“A Collection of Short Essays on Productivity in Practice”
Volume 1, September 2024. Article 6.

Organization Culture — A Driver for Increased Productivity

Veena SWARUP, Fellow of WAPS, INDIA

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“Productivity is not about getting everything done, rather it is about getting things done effectively.” — Brianna Gray.

It is people who are at the heart of every activity. They set the “Vision” and then execute it. It is the people that differentiate one organization from another; the quality of the workforce is the key differentiator. It is the people who create the charged environment, the culture of the organization, so subtle, through which they operate.

In fact culture may be defined as “a hidden unifying theme that provides meaning, direction, and mobilization to action within an organization.”

“A company’s culture is the product of the company’s values, expectations and environment.” — Courtney Chapman.

Having had the opportunity to work in three organizations and a regulator in the energy space — Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, an upstream oil & gas public-sector company; Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals Ltd., a downstream public-sector company; Engineers India Ltd., a public-sector industrial technology, engineering consultancy; and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the upstream regulator, which is also a part of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas — I observed the culture of each of them, and found each was good in driving professionalism and productivity, but each was distinct and different from the others. In fact, private-sector companies have a completely different culture though they too are competitive. The culture of an organization truly bears its values, skills and environment.

People, skills and organization culture are key to sustainability and productivity of an organization. Sustainable productivity is about maintaining the balance of the needs of the employees, the environment and those of the organization at large, leading to continuous business growth and at the same time high levels of employee wellbeing and environment management.

Whereas business strategy is the hardware that drives future organizations, value-led and purpose-driven human-resource practices constitute the software that drives sustainable and responsible growth. So as may be seen, human resource is at the center stage for progressing or developed organizations, ranking high in both productivity and sustainability. People are a critical resource and it is important to focus on their aspirations, through their desire for responsibilities, challenges, and rewards, entailed by senior roles, their ability, and through engagement with them. A positive culture can boost productivity by encouraging employee engagement, increasing motivation, and improving the work environment.

“Strong Productivity is the result of many things, but at its foundation is a winning culture.” — Todd Davis.

The greater the culture, the more productive are the people. It has been observed that high-productivity organizations that exhibit transparency, inclusiveness, high values and ethics, care for its people, their welfare and growth, an environment of ownership, belongingness for the organization, and the desire to take the organization to great heights through high productivity. The high credibility of the organization leadership develops trust, which facilitates problem resolution, thus helps in realizing the organization’s vision and increases productivity. Organizations have grown exponentially in such environment. Organizations today are focusing on:

· Process & Operational Excellence

· Purpose Driven Culture — Design Thinking

· Adaptive to State-of-the-Art Technology

· Agile, Flexible, Synergized Teams

· Top Driven through Effective Leadership

A FICCI Study in August 2021 on Skills and Jobs — a pre- and post-Covid perspective, highlights a global shift in workforce and workplace transition, where it defines shifts in work, workforce and workplace as follows:

· Work — focus to shift on investments towards automation and cognitive technology

· Workforce — important to look at alternative work-force models and leverage on gig workers to the extent possible

· Workplace — to be hybrid, physical and remote

Managements need to review employee-related policies and be innovative to develop the right resources.

In view of the importance of workforce and skills complexities, it is imperative to put the right people in the job roles. Building the foundation through people is a critical activity for all organizations, which largely has a pool of specialists and generalists. I recall in my previous work experience in the various organizations that it is so important to carefully build the foundation through selection of resources, people are like gems, they are the wealth of the organization and can steer the organization further to great heights. Such foundation, as I experienced, greatly impacted the culture and performance of these organizations.

The process to be followed includes:

· Role Analysis on a KSA Framework (knowledge, skills, attitude)

· Identification of critical roles through interactions with experts

· Align roles to the organization’s vision and business strategy

· Identification of key stakeholders for development of critical role profiles

· Identification of technical, functional and behavioral competencies

· Identification of the orientation programs

· Developing career paths and development plans for those inducted

· Hand-holding and mentoring at different stages

The quality of leadership has a major role to play to keeping the morale of the workforce high and getting the best results in organizational performance. The leader must be the best fit for that position, one who exhibits agility and resilience, has clarity of vision, goals and objectives, has the ability to set goals and priorities for teams, understands the workforce, maintains interpersonal relationships within the teams, has trust and faith in team members, with high credibility, and is accessible to the employees.

It is important that the workforce built is agile, where teams can handle any changes so as to meet the challenges of new opportunities through diversification and expansion. For example, a team of chemical engineers have been hired for a design and structure department and if the requirement comes up later to diversify into areas of renewable energy, or some water projects, the team should exhibit talent fungibility. Skilling and re-skilling should help them prepare for the change. It is especially important to ensure capacity building of trainers too, by harnessing the knowledge of experienced specialists and technicians. Rotational training and job rotation can also be looked at as a part of the career development policy, to give sufficient exposure to various areas and spheres of work and challenges.

Organization culture impacts how every employee views performance. High-performance culture fosters high-performance team members. Culture impacts engagement, which drives productivity. Further, collaborative culture enhances productivity. Employee-friendly company policies empower individual productivity. Company culture has a strong link to productivity in an organization, how it influences an individual’s mindset to result in engagement at work.

“Human beings excel when they are happy, and doing what they enjoy. And when they excel they produce.” — Todd Davis.

About the Author

Ms Veena Swarup is former Director, Human Resources, Engineers India Ltd. She handled human resources in three other organizations, namely Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals Ltd., and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.

Post retirement, besides being Non-executive Director on Boards, she is Chair of Committees/ Taskforces at professional/ industry bodies in the space of skilling, HR, CSR, and women development. She has championed people development, especially conceptualizing programs for women, such as “Pragati” at All India Management Association that she led for over a decade.

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World Academy of Productivity Science
World Academy of Productivity Science

Written by World Academy of Productivity Science

The World Academy of Productivity Science (WAPS) is comprised of individual members who support the goal of WCPS and wish to contribute to its work.

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