Services

The PHS Lab offers paid consultation services through Dr. Lee-Baggley and Associates Inc. (https://drdaynaatwork.com/). This partnership allows organizations to access the PHS Lab’s research, tools, and expertise through applied, real-world paid consulting delivered by experienced professionals.

Organization Culture Audit

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”

-Peter Drucker

We provide a rigorous, evidence-based approach to understanding the culture that ultimately determines whether your organization succeeds or fails and how to improve your culture.

Most organizations either ignore the impact of organizational culture or try to improve culture without a clear, reliable picture of what’s actually happening. Leaders are often working from partial feedback, filtered information, or assumptions about what’s happening on the ground. Our Organizational Culture Audit changes that. It provides a structured, evidence-based understanding of your workplace by combining validated measurement tools with confidential employee input, allowing you to see patterns, risks, and strengths with clarity and confidence.

At the core of our approach is the Workplace Psychological Safety Assessment (WPSA), a comprehensive, research-based survey developed through more than a decade of applied work in workplace culture and psychological safety. Employees complete a confidential, 35-minute online assessment that establishes a baseline across key dimensions of culture, including psychological safety, inclusion, exposure to workplace risks such as conflict and incivility, and confidence in how the organization responds to issues when they arise. It also captures awareness and use of workplace policies and supports, along with indicators of capacity, engagement, and strain. The tool is aligned with recognized standards such as the CSA Z1003 Psychological Health and Safety Standard and ISO 45003, ensuring the data is not only meaningful but credible and defensible.

A defining feature of this process is how the data is returned. Each employee receives a confidential, real-time individual report that provides personalized, evidence-based feedback, supporting awareness without placing responsibility for systemic issues on the individual. At the same time, the organization receives an aggregated, anonymous report that allows leaders to see patterns across teams, roles, and departments while maintaining strict confidentiality. This dual-report structure creates both insight and trust, which is essential for meaningful participation and accurate data.

Quantitative data tells you what is happening, but it doesn’t fully explain why. That’s where qualitative engagement comes in. We gather confidential employee input through multiple pathways, including one-to-one virtual interviews, small group discussions, and anonymous written submissions. Offering choice in how employees participate is intentional. It increases psychological safety, particularly in sensitive environments, and allows us to hear from individuals who may not feel comfortable speaking in more visible formats. All engagement is voluntary, clearly structured, and facilitated by experienced professionals using trauma-informed and culturally sensitive approaches. This ensures that the information we gather is both meaningful and responsibly handled.

The real value of an Organizational Culture Audit comes from how these data sources are brought together. We integrate quantitative findings from the WPSA with qualitative insights to build a comprehensive picture of your organization. The survey identifies patterns in risk exposure, trust, psychological safety, and confidence in leadership and systems. The qualitative data adds depth and context, helping us understand barriers to speaking up, how policies are experienced in practice, and where gaps exist between intention and reality. From this, we identify root causes at multiple levels, including organizational factors such as policies and workload, managerial factors such as leadership behavior and consistency, and systemic factors such as processes, accountability structures, and inequities. This level of analysis moves beyond symptoms and points directly to what is driving your culture.

Findings are then translated into a comprehensive Organizational Culture Audit Report that outlines the methodology, key insights, and clear patterns across the organization. More importantly, those insights are converted into a practical, prioritized action plan. This plan is designed to be implemented, not shelved. It includes short-, medium-, and long-term strategies across policy, leadership, training, and systems, with clear ownership and measurable indicators to track progress over time. The focus is on high-impact actions that address root causes, ensuring that efforts lead to meaningful and sustained change. Leaders and stakeholders are supported through executive, board-level, and departmental briefings to ensure alignment and clarity moving forward.

Because culture is not static, this process is designed to support ongoing measurement and accountability. The WPSA can be repeated over time to evaluate the impact of actions taken, track progress year over year, and maintain focus on continuous improvement. This allows culture to be managed with the same level of rigor as any other critical business function.

An Organizational Culture Audit Audit gives you something most organizations don’t have: a clear, evidence-based understanding of what is actually happening inside your workplace and a practical path forward. It replaces assumptions with data, uncertainty with insight, and scattered efforts with a focused, strategic approach to culture.

Learn more about the WPSA: https://www.smu.ca/phs/publications/white-papers.html