In the wake of technology and globalisation, both the organisation’s internal and external environment have been affected. Among the organisational aspects that are affected are operations and culture. Today, most organisations keep changing their work culture to incorporate new changes brought by technology and globalisation. For example, with globalisation, workplace diversity has increased, forcing organisations to adjust the way they do things to incorporate employees from different backgrounds. Gill (2013) presented culture as a system of shared attitudes, procedures, values, beliefs and knowledge among the humans (p. 73). Based on Gill’s discussion on the meaning of culture, it can be said that work culture comprises of common beliefs, values and behaviours that create a binding environment for employees to work as a team.
Work culture plays a fundamental role in influencing employees to conform to the expected behaviour (Aaron, 2019). As such, the organisation must provide a work environment that will motivate workers to adhere to workplace culture. Harrison & Baird (2015) argued that work culture determines the functions of the organisation and employee interaction with each other. The organisation will have a strong work culture if employees can adhere to the company’s regulations, rules and guidelines. The research by Sinha, et al. (2010) on the “Impact of Work Culture on Motivation and Performance Level of Employees in Private Sector Companies” established that work culture influences motivation and performance. Almost similar study advanced by Baird et al. (2017) connoted that for the organisation culture to contribute to performance, it must have unique traits and be dominant. In this context, the unique features are shared behavioural patterns, beliefs and values (Lebrón, 2013). These characteristics must be considered as the binding elements in the work environment for them to contribute to employee performance.
The success behind a productive workplace lies in the ability of the management to create a strong work culture. Sinha et al. (2010) judged that a healthy work culture leads to clarifying to employees on how they should respond to particular situations and they are aware that they will be rewarded for practising the desired organisational values. As such, there is a need for the organisation to maintain a healthy work culture that is characterised by unique traits, leading to employees’ satisfaction and increased productivity as presented by (Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand, 2017). The leading features that have been found to boost organisation healthy work culture are respect, fairness, rewarding success, encouraging teamwork, and practical guidelines and friendly policies (Harrison & Baird, 2015). Failure to adhere to these aspects might have adverse effects on employees, including employees taking things literary, employees becoming numb, creation of redundant routine, job dissatisfaction and animosity (Son, 2016). Therefore, the management must avoid the creation of toxic work culture that will result in having adverse effects on the employees’ performance, happiness and productivity.
Healthy work culture tends to boost effective communication in the organisation (Eaton-Walley & Lowe, 2017). When workplace culture encourages employees to interact and work as a team, they are likely to share information. Aaron (2019) presented work culture elements that impact organisational communication positively. Psychological safety is voted as the leading variable in influencing organisational communication (Chen et al., 2015). It creates an environment for the development of shared beliefs among the organisational members who feel that it worth to take the interpersonal risk. With this variable, employees feel that they are psychologically safe, and as a result, they expect their workmates to respond to their thoughts positively and without rejection. This notion influences interaction among the work colleagues through prosing an idea, seeking feedback, asking questions and reporting mistakes. Knapp (2016) argued that individuals who see that they have a psychologically safe environment they are likely to communicate more because they feel that they workmates will not reject their thoughts or embarrass them.
The work culture within the decentralised organisational structure influence employees to share information. According to Hansen & Høst (2017), centralisation in the organisation creates bureaucracy, which discourages employees from sharing information or seeking feedback. Decentralisation, on the other hand, creates an information sharing and consultation environment, hence, boosting internal communication within the organisation. The work culture that is based on openness, where the leader leads by example creates interaction and friendly environment where employees with different levels in the organisation can interact (Aaron, 2019). Both organisational and workplace cultures are assumed to come from the top. This is because, as followers, the employees are likely to be influenced by what their leaders do. Therefore, a work culture that is rooted by openness in leadership is likely to encourage employees to seek clarification from the leaders; thus, increasing organisational communication.
The work culture where employees have being given the responsibility to make decisions and have higher control of their job, it is likely to promote organisational communication. Eaton-Walley & Lowe (2017) noted that if an individual has many responsibilities in their jobs, they are likely to communicate more because they have to share more with other people whom their job responsibilities are a related. Employees internal beliefs have also been found to influence the level of communication in the organisation. As demonstrated earlier, culture is rooted in shared beliefs. If the work culture beliefs align with internal employee beliefs, they are likely to interact and share a lot of information with their peers. Therefore, it is recommended that leaders and managers should create work culture beliefs that will influence individual employee beliefs positively and encourage teamwork.
Conclusion
An organisation exists to meet specific targets. To do so, it brings people from different background together. It would be difficult to maintain a working relationship if no system can encourage them to work together. This calls for the development of the work culture that is based on the shared beliefs, values, knowledge, process, procedures and cooperation. These are variables of work culture that encourage communication among the staff members. If workers enjoy and feel comfortable while in the workplace, they will be happy and easily share information, report mistakes, seek feedback and support their workmates in decision-making.
References
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