employee handbook<\/a>, operations manual, and statement of corporate values. Sometimes, though, rules may be \u201cunwritten,\u201d for example, an expectation that employees load their dishes in the dishwasher or not use emojis in communications with customers.<\/p>\nRules pertaining to safety and security are typically required rather than merely encouraged, as are the rules governing general business operations, such as dress codes and time-tracking procedures. Generally, when these kinds of rules are violated, discipline ensues.<\/p>\n
Some rules, however, encourage behavior rather than require it. Values statements often fall into this category. Employees are recognized and rewarded for exemplifying these values, but they\u2019re not formally disciplined if they don\u2019t happen to measurably live up to them on a given day.<\/p>\n
The kind of culture you have as an employer will depend in large part on the kinds of rules you have. If you want a culture marked by specific values, such as honesty and respect, you need rules that tell people that these values are important and that motivate employees to exhibit them in their work. You also need to make sure that your rules make sense given the kind of culture you want to have. For example, if you want your culture to be friendly and fun, you probably don\u2019t want to prohibit employees from chatting while they\u2019re on the clock. On the other hand, if you want to establish a culture of strict professionalism and attentiveness to customers, then minimizing chit-chat might be a good idea.<\/p>\n
Culture Component #2: Traditions<\/h3>\n
While rules tell employees what they should do and how they should act, traditions give employees the means to work together and build relationships with one another. The traditions of a workplace are its ongoing and recurring practices. They are its conventions, customs, rituals, ceremonies, activities, and physical workspace arrangements.<\/p>\n
The traditions of a workplace might include grand events like award ceremonies or annual retreats, but they also include mundane things like everyday meetings and standardized communication methods. When a company has meetings, for example, it brings people together and gives structure to their discussions. When a company has a peer recognition program, it provides an opportunity for employees to offer praise and gratitude. It\u2019s through workplace traditions that people ultimately build and maintain professional relationships.<\/p>\n
To have an effective culture, you need traditions as much as rules\u2014and your traditions and rules need to align. Workplace problems often arise because traditions and rules are in conflict. A company might have a strict anti-harassment policy (rule), but an ineffective system for reporting and investigating (tradition). When rules and tradition don\u2019t align, the culture becomes chaotic, and this chaos creates uncertainty, confusion, and distrust.<\/p>\n
Culture Component #3: Personalities<\/h3>\n
Let\u2019s turn now to the third basis of workplace culture\u2014the individuals who work there.<\/p>\n
If you suddenly replaced everyone in a company, the company might be the same legal entity, but it wouldn\u2019t be the same place or have the same culture, even if the rules, traditions, operations, and strategy remained the same. People matter. A lot of what accounts for the character of a workplace is simply who the people are as individuals and the free choices they make.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the workplace has their own personality\u2014their own ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors. Think of the employee who always has a spring in their step, the manager who regularly takes their team out for coffee, the go-getter who\u2019s eager for a promotion, or the employees who are sure to chat about the latest episode of\u00a0The Bachelor.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A culture may be rooted in core principles, but it also moves and changes. Your employees will change the culture simply by being themselves. Encourage them to improve it!<\/p>\n
Developing Your Company Culture<\/h2>\n
Because your culture depends, in part, on the people who work for you, you will never have complete control over it. Nevertheless, culture isn\u2019t something you should ignore. If your company has rules, traditions, and people working together, it has a culture, and that culture affects your operations and strategy\u2014as well as how employees and customers perceive your company.<\/p>\n
The kind of culture you should strive for depends on the nature of your business. Not every culture will be or should be the same, and what works well in one workplace may work poorly in the another. That said, cultures that are conducive to long-term success are typically defined in a clear manner, understood and embraced by employees, aligned with the mission of the company, and stable through times of growth and crisis. When establishing or assessing rules and traditions, keep those characteristics in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What creates this sense of belonging or not belonging to an organization is the organization\u2019s\u00a0culture. There are three components of company culture: the organization\u2019s rules, traditions, and personalities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[49,18,25,101],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-culture","tag-employer-policies","tag-hiring","tag-retention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12206,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions\/12206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5284"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=5284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"components](\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/startup-594091_1280-1024x682.jpg\")
When you belong to an organization, there\u2019s usually a reason, right? Whether the organization is a business, club, or other group, something about it appealed to you, and you chose to associate yourself with it. You personally identified with it and felt like you would fit in, so you joined. Alternatively, you may have considered joining an organization, but decided against it because it didn\u2019t feel like a good fit. Or you joined for a time, but then decided the place wasn\u2019t for you.\u00a0What creates this sense of belonging or not belonging to an organization is the organization\u2019s\u00a0culture<\/i>. There are three components of company culture: the organization\u2019s rules, traditions, and personalities.<\/p>\n