Workers’ sense of meaning in their work can be significantly enhanced through a culture built upon shared values. As a recent Harvard Business Review article noted, “What talented people want has changed. They used to want high salaries to validate their value and stable career paths to allow them to sleep well at night. Now, they want purposeful work.”
In essence, a positive organizational culture is one in which social norms, beliefs and behaviors all reinforce the value of pursuing a shared goal. A shared culture clearly defines how the organization’s and individual’s efforts are making a difference. Studies suggest that workers rate “personal satisfaction from making a difference” as a more important criterion of success than “getting ahead” or even “making a good living.”
Organizations that can meet people’s needs for meaning and recognition in their work are much more likely to perform at higher levels. Compelling research shows that companies that pursue purpose as well as profits outperform their counterparts by 12 times over a 10-year period. Research from Deloitte suggests that “mission-driven” organizations have 30-percent higher levels of innovation and 40-percent higher levels of engagement—and tend to be first or second in their market. Read "Beyond Office Walls and Balance Sheets" to learn more about creating a consistent organizational culture across unique employee segments. iBi
Source: “Beyond Office Walls and Balance Sheets: Culture and the Alternative Workforce” by Sonny Chheng, Kelly Monahan and Karen Reid, Deloitte Review, July 2017
