Optimizing Employee engagement in a remote workplace - Cultivating a Strong Company Culture

 

Cultivating a Strong Company Culture

It is immensely crucial for any organization, whether operating remotely or through traditional means, to deeply contemplate the kind of culture it wishes to establish. This consideration holds significant weight as it profoundly influences how the company is perceived both internally and externally.

 

During the peak of the Roman Empire's splendor, Julius Caesar remarked, "It is of greater significance to have vastly expanded the frontiers of the Roman spirit (ingenium) than the frontiers of the Roman empire."

 

Central to this concept is the cultivation of a compelling vision and mission. When an organization aligns its vision and mission with objectives such as solving client problems, promoting transparency, fostering innovation, encouraging expansive thinking, and upholding values like integrity and empathy, it imparts a greater sense of purpose to team members. This shared purpose motivates them to actively contribute to common goals, emphasizing that success is not solely measured in financial terms.

 

As highlighted by Arena et al. in their research published in Organizational Dynamics (2023), “Effective organizational culture is vital for revenue growth, employee retention, and stock price acceleration. Despite its importance, culture change is challenging. In today's hybrid work environment, where team members are often remote, small work teams play a crucial role in shaping the desired culture through interactions. Overcoming this challenge involves combining behavioral data with organizational network analysis”.

In their research spanning three years and involving over 50,000 employees, they identified ten critical cultural attributes. By reconstructing employee networks based on primary interactions, they uncovered three essential cultural patterns, referred to as the three "“C” s" of cultivating culture. Our findings reveal that organizational culture clusters in employee networks, is contagious, and is contextually dependent. These insights provide leaders with practical applications for assessing and implementing cultural changes in their organizations”.

The 3C’s

We call these the three “C’s” of cultivating culture:

 

Culture (C)lusters. Culture is not evenly distributed across an organization, rather, it evolves in pockets within the network.

 

Culture is (C)ontagious. Employees shape each other’s experience and as a result certain cultural behaviors are modeled and reinforced person-to-person.

 

(C)ontext Matters. The degree to which cultural behaviors are transmitted from group to group varies based on the context surrounding a group.

 

Arena et al (2003)

 

Considering that culture operates subtly in the background and remote workplaces deviate from the norm, it becomes crucial to employ inventive methods for monitoring metrics that impact outcomes.

 

Do you believe your organization possesses an exceptional culture? Do you think your company culture will suit a remote workplace.

References:

Lartey, F.M. and Randall, P.M., 2022. Enhanced Engagement Nurtured by Determination, Efficacy, and Exchange Dimensions (EENDEED): A nine-item instrument for measuring traditional workplace and remote employee engagement. International Business Research, 15(2), pp.1-23.

Konovalov, O., 2018. Corporate Superpower: Cultivating A Winning Culture for Your Business. WildBlue Press.

Arena, M., Hines, S. and Golden III, J., 2023. The three Cs for cultivating organizational culture in a hybrid world. Organizational Dynamics, 52(1), p.100958.