Transparent Culture Strengthens Employee Engagement
Abstract
The Cultural Transparency will have a powerful impact on employees. An individual's ability to
work productively and fruitfully will depend on the culture of organization. A transparent culture
will create trust, loyalty, passion among employees towards job and dedication to the company
which in turn strengthens and increases the levels of engagement. Employees who feel warm in
the culture are more likely to be engaged with their jobs and companies. Culture gives big
picture of organization and its purpose can be used to foresee performance on important metrics
such as profitability, growth, innovation, quality and customer satisfaction. Understanding
employee engagement is most valuable when understood within the context of the culture of the
organization. If we look at employee engagement alone, without considering the culture that
employees work in, we potentially leave ourselves blind to the strategic strengths and
weaknesses in the organization that impact employee performance and eventually organizational
performance.
Cultural Transparency
When we speak of transparency and creating a culture of truthfulness, we are really talking
about the free flow of information within an organization and between the organization and its
many stakeholders, including the public. “Cultural Transparency” is the order of the day.
Transparency is not to be asked but given. Harvard Business Review article, “What’s Needed
Next: A culture of Candor,”1 James O’Toole and Warren Bennis suggest the following to
develop a culture of transparency1. Tell the truth 2] Encourage people to speak the truth to
leadership 3] Reward those who speak the truth. 4] Practice having disagreeable conversations 5]
Have many sources of information 6] Admit mistakes 7] Develop support for transparency
within the organization 8] Share information. Transparent policies are effective only when
information becomes embedded in an action cycle of market participants, becoming an intrinsic
1 O’Toole, James, and Bennis, Warren [2009] “What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor,” Harvard
Business Review
part of the decision–making routines of information users and disclosures (Weil, Fung, Graham,
& Fagotto, 2006)2.
Organizational culture expresses shared assumptions, values and beliefs, and is the social glue
holding an organization together.When strong integrated behavior, values and beliefs have been
developed, a strong organizational culture emerges and this strong culture must be transparent.
This would in return ensure improved and consistent behavior among employees of the
organization, lessen the attrition rate and create a wholesome and hygienic work environment.
Cultural transparency helps create trust among stakeholders and employee’s participation will
become voluntary. There’s been a great work on literature generated over the past decade about
the concept of organizational culture -- particularly in regard to learning how to change
organizational culture. In his seminal 1992 work entitled Organizational Culture and Leadership,
Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, offered a definition of what he called “an empirically based abstraction”
Organizational culture he said is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it
solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough
to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to
understand, think, and feel in relation to those problems3. In the words of Hofstede (1980)
culture is, “The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one
human group from another ….The interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influence
a human group’s response to its environment.” Anthropologist Symington (1983) has defined
culture as, “… that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs
and capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society.”Culture has been defined
differently by various scholars but one thing has to be understand by every organization is ‘there
is culture and must be transparent’. The presence of robust, fitting and positive organizational
culture has become more essential for organizations and to ply effectively and efficiently it must
2 Trevino LK, Nelson KA: Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right.2 edition. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., New York, NY; 1999.
3 Schein, Edgar (2004) Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco, Jossey Bass Publishers.
be rational with transparency. when culture does not work even after creating transparency then
something wrong with the core/basic values of the organization and in such case Leadership of
the organization must re-invent or re-discover the culture and make it transparent ,culture is such
which has been consciously or subconsciously accepted and followed as the way of life or
manner of performing day-to-day activities in an organization and has been oxygen of the
organization, if it is befouled or becomes insalubrious, organization becomes indisposed and this
could be disaster. The way in which J&J handled the 1982 Tylenol crisis has always been the
talk of transparency; an organization acting in a manner consistent with its values. J&J instantly
hauled the product from the shelves without regard to the cost or public embarrassment, and
certainly without any regrets over lost profits. In his interviews Jim Burke said that J&J’s Credo
made it easy for him and his people to know exactly what to do: J&J’s “first responsibility is to
the doctors, nurses, and patients, to the mothers and all the others who use our products and
services.” It is fact that culture of the organization can define the quantity and quality of
employee engagement in the organizations.
Unbiased Cultural Transparency
Watson (2006) emphasizes that an important trend in managerial thinking in recent decades has
been encouraging managers to try to create strong organizational cultures. Senior managers
generally have a clear grasp of the real issues the organization facing. They are steeped in these
issues every day. Mid-level managers – who, after all, are busy managing – don't always see
things the same way. The only solution is for senior leaders to persistently communicate the
issues to them. If the senior managers have tendency for biased transparency it is bad to worst.
When speaking to few employees of IT industry during my research work they expressed the
concern of biased transparency. Senior managers are transparent to those who are their near &
dear. Transparent culture built on near & dear, perks and parties is biased way to foster social
connections and to relieve stress, the links to true engagement are tenuous. Unbiased
Transparency happens only when an institution creates a culture of truth and trust where the
stakeholders feel free to speak the truth to everyone. New York Times essayist John Schwartz
writes, when officials say they are being transparent, “what they really mean is ‘not lying’ and
‘not hiding what we’re really doing.’ But that doesn’t sound as nice or vague, does it?”2
claiming to be transparent are not the same as actually being transparent. Even as many heads of
corporations boast about their commitment to transparency, the containment of truth continues to
be a dearly held value of many organizations. Sadly, you can say you believe in transparency
without practicing it or even aspiring to it. For creating unbiased culture of transparency
employees felt frequent social interaction sessions, creating feel of community, frequent
feedbacks and regular interactions of rank and file, this will create lasting effects. Every high-
performing company has a unique identity — idiosyncratic characteristics that set it away from
other organizations. These characteristics give employees a sense of morale and to be part of the
company and also become passionate about company and customers. The best performing
companies must always be transparent in understanding and managing the culture that align with
the company’s strategy. Biased culture of transparency will paralyze the information system of
the organization, paralyzing the information system of the organization is all about partial flow
of information, this hazardous will create disengagement among stakeholders of company and
this disconnection will discourage employees to secure knowledge and leads to ‘incomplete
intelligence’. Flow of information means critical information going to the right person at the
right time and for the right reason, but not to wrong person, time and reason and when this
happens stakeholders feel free to speak openly, and organization must welcome such openness.
Creating unbiased cultural transparency will engage employees and knocks down silos and
produces more productive and loyal team members but vice-versa destroys engagement and
affects the all round performance of organizations.
Connect to Culture
Organization must ensure that employees are connected to the culture of organization.
Organizational culture affects the way in which people consciously, subconsciously think, make
decisions and ultimately the way in which they perceive, feel and act.[Hansen and
wernerfelt,1989;schien 1990]. Deal and Kennedy [1982] and Peters and Waterman [1982] have
considered that organizational culture good amount of influence in areas such as performance
and commitment. Many experts began to argue that developing a strong transparent
organizational culture is essential for success. This success happens when culture in true spirit
connected to the people working for the company and when it is connected the engagement
starts. While the link between organizational culture and employee engagement is certain, there
is no denying that each organization has a unique culture and that these cultures drive much of
the individual behavior observed in organizations. Employee engagement is well connected to
the culture of the organization and markedly affects the bottom line. One of the most significant
threads in my current research on ‘employee engagement’ is the discovery that employee
engagement is linked primarily to the culture of the organization, especially the culture of
feasibility, growth and improvement; this for sure leads to customer satisfaction which is linked
to organizational financial success. [See appendix-table-1]. The table reveals that, overall 90%
of the employees agreed that present organization provides opportunities for growth and
improvement and 10% of the employees did not agree to this and of the opinion that they neither
get opportunities for developing their capabilities nor are they getting guidance from their
immediate managers to enhance their performance. Without proper potential/career development
programs, organizations will fail to create second line of leaders who will encourage and
improvise the company’s culture and culture of transperency. Culture can gloss engagement into
positive gains for the organization by enhancing organizational effectiveness and improving
work quality, as well as by helping the organization charm and retain top-quality employees. In
one of the Fast company articles Google deliberately informs workplace satisfaction, not just
around incredible perks, but also by creating a corporate culture that provides freedom, mutual
respect, and transparency for all employees. According to the article, Google empowers its
employees to have a say in topics ranging from how the company is run to the new design of its
company-provided bicycles. This underlying philosophy of empowerment and transparency is
the most attractive aspect of corporate culture4.
A highly engaged workforce is 50% more productive than an unengaged workforce5.
Organizational culture is embedded in the everyday working lives of all employees and is
exposed through formal practices (such as pay levels, structure of the hierarchy, job descriptions,
and other written policies);informal practices (such as behavioral norms); the organizational
stories employees tell to explain “how things are done around here;” rituals (such as Christmas
4 fastcompany.com,[2013]where-are-they-now/not-happy-accident-how-google-deliberately-designs-workplace-
satisfaction?partner=newsletter.
5 Stanford University [2004] Organizational culture. [March, 2004].Research paper no-1847.
parties and retirement dinners); humor (jokes about work and fellow employees); jargon (the
special language of organizational Initiates); and physical arrangements (including interior decor,
dress norms, and architecture). Cultural expositions also include values, sometimes referred to
more abstractly as content themes. Culture consists of the patterns of meanings that link these
expositions together, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in bitter conflicts between groups, and
sometimes in mesh of ambiguity, incongruous, and contradiction. For these reasons, it is much
too simple to define culture in unifying, harmonious terms, for example, in terms of values that
are embraced by management and supposedly shared by most employees6. A recent survey found
that over 50% of American workers report being inclined to work for “green” companies.
Women and Generation Y in particular want their company’s mission to go beyond profitability,
encircling benefits to the wider community, on social, environmental and economic dimensions.
They are eager to work with companies in which they feel they can make a difference. This
difference manifests a strong employee engagement tendency in the organization. Schein (1985)
focused attention on individual corporate leaders who attempt to generate company-wide
consensus regarding their personal values and corporate goals through wide range consistent
corporate policies and practices. Transparency allows employees to feel happy and establishes
belongingness, boosts morale. It has been established that there is a strong relationship between
Employee Engagement and organizational culture. Studies have shown that firms with high
numbers of engaged employees increase Mutual accountability, open communication, shared
management and eventually the increases the revenues of the company. Engaged employees are
more committed and put forth more effort and Disengagement is an expensive problem to fix.
A True Practice of Leadership
Transparency is being hailed as the mantra for new competitive advantage, and "trustworthiness"
is the new mantra for leadership. According to Schein ‘Culture and leadership are two sides of
the same coin’. When organizations start or when groups start there is always a leader who has a
preferred way of doing things, and those preferences by definition are going to be imposed on
the group members. If you don’t like the way I run this group, I’ll replace you. The leader’s
values and preferences are the first ways that a group or organization does things and if that
6 Fairing Group [September 24th, 2009] Building an Organizational Culture of Sustainability: Employee
Engagement. Accessed on 25/02/12.
works it becomes eventually the culture of that group. So in a very real sense, founders and
leaders create culture’. A leader must be closely aligned with the culture he or she hopes to
lead. Leaders must institute high morality and ethical discipline concerning the way people in the
organization should be treated and the way goals should be pursued. Leaders create standards of
efficiency and excellence and then must become a role model for others to follow. And they
must personally act in accordance with the same and they must preach others to do the same and
promote the same. Leader’s total allegiance is common prescription for success of organizational
culture, and also for being creating transparent culture which gives personal satisfaction to
employees working for the leader. In my research work 90 percent agree to the organizational
leadership is the one character, on which employees find pleasure to work in any organization.
Only 10 disagreed to organizational leadership. [sees Appendix - Table- 2]. Organizational
leadership is a process that ensures the firm is continually moving forward through the
continuous assessment of its culture and seeking new opportunity to lead the industry.
PeterSenge has adopted the definitions for leadership by organization as the following in the
abstract- ‘Leadership is the capacity of a human community to create its future”. In operation-
“Leadership is the ability in an organization to initiate and to sustain significant change, to work
effectively with the force that shape change”. The important point about this definition is the
emphasis on collective capacity which in turn is collective enterprise. This collectivism comes
when leader organizes a culture of true spirit. The brand Leadership is about flourishing
exceptional culture where employees make merry, customers connect themselves to the
organization. This happens when culture is religiously and emotionally connected to the
stakeholders of the company.
The efforts and statements of a company leader will influence people. Efforts and
statements of company leaders like Jack Welch (GE), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Andy Groves
(Intel), Steve jobs (Apple), Herb kheller (Southwest Airlines), Ray Kroc (Mc Donald’s), Akio
Morito (Sony), Sam Walton (Wal-Mart), Paul v. Galius (Motorola) etc have influenced and
shaped the culture of their respective organization with true spirit and in true spirit. When
employees accept actions and statements of leaders then it is reciprocal and collective. This is
what required and it is what synergy. The success of the culture in any organization eventually
depends upon the type of synergy that exists. Saliently faithful practice of leadership for the best
culture is demonstrated most authentically in the leadership moment. Leadership is gritty,
requires being shrewd hard work, integrity, honesty, and credibility and along with these leaders,
who stay visible, accessible, engaged with purpose, passion, performance and persistence with
absolute resolve will create trust in the organization. Trust will kindle trust worthy culture and
trust worthy culture is always transparent. These actions and statements set culture and become
culture of the organization. Effective and efficacious leaders use a repertoire of style to create
positive work culture in the organization and setting example for present and future. [See
Appendix-Table-2]. The table concludes Almost 72% of the people in the IT Industry feel that
their leader leads by example more often if not always. Around 3% of the people felt that their
leader does not lead by example. As a leader, part of his job is to inspire the people around him
to push them and, in turn, the company to greatness. This greatness comes once the culture of
transparency has become habitual and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to
communicate the leader’s beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new
comers. When leaders foster transparent culture, they become successful in maintaining
organizational growth, the good services pressed by the organization, the competence to address
problems before they become infective agents. Schein, (2004) states that founders and leaders of
organizations know that their own visible behavior has great values to the members, especially
new members. How leaders behave is how their followers will tend to behave. Companies can’t
innovate, respond to changing stakeholder needs, or function efficiently unless people have
access to relevant, timely, and valid information. It’s thus the leader’s job to create systems and
norms that lead to a culture of candor. Employees of the organization to trust in transparency
must first feel safe: physically, emotionally, and financially. Inordinate pressure and terror of
losing one’s job make it arduous to take the risk of admitting mistakes or weakness. Employees
must feel they have a personal relationship with their leaders to the point where they would feel
cosy having a conversation that involves some risk.
Summing Up
Culture has been one of the most enduring buzzwords of popular management. Organizational
culture is apparently unifying and this strongly appeals to management’s concern with projecting
an image of the organization as a community of interests. Cultural analysis brings to centre stage
a rich vein of behaviors and stands on its head much of the conventional wisdom about
organizations. Culture is unifying and refers to the processes that bind the organization together.
Culture penetrates to the essence of an organization – it almost analogous with the concept of
personality in relation to the individual and this acute sense of what an organization is – its
mission, core values – seems to have become a necessary asset of the modern company. There is
the vexed question of whether or not organizational culture can be managed. Academics
interested in understanding and analyzing culture tend to say no. While there may be no
definitive answer to the question, the critical and the managerial. Culture in organization studies
has become significant factor managers and organizational researchers cannot ignore in both
practical and theoretical aspect, but it is not easy to secure accuracy and perfection in measuring
culture because culture itself is abstraction. In reality, building and changing organizational
culture is not an easy job because the forming of culture is a long affair, especially with
transparency.
References:
1] Edgar H Schein [1997]Organizational Culture & Leadership, [online] available from
http://www.tnellen.com accessed on [03/03/12.]
2] Fairing Group [September 24th, 2009] Building an Organizational Culture of
Sustainability: Employee Engagement. Accessed on 25/02/12.
3]google[2013]where-are-they-now/not-happy-accident-how-google-deliberately-designs-
workplace-satisfaction?partner=newsletter,www.fastcompany.com
4] O’Toole, James, and Bennis, Warren [2009] “What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor,”
Harvard Business Review.
5] Schein, Edgar (2004) Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco, Jossey Bass
Publishers.
6]Stanford University [2004] Organizational culture. [March, 2004].Research paper no-1847.
7] Trevino LK, Nelson KA: Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right.2
edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY; 1999.
2] Great personal satisfaction for working this organization because of organizational leadership.
3] Leader led by example.
Top Related