Dive Brief:
- Executives generally agree that organizational culture directly impacts financial performance, but many aren't taking steps to create and preserve a strong culture, according to the results of a survey released Dec. 5.
- Less than half of respondents to the Eagle Hill Consulting poll said their their organization monitors its culture to mitigate risk. Forty-one percent said they're failing to hold leadership accountable for creating strong cultures, and only 46% said that they hold employees accountable for their organization's culture, the organization reported.
- "This research validates what we hear frequently from executives — culture often is on auto-pilot and not strategically managed," Melissa Jezior, CEO of Eagle Hill Consulting, said in a press release; "Organizations that are deliberate about their culture will have a competitive advantage because culture is a major factor in aligning a workforce to achieve results."
Dive Insight:
A strong, deliberate culture requires substantial effort from leaders; to obtain buy-in, CEOs should "treat leaders' responsibility to drive culture the same way they treat other business activities," Gartner said in a study published earlier this year.
But merely making culture a business imperative isn't enough, experts say. Leaders must know how to manage and measure culture. Shawn Overcast, partner at Gotham Culture, previously told HR Dive that to manage culture, the people in charge of carrying it out must be on the lookout for any culture changes and be ready to shift to another culture, if necessary. They also must be able and willing to measure culture to determine what is or isn't working
These efforts will become increasingly important in the future, Glassdoor has predicted. In a study released last month, the review site projected that 2020 will kick off a "culture-first decade." This designation, according to the study, means that culture will play a major role in shaping recruiting efforts, diversity initiatives and more for the next decade.
