Developing Organisational Culture and Team Climate

Developing Organisational Culture and Team Climate

Management Training Australia (www.mtaustralia.com) conducts training and development programs for all levels of management in organisations throughout Australia and Asia-Pacific.

The culture set by an organisation and the climate set by each team in the organisation drives the performance of the organisation. About 70% of work climate is a result of the team’s influence and about 30% results from the wider organisation. A positive work climate increases the level of extra effort that employees exert above and beyond job expectations, lifts staff retention and decreases absenteeism. Research shows that around 30% of financial results are directly attributable to the work climate in a team.

Organisational Culture Development

Like any other driver of performance, organisations need to be able to measure their culture, especially if they intend to put resources into developing it. After a specific period of development, organisations should then re-measure their culture to see whether their developmental efforts have been successful. When measuring culture, it is important to measure a comprehensive set of values across the organisation since the culture is set by the diversity of values of the people in the organisation. An example of the gap between the values and the culture of the organisation is given below.

These differences in values and culture not only inhibit performance but are also the cause of conflict and mixed messages being send to the various stakeholders of an organisation. In the preceding example, the values associated with attitudes and empowerment represent the most important significant points of tension in the organisation.

These gaps between the values and culture can be quite different for different geographic locations, divisions and departments, so a cultural diagnostic needs to be able to separate and compare different organisational units. Click here for more information about the cultural and other diagnostics we use. Once an organisation understands their values – culture gaps, they can then set about intentionally changing their culture through the key touch points of the organisation.

  • Click here for a video (youtube) about what aspects to consider in developing organisational Culture
  • Click Here for a pdf about our Cultural Development Program

Workgroup Climate Development

Workgroup managers have the major influence in the climate or work atmosphere as experienced by employees. It is therefore important to measure the climate of a team, especially if the organisation plans to use resources to develop the managers of these workgroups. After a period of development, the workgroup climate can be assessed again to see what development has occurred in each manager. There are six dimensions of climate that are under the direct influence of the workgroup leader

  • Clarity, which is knowing what is expected of each person and understanding how those expectations relate to the goals of the organization
  • Standards, which includes having an emphasis on improving performance
  • Responsibility, which includes having clear responsibility, accountability and authority delegated to people
  • Flexibility, which includes the degree to which people feel there are no unnecessary rules or procedures
  • Rewards, which includes being recognized for good work
  • Team commitment, which includes the feeling of being proud to  belong to the workgroup

Managers should not only understand their perspective of team climate but also their team’s perspective. You and your team can conduct a quick online assessment to understand perceptions of climate dimension. In this example, the team and the manager mostly agree on the strengths and weaknesses of the climate. They would both agree on the need to work on lifting responsibility in the team. However, the team also believes that flexibility is low. The manager, however does not and there would need to be discussion on this before any changes were made.

  • Click here for a video (Youtube) about what aspects to consider in developing workgroup climate.
  • Click Here for a pdf about our Workgroup Climate Development Program

For more information about Management Training Australia visit www.mtaustralia.com

For more information about Organisational Development International visit www.odi.net.au

Watch Management Training Australia’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/managementtrainingau

Contact Wayne Back on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/wayneback

Email Wayne Back at wayneb@mtaustralia.com


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