{"id":73393,"date":"2019-07-16T03:11:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T10:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?p=73393"},"modified":"2023-10-04T10:41:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T10:41:17","slug":"how-to-measure-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/how-to-measure-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"How to measure culture in an organization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Employees will experience your culture in different ways and even describe it differently. With all the other challenges your business faces, We can see why culture takes a back seat. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Rita Gunther McGrath wrote in Harvard Business Review, the landscape has shifted from looking for that long- term, sustainable competitive advantage to managing more of a portfolio of \u201c transient advantages,\u201d moving from one short-lived advantage to the next.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds tough, doesn\u2019t it? That\u2019s because it is. But this is where culture comes in. Most organizations have been focusing on strategy and operations (understandably), and culture simply became a luxury that they would get to once they achieved some success.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have boiled down our definition of culture to make it as clear and actionable as possible:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workplace culture<\/span><\/a> is the collection of words, actions, thoughts, and \u201cstuff\u201d that clarifies and reinforces what is truly valued inside an organization.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEARN ABOUT:<\/strong> Work culture<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explain, we\u2019ll start with one of the most important words: valued. Culture is ultimately about what is valued. That can include flowery \u201cvalues statements\u201d if you like, but to be honest, those statements aren\u2019t where the power lies. Enron had nice statements in their lobby about things like integrity and honesty, but that wasn\u2019t really valued at the end of the day, was it? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that means it\u2019s complex. We listed four things in the definition that create your culture: words, actions, thoughts, and stuff. The first three are brought to life by you and your people. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you might expect, those three areas are often inconsistent, which is one reason why culture can be so messy. It becomes something that you have to piece together, recognizing you\u2019ll find some contradictions along the way. For example, we\u2019ll say we value customer service, but we\u2019ll also say we value being strategic and focused on the long term. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the combination of what people say and what they do that will ultimately determine how those two values are balanced.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, you have to factor in the \u201cstuff.\u201d Forgive the technical jargon here, but \u201cstuff\u201d just means the non-human parts of culture.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more eloquent definitions out there, and there are definitions that either go deeper or broader, but we use this one because it facilitates action. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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