How Does a Poor Company Culture Affect Employees?

The company culture present in your small business can make or break your venture. A positive culture, in which professionalism, high achievement and team-building is concentrated, will propel employees to work at a higher level. Likewise, a poor company culture that is too causal, disorganized and or even unethical in its values and practices will adversely affect your employees' performance. U.S. News and World Report states one of the chief reasons employees are unhappy in their jobs is a poor company culture.

A poor company culture is one lacking in direction. This lack of leadership in getting work done allows neglectful attitudes to propagate. Employees in a culture where little is expected are likely to procrastinate and take short cuts when they do execute their work. The motivation to pay attention to detail is absent. This behavior illustrates a general poor performance that links back to the organizational culture.

Working in a poor organizational culture promotes careless behavior by its staff. There is a lack of ethics that discourages workers from paying careful attention to duties and customer service. The atmosphere is casual to the point where careless behaviors such as using profanity, dressing inappropriately and expressing thoughtlessness in client interactions pervade. Professionalism suffers greatly in this type of workplace environment.

A culture rich in ethics and committed to professional values serves to encourage employees by making them aware of their importance to the organization. A company with a poor culture, however, can serve to lower the confidence level of employees. Employees fail to thrive in an environment that is neglectful in training and challenging its workers. There is little opportunity for employees to excel as they become mired in a culture of underachievement.

Morale diminishes in an atmosphere lacking strong values. Ipsos, a market research company, reports survey results showing employees believe morale is chiefly determined by company culture. Employees in a poor culture suffer from low energy due to lack of motivation and new ideas. Their attitudes are likely to be ones of indifference or even hostility as they deal with the lack of leadership. Managers respond with frustration and often turn a blind eye to the failure of employees to perform well. Supervisors struggle with a defeatist attitude in the face of a bad company culture.

Businesses depend on their employees to allow them to profit and expand. Within a poor company culture, though, staff members are unlikely to perform at high levels, thus they severely limit the company's potential as well as their own professional growth. Employees who are not empowered by a company culture dedicated to their performance and satisfaction often fail to develop new skills and frequently are bereft of new ideas. They are left to stagnate in a position that provides little satisfaction or room to grow.