Implementing a Positive Organizational Culture
The concept of positive organizational culture derived from the theory of ‘Positive psychology’ which focuses on building the positive aspects and building the future of life rather than focusing only on the negative (Peterson and Spiker, 2005). At organizational level, ‘it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic’ (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p.5).
‘A positive organizational culture emphasizes building on employee strengths, rewards more than it punishes, and emphasizes individual vitality and growth’ (Robbins and Judge, 2013, p.527).
- Employee Strengths
Luthans
and Youssef (2007) asserts that every person has strengths and weaknesses,
organizations with positive culture simply doesn’t ignore the weaknesses but
emphasize on how employees can utilize the strengths to maximize their output
while avoiding, managing and learning from weaknesses. Further, evidence
suggests that emphasizing on their strengths is positively related to the success
and well-being of the employees and organization (Lyubomirsky, King, and
Diener, 2005).
- Rewards
Most organizations tend to focus more on external rewards such as bonuses and promotions but they forget how much it means for humans to hear ‘words of praise’ which in turn makes the employees feels positive about themselves (Chapman and White, 2011). Cohen (2006) asserts that non-monetary rewards should be given as soon as the employee does something praiseworthy, identifying the type of personality the employee possess and should be given to employees who deserve it.
Similarly, Gostick and Elton
(2009) suggests that if praise is not given during a short period, it is more
likely the manager might forget it and the employee’s efforts maybe unnoticed.
- Emphasizing Vitality and Growth
Martin (2004) suggests that a positive organizational culture increases job satisfaction, motivation and productivity in the organization.
A positive culture doesn’t merely emphasize on what the employees can do for the organization but also emphasize on what the organization can do for the employees by identifying their capacities, focusing on career progression and communicating the importance of their contribution to the organization (Feldman and Khardemian, 2003).
The Growing Importance of a Positive Culture
- An organization with a positive culture has individuals with morally well-defined goals who are sensitive to the feelings and needs of others in the growing materialistic world (Fineman, 2006).
- Sok et al. (2014) suggests that employees in a positive organizational culture has work life balance due to the flexibility provided by the organizations.
- A positive organizational culture also acts as a buffer during the change process of an organization by emphasizing on the positive impact of the change (French and Holden, 2012).
- A positive organizational culture increases employee engagement as there are positive relationships between employees, the ideas of them are taken in to consideration in the decision making process and it creates a culture of growth and development (Sirisetti, 2012).
Based on research, Video 1
focuses on how a positive organizational culture can be created.
Limitations of
Positive Organizational Culture
- Furedi (2003) asserts that in some instances employees who are pessimistic due to justifiable reasons and are not in a position to look at the positivity in their lives might think that they are odd or different which may negatively impact the mentality of them.
- It
is difficult to separate the negativity and positivity as many evidences suggests that positivity evolves
from negative experiences so both of them are interrelated (Lazarus 2003).
- Neglecting
the negative aspects may give employees more freedom to deliberately make
mistakes as they are aware that they will not be punished (Gliñska-Neweś and Glinka, 2019).
However, there
is a lot of evidence that portrays how ‘positive psychology can be used to
enhance employee engagement and change an organization’s culture’ (Parent and
Lovelace, 2018 p.212).
When taking in to
consideration the benefits of a positive organizational culture and how it has
a positive relationship with productivity, employee engagement and performance,
it is worthwhile for organizations to focus on creating positivity in the
organization amidst the limitations.
References
Chapman,
G. and White, P. (2011). The 5 languages
of appreciation in the workplace: Empowering organizations by encouraging
people. Chicago: Northfield.
Cohen,
S. (2006). Compliment your staff with nonmonetary rewards. Journal of Nursing Management. 37(12). pp.10-14. [online] Available
at: https://journals.lww.com/nursingmanagement/fulltext/2006/12000/compliment_your_staff_with_nonmonetary_rewards.4.aspx.
(Accessed: 21st April 2021).
Fineman,
S. (2006). On being positive: concerns and counterpoints. Academy of Management
Review. 31(2). pp. 270-291. doi:
10.2307/20159201.
Feldman,
M. and Khardemian, A. (2003). Positive
organizational scholarship: foundations of a new discipline. San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler.
French, S. and Holden, T. (2012). Positive
organizational behavior: a buffer for bad news. Business
Communication Quarterly. 75(2). pp. 208-220. doi:
10.1177/1080569912441823
Gostick,
A. and Elton, C. (2009). The carrot
principle: How the best managers use recognition to engage their people, retain
talent and accelerate performance. London: Simon and Schuster.
Gliñska-Neweś,
A. and Glinka, B. (2019). Does Negativity Counterpoint Positivity, or the Other
Way Round? On Positive Organizational Scholarship. Management Issues. 17(4). pp.24-38. doi: 10.7172/1644-9584.84.2
HR
Exchange Network. (2017). The 4 keys to a Positive Corporate Culture. [online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZcGj-eMH5o
(Accessed: 12th April 2021).
Lazarus,
R. (2003). Does the Positive Psychology Movement Have Legs? Psychological Inquiry. 14(2). pp. 93–109.
doi: 10.1207/S15327965PLI1402_02
Lyubomirsky,
S., King, L., and Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect:
Does happiness lead to success. Psychological
Bulletin. 131(6). pp. 803-855. doi:
10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803
Luthans,
F. and Youssef, C. (2007). Emerging Positive Organizational Behavior. Journal of Management. 33(3). pp.
321-349. doi: 10.1177/0149206307300814
Martin,
A. (2005). The role of positive psychology in enhancing satisfaction,
motivation, and productivity in the workplace. Journal of Organizational Behavior
Management. 24(1-2). pp. 113-133. doi:10.1300/J075v24n01_07
Parent,
J. and Lovelace, K. (2018). Employee engagement, positive organizational
culture and individual adaptability. On
the Horizon. 26(3). pp. 206-214. doi:10.1108/OTH-01-2018-0003
Peterson,
S. and Spiker, B. (2005). Establishing the positive contributory value of
older workers: A positive psychology perspective. Organizational
Dynamics. 34(2). pp.153-167. doi:
10.1016/j.orgdyn.2005.03.002
Robbins, S.
and Judge, T. (2013). Organizational
Behavior. 15th edn. United States: Pearson Education.
Seligman, M.
and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An
Introduction. American Psychologist.
55(1), pp.5-14.
Sirisetti,
S. (2012). Employee engagement culture. The
Journal of Commerce. 4(1). pp. 72-74.
Sok, J., Blomme, R. and Tromp, D. (2014). Positive
and negative spillover from work to home: the role of organizational culture
and supportive arrangements. British Journal of Management. 25(3). pp. 456-472.doi: 10.1111/1467-8551.12058.
16 Comments
As you mentioned there are many positive gains of organizational culture. Furthermore, organizational culture reflects on performance management as well. Having established that organizational culture comprises a range of complex social phenomena, it is not culture has an active and direct role in performance management. Murphy & Cleveland (1995) believe that research on culture will contribute to the understanding of performance management. Magee (2002) contends that without considering the impact of organizational culture, organizational practices such as performance management could be counterproductive because the two are interdependent and change in one will impact the other.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback Gagana, Yes, Cooper et al., (2001) also suggests that there is a positive relationship between organizational culture and performance management. However, organizational culture can be used to benefit performance management if the culture is strong and aligns with the strategy and structure of the organization (Bennett et al., 2001).
DeleteAgreed, According to Cameron et al., (2003) Positive organization culture is a new approach that recognizes and studies exceptional individual and organizational performance. A positive organizational culture can encourage the positive development of the organization, and actively assemble the performance of employees, and make them work with more enthusiasm. Also, it may improve production efficiency (Li, 2015).
ReplyDeleteYes Nivethini, organizations emphasizing positive factors rather than negative factors perform better financially and non-financially (Fryer, 2004). In addition, Ramlall (2008) asserts that a positive organizational culture helps to understand individual employees in a personal manner and align strategies to improve the creativity, innovation and commitment of employees.
DeleteAgreed, And further that Reward management is concerned with the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies, the purposes of which are to reward people fairly, equitably and consistently in accordance with their value to the organization and thus help the organization to achieve its strategic goals. (Armstrong, 2006).
ReplyDeleteYes Duminda, Reward Management is important in a positive organizational culture, however nowadays most organizations mainly focus on monetary rewards rather than non-monetary rewards (Habib, 2017).
DeleteNevertheless, non-monetary rewards are much appreciated as employees feel that their effort is genuinely recognized in an esteemed and thankful manner by the employer and non-monetary rewards also include training programs which will further develop the skills of the employee (Aguinis, 2013).
Well said Arjun, The organizational culture creates good
ReplyDeleteworking relationships and promotes ethical
communication between employees. It also help
employees in making decisions in the situations where
there are no formal rules or policies (Brice,2009)
Thank you Pernalla, I totally agree with you because a positive organizational culture creates ethical communication which guides all the decisions of employees and managers to do the right thing when issues arise increasing the productivity of the organization (Alyammahi, 2020).
DeleteAgreed with you Arjun, Effective organization culture is a collection of sub-organizational cultures. Such culture includes (a) healthy customer service, (b) employee-oriented management, (c) strong interpersonal relationship, (d) exemplary leadership, and (e) ethical decision-making process (Tedla, 2016).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your value addition Sachith. Yes, Sharma and Singh (2019, p.1512) also asserts that a positive organizational culture will have a direct impact on 'performance, employee loyalty, Innovation, Change and Intra-group cohesion' of an organization.
DeleteAgreed with you Arjun. Organization culture is created by norms and practices of current and previous leaders, critical incidents in history, necessity of ensuring work relationship among team and environment that the organization is exist. Constructive cultural styles has positive impact and dysfunctional defensive styles has negative impact on both organizational and individual performance (Balthazard, Cooke and Potter, 2006).
ReplyDeleteYes Chanaka, a constructive culture builds individual abilities, makes positive interpersonal relationships and motivates to succeed (Glisson and Green, 2005).
DeleteAgreed Arjun. The values of organizational culture are shared among different management structures, and in the role of counterculture,(Kerr, J., & Slocum, J. W., Jr. 2005). These values are forced to gain an advantage, and the organization's performance based on a solid culture contributes to a strong link between performance and management.
ReplyDeleteYes, Values are shared among the employees in the culture. it should have the characteristics of 'Innovation and risk taking, Attention to detail, Outcome orientation, People orientation, Team orientation, Aggressiveness and Stability'(O’Reilly et al., 1991 as cited in Robbins and Judge, 2013, pp. 547-548).
DeleteYes, Organization has it's own corporate culture, many researches found there is positive relationship with organizational culture & performance, organization culture norms strongly impact all who are involve in the organization(Jard & Yusof & Nikbin,2010).
ReplyDeleteYes Sandun, many researchers have found a positive relationship between organizational culture and performance of an organization and the 'norms of employees impact upon sustainable
Deleteperformance and management of organization culture as it leads to attainment of profitability' (Stewart, 2010 as cited in Awadh and Saad, 2013, p.169).