To attain the goal of having quality goods and services, the company or institution leadership can opt to have management systems that will help the staff to attain the envisioned company goals. All this goes with the culture with which the company operates.
Work culture is what makes each company unique. It reflects an organisation’s “personality,” and can drive engagement, attract top talent, and affect organizational performance.
Organizational culture refers to a broad system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that manifest themselves through individual behaviour. Organisational culture affects many aspects of the organization, including decision-making, organizational design, leadership and approaches.
Some scholars further say culture is the invisible hand, the true north that guides every organization. You must get your culture right to get your company right.
Among a few company challenges is; every business leader focuses on a strategy that will improve them but many forget to concentrate on building the culture.
Edgar Schein’s 3-levels of culture
1: Artifacts- These are the visible and tangible manifestations of culture
2: Espoused beliefs and values- This is how one expresses what the organization aims to achieve and how one aspires to do the work.
3: Underlying assumptions- Often unstated operating principles that drive the work of an organisation and its people.
Adopting a quality culture in an organisation is a process that requires mastering some elements including communication, performance, purpose and team approach.
Other elements to master include organizational structure and rewarding/ recognition of the best-performing employees.
Culture and strategy will drive you to your results
Understanding that culture and strategy move hand in hand is a great start toward achieving the anticipated dreams, for instance, strategy drives to goals, then objectives and then activities that bear the results.
Culture leads to values that lead to practices and then behaviours that end in achieving the results. It is to say, applying all of these at the same time will drive the company to the anticipated results.
It is then necessary for a company to influence a quality culture and it can be done by providing a clear vision and priorities and having a cohesive leadership team through leadership.
Also through work processes and systems, a company can influence a quality culture by having effective programs and support processes. Another influence can be through structure and decision making which can be attained by stating clear roles and behaviour and helping them align with the organization’s structure.
In the case of people, the leadership needs to influence high-performance behaviours, willingness and ability to change, effective development of talent and hiring the right talent for success.
This can then be finalized by mobilizing the quality culture in the company by defining the culture needed to achieve long-term success vs the current culture, analyzing the gaps then developing. Then communicate the new culture and monitor the implementation.