Recognizing the Symptoms of a Broken Organizational Culture: A Labor Day Reflection for Leaders

Organizational culture is defined as the complex and multidimensional set of values, beliefs, and attitudes that shape the behaviors and practices of an organization. While it is universally understood that organizational culture is critical and highly consequential for competitive success, it often remains overlooked and underestimated due to its nuanced and undefinable nature. Few leaders put in the work to improve and evolve their company culture, leading to counterproductive outcomes, unhealthy behaviors, and overall workplace dysfunction. 

Symptoms of broken organizational cultures manifest as disengagement and disillusionment among employees, inefficiency in decision-making, and stakeholder trust loss. This demands urgent cultural transformation through leadership reflection, collective efforts, and commitment to cultural transformation. This article breaks down the warning signs of a broken organizational culture.

What Leads to a Broken Organizational Culture?

A myriad of factors lead to the breakdown of organizational culture.

• When corporate values are not reflected in senior leadership's decision-making and strategic actions, it may breed seeds of discord in individual contributors. For employees to be aligned and connected to their corporate culture, they need to see leadership upholding the mission, vision, and values across systems, practices, and strategic implementations. 

• The inability to respond or adapt to change and uncertainties drives unsustainable cultures. Leaders must be adept at change management, or they may risk impairing their organization's ability to produce desired outcomes or thrive in the face of transformations.

• During the implementation phase, insufficient buy-in from employees, often leaders and executives, can lead to the failure of well-designed culture-building efforts.

• Often, departmental disagreements and hierarchical barriers lead to the development of silos that inhibit cross-functional collaboration, which is crucial for building sustainable cultures. 

Symptoms of a Broken Organizational Culture

Common warning signs that an organization's culture may be unhealthy and potentially unsustainable include

1. Lack of confidence in leadership and management.

2. Loss of trust in leadership, organizational ability, and professional relationships.

3. Increased employee turnover rates.

4. Employees lack belief or pride in what an organization stands for.

5. Rampant barriers to communication.

6. Lack of commitment to organizational goals or contributions towards success.

7. Inconsistent application of policies.

8. Unacceptable behaviors, microaggressions, and biases are not being called out and addressed appropriately. 

9. Inability to respond to change.

10. Employees feel disconnected, disengaged, and disillusioned. 

11. Increased instances of stress and burnout among employees.

12. Lack of acknowledgment and recognition for one's contributions.

13. Increased instances of absenteeism, resenteeism, and quitting among employees.

14. Employees report exclusionary behavior, unequal treatment, or discrimination.

15. Rewarding superficial wins over long-term vision.

5 Steps to Fix a Broken Organizational Culture

Driving cultural transformation requires leadership reflection and intentional efforts to drive and shape behaviors, mindsets, and attitudes that align with a company's aspirational culture. Effective communication, inclusive values, conscious alignment, and change management are all key factors in sustainable culture-building. 

    1. Taking steps to ensure employees are aligned and connected to their company's culture.

Cultural connectedness can drive positive organizational results. Employees who feel aligned to their culture may be more likely to be engaged, less prone to burnout, and less likely to quit. However, few employees feel strongly connected to their company's culture. 

Leaders can ensure employee alignment and connectedness with organizational culture through intentional efforts in three key areas.

• Ensuring employees know the mission, values, and vision a company stands for and identify with them.

• Hiring (culture fit) employees who strongly believe in and care about the company’s culture. 

• Ensuring employees exhibit cultural behaviors and feel a sense of belonging within their organizations.

Deliberate actions to achieve this alignment require training employees to build awareness about the culture and ensure they buy into it. Leaders may model behaviors and attitudes that demonstrate the culture, for instance, being vulnerable, empathetic, and open about their experiences to drive psychological safety and promote inclusivity. If leaders model desirable behaviors, such as using inclusive language and championing diversity, they can encourage employees to follow suit.

According to Gallup research, even a 10% improvement in how connected employees feel with their organization's values reduces employee turnover by 8.1% and increases profitability by 4.4%.

    2. Leaders must invest in building resilient, future-ready workforces. To do so, change management is key. It reflects the ability of leaders and teams to learn and course-correct in the face of transformations. Leaders who fall back on predesigned culture archetypes to drive success even as their company changes render their cultures and organizations inflexible and vulnerable. 

Leaders must train their teams to respond to inevitable pressures adequately, learn from them, and grow through change to ensure resilience and organizational competency.

    3. Leadership reflection and culture revaluation are necessary. A company may have a collaborative and open culture where diverse perspectives are encouraged and every employee's voice is heard and respected. However, a highly collaborative culture can slow down decision-making, make teams risk-averse, and affect agility if the application of a company's aspirational culture is inconsistent. Similarly, a highly customer-centric corporate culture can make employees reluctant to refuse unrealistic demands, leading to increased expectations and over-delivery. Bringing cultural transformation requires defining (or redefining) culture by identifying an organization’s unique strengths and core values and outlining the behaviors and outcomes leaders wish to drive.

    4. Employee surveys can be a helpful tool for identifying the root causes of a broken culture. Leaders can track employee engagement and connection with the culture through frequent surveys, in-person candid conversations, and focus groups. Honest feedback from the workforce can help pinpoint rampant unhealthy patterns and trends that come in the way of fostering a positive work culture. A range of benefits is to be gained by doing so, including:

• Creating an open culture where employees feel free to voice their thoughts and grievances without fear of judgment.

• Ensuring that underrepresented groups (women, LGBTQ employees, and persons with disabilities) feel psychologically safe and included.

• Building trust amongst workers and promoting productive collaboration.

• Preventing microaggressions and implicit bias.

• Identifying the unique strengths of employees and acknowledging their contributions, which in turn leads to job fulfillment.

    5. More flexibility and autonomy over work can improve engagement. Employee expectations have rapidly evolved post the pandemic. An overwhelmingly high majority of employees today prioritize and seek work-life balance, autonomy, and remote work flexibility in their work. In fact, greater work-life balance and better personal well-being may be #1 determining factor when considering other jobs. 

Organizations that don't meet these employee expectations and impose rigid policies that affect employees’ work aspirations or incorporate digital surveillance in workplaces risk demoralizing employees who may engage in non-compliant or manipulative behavior. 

It is key for leaders to build a culture of trust and empowerment to ensure employees have flexibility and autonomy in their roles.

• Offering a merit-based pathway to remote flexibility and autonomy can help build trust in the employer-employee relationship and may prove to be mutually beneficial.

• Policies may be revised regularly and as necessary to ensure employees have the option to work remotely. 

• Managers may set clear expectations, promote accountability, and ensure transparency around work practices.