Cultural Purpose
Dimension 2 : Cultural Purpose
Cultural Purpose, like Survival Purpose below it, is another foundational dimension because it represents your core identity in the workplace.
This identity is simplistically exemplified by your formal job title and job description, but is so much more. It also represents your “worldview”, the sum total of your values, beliefs and assumptions that make up your underlying understanding of reality. Your worldview grounds and informs your reality at work, including your expectations of yourself and others.
Your worldview is shaped by your cultural upbringing; hence, you share similar worldviews with others. “Fitting-in” at work is a matter of sharing similar outlooks and perspectives as others do. The cultural dimension is the realm of expectations that you have, and others have, towards one another. This includes essential workplace values such as integrity, honesty, trust, diligence, courtesy, and inclusion.
The cultural dimension includes the functional job you are hired to perform. The work you choose to do is a reflection of your personality, aptitudes, interests, education and experience. Your boss and coworkers expect you to be competent and effective in that role. Job titles and descriptions are culturally situated and carry inherent expectations for performance. We identify with our work and understand our place in the organization.
So while fitting-in and fulfilling the expectations of others is important, the cultural dimension can often become a less primary motivation when higher dimensions of purpose are pursued at work. Indeed, as we grow and develop our potential, there are times when the cultural dimension can hold us back.
Analysis
If your highest personal score, or one of your highest, is in this 2nd dimension, then being engaged in doing the kind of work in which you are comfortable and committed to doing, and being accepted and respected at work, are important to you. You appreciate the roles and responsibilities that you have and take pride in your work. You also expect others in the organization to demonstrate basic civility to you and others. Diversity and inclusion and a respectful work environment mean a lot to you.
Having a job that we enjoy doing and which we’re good at is the realm of Cultural Purpose.
Recommendation
We all like to feel good about our job and the work that we do, particularly when it mirrors our inherent abilities and interests. We all want to fit-in and be accepted and appreciated by others. We are motivated by our competencies and driven by our worldview, but there are other motivations that can compel us to create a worklife that is more broad in its scope and level of engagement.
Affinity, Existential and Intrinsic Purpose all represent motivations for being ever more engaged and committed to your work because they expand the focus of work more towards others, both in and outside of the organization.
Check out in which dimensions you also scored highly and you may achieve broader clarity on all your motivations, YourWHY@Work.