legal words
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Improving the Health of
Your Workplace Culture
POOR CULTURE CAN BE A LIABILITY
Discussions in the HR field concerning workplace sexual
harassment were renewed in the fall of 2014 when sexual
harassment allegations against Jian Ghomeshi were
raised by a number of women, including some former
co-workers at CBC, and when two Canadian liberal MPs were
suspended from caucus after sexual harassment allegations were
raised against them by two MPs of another party.
Surprisingly, there has been very little examination of the impact
that workplace cultures, such as CBC’s, had on the organizations’
responses – or failures to respond – to such complaints. While it
is yet to be seen what the fallout will be for CBC and its manager’s
failures, we can see at least one lesson to be learned from CBC’s
workplace culture: the need to assess, analyze and take ongoing,
proactive measures to ensure that your organization’s culture is
healthy and effective.
Workplace culture is the foundation of an organization. It is the
environment that surrounds employees at work. It powerfully influences
the organization and its actions as well as those of its employees,
including their work enjoyment, relationships and actions. It is an
organization’s personality made up of the values, beliefs, underlying
assumptions, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours shared by
employees as influenced by the organization’s executives and management
(i.e., through their practices and the way they organize work). It
is the behaviour that results when employees over time arrive at a set
of unspoken rules for working together. While not visible, it can be
seen or felt through its manifestations at work. It is not static.
By Sheryl Johnson
THE LAW AND THE
CONSEQUENCES OF
SUCH FAILURES ARE
EVOLVING SO THAT
ORGANIZATIONS WITH
UNHEALTHY WORKPLACE
CULTURES CAN NO
LONGER AFFORD TO
TURN A BLIND EYE
ON MISCONDUCT.
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2015 ❚ 11
