Workplace Cultures

Unfortunately, far too many people don’t like where they work. Some organizations are unhealthy and full of disrespectful behavior. Other workplaces are simply uninspiring. For various reasons, countless people feel trapped, indifferent, or bored at work. The authors of this book believe that people should be able to like where they work. When employees like the places they work, it’s not only good for their mental health and well-being, it’s also good for their organizations – both financially and otherwise. When a workplace culture is purposely created to be respectful and inspiring, employees are happier, more productive, and more engaged. By exploring six key elements that make up a healthy workplace culture, The Culture Question answers two fundamental questions: “How does your organization’s culture impact how much people like where they work?” and “What can you do to make it better?” Discover how to create a workplace where people like to work by focusing on these six elements of healthy workplace culture: Communicating Your Purpose and Values. Employees are inspired when they work in organizations whose purpose and values resonate with them. Providing Meaningful Work. Most employees want to work on projects that inspire them, align with what they are good at, and allow them to grow. Focusing Your Leadership Team on People. How leaders relate to their employees plays a major role in how everyone feels about their workplace. Building Meaningful Relationships. When employees like the people they work with and for, they are more satisfied and more engaged in their work. Creating Peak Performing Teams. People are energized when they work together effectively because teams achieve things that no one person could do on their own. Practicing Constructive Conflict Management. When leaders don’t handle conflict promptly and well, it quickly sours the workplace. This book includes survey feedback from over 2,400 leaders and employees and resources for putting these ideas into action.

The shifting influence of growing organizational cultures and individual standards has caused significant changes to modern organizations. By creating a better understanding of these influences, the quality of organizations can be improved. Exploring the Influence of Personal Values and Cultures in the Workplace is a pivotal reference source for the latest research on how culture and personal values shape and influence employees’ actions, behaviors, and leadership styles. Featuring extensive coverage on relevant areas such as psychological health, career management, and job satisfaction, this publication is an ideal resource for practitioners, professionals, managers, and researchers seeking innovative perspectives on the impact of personal values and cultures in the workplace.

In Writing Workplace Cultures: An Archaeology of Professional Writing, Jim Henry analyzes eighty-three workplace writing ethnographies composed over seven years in a variety of organizations. He views the findings as so many shards in an archaeology on professional writing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. These ethnographies were composed by either practicing or aspiring writers participating in a Master’s program in professional writing and editing. Henry solicited the writers' participation in "informed intersubjective research" focused on issues and questions of their own determination. Most writers studied their own workplace, composing "auto-ethnographies" that problematize these workplaces' local cultures even as they depict writing practices within them. Henry establishes links between current professional writing practices and composition instruction as both were shaped by national economic development and local postsecondary reorganization throughout the twentieth century. He insists that if we accept basic principles of social constructionism, the text demonstrates ways in which writers "write" workplace cultures to produce goods and services whose effects go far beyond the immediate needs of its clients.

This monograph presents various approaches to understanding the multiple levels, layers, and definitions of culture, cross-cultural research, cross-cultural competence, the role of culture in organizations, organizational culture, and the role of multiple culture layers in individual workers’ workplace attitudes, performance, and general experiences. Inaugurating the new series SpringerBriefs on Culture, Organizations, and Work, it establishes both fundamental and controversial ideas related to the myriad ways of studying these topics. It highlights the wide variety of conceptual approaches for studying culture, organization and work and brings to light some of the critical questions related to culture (at all units and levels of analysis) and their effect on both the workplace and the worker in order to present a coherent educational resource for practitioners and researchers alike.

This book is a collection of articles that explain how to transform organizational cultures in order to transform companies in a great workplace. The article were written by authors in from several countries from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania showing that a great place to work is independent of country cultures, size, industry and even managerial style.

In the early '80s, Allan Kennedy and Terry Deal launched a new field of inquiry and practice, with the publication of Corporate Cultures, in which they argued that distinct types of cultures evolve within companies and have a direct impact on strategy and performance. Fifteen years later, the authors have teamed up to assess the effects of globalization, short-termism, technology, downsizing, outsourcing, mergers, and reengineering on corporate culture. They find that despite these tremendous pressures, organizations, by their very nature, will create self-reinforcing communities; the pattern today is for mini-cultures to form within the larger corporation. The challenge for managers and leaders at all levels is to find ways to knit these cultures together to unleash learning and encourage everyone to take ownership and pride in their work. Taking examples from innovative companies around the world, the authors offer new strategies for "exercising cultural leadership," -- rebuilding the cultural fabric of the organization, energizing the workforce, enhancing corporate performance, and preparing for new challenges in the 21st century.

Radical Candor is the sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on the one side and ruinously empathetic on the other. It is about providing guidance, which involves a mix of praise as well as criticism, delivered to produce better results and help employees develop their skills and boundaries of success. Great bosses have a strong relationship with their employees, and Kim Scott Malone has identified three simple principles for building better relationships with your employees: make it personal, get stuff done, and understand why it matters. Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Drawing on years of first-hand experience, and distilled clearly to give actionable lessons to the reader, Radical Candor shows how to be successful while retaining your integrity and humanity. Radical Candor is the perfect handbook for those who are looking to find meaning in their job and create an environment where people both love their work, their colleagues and are motivated to strive to ever greater success.

An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life. Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out. In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice.