Learning objectives
How do I:
understand the key concepts associated with workplace cultures?
identify the impacts of positive and negative workplace cultures on the functioning of an organisation, particularly in the area of patient safety and quality?
identify different types of workplace cultures?
understand the impact a health manager or leader can make on the culture of an organisation or department?
build positive workplace cultures?
Introduction
Understanding, managing and building culture within a workplace are key responsibilities of leadership and management. This chapter outlines what workplace culture is, the impact of poor culture on an organisation and what managers can do to improve workplace culture.
Peter Drucker (as cited in Fernández-Aráoz, 2014 , para. 2) once famously said, ‘Culture eats strategy over breakfast’. This might seem implausible, because there is an expectation on healthcare managers to plan, set out, implement and then evaluate strategy. Drucker’s point is that unless there is a positive culture in a workplace, seeing a strategy move to successful implementation and adoption is very difficult, sometimes impossible.
Definitions
Workplace culture (also called organisational or corporate culture) has been well defined in the literature. Culture has often been described as the particular beliefs or values of an organisation that distinguish it from other similar organisations.