Stress and well-being are hot topics of organizational culture. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 Pandemic, perspectives have shifted regarding work and stress. During the pandemic, increasing numbers of workers teleworked. Dress codes were less regulated at brick-and-mortar jobs. Overall, employees began to question commonly held beliefs and practices. Working to change an organization and address its culture is largely a question of how (Farrell, 2018). Managers can better implement lasting solutions by isolating the implementation from the reasons and rationale. A survey was conducted within the organization to assess workplace morale and value. Fifteen employees were contacted and asked questions to gain insight regarding employee happiness. A copy of the questions can be found here. Below, the results will be discussed and analyzed, and potential next steps will be offered. While there are areas of celebration, there are also three areas of growth that the organization should address immediately to improve productive and lasting employee happiness.
Two Areas of Strength for the Organization
Employees were given ten survey Likert-style questions. The survey has a sample size of fifteen employees, and all employees completed it. The sample size is relatively small for an organization of this size: a school district serving approximately 20,000 students. Still, survey completers were selected from various schools and locations and represented a range of experiences.
There were two questions where the percentage of respondents selecting ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ represented over 80% of responses. These two questions were related to collaborative working conditions and professional development. Much time, effort, and resources have been allocated to the growth of these areas in recent years. Positive feedback regarding these questions indicates that the investment has displayed a level of return on investment. Also, there is a connection between the two items. Most professional development within the district is job-embedded and encourages collaboration among colleagues. The level of success of these initiatives means that deliberate effort can yield changes in employee’s perceptions regarding their feelings about work.
Three Areas of Growth for the Organization
Out of the ten questions, three indicated growth areas for the organization. Of the three questions listed above, one regarding communication received a range of scores. Still, most respondents indicated that their feelings about communication were neutral at best. Even though the organization has a public information office, uses various technologies to communicate with all stakeholders, and continually seeks to refine its communication process, respondents still need to be satisfied. The organization could take this data and create another survey to conduct a focus group to help increase their understanding regarding employee dissatisfaction with communication.
The questions regarding work/life balance and stress management are even more troubling. In both questions, over 50% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the employers supporting a positive work/life balance and stress management. The employer could start by diving deeper into work-life balance and stress management questions. Conducting a brainstorming session around these topics could yield greater clarity on the topics and possible action steps. Also, increased communication regarding how to manage stress and healthy work/life balance could benefit employees. However, these initiatives are already occurring within the school district, so an increase in communication will likely not change employee outlooks or practices.
Most importantly, leadership and upper management should model effective work/life balance and stress management. For many principals and school leaders, discussing how early they report to work and how late they stay is a badge of honor. Working a twelve-hour day and celebrating it among your employees communicates an improper outlook on work/life balance. Also, several leaders often appear stressed at work and communicate their job difficulties. Instead, leaders should actively communicate how they handle stress by discussing their self-awareness and cognitive perspective (Rice, 2019). A leader’s primary goal is to appear collected and calm during the workday. Further, a leader should not visit their stress upon their employees. Until leaders can properly demonstrate work/life balance and stress management, these employee perceptions will not shift.
Conclusion
The workplace can be identified as functioning as a clan (Denissie & Egziabher, 2022). A clan uses shared beliefs and ideals to exist as a single entity. Using this as a level, organizational leaders can implement systematic change by working with formal and informal leaders to influence change. In this case, bringing employees together about work/life balance and stress management can influence lasting systematic change.
References
Demissie, D., & Egziabher, F. G. (2022). An Investigation of Organizational Culture of Higher
Education: The Case of Hawassa University. Education Research International, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1222779
Farrell, M. (2018). Leadership Reflections: Organizational Culture. Journal of Library
Administration, 58(8), 861-872. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2018.1516949
Rice University. (2019). Organizational behavior. OpenStax.
