Significance of organisational culture - Essay Example

 Significance of organisational culture Introduction The term ‘organisational culture’ has been defined differently by different professionals and academicians but everyone seems to be agreed that it refers to a system of shared values by the members of an organisation. The term ‘shared values’ consists of beliefs, assumptions, values, norms, etc which integrate the members of an organisation, at the same time differentiate an organisation with other organisations. It can be said that the culture of an orgnisation reflects its personality. In the last 25 years the concept of organisational culture has got an unprecedented importance due to its relevance in understanding human behaviour at workplace. The culture of an organization can be defined by three perspectives that include, subjective, structural and synthetic. The concept of subjective approach of culture defines culture from the perspective of individual’s ‘feeling’ regarding the members of an organization. The structural approach perceives organizational culture as a enduring characteristics that defines an organization. The synthetic approach of culture takes both the mentioned concept into consideration in order to define culture. Every organization has a different culture that integrates the members of an organization and differentiates an organization from other organizations. The workplace culture has a profound impact upon the competency and overall capability of an organization (Tsekeris 2008). Foundation of Organizational culture Foundation of organizational culture can be broadly classified into two parts, one is known as ‘Anthropological foundation’ and another is known as ‘Sociological foundation’. Both of the foundations can be differentiated on the basis of functional and semiotic approach. The functional approach takes several parameters into consideration that make a distinction between both the foundations. These parameters can be identified as focus, variables, assumptions and observation. The anthropological foundation assumes that an organization itself is a culture where as sociological foundation assumes that organizations have a culture (Cameron and Quinn 2011). The focus of anthropological foundation lies at collective structure unlike the case of sociological foundation that focuses at collective behavior. The culture of an organization is observed as a subjective factor by anthropological foundation where as it seen as a matter of objective factor by sociological foundation. There is also a difference between both the foundations on the issue of variable factors. Anthropological foundation perceives, culture as a dependent variable, where as sociological foundation perceives culture as an independent variable (Cameron and Quinn 2011). The semiotic approach is also taken into account in order to identify and analyze the key difference between anthropological and sociological foundation. The anthropological foundation assumes culture as reality where as sociological foundation assumes culture as a mean that develops a sense of reality at workplace. The focus of anthropological foundation lies at individual’s assumptions rather than individual’s cognition as in the case of sociological foundation. The factor of ‘observation’ is also taken into consideration for differentiating the key issues between both the foundations. The ‘individual immersion’ is a subject of observation for anthropological foundation where as ‘individual involvement’ is taken into consideration as a subject of observation by sociological foundation. The anthropological foundation perceives culture as a dependent variable which requires an understanding of culture by the members of the organization where as sociological foundation perceives culture as an independent variables and assumes that other outcomes are dependent on organizational culture and can be predicted. Significance of organisational culture: It is imperative for organisations across the globe to understand their culture in order to succeed and survive in long terms. It can be identified as one of the key variables of organisational competitiveness and success in market place. It does not only create competitive advantage for the firms but it also influences the performance of individuals in any organisation (Mobley, Wang and Fang 2005). The organisation culture is a major determinant of firm’s capacity, its effectiveness and longevity. In order to develop a better understanding of organisational culture and its overall impact on organisation success, it is important to understand its core elements. It has been observed over the years that organisational culture plays a vital role in motivation and performance of employees. The organisations which give emphasis on their culture generate strong commitments and dedication to assigned responsibilities and this assists in building consensus among employees to focus on important goals and objectives. In addition to this the, intensely shared values help in reducing conflicts and cultivating a learning environment (Mobley, Wang and Fang 2005). Level of organisational culture: The organisational culture can be seen at three different levels but these levels are integrated in a system. These levels can be termed as artifacts, values and assumptions. The artifacts reflect the most visible qualities of an organisation include sound, smell, language, behaviour, attire, etc. The second level of organisational culture is concerned with values and tell the people what they are ought to do in various situations. Although it is hard for newcomers to see the values imbibed in a particular culture but they can learn and discover these values over the period of time. The third level of the organisation culture deals with the basic assumption related with the various aspects of human behaviour and relationship among the members of an organisation (Champoux 2010). Dimensions of organisational culture Champoux (2010) in his book titled as “Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organizations” has identified seven dimensions of organisational culture. These seven dimensions are taken into consideration in order to understand the different perspectives of organisational culture. The description of these seven dimensions of culture can be observed as following: Levels: The ‘levels’ dimension of an organisation refers to degree of visibility within the organisation. The physical qualities such as logos and symbols are easy to see but the other qualities such as core values, guiding principles, etc are less visible. Although the later qualities are least visible but are equally important (Champoux 2010). Pervasiveness: This dimension of organisation culture views culture as a factor which influences the behaviour, belief, attitude, etc, and affects the relationship of employees within and outside of organisation (Champoux 2010). This dimension also affects the employee’s view towards product and services, competitors and much more, and differs significantly from one organisational culture to another. Implicitness: It refers to the degree by which the veteran employees of an organisation are compatible with the organisational core values and perform their responsibilities within the domain of core values, whereas the newcomers find it difficult to discover these values. Imprinting: This dimension of organisational culture suggests that culture of an organisation is not formulated rather it is evolves over the period of time and is deeply rooted into history of organisation. It also indicates that there is a profound impact of organisational culture on the members of an organisation and this impact can be so powerful that the members may find it difficult to adapt with other culture (Champoux 2010).. Political: This dimension of organisational culture views ‘culture’ as closely associated with power in an organisation. The role of coalition, alliances and cliques may have significant impact upon the performance of an organisation at the different level of the hierarchy. Plurality: This dimension views organisational culture as a system that includes various subsystem or subculture. The power struggle can be seen as one of the perspectives of subculture and tension erupts among the members of organisation when the managers or senior leadership tries to change the existing culture. Interdependency: This dimension of culture is concerned with the reflection of interconnection and interdependency among the other parts of an organisation. This relationship may exist between subculture, beliefs and symbols (Champoux 2010). This dimension can also affect the other system of an organisation. For an example, in the North American culture, the people grow up with individualistic values and it is quite natural in these societies to exist a reward system that is based upon individual recognition and benefits. On the other hand the people of Japan are known for their collectivist values and they prefer team reward instead of individual rewards. Influence of management practices at organisational culture An organization is collection of people which works together to achieve a common goal. This definition of the organization shows that each organization consists of people who interact with each other to perform their task and fulfill their duties. Thus it can be said that for the better performance of the organization it is very important that its employees interact with each other in strong manner (Willcoxson and Millett 2000). At this place role of management comes into role. It is the duty of management to develop a strong culture within the organization to improve the performance of the organization and its members. It has been observed that a strong culture provides a sense of distinctiveness, a sense of purpose and a sense of trust and faith which binds its people together. It also helps the organization in its self realization and to decide values and traditions (Clegg, Hardy and Nord 1999). In different literature and writings it has been argued that vision of the leaders or the management plays an important role in the creation of the strong culture within the organization. Edgar Schien wrote that it is one of the unique and essential functions of the leaders to develop and manipulate the culture (Schein 2010). Leader or the top management of the organizations is the people who decide objectives and goals of the organization and develop strategy for them. For these strategies will directly influence the culture of the organization. So it became very important for the top management to have clear understanding about their goals and strategies. This is very important for the leader or top management to consider their employees needs and sentiments while designing the strategies and other policies to create a strong culture. A strong leadership can give stability to the culture by earning faith of its employees and by handling the different cultural issue at the right time in right manner. This is one of the way in which management can influence the culture of the organization. There are other methods also there through which management can alter or develop a culture within the organization. With the help of various culture theories it can be measure how much management can influence the culture of the organization. Implications of cultural theories at workplace For example, Hofstede’s cultural dimensional theory, which says that in today’s global scenario where large MNC’s are operating around the world, there great possibilities of conflicts among the employees of an organization because of their different cultural background. Hofstede says that each employee of the organization belongs to certain social and cultural group which influences his/her action, thinking and social behavior (Hofstede and Hofstede 2001). Because of the difference in the cultural background, employee working in a single organization can react differently in same conditions. This difference in cultural background can create sense of detachment among the employees, which results into more grievances, and eventually formation of different groups within the organization. Thus, it is the responsibility of the management to understand the role of social and ethnic culture impact on the employees’ actions and try to develop strong organizational culture to bind the employee together. By defining code of conduct, management can alter the behavior and actions of the employees in order to develop a common organizational culture. The concept of developing a organizational code of conduct relates to a structure which produces linguistic expressions, cultural meanings and regulated behavior. Code of conduct is considered as a mechanism which is used to stabilize the patterns of behaviors (Krizan et al 2010). With the help of code of conduct management can make its employee to think and interprets the things in same manner. Codes can be defined as the criteria which guide decisions and actions. Along with this, codes also regulate the relations among several subjects because of which social connotation can be developed. Another thing which a management can do to influence the organization culture is empowerment of the employees. In 1991, O’Reilly, Chatman & Caldwel1, developed a model in which they said that cultures of the organization can be distinguished by the values that are reinforced within the organizations (Meyer and Allen 1997). In this model they did not focused on explaining the relationship between the organizational culture and organizational performance, but they described how organization’s culture associated with the different personalities of the employees. Daniel Denison divided the organizational culture in the four categories- Mission, Adaptability, Involvement and Consistency (Denison et al 2012). Each of the categories has three sub dimensions. Mission includes Strategic Direction and Intent, Goals and Objectives and Vision. Creating Change, Customer Focus and Organizational Learning are the part of Adaptability. Involvement includes Empowerment, Team Orientation and Capability, whereas Consistency includes Core Values, Agreement and Coordination/Integration. It all depends on the management that what kind of culture they want have for their organization. For example, with the help of concept of Employees Empowerment they can develop culture of Involvement in the organization. With the help of the empowerment, management can make their employees to perceive or believe that their organization sets value on them. The concept of the empowerment is mainly build on the traditional idea of delegation. In various study it has been found that empowerment has great influence on the different psychological dimensions of the employees like competency, self-determination, etc. Thus with the use of different policies like empowerment management can alter or develop a kind of organization culture in the organization can bind their employees as a one unit to motivate them and get the desired output from them. Organization culture also shows or depicts the way in which work is done in an organization. By observing the different process of the organization one can understand the nature of the culture of the organization. Deal and Kennedy defined four categories of the organizational culture on the basis of the working process of an organization (Miller 2011). In their model they majorly focused three factors, first on how quickly the organization receives the feedback. Second factor is concerned with the methods of rewarding the employees and last one deal with the risks propensity of the organization. On the basis of these factors, they defined four categories of the culture. One is Work-hard, play-hard culture in which organization has rapid feedback and rewarding system with low risk. In such kind of organization culture employees feel stressed due to the quantity of the work and it is mainly observed in the restaurants and software companies. The other category is termed as Tough-guy macho culture where there is high risk with rapid feedback and reward system. In such organizational culture, management more concerned about the present needs rather than future. This culture found in police and sports. Process Culture is third category of organizational culture defines by Deal and Kennedy. In such culture there is slow feedback and reward system with low level of risk. Such culture leads to the development of bureaucracies where stress is very low with comfort and security. The last category is known as the Bet-the-company culture, which is categorized by slow feedback and rewarding but with high level of risk. Organization of this culture considered future planning and everything is done with proper planning. Development of above mentioned type of culture is directly dependent on the policies and work process of the organization. It is the duty of the management to formulate the policies and define the structure of the different process, thus nature of the organizational culture is determined by the outlook of the management (Dubrin 2009). Policies and structure of working process is can create a positive environment within the organization which will not only motivate the employees and but will also have impact on their loyalty and commitment towards the organizational. So it can be management can create a positive or negative environment in the organization through its policies. Another major component which will directly influence the culture of the organization is trust of the employees on the management. Trust is can be defined in different ways. Trust is considered as asymmetrical relation between two or more individual in which one party is called as trustees on whom other party show their commitment. Trust also can be defined as reliance on another person or entity. To develop a strong culture within the organization, it is important for the management to earn the faith and trust of the employees (Saunders et al 2010). There are different manner through which it can earn the trust of the employees. Formulating mutual beneficial policies is one if the ways through which management can earn trust of the employees and can develop a strong culture within the organization. They also can get the trust of the employees by taking care of their personal needs and by providing better opportunities for their growth (Cameron and Quinn 2011). Summary On the behalf of above discussion and analysis this can be said that organisational culture plays a significant and vital role in the success and survival of an orgnisation. At micro level it is concerned with the motivation and commitment of employees towards organisational core values and assigned responsibilities, on the other hand, at macro level it affect the overall competency and performance of organisation in marketplace. It is also evident from the above discussion that organisation cultures are not the same across the globe and have a profound impact on values and beliefs of local people. The culture of an organisation is driven by the values imbibed by the members, since its existence. In addition to this, the above discussion also enunciates the role of management in development and maintenance of an appropriate culture and up to what extends culture can be shaped with the conscious practices at workplace. On the basis of the above discussion and organizational culture theory it can be said that management plays a vital role in the creation and development of the organizational culture. It got the power and tools to alter or change the culture of the organization and nature of the culture of an organization defines the quality and intention of its management References: Cameron, K.S. and Quinn, R.E. 2011. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework. John Wiley & Sons. Champoux, J. 2010. Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organizations. Taylor & Francis. Clegg, S., Hardy, C. and Nord, W.H. 1999. 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Organizational Trust: A Cultural Perspective. Cambridge University Press. Schein, E.H. 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership. John Wiley & Sons. Tsekeris, C. 2008. Sociological Issues in Culture and Critical Theorizing. Humanity & Social Sciences Journal 3, pp: 18-25. Willcoxson, L. and Millett, B., 2000. THE MANAGEMENT OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE: Australian Journal of Management & Organisational Behaviour 3, 2, pp: 91-99. Read More