Companies experiencing rapid growth can risk losing the workplace culture that helped drive their success as expanding teams, new departments, and additional layers of management create greater distance between employees and senior leadership, Fast Company reports.
Ron Johnson, a branding expert and keynote speaker, argues that businesses can counter those challenges by focusing on three areas: purpose, vision, and core values. In an Aug. 24 Fast Company
column, Johnson described the principles as “brand anchors” that can help companies maintain employee engagement and organizational identity as they scale.Growth can make maintaining a cohesive workplace culture more difficult. New employees may have less interaction with company founders, while additional managers and departments can complicate communication between executives and frontline workers, according to Johnson.
The first strategy is establishing a purpose that explains why a company exists beyond generating profits. Johnson cited Gallup research showing employees with a strong sense of purpose at work are 5.6 times as likely to be engaged in their jobs as workers with a low sense of purpose.
A clear vision, meanwhile, establishes where a business is headed. Johnson pointed to President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to land an American on the moon before
the decade ended as an example of a specific goal capable of aligning people behind a shared objective. Research cited in the column also links clarity of organizational vision to job satisfaction, commitment, and employee engagement.The third strategy centers on core values, which establish expectations for how employees operate while pursuing company goals. Johnson highlighted Southwest Airlines, whose stated purpose, vision, and employee promise are designed to reinforce its corporate culture and customer service standards. According to Southwest, the airline has ranked first in J.D. Power customer satisfaction among economy-class passengers for five consecutive years.
Johnson’s recommendations underscore a broader challenge for growing businesses: Expansion may require more organizational structure, but leaders must still communicate why the company exists, where it is going, and what it expects from employees.
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