How Positive Culture Improves Workplace Productivity

In this article I will attempt to  discover the link between positive culture and increased productivity.
The question is what kind of organisational culture is positive?

Both internal and external factors can shake company’s stability and viability. Inevitable market changes and diversity of challenges that come along with that make company vulnerable and sensitive to changing market dynamics.

Changes are always challenging, but in an organisation with positive culture changes can be seen as opportunities rather than threats. Changes taken positively serve positive purpose for personal, professional, and after all, organisational development, because changes motivate people to learn, grow, think differently, look for new solutions how to improve products and processes, so changes foster creativity and innovation, while positive culture plays the facilitating role.

When changes occur many companies fail to adapt because they are stuck in their traditional ways of thinking and doing things, they do not let their employees step forward and take the lead.

Some of the strong values of a positive culture are those that inspire people to think, learn and create, providing learning and leading opportunities, encouraging initiatives. Positive culture is open minded and free from ideologies. The positive effect of such a culture is that it engenders in people the values that are naturally accepted and shared by all members of the group, opposed to inflexible ideologies and dogmas imposed from the top.

Organisational culture is a strong internal factor that has direct impact on organisational development.

Culture itself can become either constructive force or disruptive force in the organisation. Positive organisational culture shapes successful company future while negative one undermines company ability to build and sustain its progress.

I see positive organisational culture as a whole breathing organism in which all body parts are connected, all communicating and working together, well being of which depends on goodness of every little cell that forms the organism, how good, how sane and responsive it is, how well it functions and communicates with other cells, body parts and organism as a whole. Perfection of such system lies in integrity of all its parts.

The organisation with positive culture capitalizes its success on sustaining integrity, strong internal values and power of consolidated efforts of its participants. This makes it stand out from other organisations and gain competitive advantage in highly competitive business environment.

One of the attributes of positive culture is its empowering effect on people, who feel being part of this culture. Each empowered participant of the system carries the strength that builds up upon transmitting the positive energy and charging other people with such.  As a result the accumulated positive energy is channeled toward achieving organisational goals as well as addressing and solving social and environmental problems, fundamental to sustainability. The employees in turn feel they make impact on the things that matter, which further stimulates their engagement and increases productivity.

People with positive mindset are tuned to getting the right results, appearing to be the driving force of positive outcome.

Today it is crucial to maintain diversity in order to sustain success. For example, in the service industry, it’s been a long time practice to hire the employees of different nationalities in order to manage clients relationships in a better way. But it’s not limited to service industry only,  more and more organisations start to realize that they need diversity, as the way to encourage new ideas, creativity and push innovation. Besides, when the organisation is formed by people from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, of different age and gender, it is perceived more positively by its employees, clients and stakeholders.  Positive culture is a diversity-friendly culture.

Creating positive culture is not one time process. So who are those architects that build this invisible culture over the time?

Apparently it starts from leaders, those who keep the numbers in mind but have better plans to start with: they start from the basics – building happiness. They understand throwing an annual corporate party is not enough to make the employees happy, neither just paying a cheque on time.

In an organisation with positive culture the leaders are looking after the employees, they take responsibility for developing the group, but they are not limiting the employees in their roles, giving them freedom to step forward and lead. That means increasing levels of participation, enabling them to raise opinions, exchange ideas at all times and on many different levels.  

Positive culture does the miracle. The employees feel validated, the moods are elevated, and there is general excitement and happiness in the air.

When the employees are motivated, not only they get their job tasks well done, they go out of their way to do the extra, they stay overtime when they are not asked to, they delight their customers, they empower others, they may sacrifice their personal time and benefits for the sake of a group, team or organisation.

One person approach is very useful in managing positive workforce. It implies that each employee is treated as a whole person, with individual approach, taking into consideration personal needs and expectations of an individual, the background, values and beliefs, interests and hobbies.

Understanding what motivates and drives a person in life is the key to understanding and building better professional relationships, developing the skills, revealing the talents and allowing them to grow, which solves the problem of management efficiency and productivity. This brings very positive results to the organisation as it’s increasing employees loyalty and satisfaction, while enhancing productivity and effectiveness.

Conclusion:

Every company should have clear strategy and structure in order to become successful company. But it takes a lot more for the company to sustain long term success. One should not overlook such important aspects as psychological climate of the workplace, employee motivation and satisfaction.

It turns out that the organisation with positive culture better copes with the disruptive force of a negative change, better responds to market fluctuations, developing better management styles and challenging old in a positive way, while capitalizing on the main strength – it’s people, who in turn feel motivated, connected and being part of the organisation.  Positive organisational culture not only improves the overall performance of the company but leads to long term sustainability of the business.