Workplace Culture is More Complex Than is Communicated
Employees have different experiences throughout an organization
People talk about culture as if it’s singular yet that is a misnomer.
"Every workplace culture is actually a collection of manager cultures,” says Brian Rollo, a leadership specialist and the founder at Brian Rollo Consulting Group, where he helps organizations develop capabilities that impact retention and performance.
This is not a reality that all top-level leaders know and remember.
“We often talk about company culture like it’s one big thing, created at the top and handed down for everyone else,” Rollo says. “Employees don't really experience culture at the company level.
“They hear and read about it there but they experience it through their manager.”
It’s a logical conclusion.
“Because managers are unique human beings, every one of them creates their own microculture that lives inside the larger company culture,” Rollo explains. “We know this because in every organization there are managers who lead thriving teams and managers that lead struggling teams.”
Despite companies believing and stating that they have one culture, that’s often not the experience for every individuals. Rollo speaks to the types of managers he described above.
“They both work in the same overarching company culture but create drastically different experiences for the employees working for them,” he asserts.
Which has led Rollo to argue something definitive.
“In my experience, if you want to build a stronger culture, you actually need to start small, at the manager level,” he says. “Leadership’s role, as I see it, is to recognize those microcultures and understand the need for autonomy, while ensuring microcultures stay in harmony with company values.”
Accepting reality is valuable organizational understanding.
“It’s not a question of whether microcultures exist,” Rollo says. “Check out any company with multiple teams or locations and you will soon see proof. It’s a question of whether or not someone is actively guiding those microcultures to success.”
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Happy New Week, Michael
100%!
Too often, we talk about “company culture” as if it’s a single, uniform thing, but the reality is that each manager shapes a microcosm that employees actually live in day-to-day. It makes so much sense that thriving teams often reflect strong, thoughtful leadership at the manager level, not just a mission statement on a wall.
It also highlights how important it is for leadership to support managers while still allowing them autonomy. Culture can’t just be top-down. It doesn't work that way.
It’s lived, team by team.