5 Office Culture ‘Facts’ That Are Totally Wrong

Workplace culture is a hot and important topic in today’s world. Organisations are struggling with the reality that they have unhealthy workplace cultures. However, many people have significant misconceptions about what creates “workplace culture” and whether or not it can be changed.

Here are some misconceptions about workplace culture:

1. “Culture” in an organisation is so large and complex that it’s impossible to be changed.

Some individuals look at the current life of an organisation and feel overwhelmed with the complexity of the problems. They conclude the problem is too large to be addressed for the organisation to be able to change.

In truth, large organisations of various types have taken a self-assessment, seen that there are significant problems that need to be addressed and resolved.
 

2. The only way to change an organisation’s culture to do a total reboot

People reach this conclusion because they see companies changing significantly after a crucial event such as bankruptcy which requires them to reorganise the organisation. Other times, they observe that a new company is built after a formerly large unhealthy one dies, and a new renovated version of the former company arises.

While this can be a way that a workplace culture can change, it is not essential to cut off major parts of the company to make it healthy.
 

3. No one person can significantly affect their workplaces’ culture

Some people believe this because of the incredible “staying power” that an existing culture has. Many cultures can feel almost immovable. This is because many people believe that “culture” is an external entity that essentially happens to an organisation.

The reality is: workplace culture is the result of the mixture of thousands of individual interactions between hundreds of thoughts of individual employees.

4. The best way to revamp a dysfunctional company culture is by changing the top leadership

While leadership at the top may need to be change, it does not guarantee any type of cultural shift. This is evidenced by the large number of companies who have recently had toxic cultures, changed their top management, but the cultural patterns continue.

5. It’s easy to change culture

There are many people who simply believe that all you need to do is to be more positive and the work culture will change for the better. Culture is complex and change does not come easy.

However, when the people within an organisation understand what comprises culture and then start a systematic approach to changing those factors which help shape culture, change will happen.
 

If you want to improve your organisation’s culture, start to reflect on how your daily actions may influence the aspects of your company's culture you don’t like and see what ways you can start behaving differently that could begin to make a difference. You can influence the interactions around you, and finally, begin to affect change in your overall organisational culture.

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This article is based on Paul White's 5 Misconceptions About Workplace Culture