Culture Expression in Azma Company - Case Study Example

How Culture is Expressed in an Organization Name Course Institution Professor Date Introduction Culture form quite an integral part within any given organization. It reflects the distinguishing factor which defines the life of an organization in line with its norms, composition, physical objects inclusive of other qualities which make an organization different from another. The culture within an organization is what creates what is known to be the organizational culture. There are certain basic assumptions underlie the description of organizational culture. They include the implication of the aspects of value, leadership style, behavioral patterns, organizational atmosphere, observable attributes for can be attributed to an organization (Baker and Kathryn 2002). Basically, organizational is how things are within the environment of the organization. Organizational culture may either hinder or help an organization towards achieving organizational effectiveness. The Azma Company is a company that deals with the manufacturing of canned food products such as meat. The culture within Azma Company is an aspect worth analysis as to whether it aids in the promotion of organizational effectiveness or rather hinders it. In this company defined by the period which employees stay and work for the company they are able learn the organizational culture of the company. They get the opportunity to both learn and experience the behavioral patterns of their colleagues which to a very high degree affects how they relate with them. In as far as organizational effectiveness is concerned the behavioral norms may either be in line with the company’s values or not (Montana and Charnov, 2008). In-depth analysis of the organizational culture within Azma Company is bound to reflect most importantly whether the organizational environment is conducive to influence positively the achievement of the key objectives of the organization as stipulated within its mission and vision statements. Culture Expression in Organizations To begin with, an effective organization may be understood as one in which there is greater ease in its ability to achieve the set goals and objectives, fulfilling the purpose it was created for and creating value for its employees and customers. A culture within an organization that reflects effectiveness may be seen to show greater emphasis in the support of better connections that people have with each other, accountability and interpersonal skills, growth and self-development (O’Rielly, Chatman and Caldwell, 2004). In this regard, the idea of distributed leadership, openness within the organization, continuous learning and decentralization comes to light. The Azma Company has over the years sustained an organizational culture which seems to promote effectiveness and to some extent hinder it. Behaviors and artifacts are major indicators of Azma Company’s organizational culture. These two are quite visible but at the same it may not be easy to understand them. Areas of concern in relation to behaviors include the delicate features of language and metaphors used by people, ceremonies, corporate rituals, legend, and stories that are seen to have great connections with the company. On the other hand, in line with artifacts considerations include the design of the company in as far as its physical space is concerned ranging from the art that is hanged on the wall to its architecture. For Azma Company these aspects of its culture are quite symbolic and aid in the promotion of organizational effectiveness (Black and Richard, 2003). Within Azma company behaviors and artifacts assist employees and all members of the organization to easily make sense of the life within the organization and what it is purposed for. For instance, an art of work on one of the walls of Azma Company is the saying that “your safety is our priority”. This is due to the fact workers within the company interact more with machines and risky mechanical equipments. The saying is seen as to place more value on the life of the employees besides the tasks that they are meant to execute. Such an artifact has symbolic value and impact in as far as the behavior of members within the organization is concerned. In this case, organizational effectiveness is enhanced since the aim of the organization besides achievement of its goals and objectives it also shows concerns of care for its members in their working in the organization. Organizational culture within the Azma Company also constitutes the aspect of shared perspectives. This is what underlies the rules, regulations and norms which guide the company in the process of finding solutions to problems that members encounter. Perspectives may be understood to be relatively concrete ideas for which the members within the company are aware of (Kotter 2006). For instance within the Azma company there a way that employees know problems should be handled. In line with this, there are three basic guidelines with the first stating that the customer is the boss, followed by “by sundown get it down” and lastly “it is my duty to customer expectations”. With such rules there is no doubt that effectiveness within the organization is enhanced. Workers definitely work knowing that any problems that may be encountered there is a better way and path towards finding their solutions. This is an aspect that contributes to the overall good performance of the organization in the market. Azma’s company organizational culture constitutes the idea awareness creation. The main understanding is directed to the ideals, goals and the standards that are held in consensus with the company (Barney, 1999). Principally within the company, there are those common notions, perceptions and ideas that people have about one another. They form the basis of judgment of other people and how they behave. Some critical values have been expressed in Azma’s statement of philosophy. Among them, include values that can be agreed upon with ease due to their clarity while are ambiguous, complex and conflicting making it difficult to argue them out. For example, in within a company there may be a high degree of inconsistency between what is said to be valued by people and they do or rather ambiguities about the meaning of symbol s or statements used in the company. Azma Company shows greater emphasis in a collective identity not based on class level, ecology, science, low cost, progressive, rationality and safety and security. In this case with such values of awareness being in place effectiveness is promoted within Azma Company hence resulting to good performance. There is an important aspect of organizational culture that is very crucial due to it its impact on organizational effectiveness. It is the idea of unconscious assumptions. This basically implies to those assumptions which are held by people concerning the nature of human beings, time, reality, the relationships between humans and how individuals relate with the environment in which they are in. the discovery of values and the assumptions is but through listening keenly and thinking critically to what is said by people as well as through carefully watching actions of people (Kotter 2006). The Azma Company reflects this idea which has proved to be quite essential in regards to the achievement of competitive advantage for the company. In this case it automatically favors and assists the company to become more effective in its operations by providing a better way to understand the behavior of employees and how to handle them without creating any conflict. The Azma Company does not offer a strict organizational culture for its members. Instead, it provides typical behavioral patterns considering much on how they combine them. These patterns are linked directly with how they influence the performance of the company and the outcomes of operations being carried out in the company. The way things are done in Azma company influence how effective the company is. This may be understood in line with the behaviors and manner of working of members. These facets are seen to affect the psychological contract that is made between the employees and the company itself and how the company performs in the outside market (Black and Richard, 2003). Various concerns come into play including the extents to which the company is able to communicate its strategies and in a clear manner to the members and in turn ensuring that it keeps the values of the company. It also includes the extents to which the goals of the company bear clarity both at the team and individual levels and explicitly fitting with one another in a state of alignment with the company’s objectives. Lack of strictness within the organizational culture of Azma Company clearly indicates support in the company’s general effectiveness. Organizational culture encompasses the behavior of leaders and managers of a company in regards to how they operate in a manner that shows that they are consistent with the values and vision that are stated to be upheld within the company. Some activities that leaders and managers within the Azma Company engage in include the provision of psychological rewards and recognition for their members who exhibit good performance in their area of specialization and the creation of an atmosphere for cooperation with employees and participation across all activities within the company (Schein and Edgar, 2001). Such a culture as fostered by the top managers and leaders of Azma Company makes it easier to make decisions as well as the dispersion of control and monitoring of performance across the various organizational levels of the company. Effectiveness within the company is thus promoted through there being effectiveness in communication both internal and external, collaboration between the different cross functional units of the organization. Despite the organizational culture of Azma Company highly promoting effectiveness, it also hinders the same within the company. For many years, the company has had the difficulty of trying to fully understand the culture within it so that it may be easier to improve or rather change it for the better performance of the company. The company management believes that with tangible facts about it organizational it will be able to exactly identify how it operates and its dynamics within the company through an examination of the styles in the culture that influence the ultimate outcomes in the company (Cameron, Kim, Quinn and Robert, 1999). In this case, with an examination of the relationship between behavioral norms and the resultant effectiveness of the company it will be easier to address causes of problems within the organization rather that dealing with mere symptoms. It therefore becomes easier for the company to successfully deliver its business strategy and execute its plans. It can be demonstrated that such a difficulty in trying to understand fully the company’s organizational culture hinders effectiveness within the Azma Company. The amza has had a major challenge in its organizational culture in regards to organizational socialization. It is through organizational socialization that new employee in a company are able to both learn and adapt with ease to the culture being within a company. It constitutes the process which involves new members the alignment of behaviors, norms and values of new members with those of the company. It is with no doubt that new members within a company are often not sure about how work is done as well as the evaluation procedures. They also have an issue with what social behavior they are expected to exhibit as well as the kind of personal relationships that are of value to them within a company. The only way out to remove new members from such dilemmas by a company having structured stages for them from the time of their entry into the organization (Denison and Daniel, 2001). For the Azma Company this is not the case. The company does not have clear stages in place to fully guide new members. The only thing that the company does is carry out a general orientation for all new members, a situation whereby the anxiety of new members is not fully done away with. It takes time for individual members to align the behaviors, attitudes and knowledge with the culture of the company something that the Azma Company still does not consider. This culture within the company therefore hinders its effectiveness. Organizational culture hinders effectiveness when it comes to how change is handled within the organization. For instance, quite a big percentage of members of Azma Company usually have negative responses to change. They find it a burden going through training so that they adapt to the change easily. In this case, effectiveness in the operations of the company is hindered. Basically, the company finds it quite difficult to introduce new technologies due to the negative attitude and behavior exhibited by members towards any new change. Engagement is an essential factor within the culture of an organization. It reflects more the idea of how the personal goals of members with an organization and their various motivators of job satisfaction are aligned with the strategies of the organization. Some employees within the Azma Company do not clearly understand what interest them most in their work or rather what they are good at. This is due to lack of orientation in stages during the orientation time as new members. This therefore makes it difficult for them to align their personal goals such as self-development within the company with the goals of the company. This state of affairs therefore acts as hindrance towards the promotion f organizational effectiveness in the company. Organizational life constitutes people from different cultures. In Azma’s business, environment cultural diversity is an aspect that cannot be ignored as it directly affects to how effective the company operates. Over the year managers within the company have at one given point shifted their focus and giving attention to cultural differences to an extent of making them have this as their basis of their decision making process as to how they should treat employees (Hofstede and Geert 2001). Due to this, problems arose bringing a sense of discrimination within the company. The company’s effectiveness was hindered and the company could not demonstrate the expected performance. Basically, positive corporate culture is quite advantageous for a company in as far as gaining competitive advantage over other firms is concerned. The management is required to put away any cultural differences that may exist within an organization. It should foster the spirit and encourage a sense of cultural diversity appreciation among it members (Schein and Edgar 2001). Conclusion In conclusion, the examination of Azma Company’s organizational culture had greatly aided in the understanding of how it may help or hinder organizational effectiveness. Culture has been seen as to highly impact on a various performances and processes in an organization. This paper presents the power and the extents to which organizational culture is bound to influence in an organization. Organizational culture if structured appropriately has to be seen to be in support of an organization’s mission, strategies, and policies aimed at ensuring that the set goals of the organization are achieved and in a timely manner. Discussed herein is the aspect of the relationship that exists between organizational change and the attitude that members have towards it. It is crucial for the management of any given organization to recognize and have a comprehensive understanding of the various aspects of their corporate culture and how the members of the organization are impacted by the same. This will certainly aid the company in bettering how it performs and its effectiveness in line with the achievement of its set goals and objectives with ease is concerned. Finally, the culture within an organization plays quite an important role in ensuring effectiveness in very many ways geared towards the achievement of success for the organization. References Baker and Kathryn A. (2002). Organizational Culture. Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy Barney, J. (1999). "Organizational Culture: Can It Be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage?", Academy of Management Review, 11(3), p. 12-65. Black, D. and Richard J. (2003). Organizational Culture: Creating the Influence Needed for Strategic Success, London: Springer. Cameron, S. and Robert E. (1999). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework. New York: Prentice Hall. Denison, L. and Daniel R. (2001). Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness. London: Wiley. Hofstede, K. and Geert H. (2001). Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations. London: Sage Publications. Kotter J. (2006). Corporate Culture and Performance. New York: The Free Press. Montana, P. and Charnov, B. (2008). Management. New York: Barrons Educational Series. O’Rielly, G., Chatman, J. and Caldwell, K. (2004). "People and organizational culture: A profile comparison approach to assessing person-organization fit". Academy of Management Journal, vol. 34, P. 23-67. Schein, K. and Edgar, H. (2001). The Corporate Culture Survival Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More