Building positive workplace cultures

Learning objectives
How do I:
• understand the key concepts associated with workplace cultures?
• identify the impacts of positive and negative workplace cultures on the
functioning of an organisation, particularly in the area of patient safety
and quality?
• identify different types of workplace cultures?
• understand the impact a health manager or leader can make on the culture
of an organisation or department?
• build positive workplace cultures?
Introduction
Understanding, managing and building culture within a workplace are key responsibilities
of leadership and management. This chapter outlines what workplace culture is, the
impact of poor culture on an organisation and what managers can do to improve workplace
culture.
Peter Drucker (as cited in Fernandez-Araoz, 2014, para. 2) once famously said,
‘Culture eats strategy over breakfast’. This might seem implausible, because there is
an expectatio