Shaping Positive Organisational Culture To Foster Growth

Jun 9, 2026

Author: Simona Cimpoieru

Simona Cimpoieru is an experienced Senior HR Consultant, holding a Master’s degree in HR and having served 7 years as an HR Manager, she provides strategic consultancy in organizational development, talent acquisition, and workforce planning. Simona specializes in bridging skills gaps through competency development and modern learning solutions, helping both professionals and organizations thrive in evolving workplace environments.

An organisational culture is shaped deliberately and strategically. If an organisational culture is carefully shaped or simply allowed to form on its own, the issue is whether it genuinely supports people and goals or not. Shaping a positive organisational culture means more than presenting a set of values. The real challenge of creating a positive culture is transposing values into behaviours, efficient leadership decisions, and habits. This article explores how organisations can transform aspirations into practice, and what it takes to build a workplace culture that genuinely fosters growth.

According to Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report, employee well-being reached the highest levels in 2022 and has been declining since, with only 34% of employees thriving at work in 2025. Also, McKinsey’s 2026 research found that 64% of employees identify connecting personal goals to organisational goals as the key driver of performance.

These data remind us that the culture we build, or fail to build, has a direct impact on how people experience their professional lives. Shaping a positive organisational culture takes time and involves building on positive values and making constant efforts to convert these values into daily actions and behaviours. Organisational culture is a notion we can’t ignore because it is actually about our lives. Behind fancy buildings and offices, there are many worlds with their own rules and habits.

Most companies and institutions aim for an ideal culture with core values meant to bring them accomplishments and public recognition. Every organisation has its own culture and demands compliance with its declared values. When we join a new company, its workplace culture takes precedence over our personal preferences. That’s because, as new employees, we are expected to adapt to the work environment.

Personal values and shaping positive organisational culture

A 2026 Gallup research shows that employee negative emotions are elevated, suggesting that global employee well-being peaked in 2022 and then started to decline. In 2025, employee thriving increased by one point, from 33% to 34%. Generally, data indicate that when employees enjoy their work and believe they have choices in what they do, they experience stronger well-being and higher workplace engagement.

According to the 2026 McKinsey state of organisations report, connecting individual goals to organisational goals is identified by 64% respondents as the key to improving performance. Their survey found that 77% of employees who participated in regular development conversations felt motivated. However, almost 25% of employees reported their managers lack the skills to conduct effective performance reviews.

When we join a new workplace, we bring with us not only our professional experience, education and skills but also our social habits, values, beliefs and dreams. Our values and the new organisational culture we belong to are constantly transforming and influencing each other.

Also, our core values change along with life events and daily social problems. As time goes by, we gain experience, acceptance and understanding of our environment and our flaws. If we know and act upon our core values, we can easily decide what kind of organisational culture fits us.

So, a strong workplace ethic or good feedback skills of a new colleague might easily embrace each other and create a long-term commitment. But sometimes these values and habits clash, employees’ adaptation to organisational culture never occurs, and the result is quiet-quitting. For a healthy and positive culture, we need good leadership committed to both people’s and businesses’ needs.

Ideal workplace culture Vs. real workplace culture

A positive workplace culture is a long-term mission and a promise to fulfil. As with any promise, it takes time and effort to become real. This is the reason why in every organisation, there are at least two coexisting cultures. There is the ideal culture, the wishful thinking that we are striving for and chasing, and there is the real workplace culture, the daily routine and efforts we make with what we already have, good or bad.

To shape a positive culture, we need to reinforce people’s confidence and their achievements. According to Gallup’s report on Employee Engagement, engaged employees perceive their lives highly and experience more positive emotions. Also, the same report confirms that employee engagement drives growth. Recognising and reinforcing people’s achievements, no matter how small or great, will strengthen encouragement and create a positive culture. Supporting and encouraging words and behaviours have a positive impact on all of us.

So, using tools like rewarding performance, celebrating success, and honest communication regarding business obstacles, will likely grow loyalty among colleagues and relationships can become more straightforward.

To avoid employee disengagement and low productivity rates, we need to provide a safe and encouraging work environment and set up a clear communication process. This builds a genuine sense of trust and belonging, and obviously contributes to business success. Of course, practices and procedures evolve, but if we get the basics right, we will have a chance of growing a great business with people who enjoy working with each other.

Organisational communication and positive culture

The remote work model has changed the workforce landscape. Because there is no physical proximity, distributed teams utilise specific digital infrastructure to connect and work. Remote organisations need to include manuals and guides to enable people to make decisions without supervision. For remote-first organisations, values are observable behaviours, communication is asynchronous, and people have the same information regardless of time zones. In this case, too much control, routine and lack of human connection can lead to failure.

We associate a positive culture with ethical behaviours and alignment with moral values. Mutual respect, inclusivity, transparency, honesty, and clear, authentic communication are among the moral standards we expect in a positive workplace culture. The true core of a positive culture is honest and transparent communication with one another. Shaping a positive organisational culture might not be so difficult if we implement efficient communication tools.

5 Blueprints for transparent communication across the organisation

1. Explain and constantly communicate responsibilities. Provide shared manuals that indicate differences in hierarchy and conflict, and how feedback is provided. Describe how a new hire can successfully integrate into the team, what the expectations and deadlines are.
2. Create communication maps. Keep information about internal processes and working procedures simple, transparent and visible, ensuring they mirror the organisation’s stated values.
3. Involve people in deciding the communication channels. Transparent communication is essential for maintaining employee engagement. Decide on the type of channels to use for written communication, informal and collaboration platforms using asynchronous, real-time presence and specific channels to encourage interaction and building working relationships.
4. Standardise and simplify communication channels. By using communication templates across the organisation, simplify, standardise, constantly review and adapt the communication channels.
5. Share and acknowledge people’s achievements to strengthen interpersonal bonds. Guide them and offer support for goal setting, foster collaboration and curiosity and sharing people’s success through the intranet, team events, blogs or other tools.

How do we create a positive organisational culture?

Creating these blueprints as well as setting the organisation’s course towards a strong sense of purpose is a leadership responsibility. Even small adjustments in workflows or simply putting an effort into responding to employees’ needs can make a difference.

Shaping a positive organisational culture is also about people being and working together towards a promising future. Also, a leader able to foster professional growth, recognise people’s achievements, and properly reward accomplishments is a driving force for positive change.

Effective leaders can create a clear, optimistic and strong vision statement to motivate and inspire people to shift their behaviours. In building a long-lasting positive culture, organisations need highly competent and motivated leaders. The reason for that is that, besides aligning all systems and internal processes, they have to design clear, individual action plans. They need to offer a positive expectations horizon and genuine personal fulfilment for everybody. A high level of engagement, a lifelong learning mindset and acting on positive personal values might be the main ingredients of a positive organisational culture.

Who builds an organisational culture?

Formally, a positive organisational culture can be built through a collaborative partnership between leaders, people and strategic functions such as Human Resources. Leaders play an important part in setting the premises of a positive culture and organisational strategic priorities. They are seen as legitimate examples and have a real impact throughout the organisation.

As communicators across the organisation, they can openly and transparently set expectations and provide feedback. But, most of all, their role is to empower, reward and recognise those positive behaviours contributing to a positive culture of sharing, engagement and support. Organisational culture begins with the leader’s personal and professional growth; they are the role models who inspire changes and build trust.

We all build an organisational culture by following our daily plans, acting upon our values, and surpassing our limits. We are part of the organisational core culture. Our personal worlds are permanently colliding, and we are constantly transforming and influencing each other’s values, habits and daily behaviours.

However, the economic and political challenges we face keep getting more complex and entangled. Too often, we forget that a positive workplace culture is what we are all aiming for, no matter our profession or where we live. At the end of the day, all of us want to be acknowledged, treated fairly and helped through our professional journeys.

Building a positive organisational culture: where to start

A positive organisational culture demands involvement from everyone, from business leaders who model the behaviours they expect from others to people who need to communicate clearly and honestly, and put their own values into their work. The organisations that succeed in building a positive culture consistently recognise people’s contributions, maintain honest communication and close the gap between the ideal culture they aspire to and the real culture they work in. Lately, remote and hybrid work have reshaped how teams work and connect, and employee well-being is under constant pressure. This is why creating a wellbeing-oriented culture has become a strategic priority for organisations.

Key Takeaways

• A positive organisational culture is created through consistent behaviours and becomes real when they are visible in daily actions and during the decision-making process
• Closing the gap between ideal culture and everyday culture takes ongoing effort, honest communication, and managers willing to lead by example.
• Transparent and honest communication across the organisation is the core of any positive and resilient culture.
• Leaders are the models of culture because their role is to set expectations, recognise people’s contributions, and build trust and make genuine change possible.
• When organisational processes support shared ownership, people feel safe and contribute by bringing their value and energy together, generating a positive culture that becomes synergy, sustaining the whole organisation.