Organisational culture acts like the wind; things will get out of hand if it blows oppositely. As innovation accelerates, rigid and authoritative structures limit operational efficiency and affect employee retention. Most leaders counter the argument that official accountability for shifting cultures lies in the hands of human resources. As per a study by the Society of Human Resources Managers (SHRM), around $223 billion was lost in the past five years due to employee turnover from an unfit culture.
While generating a high revenue benchmark strengthens market position, toxic cultural values might degrade the whole buildup in one go. Consequently, corporate culture slipped firmly as the top boardroom agenda to overcome talent drain issues. As culture is a shared phenomenon, HR leaders can assist organisations in embracing remarkable changes with a positive attitude.
Table of Contents
Crafting Blueprint for Cultural Shift
No more traditional top-down approach remains effective for executing changes; HR leaders are heading towards a human-centric pattern to decode the roadmap of cultural development.
From setting a vision, organising team facilitators, timelines, and budgets to training & development, HR managers had to look over all facets till the end. Policies on paper cannot initiate changes stand-alone; they require strategic alignment.
Analysis & Assessment
HR professionals are authoritative in scrutinising the organisation structure with a bird’s-eye view for a culture evaluation. They can proactively assess the real challenges and ground reality of clashes, whether they are cooked up or genuine. Transparency is the key to framing cultural changes; HR leadership is responsible for examining departmental, positional, and communicational gaps.
Policies & Guidelines Framework
Organisational culture changes are baseless without constructing improvements in policies. As HR leaders hold in & out accountability of policy and guidelines, they can incorporate new changes based on feedback. Every organisation evolves over time with behaviour and norm development; the HR department can timely upgrade with key changes to shape a new culture.
Leadership Diagnosis
Ineffective leadership and internal politics can destroy an organisation’s culture and motivation. HR has a strategic role in talent retention, whether function, multi-level, or matrix structure; dominance might prevail at every stage. They can bridge the gap to diagnose faulty structures and establish a consistent communication flow with transparency. It reforms organisational culture by replacing any traits of malpractice and mistreatment.
Deploy Feedback & Engagement
Unstructured feedback and a lack of engagement are early signs of a deteriorating organisational culture. HR managers can streamline the line of complaints and suggestions to empower cultural differences. They can collaborate with leaders to stimulate and manage barriers and change observable behaviours.
Align Vision with Culture
A concise and compelling organisational vision crafted at the top level might lose its dignity while reaching execution levels. Who ensures that every employee works in the same direction? – its HRs who can adjust the misalignment of vision to reshape the organisation’s culture. HR managers can set a communication pipeline for vision and mission from existing to new talent recruits to empower changes using digital platforms.
Real Examples of Cultural Shift in Organisations
In documents, organisational culture change might look effortless, but forwarding it to the execution level takes a lot of effort. Many companies have succeeded, and others have failed to achieve the right benchmark of successful cultural shifts. The classic example is Twitter’s transition into X; after Elon Musk stepped into the leadership role, the company was trapped into setbacks, employee turnovers, and layoffs due to poor cultural shifts. Kingfisher Airlines had to pay heavy prices due to a lack of delegation and cultural values, and even after achieving financial milestones, the company could have done better. On the other hand, quite good examples are Tata, Google, Microsoft, IBM, etc., who are actively working on scaling their cultures.
Organisations evolve with positive cultures to build trust and credibility over time. With the ongoing trend of massive layoffs, HR has become more significant in complying with changes and embracing cultural changes to demonstrate the best working culture.
