Why Organisational Culture Matters

By Victor Jacob

“Rome was not built in a day.” Neither is an organisation's culture. It requires everyone's effort.

When we hear the word culture, our minds immediately think about traditions, beliefs, or even those values and behaviours that shape how a group of people live and interact. Culture itself differs depending on the environment and the people living in it, but the truth is, culture exists everywhere in many forms: in families, communities, schools, and even societies.

It also exists in organisations, where it influences how people work, communicate, and relate to one another. This is what we often refer to as organisational culture.

It is more than the values written on an organisation’s website or the statements displayed on its walls. It is what people experience every day, the way leaders treat employees, how colleagues speak to one another, what behaviour gets rewarded, what gets ignored, and how people are treated when they make mistakes or raise concerns.

In other words, an organisation's culture is not simply what an organisation says it believes; it is what people repeatedly experience on a daily basis. It is how leaders treat employees, how colleagues speak to one another, what behaviour gets rewarded, what behaviour gets ignored, and what happens when someone makes a mistake or raises a concern.

I joined in on a recent conversation on the ACT Knowledge Series, themed “Building Organisational Culture and High-Performing Team.” Keynote speakers Yemi Faseun, a Business Leader with over 30 years of experience, and Mary Fashanu, a Business Strategist and Workplace Culture Consultant, explored what it takes to build a culture that creates healthier workplaces and how leadership plays such an important role in shaping them.

Yemi Faseun led the conversation by saying culture is 10% visible—what is openly said or displayed—while 90% is invisible. This invisible part is the core of culture, what an organisation has truly built its foundation on and thrives in.

He used the analogy of the huge iceberg that sank the famous Titanic, which was a remarkable feat of engineering at the time. The crew could not see the full size of the iceberg beneath the calm water.

An organisation can say that it values openness, projecting its 10%, but if those same employees are afraid to question decisions, the real culture is not one of openness. They are missing the 90% true culture practice.

And like the Titanic, which sank after striking an iceberg whose larger mass lay beneath the water and could not be fully seen, an organisation can also sink because its leaders do not portray the right culture or embody the values they claim to uphold.

A workplace can claim to value teamwork, but if employees are constantly rewarded for competing against one another, competition may become the culture.

Culture is not simply what an organisation says it believes. It is what people repeatedly experience.

Yemi Faseun highlighted that leaders carry a major responsibility for organisational culture. They are the forerunners of an organisation's culture and play a major role in determining how that culture is expressed.

So, meaning, their employees pay attention to what these leaders do, not just what they say.

Imagine a manager or CEO of an organisation schedules a meeting with everyone to be held on Mondays, and every time, he arrives late for this meeting.

What will eventually start to happen is that the employees start to take note. Now, some, knowing the boss's habit, may decide to come late because they know their boss wouldn't be there when it's meeting time. Surprisingly, a particular day comes, and he strolls into the office earlier than usual. He is ready for the meeting, but he is alarmed as he sees very few people waiting for him to arrive. Not many are prepared for his arrival. He gets angry and throws tantrums about having irresponsible workers because they slack off and don't respect work ethics. Very reasonable, right?

Being a leader, he himself has unknowingly created a culture that promotes slackness and lateness in the workplace.

So, to note: If a manager expects punctuality but regularly arrives late, employees notice. If a leader demands accountability but refuses to accept responsibility for their own mistakes, employees notice. If an organisation says people should speak freely but punishes employees for expressing disagreement, employees learn to remain silent.

Over time, some unprofessional behaviours become normalised in an organisation. This is why culture can evolve even when nobody intentionally creates it. If leaders do not consciously shape it, everyday behaviour will shape it for them.

Culture must therefore be connected to an organisation’s values and vision. When the two are disconnected, the result can be frustration, distrust, and, eventually, toxicity.

Although individual work ethic should not be determined by how the organisation's leader runs the organisation, it is also important to note that leaders should lead by example, “because a sheep will always and certainly follow its shepherd anywhere, anyhow.”

In this insightful conversation on building organisational culture, Mary Fashanu sparked a flame with this part of the conversation:

“If organisations want to truly build culture, they have to be truly honest with what doesn't work, to move forward.”

Building a healthy culture also requires organisations to look honestly at themselves. Mary Fashanu hinted that this is where culture audits become important, suggesting that surveys, interviews, and focus groups can help organisations understand how employees actually experience the workplace.

But an audit should not become another complicated corporate exercise that employees complete and never hear about again.

Mary Fashanu emphasised the importance of keeping the process simple and building trust.

Sometimes, five honest questions can reveal more than a long questionnaire could:

• Do employees feel safe speaking honestly?

• Do they understand what is expected of them?

• Are good behaviours recognised?

• Do leaders follow the same standards they expect from employees?

• Would employees recommend this organisation as a good place to work?

But asking these questions is only the beginning. If employees give honest answers and nothing changes, trust becomes harder to build.

Feedback creates responsibility.

Organisational culture is also shaped by how people are treated. Fair pay matters. But so do respect, trust, empathy, flexibility, and opportunities to grow.

For young employees and interns especially, the workplace is often where professional habits are being formed. A workplace that provides mentorship, constructive feedback, and room to learn can help develop confident professionals.

The opposite can also happen.

When employees are constantly micromanaged, ignored, or made to feel that their contributions do not matter, their performance may begin to decline.

Sometimes, as the discussion highlighted, an employee’s spirit leaves before the employee does. That is why leaders need to pay attention to more than whether someone is physically present at work. They need to pay attention to people.

Yemi Faseun spoke to the different age gaps in the business space and leadership roles in organisations. Today's workplaces have brought different generations together, each with different expectations about communication, leadership, and work. He believed that younger employees, particularly Gen Z, may approach work differently from older generations. Being a senior staff member, you do not have to dismiss these differences or allow everything without boundaries. It is about understanding them.

“Empathy does not mean removing standards.”

Senior leaders in workspaces can listen to younger employees while still setting clear expectations about professionalism, responsibility, and performance. A healthy workplace should be able to accommodate differences without allowing those differences to bring in divisions.

Remote and hybrid work have also changed how organisational culture is experienced.

When people are no longer sharing the same physical office every day, culture cannot depend entirely on physical presence. Leaders need to create opportunities for connection, communicate expectations clearly, and measure performance by productivity rather than simply by who appears online or sits at a desk the longest. For younger or less experienced workers, however, remote work can also present challenges. Some skills are developed through observation, collaboration, and everyday interaction with more experienced colleagues.

The goal should not simply be to choose between remote and physical work. It should be to understand what employees need to perform, learn, and grow effectively.

Toxicity does not usually appear overnight. It can begin with small behaviours that are repeatedly tolerated. A manager constantly shouting at employees. A leader taking credit for other people's work. Employees being afraid to report problems. Favouritism being treated as normal. Good behaviour being ignored while poor behaviour is rewarded.

When these behaviours continue without accountability, they become part of the culture.

The difficult part is that fixing a toxic culture requires courage. Leaders may have to have uncomfortable conversations, coach managers, enforce boundaries, or make difficult decisions when behaviour continues to conflict with organisational values. Sometimes, despite every attempt to resolve the problem, leaving may become the healthiest option for an employee.

So, who owns organisational culture?

Everyone does.

Leaders have the responsibility to set the tone and model the standards. Managers must translate those values into everyday practice. Employees contribute through the behaviours they demonstrate and tolerate. Human resources teams can create systems that support fairness, accountability, and development. And organisations must be willing to listen when their people tell them something is not working.

This is why organisational culture cannot be fixed by changing a mission statement or organising an occasional team-building activity.

Culture is built through repetition. Every interaction teaches people what is acceptable. Every reward tells people what the organisation values. Every ignored behaviour tells people what they can get away with. Every leader's example tells employees what leadership really looks like.

We determine culture because culture is us, as we are culture. It lives among us.

It is present in the way a supervisor responds to a mistake, the way a colleague treats an intern, the way a leader handles criticism, and the way an organisation responds when its values are tested.

That makes organisational culture everyone's business.

At Shades of Us, conversations around people, dignity, inclusion, and stronger communities remind us that the environments we create matter just as much as the goals we pursue. 

A workplace can have an impressive vision and still fail to create an environment where people feel respected and valued. Ultimately, a healthy organisation is not defined only by what it achieves. It is also defined by how people experience the journey towards achieving it.

Rome was not built in a day.

Neither is organisational culture built in a day. It is a continuous, conscious foundation laid down by all members of an organisation. Every day, someone is helping build it through the behaviours they reward, tolerate, model, and repeat.

So, what are you still thinking about?

In your organisation, the culture of excellence can start with you. My question to you is: How do you intend to build your own organisation's culture?