Fusion Culture
The research behind Fusion Culture
Two published studies established the drivers. A benchmark of more than 1,000 Australasian programs keeps them current. One consistent finding runs through all of it: management culture drives employee culture, and both drive business performance.
Cultivating Management Culture
The study that identified the direct link between management culture and business performance, and became the foundation for the Fusion Culture diagnostic.
© HR Coach Australasia 2019. Summarised here with permission; original white paper available on request.
Every business wants to be a high performer, and every business owner is looking for what separates the businesses that get there from the ones that don't. HR Coach's research looked at the data of more than 700 small to medium Australasian businesses who had completed a valid and reliable business assessment, then went deeper on business culture specifically, including the behaviour of the business owner, because this ultimately drives employee culture and subsequently business performance.
HR Coach has been researching the culture drivers of SMEs since 2003. Most business owners and managers struggle to identify or articulate what their core cultural drivers are, and more disturbingly, they can't tell whether those drivers actually help or hinder performance.
Workplace culture results trended consistently above management culture results. Some teams work well despite their managers, but great team results only exist when there are great managers. Lifting manager and employee culture results improves labour performance and return, while reducing wastage and turnover.
The five management culture drivers
The research identified five key measures that separate the management culture of high performing businesses from the rest of the market:
Figures show low performing vs. high performing business results (2019 study, n=234).
"Planning and organisation is the measure managers score worst on, primarily because it requires good performance on all other measures to demonstrate to the team that the manager has a good plan and is organised."
Where to from here
The research paired each driver with a practical intervention:
| Driver | What helps |
|---|---|
| Self-motivated managers | Self-awareness programs (e.g. DiSC Management) that also teach directing, delegating, and motivating a team. |
| Communicators | Building a coaching connection into every communication event: questioning, listening, reflecting. |
| Team leadership | Vision/Alignment/Execution frameworks, plus developing emotional intelligence. |
| Business acumen | Understanding true cost drivers, including the cost of doing nothing or of micro-managing. |
| Planning & organisation | Structured planning processes that merge manager, team, customer, and business needs. |
Harnessing Employee Culture
The follow-up study extending the dataset and identifying the five employee culture drivers that compound on top of management culture.
© HR Coach Australasia 2021. Summarised here with permission; original white paper available on request.
Every business wants to be a high performer, and every owner knows it's the people in the business who either make that happen or contribute to it missing the mark. This study extended HR Coach's research to the drivers and indicators of employee culture specifically, reinforcing the significant link between employee culture and business success.
HR Coach's work with more than 4,000 SMEs shows most business owners and managers struggle to articulate their core cultural drivers, or tell whether those drivers help or hinder performance. This study crunched the numbers on employee culture specifically to find out which drivers matter most.
The five employee culture drivers
The research identified five key measures separating the employee culture of high performing businesses from the rest:
Figures show low performing vs. high performing business results (2021 study, n=304).
"Motivated work teams require very little supervision or instruction, although they do respond well to support and recognition of their combined efforts."
Where to from here
| Driver | What helps |
|---|---|
| Teamwork | Self-awareness programs (e.g. DiSC Workplace) that help employees accept and improve working relationships. |
| Customer focus | Aligning processes and recognition with delivering exceptional internal and external customer outcomes. |
| Motivated team | Identifying what motivates each team member, so tasks are allocated to maximise self-motivation. |
| Loyalty | Flexibility, trust, training, and ensuring remuneration reflects role impact and performance. |
| Honesty & integrity | Regular, honest performance discussions, with timely recognition and timely correction. |
A note on methodology
These two white papers established the five management and five employee culture drivers. The live Fusion Culture benchmark extends well beyond them: it combines the STAR Workplace dataset with every Fusion Culture assessment completed since 2019, more than 1,000 Australasian programs in total, built since 2008 and updated as new assessments are completed. Your results are compared directly against this combined benchmark, so you are measured against the full breadth of the Australasian market rather than a single study.