A negative workplace culture is an environment dominated by practices, policies and management styles that perpetuate unhealthy habits and conflicts. In a negative culture, employees experience dissatisfaction, and low morale and are much less productive. Extremely negative cultures are often referred to as toxic. However, it is important to understand the difference between negative and toxic cultures. A toxic culture is an extremely serious, potentially brand-damaging, company-ending culture which is detrimentally impacting employees and society.
From our own experience, working as culture consultants for over twenty years this is how we would define the difference between negative and toxic cultures.
Whilst negative or toxic cultures often overlap, when a company is truly toxic the approach to improve the culture is very different to how we would recommend a negative culture is improved. This is because a toxic culture needs a full reset. There are dangerous, discriminatory behaviours occurring which have often been left unchecked for years. It is therefore paramount that the toxicity is neutralised safely, with the correct support and guidance provided to ensure all employees come out of the experience as safely as possible.
In standard cultures, with a survey of over 1,000 employees, 29% of employees reported taking time off due to the impact of behaviours such as discrimination, sexual misconduct or harassment. In a toxic culture, this percentage can be 80-90%, which is why the approach needs to be led by a professional.
Below are our recommended steps to fix a toxic organisational culture.
Identify the signs which indicate a toxic culture
Toxic cultures have signs that may indicate the serious problems infecting the current culture.
For example, individuals who compete with each other as opposed to working as a team, or missed goals with high levels of blame. If there is a lack of recognition for high performers, or disrespect goes unchallenged and it is more important to deliver the numbers, no matter what the costs, then this could indicate high levels of toxicity.
Many toxic cultures have high employee turnover, but not always, as some toxic cultures incur limited employee turnover due to the negative impacts the culture has on individuals. Employees feel trapped, unhappy and lack confidence to move on. Their health may have been impacted, and they work such long hours to meet the increasingly negative demands of the culture they don’t have time to look for new roles. Leaders of toxic cultures can often manipulate people into feeling so valued, at critical times, that people struggle to leave despite the toxic environment.
Toxic cultures are the worst level. They do not just emerge over night. And, in our opinion, there is often not ‘one person’ to blame. It is a way of working, which has been allowed to fester, grow in negativity but on some level may be achieving whatever arbitrary performance metrics the company is chasing. Toxic cultures have been ignored for some time, even years, which is what has allowed the toxicity to grow, fester and continue to take over the culture increasing the scale of negativity as people fail to improve the culture in a positive way.
Understand the depth & scale of the toxicity
There is a huge difference between negative culture and a toxic culture. In some organisations there can be pockets of poor culture, or areas where there is positive culture and overall whilst the culture may not be helping deliver success it may not be so negative it is toxic. A toxic culture perpetuates unhealthy behaviours and conflict between employees. A toxic manager can create negativity and toxicity in a certain area of a business, and can be easily remedied – if dealt with promptly. Again the HR data will indicate this, if there is psychological safety for people to provide open and honest feedback.
If the toxicity is across the business, with unhealthy and negative behaviours consistently going unchallenged, or even encouraged then you have a toxic culture. Often organisations cultures come to light when there is a crisis. Perhaps, an employment tribunal or a negative press story about the state of the business. Recently there have been multiple high-profile stories about negative cultures e.g. the Post Office.
The lack of trust, the way people were treated and the lack of listening from the leadership teams created such a toxic culture that many people lost their jobs, livelihoods and even lives to the toxicity of the culture. If the organisation had invested in Culture Consultants earlier, this could have been identified years ahead of the scandals which now continually plague them. Ultimately, an early intervention could have saved the Post Office significant sums of money and safeguarded it against its current spiral of decline.
Create the Vision & Values of the Future
Many organisations with toxic cultures may not have defined values or behaviours. Others may have elaborate, clearly defined values and behaviours – but maybe they do not live by them. Often they adorn walls, are promoted externally but employees fail to live by them. They can become a source of amusement, and at times disrespect. Many toxic cultures have a clear ‘this is what we say to follow what we should say’ and an undercurrent of reality in terms of ‘this is how we really do things’.
The leaders must inspire the new vision and values of the future. Everyone needs to be involved in creating them, owning them and most importantly ensuring everyone abides by them, supporting each other to achieve them and continuously improve. At times, toxic cultures can still be prolific but the leaders can be unaware of the situation. This is usually the case when a company’s performance has declined, leading to ineffective toxic leaders being replaced, but then employees continue to behave unethically. Often undercutting leaders, talking in hushed tones behind backs and ensuring that unhelpful behaviours continue to manifest across the organisation. And all of this despite leaders’ attempts to improve the culture.
Imagine a lake of salt water. It will remain at a level of saltiness until a certain combination of fresh water, seawater and/or rain is added to tip the PH balance. This is the same for culture, and when it is achieved it needs to be maintained and managed but culture grows over time so it cannot be changed by a few leaders at the top.
Unfortunately, many leaders become disillusioned, burnt out or ill when trying to transform a toxic culture because of the challenge which is before them. This is why it is vital to get the experts in when a culture is toxic. The other element is to ensure all leaders, managers and employees buy-in to the value of culture.
Ensure ALL Leadership buy-in to the Value of Culture
Scepticism, lack of trust, and short-sighted quick wins for individuals and not the collective good are all signs that leaders don’t truly buy into the importance of culture. There will be no change to a toxic culture without leadership truly understanding its value. Many culture changes often start with leaders being removed, which instills fear. When people are scared this enflames negative behaviours further – especially in a toxic culture which has rewarded unhealthy behaviours historically.
Leaders who have been disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, cutthroat or abusive must be held to account whilst a culture of transparency, openness and fairness is created.
There does need to be opportunities and hope for all leaders.
Communication is Key
Communication of the culture strategy is key, as words will breed behaviours but difficult conversations will be plentiful. Role modelling becomes vital. New standards and expectations need to be communicated, with everyone set up for success. Support, positive reinforcement, and opportunities to learn are crucial. Many employees, especially if they joined the toxic culture early in their careers may not know there are other ways of working and behaving. Hence, it is important to present people with the opportunities to improve.
Create a Culture of Psychological Safety
Toxic culture transformations often fail because of the fear which can be instilled during the transformation. Employees fear for their jobs, may be ashamed of how they have behaved or may prefer the culture how it was. This culture is what feels familiar to them. It is ‘how we do things here’. Psychological safety is when people feel safe taking interpersonal risks, speaking up or voicing ideas or concerns. It is a feeling so can’t be mandated. Often some people feel psychologically safe, whereas others may not. In a toxic culture the majority of employees do not feel psychologically safe. They daren’t speak up, voice concerns or ideas and there is a culture where people may be ridiculed for speaking up. Often this leaders to people preferring to be silent, as this is easier and safer.
Think about when you have mustered the courage to speak up in a meeting. How did people react? How did people respond? Was there positive support? Did you get ridiculed? Did people say what they really thought? Or were you dismissed? Did people listen to you? Or were you scared? If people have a positive experience when they voice their opinions or speak up they are more likely to do it again. However, if people are ignored, dismissed or made to feel uncomfortable, then they are unlikely to speak up again. There is also no psychological safety.
As shown below, creating psychological safety is critical to fueling trust and performance. If you would like a free individual measure of psychological safety please click here.
Whilst this article has focused on toxic cultures, successful organisations have positive cultures which drive organisational success. If you have noticed any of the items discussed in this article we recommend you contact our team of Culture Consultants at Think Organisation for a free 30-minute consultation conversation to discuss how to get your organisational culture assessed.
