A deep dive into organizational culture analysis

When conducting research, I often find myself in new places, delving into someone else’s daily life or work. Some time ago, my workday began with a trip to a client’s engineering workshop, wearing a safety helmet and a high-visibility vest. My aim was to spend the day walking in the shoes of the engineering workshop workers and to immerse myself in the experience of what it’s like to work in that specific organization and at that particular shop.

Qualitative culture analysis offers a unique deep dive into an organization’s dynamics, success factors, and strengths. It can enhance understanding of the organization, lay a valuable foundation for cultural change, engage employees more effectively, and provide crucial insights into what type of communication resonates with the personnel. Additionally, culture analysis can help identify and anticipate potential conflicts and challenges within the organization.

Employee surveys and satisfaction questionnaires measure and assess the state of the organization and the pulse of its workforce, but they do not reveal what it’s like to come to work every morning, what people take pride in, or the deep reasons behind staff turnover. Moreover, what people say they do is not always in line with what they actually do. This is why a qualitative approach – through discussions, observations, and listening – allows for a deep dive into the organization’s history, changes, leadership culture, social relationships, and practices that define its culture.

My visit to the engineering workshop was driven by our client’s goal of cultural change. Culture analysis is often useful precisely when the objective is cultural change or, for example, the definition of shared values. Once a deep understanding is achieved and challenges worth solving are identified through cultural analysis, an important groundwork for employee-driven cultural change has been laid. A deep dive into organizational culture brings to the surface themes that need to be addressed when starting cultural change. Research distills the culture into shared words, enabling open and common-ground discussions. 

Ethnographic and qualitative research – such as in-depth interviews and participant observation – are often more rewarding experiences for participants than responding to a faceless survey. When the researcher is genuinely interested in the experiences, asks follow-up questions, and requests to see objects and places, the participant’s sense of relevance and being heard is strengthened. Personal stories and viewpoints are not limited by word count.

Organizational culture research benefits from an external researcher. Employees find it easier to talk about their work and its context in their lives to an external researcher who is unfamiliar with the workplace’s norms, has no ties to the organization, or is not responsible for their career progression. An external researcher can act as a trustworthy listener, focusing deeply on the employee’s experience and potentially noticing things that the organization has become blind to. An external researcher can articulate issues in a new way and bring up topics that are difficult to recognize from within the organization.

The results of qualitative research are deep, story-like, and recognizable, even if they are not representative of everyone. In qualitative research, the data often saturates, meaning themes repeat from interview to interview, and new interviews no longer provide significantly new information. Often, the results of qualitative research are strongly recognizable to others in the organization, and the experiences are commonly shared.

In organizations, qualitative research and analysis are particularly suited for gaining a deeper understanding of experiences and culture. It is important to listen to employees in participatory processes, for example, as part of strategic development, creating shared values, or during company mergers.

A deep understanding of organizational culture requires that the researcher can immerse themselves in employees’ experiences confidentially and highlight genuine challenges and pain points. However, it can be daunting to give an outsider a 360-degree view of one’s organization. What might they find? It takes courage and genuine openness to allow for deep understanding – and to accept its results.

What results did my day at the engineering workshop provide to our client’s organization? They gained valuable insights from their own employees and a comprehensive picture of the challenges and opportunities employees encounter daily. The results also highlighted dissatisfaction and challenges, but when these are courageously accepted, genuine development and change is possible.

The workers I talked to at the engineering workshop also valued that their thoughts were sought, and their daily lives were seen as valuable within the organization. The employees were proud of their work and had valuable development suggestions and a broad understanding of the organization’s core challenges. Management realized that involving employees in joint development and problem-solving leads to better results and greater employee engagement.