Why Cultural and Core Values are Important to an Organization

Why Cultural and Core Values are Important to an Organization?

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. This is a famous saying by Peter Drucker, where he implies that culture plays a crucial and inevitable role in an organization’s success. It is more like the north star guiding the lost vessel in the vast sea. In this pandemic, since its beginning in March 2020, organizations were lost and are constantly adapting and looking for ways to sustain and thrive.

Whatever the strategy is, only a strong culture can ensure that it reaches every individual in the organization, despite the remote working scenario. Provided that the employees live out the core values of their organization every day, they would understand the intent of the strategy, no matter where they are, and try harder to implement it to weather the storm.

Culture and strategy should work hand in hand in an organization for the business to thrive and achieve even their stretch goals.

“Company culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything for better or for worse.”

-Simon Sinek

What is a Core Value?

Core values are the basic principles that the organization believes in and wants the employees to be aware of, respect, imbibe, and exhibit in their day-to-day activities. They are the pillars on which the organization has been built and that strongly holds the organization together throughout the time – good or bad.

Some of the core values that should be part of the culture of an organization are as follows.

  1. Integrity
  2. Honesty
  3. Trust
  4. Accountability
  5. Commitment to customer experience
  6. Passionate about work
  7. Innovation
  8. Mutual Respect
  9. Loyalty
  10. Courage

What are Company Culture and Values?

Company culture refers to the shared beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and norms that shape how people within an organization interact, work, and make decisions. It’s the personality of a company and often reflects its history, leadership, and mission. Company culture encompasses various aspects, including:

Values: The core principles and beliefs that guide how employees and the organization as a whole should operate.

Norms: The unwritten rules or expected behaviors within the company, which can influence everything from dress code to communication styles.

Work Environment: The physical and emotional atmosphere of the workplace, which can be competitive, collaborative, relaxed, or formal, among other things.

Leadership Style: How leaders in the company lead, make decisions, and interact with employees.

Communication: How information is shared, from top-down communication to peer-to-peer interactions.

Employee Engagement: The degree to which employees are emotionally invested in their work and the company.

Inclusivity and Diversity: The company’s commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion, ensuring a welcoming environment for all.

Company values are the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide the behavior, decisions, and actions of an organization and its employees. These values represent the ethical and moral framework that defines the company’s identity and its relationship with its stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the broader community. Examples of company values might include:

Integrity: Upholding honesty and ethical behavior in all dealings.

Innovation: Encouraging creativity and the pursuit of new ideas and solutions.

Customer-Centric: Putting the customer’s needs and satisfaction at the forefront.

Teamwork: Promoting collaboration and valuing diverse perspectives.

Continuous Improvement: Striving for excellence and always seeking ways to do better.

Accountability: Taking responsibility for one’s actions and commitments.

Respect: Treating all individuals with dignity and respect.

Sustainability: Commitment to environmental and social responsibility.

Quality: Ensuring high-quality products or services.

Adaptability: Being open to change and embracing it as an opportunity.

Company values serve as a compass for decision-making, help define the company’s brand, and can influence both internal and external perceptions of the organization. When aligned with the company culture, values contribute to a cohesive and productive work environment.

Impact among the employees

A robust culture guides employee’s thoughts and deeds, and the cultural values are reflected in employees’ response to any situation in spite of employees’ demographic differences. During mergers & acquisitions, the cultures of companies play a key role. If unnoticed, the cost of

Misalignment at the leadership team level will be too hefty to bear. SAP spun off its Qualtrics unit with an IPO, and it has been less than two years since its acquisition of the experience management company happened for $8 billion. Though SAP has the majority ownership of Qualtrics, Qualtrics’ leadership team will be unchangeable.

Qualtrics’ EmployeeXM surveyed and gathered continuous feedback from employees to learn the right actions that are necessary to enhance the employee experience. The reason behind why SAP did the spin-off is because it has been around for a long while with an established strong culture, and it would have been difficult for it to combine with the much younger culture of Qualtrics. Therefore, the integration was a failure.

“Creating and implementing a strategy to successfully blend cultures is core to merger and acquisition success. Forcing one culture on another never works. Organizations can avoid falling into a cultural chasm by factoring the people aspect into M&A criteria well before the deal is signed,”

-Michele Hamill, CHRO at JAGGAER, a spend management solution.

Significance of Culture Culture brings all employees together eliminating personal and team level differences among employees and teams. It’s an organization’s identity to the external world and these days, candidates apply only for companies that have strong and employee-centric culture. Culture has become talents’ one of the major concerns in the job market. Most of the time, employees quit the job because of poor culture within an organization.

Besides, organizations check candidates’ culture fit along with skills and competencies during the selection process because the act of cultural misfit employees brings in negative impact in areas such as employee turnover, engagement, and happiness levels. Reports suggest that there is a significant correlation between Workplace violence or sexual harassment cases and employee’s cultural values.

The cultural alignment between employee and organization is considered not only as an engagement factor but as a parameter in performance management and workplace ethics. Companies evaluate how their employees demonstrate the company’s cultural values; identify development areas and promote them. Organizations spend huge budgets on cross-cultural training especially during an overseas visit for customer sites, conferences, etc.

This is where the organizations are branded as employee-friendly, process-driven, customer-centric, innovative, rewarding, risk-taking, task-oriented, etc.

Why is Culture Important -Benefits of cultural alignment between employees and organization

If you have been wondering, “why is culture important?”,the following points will give you the answer.

  • Employees working for a long term
  • Increased engagement and collaboration
  • Higher employee morale and motivation
  • Higher productivity
  • Career growth options
  • Better teamwork

Glassdoor’s survey 2019, uncovers the correlation between culture and recruitment/retention. It also explored job aspirants’ ideology on cultural alignment as shown below.

  • Company culture matters significantly more in the age group between 18 – 34 and they weigh culture above salary.
  • Company culture is one of the main reasons that almost two-thirds (65%) of employees continue in their job
  • Employees would vote with their feet: if their current company’s culture deteriorates, 71 percent of employees would start looking for new opportunities elsewhere.

Synergita’s Culture score

Synergita helps companies to carry out Cultural evaluation through the mobile-based gamified platform. With a simple survey kind of approach, the mobile application helps employees to evaluate their team members/team and organization on how they demonstrate the company’s core values on a daily basis. This helps the management to find out the strengths and development areas and work on improving them.

Let’s celebrate our cultural values!

When a powerful culture is established within an organization, it is time to bring in working and proven strategies with the help of a digital solution like Synergita, trailblazing performance management and engagement software. Synergita helps its customers with its avant-garde and effective features such as,

  • Goals Management
  • Objectives and Key Results (OKR)
  • Continuous Check-ins
  • 360 degree feedback
  • Rewards and Recognition
  • Training and Development plans
  • Customized reports and analytics
  • E-communication
  • Culture score

These features increase the employee engagement rate and provide the best employee experience. Happy and engaged employees keep your customers happy and position your brand at a top place in the market.

Book a demo with us and learn more about the culture score feature of Synergita.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *