Understanding people in organisations - Essay Example

All these aspects are significant to ensure overall employee well-being (Lowe, 2012). Sears et al (2006) defined healthy workplace as an environment that enables an organisation to achieve its mission along with satisfying the needs of its employees. On the contrary, unhealthy workplace has unsupportive culture where employees do not enjoy the sense of participation, equity, success, empowerment, meaning, respect, safety, and autonomy (Sears et al., 2006). Unhealthy workplaces, according to the authors, represent dysfunctional organisations having communication gaps, unresolved conflicts, high turnover, and low employee morale.

Appendix-I presents the characteristics of a healthy workplace as given by Sears et al (2006, p. 319). Emphasising on the importance of healthy and vibrant workplaces, Sears et al (2006) stated that such workplaces foster employee participation leading to mutual success. On the other hand, unhealthy workplaces are unsuccessful as they do not inspire employee dedication leading to job burnout, stress, absenteeism, and turnover; these outcomes of unhealthy workplaces are drastic and bring severe consequences and costs for the employers (Sears et al., 2006). Shukla (2008) defined organisational culture as the personality of an organisation that sets the unwritten norms and outlines the values shared among everyone within the organisation.

Shukla (2008) explained that culture is not what the organisation has but what the organisation is. Organisational culture decides how people interact with each other, how they contribute, what are the shared norms and values, a formal and informal philosophy and the rules of the game. Organisational culture has a vital role in deciding if the workplace is healthy or unhealthy. The importance of organisational culture in deciding health of the workplace is evident from the fact that it is considered one of the major