The importance of the culture and psychology of an organisation

LET’S LOOK AT ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE & PSYCHOLOGY

1      WHAT IS ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE?

Organizational culture is defined as the underlying beliefs, values, assumptions, strategies and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS

Organisational culture includes an organisation’s expectations, experiences, philosophy, as well as the values that guide employee behaviour, and is expressed in member self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations.

Culture is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are considered fundamental to the success of the organisation by staff, managers, business partners, customers and key stake holders.

Culture also includes the organization’s vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits.

While the above definitions of culture express how the construct plays out in the workplace, other definitions stress employee behavioural components, and how organizational culture directly influences the behaviours of employees within an organisation.

Under this set of definitions, organisational culture is a set of shared assumptions that guide what happens in organisations by defining appropriate behaviour, responsibility and accountability in the main for staff productivity, commitment activity and performance.

Organisational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. Also, organisational culture may influence how much employees identify and buy in to the values and philosophy of their organization

HOW IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE CREATED AND COMMUNICATED?

Business leaders and managers are vital to the creation and communication of their workplace culture.

Leaders must appreciate their role in maintaining or evolving an organisation’s culture. A deeply embedded and established culture illustrates how people should behave, which can help employees achieve their goals and achieve their targets.

This behavioural framework, in turn, ensures higher job satisfaction when an employee feels part of a team working with managers to achieve results rather than for them. This is where good team leaders are seen to invest in their employees by arranging individual personal development and growth plans for staff combined with the appropriate one on one coaching and skill development.

From this perspective, organizational culture, leadership, employee personal development and job satisfaction are all inextricably linked.

2      THE ROLE OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOLY IN AN ORGANISATIONS SUCCESS

Positive psychology emphasizes individuals over tasks and work-related skills, and trains managers to recognise employees’ strengths and weaknesses and put in place outcome focused goals and personal development plans.

When employees feel valued as unique individuals, they give more of their energy and attention to their jobs, often subconsciously. The happier employees are at work the more motivated they become which often results in lots of additional action being taken to achieve greater productivity levels and higher levels of performance.

Positive Organizational Behaviour (POB) is defined as "the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today's workplace

Effective leadership can influence the organizational values such as honesty, respect, ethics and tolerance etc by demonstrating an ideal attitude in the workplace, establishing a vision among the employees, reinforcing accountability, motivating the employees, making a vision plan for the culture and values and by rewarding achievers accordingly.

A positive workplace enhances well-being, creativity, and satisfaction. It also creates resilience against negativity and strengthens relationships inside and outside the business.

“Positive Psychology is the scientific study of human flourishing, and an applied approach to optimal functioning. It has also been defined as the study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals, communities, and organisations to thrive.”

Positive Psychology can help you become happier in many ways. When we practice focusing on happy things, turning negative into positive, letting go of all negativity. ... It is a practice, finding the positive every day in life, making a list daily of different things you are thankful for. All of these things affect employee’s mindset which is key here and forms the basis of their outlook, feelings, commitment, levels of happiness, and most importantly their motivation to take action in order to achieve results. A positive mindset drives employee to take action which in turn produces results and the more results that are achieved, the more action is taken and so on. Momentum quickly builds, the employee mindset becomes even stronger and more positive and more action is taken. More results are achieved and on it goes.

TIPS TO MAINTAIN A POSITIVE MINDSET

A positive mindset is something that is experienced at every level so from the conscious to the sub conscious. This is where NLP fits into the mindset model as you will learn later.

Negative attitudes promote fear, and a narrowing of focus and the mind, while positive attitudes do the opposite. No one should live in a constant state of “fight or flight”, but negative attitudes create exactly that scenario.

It has been proven that having a positive mindset makes your view of life seem broad, full of possibilities. That view leads to actually living your life in a way that makes it natural to be exposed to and acquire new skills.

Here are some ways to maintain a positive mindset in the workplace, regardless of whether it comes naturally or not:

These will become known to you as the presuppositions of NLP

The principles which form the foundation of NLP have been modelled from key people who consistently produced superb results, as well as from systems theory and natural laws. We know these as "The Presuppositions of NLP"

As well as a set of powerful skills, NLP is a philosophy and an attitude that is useful when your goal is excellence in whatever you do. We invite you to discover what happens in your life if you simply ‘act as if’ the following statements are true…

·      Have respect for the other person’s model of the world. (We are all unique and experience the world in different ways. Everyone is individual and has their own special way of being).

·      The map is not the territory. (People respond to their ‘map’ of reality, not to reality itself. How people make sense of the world around them is through their senses and from their own personal experience; this means that each individual’s perception of an event is different).

·      Mind and body form a linked system. (Your mental attitude affects your body and your health and, in turn, how you behave).

·      If what you are doing isn’t working, do something else. (Flexibility is the key to success).

·      Choice is better than no choice. (Having options can provide more opportunities for achieving results).

·      We are always communicating. (Even when we remain silent, we are communicating. Non-verbal communication can account for a large proportion of a message).

·      The meaning of your communication is the response you get. (While your intention may be clear to you, it is the other person’s interpretation and response that reflects your effectiveness. NLP teaches you the skills and flexibility to ensure that the message you send equals the message they receive).

·      There is no failure, only feedback. (What seemed like failure can be thought of as success that just stopped too soon. With this understanding, we can stop blaming ourselves and others, find solutions and improve the quality of what we do).

·      Behind every behaviour there is a positive intention. (When we understand that other people have some positive intention in what they say and do (however annoying and negative it may seem to us), it can be easier to stop getting angry and start to move forward).

·      Anything can be accomplished if the task is broken down into small enough steps. (Achievement becomes easier if activities are manageable; NLP can help you learn how to analyse what needs to be done and find ways to be both efficient and effective).