In-depth study of work environment and workplace cultures

The purpose of this project is initially to make visible and increase awareness of the tacit cultural assumptions and closed systems that prevail within our organisation—what they may signify and indicate, and how they impede a constructive work climate in which equal conditions genuinely apply. In the longer term, the project also seeks to identify strategies to prevent such structures from arising in the first place. To reveal underlying structures, a more systematic and qualitative analysis is needed than traditional work-environment surveys can provide. The project is therefore divided into three phases: 1) systematic mapping through a survey and in-depth interviews with employees from different categories of employment, 2) a norm-critical analysis of the mapping results, and 3) active measures in which all employees are made aware of the project’s results and invited to a reflective workshop aimed at making visible and challenging their own assumptions. The objective is to create long-term conditions for a self-reflective and inclusive environment at the Department of Theology.

HERO supported the Department of Theology’s equal opportunities committee by designing and distributing a survey and by conducting in-depth interviews with a number of randomly selected employees at the department.