Next: Business acumen
Understanding your organisation, the commercial context and the wider world of work
Core knowledge
Culture and behaviour
Understanding people's behaviour and creating the right organisation culture
Understanding and influencing organisational systems and human behaviour is integral to developing a positive culture and healthy working environment.
It has become increasingly important for all people professionals to have a good understanding of organisation culture and behaviour. Historically, we may have expected Organisation Development (OD) specialists to hold this knowledge; however, whilst OD specialists certainly have a deep understanding of this in the work they do, all people professionals need a common understanding of the way culture and behaviour impact on people practices, and vice versa.
It’s particularly important that people professionals think in a systemic way: understanding how to align the different elements of the organisation’s system (for example, the values, the culture, structures, people practices and policies) to maximise the organisation’s performance.
This area of the Profession Map encompasses the knowledge needed to understand how organisations and people behave, and includes elements such as:
- How different leadership and people practices, along with ethical perspectives, impact on behaviour and culture.
- How giving people a meaningful voice enables people professionals to influence behaviour, unlock potential and shape organisational culture.
- How to enable high levels of people engagement and promote learning, and use the right approaches in different situations for individuals and teams.
- How to develop resilience within the organisation.
WCHG case study: Home is where the heart is
By making volunteering a strategic priority, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group has created a scheme that’s the beating heart of the community. Read WCHG's story.
Culture and behaviour standards
Each standard progresses through four levels of impact. Which level do you most embody in your day-to-day work?
Foundation level
At this level you'll understand:
- What culture is and why it’s important
- That an organisation is a whole system, and that your work and actions have an impact elsewhere
- N/A
- What ethics is, and that your actions have consequences
- That people learn and develop in different ways
- What facilitation, consulting, coaching and mentoring are
- How to work effectively as part of a team
- Causes of stress and poor mental and physical health
- How employee engagement impacts the way people feel at work
- The importance of listening to a diverse range of voices
Associate level
At this level you'll understand:
- What a positive culture looks and feels like
- How people practices impact on behaviour, culture, systems and structures
- Key theories and findings from behavioural science (e.g. fight-or-flight response, thinking biases)
- Different ethical perspectives and how they influence your own values and decisions
- Different ways of learning, different approaches to professional development, and how to apply them in everyday situations
- Different models of facilitation, consulting, coaching and mentoring, and when to use them
- How to develop team relationships and ways of working together to enable performance
- What managers can do to prevent and manage stress and develop the resilience of team members
- Basic theories of motivation, and the factors that affect employee engagement
- Tools and methods to give a diverse range of people the opportunity to be heard
Chartered Member level
At this level you'll understand:
- Different approaches to culture development and how to align people practices to culture
- How to apply systemic thinking to a range of people practices
- How to apply behavioural science to shape people practices and create the conditions in which people can thrive and perform
- Different ethical perspectives, and how different mindsets and values influence internal and external decision-making
- Emerging learning trends and theories, and how they apply to the ongoing development of people
- How to apply and adapt different models of facilitation, consulting, coaching and mentoring in a range of different situations
- How to select and deploy the right team model (e.g. project, scrum, multi-disciplinary, self-organising) for different situations
- How to enable a resilient workforce and a healthy working environment
- How to apply different engagement approaches, and the drivers and enablers of engagement
- The relationship between culture and voice, and how to apply tools and methods that give a diverse range of people a voice
Chartered Fellow level
At this level you'll understand:
- The impact that wider cultures have (e.g. country, sector) on building and shaping organisation culture
- How systemic approaches contribute to organisation performance
- How to apply behavioural science to improve organisational performance and create value for all stakeholders
- Different ethical perspectives, mindsets and values, and their implications for organisation culture
- Emerging learning trends and theories, and how to build learning into people strategies
- The value of facilitation, consulting, coaching and mentoring approaches and their use in delivering the people strategy
- How teamworking and team performance is shaped and enabled by organisation culture and environment
- How to create and sustain a resilient and healthy working culture
- How to create the right environment to engage workers, and drive organisation effectiveness through engagement
- Different approaches to engaging diverse voices, and how these approaches create strategic value for people and organisations
Resources to guide your work, career planning and development, available on the CIPD's main site.
Continue to Business acumen