01 Understand what enables positive organisation culture

02 Learn the “typical” organisation climates   

03 Familiarize with the motives of organisation culture

04 Know the triggers of organisation culture’s motives

Communication impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation, its responsiveness to external stimuli, the overall exchange and flow of information / inputs.

But what impacts communication?

If employees feel stimulated in sharing their thoughts for the improvement of their tasks and the overall process they are responsible for, this is firstly and foremost a matter of Organisation Climate

The sum of insiders’ perceptions about the organisation, the people co-sharing their work environment, their managers and their role within the firm.

It is not a scientific concept, but it can be definitely measured and assessed thanks to tailored-made surveys.

Organisation climates typically depend on the managerial approach pursued and validated by managers. Some of the stereotypical organisation climates are much more favourable for an open, fair, transparent communication even between people detaining different degrees of power.

In these scenarios, people will feel much more motivated to share their opinions – mostly because they are aware that they will not be judged, and actually, they are recommended to take a position, to share their feelings and impressions, to take a stand for the benefit of the organisation. These are:

1. People-centred climate

2. Innovation-oriented climate

3. Rule-oriented climate

4. Goal-oriented climate

The way in which managers might convey (and reinforce) organisation climate is by working on one (or more) motives that governs and discipline their relation with employees:

Disclaimer

Per se, none of the above is better than the others. The most suitable motive depends on contextual variables such the degree of autonomy that employees feel deserving, their expertise and level of “professional” maturity.

Typically recommended when interfacing with highly motivated and driven employees, but still lacking of robust know-how

Leaders might work side-by-side with them so as to boost even further their confidence in the given task and their sense of self-efficacy.

In these cases, team managers want to make sure that their people acquire the necessary competences and skills to be more autonomous and independent.

In other words, it is a nurturing process of talents: a mechanism of open feedbacks is highly recommended.

Typical for roles, responsibilities and professions at high specialisation, senior staff members “influence” the course of action(s) by providing specific guidelines and recommendations, but without a direct intervention.

Employees detain already the competence and know-how demanded by task, but they are still unfamiliar with the overall process their action relates to.

Managers enable the context so that employees contribution flows into a more structured and complex diagram of results.

A formative evaluation is recommended, meaning, a formal quality check upon completion of the task.

Typical for scenario in which employees overcome the achievement phase and are ready to take on new tasks on their own.

Employees get familiar with new and more sophisticated responsibilities that responds to results at higher complexity – for their scale, scope and nature. Managers take a little step back and let employees experiment and “measure” themselves against new challenging scenarios.

Experienced staff members take this opportunity to evaluate transversal skills of their resources (how do they cope with uncertainty? How do they interface with the ambiguity that comes with a new responsibility?)

For employees it is a highly valuing experience, for managers it is a test ground of their human capital.

Typical initial stage of any on-boarding process.

At first, a control-culture might sound threatening and very stressful to new recruits, specifically if of young age…however, that control – follow by a transparent and open feedback mechanism – is necessary to guide employees’ action till they reach an achievement stage.

Would you entrust your health to a room full of medical student or a seasoned doctor?

Typically, the dependency approach appears as a brief transition stage between control and achievement.

Employees have independent autonomy in their task but they are not yet authorized to interface with people external to their team.

The filter is represented by the senior team member which is in charge of assuring that his/her team will not cause disruption to other organisation’s members.

This is a safeguard measure to contain the possible negative outcomes from misunderstanding and misjudgement within the team.

Typically, affiliated workers are highly skilled, competent and experienced in their field.

Affiliated employees maintain high degree of autonomy. On their hand, these people have the duty to keep their managers informed and updated.

An affiliation motive is awarded to employees that proved to be very effective, efficient and reliable: these are key players of the team and can substitute to the senior manager to facilitate the extension of other members.

Barriers to an affiliation programme might be represented by trust-issue from the manager on which he/she should work on so as to be more comfortable in delegating the focus of power…

Remember (now you know about):

01 Triggers of positive internal communication  

02 The fundamentals of organisation culture

03 Managerial approaches leading to positive organisation culture

04 The way in which managers convey positive organisation culture

05 Six reference framework for organisation culture