Psychology in the Workplace

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Psychology in The Workplace, Corporate Culture

Corporate culture involves many facets within a business.  The post will describe a few of them and how they can make a tremendous difference for employees.

Corporate Culture (i.e., How we do things around here — attitudes, behaviors, business practices)

Goodness.  A healthy corporate culture promotes harmony, collaboration, and better relationships among employees.  Staff can perform job assignments effectively when silos are torn down.

Appreciation.  When people are listed on departmental charts,* it should tell them their presence is important to the company’s future.  They have desirable qualifications:

  • Valuable skill-sets
  • Expertise
  • Personal traits
  • The company looks upon them in high regard

Wardrobe.  It stands to reason employees are expected to wear suits, or uniforms, at certain businesses.  They have direct contact with patients, customers, clients and potential clients.  However, for many other companies less formal attire should become the a norm. Wearing professional casual clothing allows a more relaxed work environment for employees.  They’ll have the ability to concentrate on work activities to bring the firm value.

Teamwork.  Each member of the organization should be viewed as an active participant to advance the firm towards a prosperous future.

Uniqueness.  Team members are working in unison to fulfill the company’s objectives. Members are similar and unique all at once, and the latter should radiate by allowing employees to be themselves.

Some members are quieter, maternal, studious, extroverted, humorous, social, playful, serious, etc., and a corporate culture allows members to express themselves thusly.  Within reason, of course.  Uniqueness fosters an indescribable good quality to the firm, which can also lead to excellence.

Members can breathe and experience comfort, knowing their uniqueness is welcomed, instead of judged.

Vision, Mission Statements.  Upper management not only has to create these documents, but ensure that every team member understands them completely.

 

Vision = The company’s goals

Mission = Objectives which bring vision into reality

 

Therefore, upper management has to convey to the team on a regular basis what the company’s goals are, and steps required to deliver goals.  The team has to meet criteria with excellence.

Intellectual Curiosity.  Large Worldview.  Creativity.  Critical-Thinking Skills.  Problem-Solving Skills.  The new corporate culture allows members to show brilliance.

They have freedom to expand the company’s knowledge with new concepts, strategies, innovative ideas; search for global-economic trends the firm can look forward to, or circumvent, and at the very least reduce the impact on the company; can suggest that other trends (i.e., business practices, office technology, equipment, etc.) can bring additional value to the firm; creativity flows because team members are using imagination to improve brand image; designing products and services, messages to consumers; members are capable of discovering problems within the company, analyzing issues from several perspectives, and selecting the best solutions; also, members are proactive because they can determine potential difficulties within the company, and have remedies available as a mechanism.

Professional Development.  Another approach healthy corporate culture demonstrates to employees you’re the most important asset the company has, is by creating and implementing a training center, or contracting vendors for routine employee training sessions.

The gesture informs employees that not only should the company grow, but employees should grow as well.

Bottom-Up Management.  Team members in lower parts of the organization can witness if a project is stalled because of production equipment failures; the customer is happy with products and services, dissatisfied, or experienced injury from them; fully aware if a group of employees plan a work stoppage, and many other situations organizations experience. By structuring the company in said form, employees can believe they really are partners in the company’s future.

Leadership Style.  Departmental/Business Unit leaders have to embrace humility above other traits they possess, and then converge the remaining attributes of Level 5 Leadership with Team Management Leadership as a hybrid style approach.

*Or consulted with in other capacities.

Vikki

 

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Well…

A dialogue on mental health can be addressed from numerous perspectives.  We should always indicate that we feel badly for individuals experiencing psychological difficulties. But we’re not expressing ourselves totally if we fail to acknowledge how some of those behaviors affect others. This post is meant to rectify that omission.

Psychology is everywhere and especially in the workplace. After spending so many hours together on a weekly basis, it’s difficult not to observe the varied behaviors. Positive attitudes are a must for every level of an organization.  And there’s never enough of them. Unfortunately, there are workers with negative mental default buttons. If we’re completely honest, they take air out of a room.  Those behaviors leave us shaking our heads in disbelief, wincing with pain, and with nerves worn out.  Some of the issues we may observe are:

  • Anger Management Difficulties
  • ASPD (First Level)
  • Toxic Complainers
  • Mercurial (not BPD)
  • Nosey-Parkers (this isn’t a mental health issue, per se, but it’s troublesome behavior)
  • Rigid Thinkers (unbeknownst to them, they’re setting themselves up for anxiety disorders)

And we can’t leave out NPD.  Each one of us have known, or knows, individuals with this condition.  Which brings us to someone we’ll refer to as Sebastian to protect his identity. He was a new peer.  Twenty-six years old, Vice President, brainy and demonstrated his proficiencies. All of us liked him, until he shot himself in the foot. And kept shooting. The following is a series of events.

  • Periodically throughout the year, meetings were held for new hires.  Each was introduced and spoke briefly about work experiences and personal interests. Sebastian indicated he was champing at the bits to bring value to the firm, addressed skills, and how much he couldn’t wait to work with everyone. Then, he made derogatory comments about his former company.
  • “How’s everyone doing?”  There was none of that.  He didn’t believe in greeting people at work, not even the boss.  “Let’s go to lunch and discuss the new project.” It didn’t happen. “I play golf on the weekends.  Come.” He never said it.  Sebastian wasn’t interested in getting along with anyone at work.  He lacked people skills.
  • The organization provided on-site Professional Development every quarter.  He was in one of the sessions a few weeks after his arrival.  All of us were excited about the program as we filled into the training facility.  That excitement quickly dissipated, however. Sebastian interrupted the trainer repeatedly, gave his thoughts and experience, corrected the instructor, with the rest of us interrupting him to be quiet.
  • None of us knew what exactly occurred.  There was a heated conversation in the hallway between Sebastian and the Human Resource Director, with the latter advising the former, Cool it! The Director had a laid-back personality, and we hadn’t ever seen his feathers ruffled until this incident.
  • There was nothing inappropriate about Sebastian having time off for external professional development. Others were granted similar permission.  It was his bragging as though he had a sense of entitlement which was inappropriate.

Conclusion

Sebastian reminds me of a classmate in grade school.  He couldn’t govern himself an hour before he was sent down to the principal’s office.

A lighter touch, fragrance of humor, modifying the ego, all could have assisted him greatly before he completed his first employment application.

Did he see it coming that Friday morning when he was introduced to his replacement?

Vikki