Building positive workplace cultures

Abstract

Understanding, managing and building culture within a workplace are key responsibilities of leadership and management. This chapter outlines what workplace culture is, the impact of poor culture on an organisation and what managers can do to improve workplace culture. Peter Drucker (as cited in Fernandez-Ara.oz, 2014, para. 2) once famously said, 'Culture eats strategy over breakfast'. This might seem implausible, because there is an expectation on healthcare managers to plan, set out, implement and then evaluate strategy. Drucker's point is that unless there is a positive culture in a workplace, seeing a strategy move to successful implementation and adoption is very difficult, sometimes impossible.