURE MATTERS Leaders may find the concept of culture difficult to quantify and even harder to change. Yet the need for cultural analytics and positive action stems from an increased awareness that an organisation’s culture significantly impacts its long-term success. Cultures that promote growth, accountability and
psychological safety support an organisation’s ability to adapt, perform and retain talent. On the other side, toxic behaviours or a culture of poor governance can lead to disengagement, inefficiency and even crises. Hani Nabeel cites examples of well-known companies
where there was a failure of culture, including Boeing’s safety concerns, the emissions scandal at VW and the collapse of Enron. All three were major international well-respected companies where gaps in culture led to mistakes and ultimately ended in brand damage and adverse financial repercussions. He argues that when most companies do look at culture, they are looking backwards, which is of minimal value and cannot help in moving the company forward. Boeing: In 2018 and 2019, two of Boeing’s 737
Max planes crashed, killing 346 people. The crashes were later found to have been caused by faulty flight control software that Boeing had allegedly concealed from regulators. VW: By allegedly tampering with software used in
safety tests, VW diesel cars were able to pass safety tests, even though when used on the road their engines were said to have emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the United States.
“ CULTURE IS NOT JUST ONE ASPECT OF THE GAME. IT IS THE GAME. IN THE END, AN ORGANISATION IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE COLLECTIVE CAPACITY OF ITS PEOPLE TO CREATE VALUE.” LOU GERSTNER, FORMER IBM CEO
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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP SUPPLEMENT
CULTURE
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