Culture

Organisation Culture and stress

By Ron Cairns ⋅ November 3, 2008 ⋅  Printable version ⋅

Organisation cultures can be thought of as organisational personalities. They are formed over long periods of time and are incredibly complex and hard to change. It is the culture of the organisation, more than any other factor, which determines how people behave within the organisation. Many factors influence the organisation culture including:

• Founder style
• Geographical location
• Technology
• Current leadership style
• Organisation size
• History
• Legislation
• Physical structure within which the organisation is housed
• Objectives and strategy of the organisation
• Nature of the sector within which the organisation operates

In general organisation cultures can be said to have been shaped from the top and from the past. They are hard to pin down and measure with any certainty. However they do create an organisational climate that can be felt and observed within the organisation i.e. the organisation climate is the visible effect of the organisation culture (the cause) and is easier to describe, determine and measure. People arriving into the culture as new colleagues quickly assimilate as gaining acceptance is a fundamental part of the basic human instinct.

In positive cultures, where the majority of colleagues are focussed, united, productive and communicating well, the likelihood of stress being a negative factor is reduced because people communicate well and exist in a positive environment. The chance of a colleague being upset or distressed in such an atmosphere is reduced because colleagues are more open to each other and are co dependant.

In negative cultures, where colleagues are allowed to be cynical, uncommunicative, surly, resistant to change or hostile to management without any real attempt to engage them. The tendency among the workforce is one of making sure you’re not in the firing line when things go wrong or when blame is being apportioned. This culture will breed secrecy because people perceive that admission of stress, or indeed any other issue, will evoke a negative reaction from leaders.

The issue then is to find the way that allows people to admit they are under pressure or that they are experiencing problems in the safe knowledge that you, the employer, will help them return to full productivity. And you will have gained not only a loyal employee, but an ambassador for the company who can help to keep the culture positive.

If colleagues feel safe about approaching Human Resources, you are less likely to get surprises and long periods of absenteeism through stress. You will be preventing and pre empting.

Tags: Culture, Stress