Building a better workplace begins with understanding the role of organisational culture in fostering lasting, positive change. When businesses undertake organisational change – a process involving major adjustments to adapt or improve key operations – a strong, healthy culture can provide essential support. Culture creates a guiding framework for decisions, expectations and behaviours across a company, and research has found that 72% of senior managers report that organisational culture aids successful change initiatives.
Periods of change can be emotionally challenging for employees, because managing uncertainty can cause feelings of stress and anxiety, leading to potential resistance to change initiatives. However, when organisations maintain a strong and consistent culture during times of transition, it can help alleviate these concerns and foster a greater sense of stability. A supportive, well-defined culture plays a crucial role in easing the adjustment process, making it easier for employees to embrace change and move forward with confidence.
Key Aspects of Organisational Culture:
Values:
- Company values are crucial to organisational culture and successful change. Aligning the values of the change initiative with those of the company and the individuals involved helps overcome resistance and fosters lasting, effective change. When change initiative strategies ignore value alignment, it can hinder progress, whereas strong value cohesion builds a more resilient organisation.
Effective Communication:
- Poor communication fuels resistance to change by increasing stress, dissatisfaction, and mistrust. In contrast, effective communication helps to build trust, ensure clarity around the change and prevent any misinformation; thereby creating a supportive culture that fosters successful change.
Psychological Safety:
- Psychological safety fosters positive change within organisations by helping employees manage stress and uncertainty. When employees feel safe to voice concerns and take risks, it reduces fear and resistance, and instead encourages creativity and innovation. This promotes organisational learning, adaptability, and effective decision making. Ultimately, this secure and supporting environment motivates employees to embrace change, driving long-term success and transformation.
How Can Leaders Create an Organisational Culture that Fosters Positive Change?
Effective leadership is pivotal for building and sustaining a culture that is adaptable to change. Research highlights that leadership directly influences the success of change initiatives, making it a key factor in shaping an organisational culture which supports positive transformation.
Transformational leadership is a dynamic approach that inspires positive, meaningful change. This approach empowers employees through bold visions, inspiration, passion, and developing emotional connections which motivates individuals to achieve success. Driven by a strong sense of purpose, transformational leaders possess the commitment and enthusiasm needed to guide organisations through complex change processes.
Key tips for using a Transformational Leadership Approach to Drive a Culture for Positive Change:
- Clear Purpose: Transformational leaders act with the intention of making a positive difference, clearly demonstrating why the change is beneficial for the company.
- Empower and Develop Employees: Provide employees with the tools, training, and authority they need to adapt to change confidently.
- Building Relationships: Strong relationships across teams and departments facilitate collaboration and mutual support. Leaders can build these connections by modelling empathy, encouraging teamwork, and breaking down silos to unite the workforce under shared goals.
- Foster Open Communication: Create a culture of transparency by encouraging dialogue, listening to concerns, and providing regular updates on the change process. Open communication ensures alignment, reduces resistance, and builds trust across all levels of the organisation.
How Can Impact Help?
At Impact, change and leadership are two of our key pillars for driving organisational success. We offer tailored workshops to help teams manage the challenges they experience during periods of change, and we also offer coaching to provide support at the individual level. You may also be interested in our “Lost in Translation: The disparity between values and behaviours” package, which is designed to help leaders define and communicate the company values to create a cohesive organisational culture.