Human Resources - Bridging the Culture Gap Part 2
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This is the second in a two-part series of articles about bridging the culture gap and improving workplace culture and employee engagement.
The Plight of the (Crucial) Middle Management
In the earlier article, we discussed the formation of the Vision (Cv), the realities on the ground (Cr), and the variance or "delta" between the two (CΔ). We also explored how to quantify Cv, Cr, and CΔ, as well as the process of Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and some major root causes.
The key individuals in the work of translating Cv into Cr and minimizing CΔ are the middle managers (MMs), according to MIT Sloan Management Review. Two important aspects to keep in mind are the strain on middle managers and the myopathy that grows with hierarchy. This means that the higher one is in the organization, the less one perceives the distance between the vision and reality, and vice versa.
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Most organizations stop an integrated approach after identifying Cv and Cr, and do not adequately enable or equip middle management to understand and address the identified gaps.
Enable the middle managers (MMs)
The Plight: The unfortunate middle managers are quite literally "caught in the middle," trying their best to, among a million other things, pull Cv and Cr as close to each other as possible.
Empowering Middle Management: Foster psychological safety for middle managers to provide candid feedback to senior leadership about implementation roadblocks.
The system dynamics model of culture vision, culture reality, psychological safety, burnout, and engagement.
If middle managers (MMs) have psychological safety, they will be able to ensure that the true picture is represented to senior leadership. This allows for the contextualization of what is achievable in terms of Cv and enables the re-allocation of adequate resources or refinement of expectations. Consequently, this builds trust with those who report to MMs and creates a virtuous cycle.
Over a period of time, cultural vision (Cv) translates into cultural realities (Cr).
Managers’ psychological safety is a key attribute that impacts:
- The realistic nature of the cultural vision (Cv)
- The allocation of resources by senior leadership.
The resources impact if the team is engaged in implementing the vision which increases the cultural reality (Cr) or conversely increases their burnout, which decreases the Cr.
If middle managers are not psychologically safe, they will be unable to share the realities on the ground with their leaders and therefore unable to ask for proper resources. They will pay lip service to the C-suite while doubling down on demanding Cv from frontline teammates. This causes a ripple impact on psychological safety (PS) and burnout (BO), leading to turnover because of a toxic work environment. The delayed impacts lead to organizational cliques, with "bully leaders" being recognized for their "results" and rewarded with promotions into middle management.
With the mandate and accountability of reducing CΔ, these middle managers cannot change Cv. Therefore, they will need to push those who report to them to implement Cv without sufficient resources, causing burnout. Burnout will further increase CΔ, thereby creating a negative cycle. In the long run, this will lead to more turnover and poor outcomes in areas such as customer experiences.
In this case:
Cv (High)
Resource Allocation (Low)
Burnout (High)
Conversion of Cv to Cr (Low)
Therefore, CΔ (High)
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Reinforcing Psychological Safety
When something BAD happens: Leadership should be present to support at the elbow—immediately and with consistent follow-through. For example, leadership rounding on the floor after a workplace violence event demonstrates that "we have your back" when things don't go well.
Conflict Between Self-Preservation and Organizational Benefit: Leaders must balance decisions between self-preservation, personal gain, or fame and doing what’s best for the organization. Teammates always observe leader behaviors, especially when decisions test the benefit to the organization versus the leader as an individual. Leadership integrity is crucial in these moments.
Who do I KNOW that can make me feel heard and safe?: When a leader, whom employees feel close to or connected with, retires, it's essential to create familiarity with new leaders. Making leaders more human provides psychological safety throughout the hierarchy. While an impersonal 1-800 compliance hotline should be available, teammates should feel they have truly approachable leadership with a real open-door policy. Interacting in relaxed settings, such as picnics with games, helps create this dynamic.
In a large study by Forrester, across multiple organization and multiple industries, successive strata of leaders score their organizational culture higher than their subordinate leaders, who rate it better than their subordinate leaders, and this repeats all the way to the front-line employees (with the exception of vice presidents). The same holds true in an organization with more than 82,000 respondents!
A Possible Pitfall: Emperor's Clothes
Senior leadership often has cultural myopia. The closer the leadership level is to the CEO, the more myopic they tend to be about the CΔ. They perceive the Cr as closer to the Cv, believing the CΔ is small, while the actual gap is a "wave" that expands with each hierarchical layer until it crashes on the shore of the frontline employees. This misperception can significantly impact the effectiveness of cultural alignment efforts.
Therefore, it is prudent to assess CΔ both in aggregate for the organization and segmented into three specific perspectives: the voice of the customer, the frontline employee, and the frontline leader. This approach allows senior leadership to understand the true Cr for each stakeholder, not just the aggregated organization's perception of Cr.
Continuous assessment through rounding, Managing by Walking About, and other programs ensures that senior leadership remains connected to the realities on the ground. This connection provides the necessary context for informed decision-making and enables leaders to offer appropriate recognition and encouragement.
Beyond assessment, acknowledging what was heard is crucial. This should be followed by governance led by the leaders and the empowerment of voices within the guidelines of established governance structures. This approach ensures that feedback is not only collected but acted upon, fostering a culture of trust and continuous improvement.
Empowering middle management, frontline leaders, and teammates to contextualize and lead the development of solutions, with support from relevant SMEs, is essential for fostering ownership and sustainability of these solutions. Ideally, the voices of customers and the community should also be engaged in co-creating these solutions.
It's important to consider other factors that may influence the perceived Cr, such as marketing campaigns by the organization and its competitors (for example, Coke vs. Pepsi), union narratives, political spins, and geopolitical situations. Consistent monitoring of Cr and CΔ is crucial. The C-suite must ensure that the interpretation of Cv is contextual and comprehensible to all stakeholders, including the community, regardless of literacy levels. This should be done in a manner and frequency that minimizes friction.
The Role of HR, Leaders, and Scientists
As AI and “tech talent” becomes more prolific, products and services continue to get commoditized, the brand value will more often than not be defined by the culture of the organization. It is therefore imperative to engage HR and ALL leadership to understand the landscape, use culture as a dimension of Unique Value Proposition (UVP) of the organization, communicate it in various modalities including reflecting it strongly in the brand, building capabilities to continuously deliver, measuring and running the PDSA (Plan Do See Act) cycles in rapid stints in each team and across the enterprise.
HR Professionals: Develop an awareness, knowledge, and requisite skills to implement strategies for measuring and closing the culture gap. Partner with leadership to create a culture-centric talent management strategy.
Leaders: Act as role models, champion the desired culture, and create a psychologically safe environment for open communication. Learn and understand the UVP of the culture and ensure it does not get sacrificed for short-term gain. Protect it, nurture it, leverage data and insights from continuous listening and keep reinforcing it.
Organizational Scientists: Leverage research findings to develop evidence-based practices for building a strong and sustainable organizational culture.
Addressing the culture gap in organizations demands a holistic approach that empowers middle management, engages frontline leaders and teammates in solution development, and incorporates insights from customers and the community. Continuous assessment and feedback mechanisms ensure senior leadership remains grounded in the realities of their organization, fostering a culture of trust and improvement. By leveraging HR expertise, leadership integrity, and evidence-based practices from organizational scientists, organizations can build resilient cultures that align with their values and goals. This proactive approach not only minimizes cultural discrepancies but also enhances overall organizational performance and employee satisfaction
This intentional effort will be the gentle, persistent wind that influences the coconut palm to bend and grow over the ocean, without breaking it, creating an amazing and unique scene.
Editorial contributors are Jessica Patton, Angelina Gennis, and Aniket Navalkar
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