Whatever the industry or size of the enterprise, it’s wise not to underestimate the impact a strong organisational culture can have on the success of your business venture. A healthy, supportive work environment is one in which employees feel they can trust their employers, nurture positive relationships with one another, and are motivated to produce their best work. Creating and nurturing this culture will boost employee performance and drive your company’s overall productivity upwards.

Good organisational culture is an achievable goal for any business. Some companies, however, might not prioritise culture-building initiatives, falling into the trap of overfocusing on their profits rather than on their people. In the process, they can inadvertently contribute to the formation of a negative company culture that could well compromise business productivity and longevity, not to mention the welfare of their employees.

In the absence of concrete efforts to promote strong, nurturing company culture, negative attitudes and behaviours can take root and spread throughout your organisation. This unhealthy environment can have lasting consequences both for your employees and for your business as a whole. The following are some of the most salient ways poor company culture can hurt business performance:

Lack of Discipline

Chaotic, disorganised office space and unprofessional behaviour from employees are common consequences of poor organisational culture. Employees in these environments are not motivated to pay careful attention to how they act at work and how they treat their coworkers, clients, and other people they may interact with within a professional setting.

You’ll also be able to observe poor discipline in the quality of the work employees perform on a daily basis. Without encouragement or incentives from their leadership, employees may procrastinate frequently, take shortcuts in completing their work, or do their work to the minimum possible standard of quality. You may also see higher rates of absenteeism and presenteeism.

Frequently, the bad or neglectful habits that business leaders and managers practice trickle down to employees. If managers frequently come into work late or inappropriately dressed, for example, their team members may take this as a sign that these practices are acceptable. Eventually, these poor behaviours will come together to create a highly negative, unproductive work environment.

Diminished Morale

Research shows that employee morale depends heavily on company culture. Positive company culture is founded on strong mutual values between the organisation’s leadership and its employees. In such an environment, all members of the company embrace these values and work to uphold them both at work and in their day-to-day lives. The sense of unity brought about by shared beliefs and a common purpose fosters confidence, interpersonal rapport, and trust within the organisation.

In an environment that lacks strong core principles, however, employees may suffer from low motivation and lack of energy. In turn, managers may struggle to foster new ideas, stimulate higher levels of performance, or address pressing problems.

Little Room for Professional Growth

Any business is only as successful as the employees that keep it up and running. Hence, it’s often in employers’ best interest to empower their team members to learn new skills, assume more responsibilities, and make more significant business decisions for the company’s benefit. Employees who don’t receive such opportunities from their leadership may find themselves stagnating in the same positions over time, deprived of professional satisfaction or opportunities to grow.

When employees aren’t driven to perform high-quality work or help develop innovative solutions to a company’s problems, the productivity of the business as a whole is likely to suffer in turn. Businesses seeking to expand or diversify their operations may be hard-pressed to do so if they’re bogged down by poor company culture, especially if they suffer from high employee turnover rates.

To illustrate, employees that are fundamentally unsatisfied with their work environment are more likely to eventually leave the company and pursue more fruitful opportunities elsewhere. In turn, the company will have to rehire and retrain new workers to fill these vacated positions. These rehiring efforts inevitably eat into company time and resources that would have been spent on pursuing fruitful business opportunities, inhibiting enterprise-wide growth in the long run.

Unethical Behaviour

Perhaps most importantly of all, corporate culture has a deep effect on the ethical behaviour of employees. Positive culture motivates and empowers employees to behave in professional, responsible, and compassionate ways. Negative cultures, in contrast, can promote unethical practices and cause a range of different problems both for the organisation and for the individuals within it.

For instance, unhappy and demotivated employees are also likely to complain to one another about their work, their teammates, and even company leadership. At best, prevalent gossiping creates a discouraging and unconstructive atmosphere that can further compromise employee productivity. At worst, it can lead to infighting between employees, bullying, interpersonal harassment, and other instances of unethical behaviour.

As a business leader, it’s your responsibility not to allow negativity, disempowerment, or toxicity to fester within your organisation. Taking active steps toward fostering a healthy culture within your organisation can protect you and your employees from a host of problems in the long run. So, make sure that the work environment you build encourages interpersonal openness, cooperation, and commitment to common values.

A productivity coach can make a real difference. Get in touch with our Priority Management Australia team to schedule a one on one session today. You can also explore our article titled “4 Tips to Encourage Productivity in an Organisation” for practical guidance.