It is now well recognised that organisational culture is a key driver of financial performance. An organisation’s culture can be measured by assessing the values, or collective beliefs and behaviours of its people. As part of their ongoing research into employee recognition, Joan Shafer & Judith Mills investigated the Barrett Values Centre (www.valuescentre.com) Cultural Values Assessment data for 2010 and identified the most commonly chosen personal, current and desired culture values.
The extensive analysis represents results from 193 Cultural Values Assessments, 170 organisations, 139,430 participants, 29 industries and 32 countries/regions.
Desired Culture Values
The aggregated data revealed the most commonly identified desired values for a “high performing” culture are:
- Teamwork
- Continuous improvement
- Customer satisfaction
- Employee recognition
- Open communication
- Accountability
- Information sharing
According to Shafer and Mills’ research many cultures are currently hindered by cost reduction, hierarchy, bureaucracy, long hours and a silo mentality. However, people are calling for connection, transparency and feedback at work and they are asking for recognition, open communication and information sharing from their leaders and colleagues.
How closely do these values reflect your organisation? How do you know? How are you measuring and managing your culture?
For further information on this enlightening research read my summary or the full article by Shafer and Mills.