Performance Expectations: Positive or Problematic?

Positive Work Culture Drives Higher Productivity and Sales

A study by the Harvard Business Review found that companies with a positive work culture have 31% higher productivity and 37% higher sales:

“Too many companies bet on having a cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners culture to drive their financial success. However, a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line.

Although there’s an assumption that stress and pressure push employees to perform more, better, and faster, what cutthroat organisations fail to recognise is the hidden costs incurred.”

Performance Expectations: The Polarising Effect of Company Culture

In a recent paper released as part of the International Studies of Management & Organisation (Smollan & Mooney), we see how performance expectations can have a polarising effect, depending on how they are delivered and filtered through the business.

On the one hand, with the focus on a positive culture, employees can feel driven to reach and exceed KPIs and gain a sense of both personal and team achievement in doing so. The culture becomes underpinned by teamwork, diversity, harmony, leadership, and working together to achieve greater things.

Is Your Company Culture Aligned with Positive Performance?

On the other hand, if the culture is mostly dominated by stress and high pressure (which is often standard procedure in financial services especially), it can lead to conflict, unmanageable workloads and a fear-based environment. Think exclusion, conflict, bias, bullying, workloads, resourcing, and must-win-at-any-cost.

Hidden Costs of a Stress-Driven Culture

So what are the hidden costs of your company’s performance culture? What is your company’s real culture of expectation? Is there a framework in place to positively influence culture and performance? Or is it left to the attitude of those currently leading the charge in each department?

We have worked with multiple businesses on analysing their internal messaging and systems of influence, to create a model for lasting change and positive impact. We’re keen to hear your experiences and views on creating a positive company culture and welcome enquiries to start a conversation.

References:

Harvard Business Review: Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive (hbr.org) 

Roy K. Smollan & Shelagh K. Mooney (2024) The bright side and dark side of performance expectations: the role of organizational culture and the impact on employee performance and wellbeing, International Studies of Management & Organization, 54:3, 218-237, DOI: 10.1080/00208825.2024.2320580 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00208825.2024.2320580