Samenvatting

The research justification report shows to what extent can Trinseo strengthen company culture in a hybrid workplace post-COVID.
This research topic is part of ‘Organisation & People’ theme in the Working and Management tools (TWM22-TWM23).

There are five information gaps that were formulated:
1. Company culture – what it is and its benefits.
2. Diversity in the workplace – how it helps company culture and its importance.
3. Employees’ Mental Health – why mental health at the workplace is important.
4. Hybrid Working – usefulness and whether it is preferred by employees.
5. Role of Leadership – how it contributes to company culture and the types of leaderships.

To fill in these information gaps were investigated through field and literature research. Field research included a survey that was sent to the employees of procurement operations department EMEA at Trinseo and published on LinkedIn to receive additional responses for reliability and validity purposes. Moreover, an informal interview was conducting with the in-company supervisor. The results are limited because of the lack of interviews with the top management of the company and the survey was not sent to all the departments of different branches around the world.

The results show that the company culture is the essence of an organisation and does not only refer to values of employees and their leaders, but also practices and attitudes that have a role in it. Diversity and inclusiveness have significance to strengthening company culture because of its benefits and another factor that has importance is employees’ mental health because if they are not mentally happy, it would affect their daily life and work performance. The results also show that working hybrid is advantageous due to flexibility, lowered overhead costs and a decrease in health exposure risks. Lastly, role of leadership showed how it contributes to company culture as leaders are the foundation of a company. They are the ones that hold it all together which is why there is an explanation to the different types of leadership because then the top management can decide what type of leader they would like to be.

Recommendations of implementing certain ways of strengthening company culture are discussed at the end of the report and are as follows:
1. How to implement a hybrid work model.
2. How to focus on culture as a leader.
3. How to impact organisational culture as a leader.
4. How to help employees’ mental health.
5. How to improve diversity in the workplace
6. How to identify the types of company culture

These recommendations do not harm the environment, ergo, they are sustainable and can be implemented in a span of 3 months to 3 years.