Are Climate and Culture the Same Thing?

Do you want Culture Change, or just a Change in Climate?

A lot has been said over the last decade or so about culture growth and how to create it, or change it. Safety Professionals often find themselves in the middle of the struggle trying to define it and map a plan to accomplish whatever the current thinking is on an organization's individual culture. Unfortunately, what sometimes occurs is a mistaken focus on climate instead of culture.

What's the difference you say? Simply put, climate is tied to worker perceptions about engagement and how they "feel" about the company (many safety culture perception surveys actually measure climate and call it culture). This is driven by immediate supervision's leadership style, workload, policies and how responsive they are to employee needs and well-being. Supervision's attitude about this tends to change - often on a dime - according to what is either urgent or important at the moment.

Culture, however, is the shared beliefs and assumptions about the company's expectations and values. It is reflected in what workers do automatically because the prevailing expectation is accepted by the worker. If behavior inconsistent with culture occurs, it is corrected by the influence of the expectation; not the direction of supervision.

Whereas both are critically important to the end goal - positive culture improvement - if they are misaligned, climate will almost always overshadow culture and act as a barrier to reaching the goal. Culture should always drive climate because culture is enduring and transcends changes in leadership, organizational challenges and changing goals. Climate is a matter of priority.

When you look at your culture, is what you're seeing actually climate? The answer should reveal some key points about what your organization believes and values.