Mental Health Job Aid for Managers: Psychosocial Factor 2 – Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture is the degree to which a workplace is characterized by trust, honesty, and fairness. A healthy organizational culture focuses on enhancing employee well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. A culture of profit and/or results at all costs and constant chaotic urgency can create a negative environment.
Organizational Culture: Where to Start?
Take Action!
Encourage and reinforce a respectful workplace by representing and demonstrating values of honesty, tolerance, fairness and inclusion.
Develop team values and guiding principles which incorporate trust, honesty, fairness and inclusion and discuss these values during team meetings and display them in your office.
Address and handle workplace conflict immediately by responding in a timely and effective manner when challenging interpersonal issues or other conflicts arise in the workplace.
Communicate openly and honestly with your staff about decisions and ensure respect, sincerity, care and empathy when certain decisions might be seen as negative by some employees.
Always demonstrate and promote ethical behaviour as per the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector or your organization's code detailing expectations and consequences for inappropriate behaviour.
Actively listen to your employees and acknowledge how they are feeling by providing them with opportunities to share their opinions, such as hosting regular staff meetings or Town Hall meetings with a question period.
Provide training to your staff on effective communication and conflict management (see Canada School of Public Service Courses listed below).
Additional Resources
To assess each psychosocial factor, you may use the Organizational Review Worksheet and Survey Tool provided by Guarding Minds at Work.
Developed in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise on Mental Health in the Workplace.
