1.6 Evaluate the practitioner’s role in promoting a positive culture within an organisation

This guide will help you answer 1.6 Evaluate the practitioner’s role in promoting a positive culture within an organisation.

Every practitioner plays a key part in shaping and sustaining a positive culture within health and social care settings. While managers and leaders set direction and policy, it is often the actions of front-line staff that have the most direct impact on the day-to-day environment. Evaluating your role as a practitioner helps you recognise how much difference you can make.

Setting Professional Standards through Personal Behaviour

Practitioners act as role models. Your daily actions set an example for colleagues, new staff, and even managers. Practising the organisation’s values — such as respect, empathy, fairness, and inclusivity — demonstrates what positive culture looks like in practice.

Key behaviours include:

• Treating service users, families, and colleagues with dignity and kindness
• Respecting individual choice and promoting independence
• Communicating openly and honestly, even during challenges
• Challenging discrimination, bullying, or unfair treatment

Your professionalism shows others what is expected and acceptable.

Building Positive Relationships

Relationships form the foundation of culture. Practitioners nurture a positive workplace by building trust and cooperation within teams and with those receiving care.

Important actions:

• Supporting team members during busy or stressful times
• Sharing knowledge, skills, and feedback constructively
• Welcoming new staff warmly and helping them settle in
• Being mindful of your own mood and impact on others

Good working relationships make people feel valued and supported, helping lift the overall mood.

Upholding Organisational Values

Practitioners are responsible for living the organisation’s purpose, vision, and values in their daily work. This includes:

• Making decisions that reflect agreed standards, even under pressure
• Using policies and procedures as guides, not barriers
• Putting the service user at the centre of care decisions
• Being consistent — values should guide actions, not just words

When you act in line with core values, you help embed them in the culture.

Promoting Openness and Learning

You play a role in encouraging an open, honest workplace. This could involve:

• Reporting concerns without delay, even if difficult
• Admitting mistakes and focusing on learning, not blaming
• Actively participating in training, supervision, and reflection
• Sharing lessons learned from experience with others

A “just culture” relies on staff being willing to speak up and learn together.

Encouraging and Supporting Others

Practitioners help foster a positive culture by encouraging colleagues. Sometimes, this means offering help. Other times, it could mean gently challenging poor practice.

Examples:

• Praising good practice and effort, even for small achievements
• Offering to help a busy or struggling colleague
• Explaining policies and values to new starters or students
• Raising concerns about unsafe or negative behaviour, using correct channels

Support builds confidence and creates an environment where problems get solved, not hidden.

Reflecting and Developing Professional Practice

Part of your role is to reflect on your own practice and seek improvement.

Ways to do this include:

• Being open to feedback and acting upon it
• Setting goals to improve your own knowledge and skills
• Taking part in reflective practice sessions or groups
• Keeping up to date with best practices and legislative changes

Growth-minded staff help organisations adapt, learn, and stay positive.

Acting as an Advocate for Service Users

You are a voice for those who might not always be heard. Championing person-centred care means challenging systems or habits that do not meet need.

This might include:

• Questioning decisions that do not reflect the needs or wishes of individuals
• Feeding back service user views to management for improvement
• Supporting service users to voice their opinions
• Acting quickly when rights and dignity are at risk

By advocating, practitioners keep culture focused on what matters most.

Contributing to Team and Organisational Development

Practitioners can take an active part in organisation development by:

• Joining working groups or task forces that review policies or suggest improvements
• Sharing ideas for better working practices or new initiatives
• Taking part in staff surveys and providing honest feedback
• Getting involved in recruitment by describing the positive aspects of the culture

Your input helps shape the organisation and its direction.

Recognising the Limits of Your Influence

While practitioners have a significant impact, there are limits. Organisational culture is shaped by leadership, resources, national policy, and more. Sometimes, action from senior staff or external agencies is needed to tackle deep-seated issues.

Even so, small everyday actions by practitioners can gradually shift attitudes and behaviour. Staff at every level can inspire change from within by living the culture they want to see.

Final Thoughts

The practitioner’s role in promoting a positive culture is active and ongoing. Through personal conduct, openness, teamwork, advocacy, and reflection, you help make your organisation a supportive, safe, and empowering place for both staff and service users. While there are limits to your influence, leading by example and supporting others has a real and lasting impact. Your choices, each day, help create the kind of culture where great care can happen.