Audience: Leaders & Managers
Overview: Executives have an enhanced sense of value in the strength of their organization’s culture, a perception gap of 51%
85% of participants rated the executive team as having a significant impact on culture
3.1% of Executives & HR believe most companies have a great culture
69% of participants believe that changing an existing culture is a significant challenge
By: William Lindstrom, CEO, The Culture Think Tank, Original Research 2016
Revised/ Edited: William Gladhart
Note: We’re working on an updated article on this data for 2024, which promises to be revealing.
Below are highlighted selections for a high-level read on how Executives’ Perception Gap of Culture may be a significant disconnect in any organization
Original Research: 2,500 surveys on culture perspectives from staff, managers, Human Resources (HR), and leaders in a variety of company sizes and industries
Original Outcome: When it comes to the greatest impact on culture, the results show Executives Leaders are the key players when it comes to impacting and changing culture. Any effort to improve and measure an organization’s culture should begin with understanding how this Executive Perception Gap happens.
Based on the original research, Executives tended to perceive their organization’s Culture to be 51% better than other employees did
Only 3.1% of Executives & HR believe most companies have a great culture
More than two-thirds of participants in the research believe a majority of organizations lack a great workplace culture
69% of participants believe that changing an existing culture is a significant challenge
Executive engagement and communication efforts are seen as the key driver to improving workplace culture.
Understanding who has the greatest impact on culture was an aspect of the survey.
When asked to rate who within an organization significantly impacts culture, 85% of all participants rated the executive team as having a significant impact.
This compares to 45% of participants rated Immediate Supervisors as having a significant impact, followed by Human Resources with 38%.
When it comes to who has the greatest impact on culture, the results are clear: executive leaders are the key players when it comes to impacting & changing culture.
Critical Factors for a Great Culture
When asked to pick the most important factors that contribute to a great culture, 86% of all participants selected “Clear & Effective Communication,” followed by “Executive Team Commitment & Humility,” “Empathy & Integrity of Leaders.”
The top three most selected factors all relate to effective leadership, which underscores the importance that executive teams have when it comes to shaping and molding organizational culture.
Three Factors Imparing Organizational Culture
The five highest-scoring factors impairing organization culture align with the top factors for a great workplace culture, which execution ‘Lack of Accountability.’
It was the second-most selected trait detracting from great culture, with 63% of participants rating as a significant impairment, while ‘Holding People Accountability for Actions’ scored fourth in the positive traits contributing to a great culture.
This difference in placement suggests that the presence of accountability in the workplace may have less an impact on culture the does its absence.
Understanding the Executive Perception Gap
There is an oversight among executives concerning their views on the health and strength of their organization’s cultures.
Their perception of the strength of their organizational culture compared to the perceptions of the management and staff is significantly higher! This perception gap is easily shown when comparing executives’ and HR professionals’ perceptions of their organizational culture against the perception of mainline staff.
On average, Executives within organizations score a positive result on Culture at 53% better than mainline staff. This reveals a gap when compared to HR professionals, who score Culture as only 9% better than mainline staff.
The gap is the same when looking at the inverted situation aka organizations with overall negative culture scores. On average, even for organizations with an overall negative culture score, executives rate their Culture are 51% higher than do the mainline staff at the company!
Contrast this to HR professionals, who, although still skewed, report a score only 10% higher than mainline staff.
In each scenario, executives have an ‘enhanced sense of the value’ about the strength of their organization’s culture relative to the HR professionals & mainline staff.
This verifies that executives are not simply amplifying the good as better and the bad as worse…but rather are consistently overvaluing the strength & performance of their companies’ Culture.
