Since graduating in 1999, I’ve had the pleasure of working in 6 academic departments and 4 multinationals. I’ve transitioned from academia to industry twice; once as a graduate and again later as a PI. And therefore, also moved from industry to academia once (and who knows what’s on the cards for me in the future….). As a result, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing 10 different working environments that my employers created for me.
Each of these workplace cultures were unique in terms of their policies, procedures, approach to work, and traditions. But in my experience, although the working environment does change between academic institutions, departments, and labs, the intra-academic cultural gap is far smaller compared with that faced by people transitioning between academia and industry (and vice versa).
Each transition came with its own challenges that I had to navigate. Some transitions took more time to adapt to and learn the ways of my new surroundings, compared to others. But apart from the very first job I took after my undergraduate degree, where I was pioneering the world of ‘real’ (non-summer job) work for the first time, I can’t say I ever felt a culture shock, even when transitioning between academia and industry.
Upon reflection, this intrigues me. Why did I not find it more challenging? Personally, I think the transient nature of academic employment prepares researchers well for such career moves. The continual moving from lab-to-lab, institution-to-institution, city-to-city, and possibly even country-to-country, builds a resilience and adaptability rarely nurtured in other workforces. And this is an asset to future employers.
Coupled to the resilience that I developed as an academic, I’ve always found that understanding workplace culture an important part of the job seeking process. So much so, I’d research this topic to the point of feeling relatively well prepared for my working environment when starting a new job.
So today I’d like to explore this idea of understanding workplace culture and what this knowledge can do for you when searching for a job. But first lets briefly explore what workplace culture is and why it’s so important.
What is workplace culture?
The workplace environment experienced by the workforce, which is controlled by a variety of factors.
These include the leadership (e.g. how it communicates and its decision-making processes); the management style (e.g. hierarchical vs flat); workplace policies (inc. dress code and flexible working); workplace practices (e.g. candidate selection processes, promotion/performance management, and training and development); the workforce (e.g. collaborative vs confrontational); geographical location; and the organisation’s standing in the marketplace (is it growing [e.g. a start-up], trying to stay afloat [struggling], or working to stay ahead [a market leader])?
…All these things influence the unique culture experienced by employees at different places of work.
Why is workplace so culture important?
As mentioned above, understanding the culture of the organisation your applying to, has huge advantages for the job seeker (more on this shortly). But in recent decades, employers have also come to understand the competitive edge that a positive working environment can give them.
Many employers now appreciate that a positive culture drives engagement, retention of talent, and happiness/satisfaction in the workforce, which in turn increases productivity. Think Google.
And although the academic system is often criticised for failing to place the same value as many private sector employers on working culture, I have first-hand experience of labs that managed to successfully couple productivity and a great working environment. So, my advice for researchers is that it’s in your own best interests to learn how to identify such labs, and aim to land jobs there.
But what happens when employers fail to nurture a positive work culture?
Storytime: When employers get culture wrong the results can be catastrophic.
There’s probably no better example of a work culture catastrophe than the highly publicised demise of the Enron Corporation. An energy, commodities, and services giant based in Houston, Texas, Enron in the late 1990s was the 7th largest corporation in the US, with an estimated worth of $70 billion, and a floating stock price peaking at $90.75/share. Within a few years, Enron went from top to rock bottom, filing for bankruptcy in 2001, with losses of 20,000 jobs and $2 billion in retirement funds. The fall from grace was nothing short of cataclysmic.
Several years prior to the bankruptcy being filed, Enron started haemorrhaging money. But instead of pivoting and adjusting to meet market needs, the leadership decided to cover up the financial problems. Insiders withdrew their investments, the media picked up on this – publishing their doubts, and the stock price plummeted. Pride, arrogance and intolerance was at the core of this decision making. So how did the corporation reach this point?
According to the Canadian journalist and author, Malcom Gladwell, Enron had begun a campaign of extreme talent seeking a decade or more before its downfall. Bringing in a steady stream of graduates from top business schools, Enron stocked its management chain with high achievers, and promoted individuals with little consideration of experience or seniority. This approach created the ultimate ‘talent culture.’
Top performers were rewarded over and above their capabilities, creating an environment where innate talent alone was promoted as the key to success. When things go pear-shaped in such a culture, where individuals are exclusively held in such high esteem for their natural brilliance, these people have a problem when their image is threatened. And instead of taking remedial action, admitting to mistakes, and dealing with issues head-on, they’d sooner lie.
To academics, this scenario may sound all too familiar. Researchers who’ve felt the pressure of the expert/talent culture to such an extent where they’ve been prepared to commit scientific misconduct in order to preserve their image, are all too common for comfort.
Yet the problems at Enron wasn’t due to a single individual (or even a handful of people’s actions), but rather a penetrant culture that dictated the workforces’ behaviour, ultimately leading it into bankruptcy.
So there’s an important lesson for us all in this story: If you cannot self-correct, you cannot thrive, both as an individual and as a team. And finding working environments where you feel comfortable to speak out, share ideas, and behave with high integrity and ethical standards is well, quite frankly, good for you!
Why you need to understand prospective workplace cultures as a job seeker
I’ve already listed some important reasons above, but there are several more. Below is a list of 5 key reasons why you should understand the culture of any organisation you’re thinking of applying for a job at:
- To avoid toxic cultures: Needless to say, you probably want to avoid a modern-day Enron at all costs; not only for your sanity, but also to achieve meaningful work.
- Personal fit: Finding employers providing cultures that align with your own personal values and somewhere you can employ your strengths to thrive, will provide the best possible option for success.
- Culture dictates the skillset employers seek: Pulling out the skills that employers are looking for is essential for successful applications. For example, if a company culture is very task-focused (e.g. a service sector provider), they’re likely to be looking for candidates who are themselves task-orientated, good at goal-setting, meeting milestones/deliverables, and possess strong in time management. Therefore, you need to get such skills across in your application.
- Employers are impressed by candidates who understand their culture: Private sector employers worry that candidates who’ve only ever experienced the public sector, fail to understand the workplace environment of their organisations. So for academics looking to transition to industry, demonstrating that you understand the employer’s culture in the interview is a massive bonus.
- Preparation for your first day at work: If you have some clarity about how the workforce operates prior to starting your new job, you’ll have a far better understanding of what to expect and what’s expected from you. This will mean you can hit the ground running from day one.
How to understand workplace culture as a job seeker
You can find some information about work culture through online research. For example, you can gather impressions from the organisation’s website, how it’s represented in the media, and what values they state etc.
However, you can find a lot more about workplace culture by talking to people who work there or have worked there in the recent past. Networking to obtain this insider information is invaluable to the job seeker, as a lot of the information relating to workplace culture cannot be sourced online.
In Summary
- Workplace culture is the environment experienced by employees. It’s unique to each employer and controlled by a variety of factors including the employer, the employees themselves, internal policies/procedures, and other external factors
- Workplace culture is now appreciated by many employers to be a critically important factor to control, as negative working environments can have detrimental effects on productivity
- When job seeking, it’s important to understand the workplace culture of prospective employers to:
- Avoid toxic workplaces
- Identify working environments that align with your own needs
- Prepare tailored/competitive applications
- Impress employers at interview
- Be fully prepared for your first day at work
- Networking is one of the best ways to understand workplace culture of prospective employers