Organisational Culture: Establishing what makes an Organisation Attractive

Paper presented to the "Recruitment, Training & Retention for the Engineering Sector: Addressing the Skills Shortage" Conference, March 2005

By Quentin Jones, Director, Human Synergistics

Abstract

Organisational Culture is a key determinant of staff satisfaction, intention to stay and whether staff recommend their organisational to others as good place to work. Research from over 130,000 Australian and New Zealand staff shows Constructive cultures high in Achievement, Self Actualising, Humanistic-Encouraging and Affiliative behaviours lead to positive staff, organisational and customer outcomes. Cultures high in Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive behaviours promote staff dissatisfaction, high staff turnover and reduced customer outcomes.

Constructive cultures are promoted by aligning the organisation's vision, structures, systems, job design and leadership behaviour with an ideal culture.

This paper presents this research and outlines "levers for change" to achieve desirable staff outcomes (satisfaction, retention and referral) and organisational performance.

What is culture?

Organisational culture is defined as the shared values, norms and expectations that guide organisation members in terms of how to approach their work and deal with each other and their customers.

Other definitions include "how we do things around here", the organisation's "DNA" and collective "comfort zone".

Organisational culture is a key driver of staff and customer outcomes. Increasingly, culture is becoming a better predictor of long term organisational sustainability than financial indicators.

Next: Page 2: How Culture Works