How strong is your work culture?

As much as one-third of a company's business performance could be down to having a positive working climate, research by global management consultancy Hay Group claims.

The Climate Change? report suggests that well over half of senior managers in UK firms currently fail in this regard, with just 23% of business leaders creating a high-performance culture and only 18% generating an ‘energising' working environment.

Even more alarmingly, 43% of senior employees create an atmosphere that is de-motivating for staff and 16% can only foster a neutral environment, the research added.

"Up to 30% of business performance is dependant on a motivational working climate," said Chris Watkin, UK head of talent management at Hay Group. "And in times of economic uncertainty, maximising staff motivation and discretionary effort will be more critical than ever.

According to the organisation, the inability to deliver optimum conditions in which employees can thrive is due to a failure among managers to adopt the right leadership approach.

It identifies six main styles - directive, pacesetting, visionary, affiliative, participative and coaching - and concluded that the more a leader uses the more likely they are to create a high-performance culture.

Up to 30% of business performance is dependant on a motivational working climate. And in times of economic uncertainty, maximising staff motivation and discretionary effort will be more critical than ever

Three-quarters (74%) of managers with high-performing units regularly used three or more styles, while the same proportion of those generating negative climates tended to use two or fewer.

The research also suggested that certain types of style are more likely to deliver high-performance environments, with a combination of team-based approaches such as affiliative, participative and coaching used - in conjunction with the visionary approach - by 70% of successful performers.

"Every leadership style has its place and each can be effective in different circumstances," said Watkin. "However, our research suggests that the more collaborative styles win out when it comes to creating a high performance workplace.

"The message for managers would seem to be: teams respond better to support than to coercion."