CULTURAL DYNAMICS – BUILDING QUALITY
By Navdeep Singh Kathuria
While preparing to accept a new assignment, every new employee tends to know the feedback of culture of the new organization in terms of people’s behaviour and management’s perspective. And that feedback collected from different resources plays a crucial role, either to accept or reject the offer. The most common question asked for feedback is “How is the company’s culture”. Therefore, the term ‘culture’ itself signifies the need to define it precisely. Also, the fitment of new employees in a new organization depends solely on the ‘behavioural pattern’ of that organization. That’s the reason many competent people reject or refuse to join top branded companies, besides marking a reputation and significant hold in country’s growth!
20 years back, most of the industries in India were following a ‘directive’ approach, where decision of team members was remote. Even an insignificant instruction from the management was communicated down the line as an “ordinance,” no matter whether that instruction was adding any value to the organization or not. Middle-level management found ordinance an effective tool for implementation because self-efforts were negligible and order was prevailing.
The word “culture’ defines itself as something to grow. Anything that is grown needs care, passes through a complete development cycle till it can withstand challenges. A healthy seed sown for cultivating a fruitful plant needs nourishment till it germinates, followed by stem, foliage, budding, flowering, fruiting, and ripening.
In the same way, if the culture at shop floor is to be defined precisely, it can be anticipated as nurturing the team with care, positivity and social acquaintance by inputs of dynamic leadership through transparent mapping.
In terms of definition, the culture is a bunch of beliefs, values and behaviour that shapes the atmosphere of an organization. It is built not in one or two days, or months, in fact, it requires consistent efforts with a holistic approach. Also, requires a firm framework with planned actions which shall be implemented periodically with consistent monitoring to get transparent results.
BACKGROUND
Let us go to ancient times, in the 15th century, when the term “culture” originated from the Latin word colere, meaning ‘to till the soil’ or ‘to cultivate’. Also, the ancient Roman orator Cicero first used the term with a similar meaning, which clearly indicates the wide use of this term in cultivation.
As time passed, by the 18th century, “culture” broadened to include the “intellectual and moral cultivation of the individual,” as well as the refinement of the mind, taste, and intellect. The definition also varied in terms of region; in Europe, it was taken specifically as developing ideals and individualism, whereas in India, it was focused on adherence to religious traditions and the adoption of social customs.
In the meantime, language and culture both emerged as a means of using symbols to construct social identity and maintain coherence within a social group.
Over a period, the term culture became advanced, adopted widely by a group of people called ‘Team’ and group of multiple teams from different sections called ‘organization’. Whether a group of positive or negative people superseded, the work culture transferred into different forms. Positivity cultivated growth and quality and, at the same time, negativity darkened this term culture into ‘Toxicity’, where people just survived and tend to search for a caring and growing environment.
Organizational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and norms that shape how employees work, interact, and make decisions. It’s how people experience your workplace every day – from leadership style to team dynamics.
TYPES OF CULTURE
Most organizations fall broadly into four culture categories, and each culture is defined in its own way, comprising both advantages and limitations.
Clan Culture: Collaborative and people-focused
– building trust and loyalty
- Open communication across all levels.
- Cross-functional collaboration between teams.
- Collective celebrations of success.
- Leaders who emphasize coaching and development.
Adhocracy culture: Innovative and risk-taking – emphasising agility and seizing new opportunities
- Thrives on change and experimentation.
- Rewards creativity and encourages people to challenge the status quo.
- Accepting failure as a part of the learning process.
- More freedom to make decisions and pursue new projects.
Market culture: Results-driven and competitive – strong accountability, decision-making and recognition
- Performance is everything
- Measuring success through clear outcomes (revenues, profitability, or market share)
- Leaders push teams to deliver measurable results.
- Competition is encouraged, both internally and externally
Hierarchy culture: structured and process-oriented – order, compliance, policies, layered, disciplined
- Heavy reliance on policies and reporting systems.
- Top-down decision-making where authority is clearly defined.
- Promotions and recognition tied to compliance with procedures.
- Clarity, reduces uncertainty, and manages complexity at scale.
Clan and Adhocracy culture is seen well accepted in multinational organizations where values, vision and mission are principally focussed. Hierarchy culture is widely practised in pharmaceutical industry where authorities are decision takers and performance is evaluated solely through compliance index. Bypassing reporting structure pays heavy to the employee and considered as indisciplinary behaviour.
QUALITY CULTURE IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Let us switch to the pharmaceutical industry, where everyone talks about Quality Culture. It can be defined as the collective behaviour of a group of people whose common goal and subsequent mindset development are centred on “quality.”
Over the last few years, the work culture in pharma companies has been projected as challenging but also rewarding if teamwork and a collaborative quality approach are adopted by the shop floor team. Therefore, it is important to understand the work culture and what it entails. With the right attitude and approach, you can thrive in this dynamic and exciting industry.
ELEMENTS INFLUENCING QUALITY CULTURE
Following elements play a vital role in developing quality attributes in any organization:
Leadership and communication
Transparency: Leaders should be open about company goals and performance to build trust.
Clear communication: Establish clear lines of communication for feedback, problem-solving, and sharing information, often visualized with tools like whiteboards.
No- Blame Culture: Shift focus from “who made the mistake” to “how to fix the process”.
Effective leadership: Managers must consistently embody company values, support employees, and provide clear direction.
Employee empowerment and development
Empowerment: Encourage teams to own problem-solving and have the authority to make decisions related to their work.
Growth opportunities: Invest in employee training and provide opportunities for career development and learning.
Accountability: Foster an environment where employees are accountable for their actions and can learn from both successes and mistakes.
Rewards & Recognition: Incentivize the employees as champions who contribute to improve operational and quality aspects.
Celebrate Milestones: Keep shortcomings aside and celebrate success moments with down the level.
Culture of safety and quality
Safety focus: Prioritize and visibly reinforce safety procedures and protocols.
Quality assurance: Embed quality checks into the work process and empower employees to stop work when they have concerns.
Recognition and engagement
Recognition: Acknowledge and reward positive behaviours and achievements, such as good attendance, teamwork, and adherence to procedures.
Teamwork and collaboration: Promote a sense of teamwork where employees support each other, and management works collaboratively with the shop floor staff.
Belonging and well-being: Create a sense of belonging and invest in employee well-being to increase engagement and retention.
Shop floor management
Shop floor management means managing the production directly where the work happens (shop floor). Its main objective is to improve the performance of production processes, maximise efficiency and minimise waste. This approach focuses on the active participation of workers on the shop floor and uses their knowledge and experience to identify problems and find solutions on the spot.
Toxic work culture
In many organizations where a hierarchy culture dominates, an individual or a group of people tends to create a negative environment to demonstrate supremacy, triggering a vicious circle that, most of the time, becomes inexorable. We can define a toxic work culture as one characterized by a lack of respect and little support or encouragement for growth. Such an environment can lead to high employee turnover, low morale, and decreased productivity. The outcome is an increased turnover intention, which tends to rise if the same culture persists for a long time.
When individuals in power become greedy and narcissistic, they may start unethical action such as bully, harass, threat, and humiliate others that cause anxiety,
stress, depression, health problems, absenteeism and job burnout, resulted low productivity and increase turnover intention (Anjum et al , 2018).
According to Belete (2018), the prerequisite of leaving the job or organization is the intention to leave and can be referred as turnover intention. This happened everywhere regardless of location, size or nature of business. Turnover intention is a serious issue of most organizations in private sector compared to public sector (Alias et al, 2018).
Turnover intention
The prerequisite of leaving the job or organization regardless of location, size or nature of business, is a serious issue for most of the organizations in private sector.
Job burnout
A psychological process of a series of emotional reactions that employee feels due to working environment.
Remedies
Walk the talk: Ensure management set a good example of appropriate workplace behaviours by treating employees respectfully and always encouraging respectful interaction.
Have an open-door policy: Employer or HR Department must be approachable, trustworthy, and let employees know that you are there to help them.
Focus on control: Do not take things personally and focus on controlling your own reactions and behaviours.
Stop bullying and verbal abuse: Stop bullying your employee if he fails to fulfil the targets. Instead call him in the office for counselling and right direction.
Verbal abuse
Uttering disrespectful words and blaming subordinates for failures are often the easiest ways for a superior to release frustration. Such behaviour indicates the degradation of a well-built culture, where publicly insulting employees becomes a tool to create a fearful environment. Instead, the superior may be compensating for his own fear of management queries, which, in the long term, can lead to fatal results.
The sufferer needs to speak up and intimate the abuser to stop using inappropriate words and unacceptable behaviour which might not be tolerable for him next time. Try to maintain distance with such person, if possible.
Leadership Behaviour & Culture Change
1.Make your colleagues and subordinates feel comfortable communicating any issue with you.
2.Not only show command. Instead, inspire your teammates with positive inputs and caring attitude.
3.Empower your teammates to take ownership and decision in your presence also.
4.Connect your employees with each other through guidance on projects allotted to them.
5.Celebrate each member’s success to encourage other teammates for improved actions.
SUMMARY
As the pharmaceutical industry is under intense pressure nowadays to meet regulatory compliance requirements along with timely deliveries, a strong quality culture serves as a pillar for driving both product safety and efficacy. It creates a positive environment for employees to perform optimally and share ideas for continuous improvement, directly leading to a significant decline in attrition rates.
Achieving sustainable success and optimizing operational effectiveness through strong leadership will definitely result in strengthening the values as well as vision of an organization to the highest quality of standards.
Also, continuous support of higher management aids to boost quality culture through mandatory review of quality elements periodically and appreciation of deserving employees at common platforms.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Navdeep Singh Kathuria is Senior General Manager – Production (Packing) at Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. He is working on implementing lean methodology along with automation of process equipment. Started his career with tablet manufacturing, his additional area of expertise is Track & Trace systems and simplification of documentation on shop floor by means of replacing manual recording into the electronic form (EBMR).