Is your organizational culture contributing to team failure?

Whether or not work teams fail can largely depend upon the organizational culture in a workplace. If there are many problems rooted in the foundation of the organization, when issues arise in the team environment, things can go downhill – sometimes quickly – especially if no intervention is done.

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How an organization reacts to situations, encourages members or what type of philosophical ideology the company has set, can greatly impact both individuals and teams. Here are a few ways the kind of organizational culture in a company contributes to work team failure:

Lack of encouragement

When companies do not promote an environment of encouragement, this tends to stifle innovation both in the individual and team settings. Team members may find themselves feeling as if their collective contribution is of little value to the company because no encouragement or feedback is offered. Another way this can impact the group setting is if problems in a projects arise and there is no one on the managerial level willing to assist, offer solutions or even lend an ear. A culture of encouragement is vital for success and the presence of encouragement can make or break a work team.

No nurturing of team thinking

Entrepreneurial thinking can be innovative and a great attribute to possess, however when it comes to work teams there needs to be levels of cooperation and willingness to share information and work with other team members.

An organizational culture that encourages solo thinking is likely to find when teams are established these teams have difficulty coming together to work on a project. Essentially a culture that does not promote teamwork is going to find themselves with employees who do not know how to effectively work together when necessary.

Lack of leadership

Groups are likely to find difficulty succeeding if they don't have not only the support, but the leadership of management to guide when necessary. For instance if management assigns a project to a group and says "have at it", this can prohibit the group from understanding the project or knowing how to go about finding solutions. On the other hand, management that provides guidance and leadership and instills this in the organizational culture so staff feels comfortable asking questions or looking for assistance, is bound to find better success with team situations.

There are many other factors why work teams can fail, however, management's direction and the overall organizational culture can play a large part in team failure - or success.