Our Culture.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
-Peter Drucker
Culture reflects how a company treats its people, how it champions its values, and how it understands its mission. Where Strategy provides clarity and focus for collective action and decision making, Culture reflects an organization's social order. Our culture shapes everything: it is the expression of goals through values and beliefs and it informs shared assumptions and group norms. These qualities develop organically and become a product of the organization's activity.
How employees interact with each other and how they respond to change dictates much of an organization’s social order. This informs employee engagement across an organization and results in one of eight distinct cultural styles.
Alberta Ballet surveyed employees in the spring of 2021, asking: What three words describe the kind of culture you want to work in? We organized the results according to the Harvard Business Review's eight cultural styles. Caring, with 37% of staff responses, was the most desirable cultural style. Caring is followed by Order, Purpose, and Learning. Results, Enjoyment, Safety, and Authority were last.
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) also provided what cultural styles are common in companies. Most companies in the HBR survey featured Caring as a second choice.
The Alberta Ballet survey revealed how unique we are: our priorities for organizational culture differed from the averages of the HBR survey.
Caring, Order and Purpose account for 73% of all Alberta Ballet responses to our cultural survey.
In HBR's surveyed organizations, Results was the prioritized cultural style for 89%. At Alberta Ballet, Results ranked in fourth place where it was tied with Learning.
Order, defined by an organization focused on respect, structure and cultural norms, was ranked second highest by those at Alberta Ballet. Most organizations rank it third.
Purpose is Alberta Ballet’s third priority with other organizations make it fourth on their list. However, no other response even broke 10%.
A desire for a Caring culture indicates an organization that wants to ensure the wellbeing of its employees: a warm and welcoming environment, respectful of those who work here and dedicated to a greater cause.
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EIGHT CULTURAL STYLES (HBR)
The eight cultural styles outlined in the Harvard Business Review, describe the degree to which each work environment exists along a continuum of change and interdependence. Those styles are defined as the following:
Caring. Warm, collaborative and welcoming places where people help and support one another. Employees are united by loyalty; leaders emphasize sincerity, teamwork and positive relationships.
Purpose. Tolerant, compassionate places where people try to do good for the long-term future of the world. Employees are united by a focus on sustainability and global communities; leaders emphasize shared ideals and contributing to a greater cause.
Learning. Inventive and open-minded places where people spark new ideas and explore alternatives. Employees are united by curiosity; leaders emphasize innovation, knowledge and adventure.
Enjoyment. Lighthearted places where people tend to do what makes them happy. Employees are united by playfulness and stimulation; leaders emphasize spontaneity and a sense of humor.
Results. Outcome-oriented and merit-based places where people aspire to achieve top performance. Employees are united by a drive for capability and success; leaders emphasize goal accomplishment.
Authority. Competitive places where people strive to gain personal advantage. Employees are united by strong control; leaders emphasize confidence and dominance.
Safety. Predictable places where people are risk-conscious and think things through carefully. Employees are united by a desire to feel protected and anticipate change; leaders emphasize being realistic and planning.
Order. Methodical places where people tend to play by the rules and want to fit in. Employees are united by cooperation; leaders emphasize shared procedures and time-honored customs.