Organisational Culture: Life or Death - Case Study Example

Organisational Culture: Life or Death Rueben Choi Webster Organisational Culture: Life or Death The essay seeks to critically analyse the given case study entitled, “Organisational culture: Life or death.” The analysis of this paper is divided into two categories and the first part will focus on the values that appear to be driving the doctors and nurses in hospitals to treat heart attack patients. The second part seeks to critically analyse the reason why a person’s work habits have to match the team culture in the hospitals portrayed in the case study.

A summary of the main points discussed in the paper will be given in the conclusion at the end. Values driving health staff to treat heart attack patients In order to outline and explain the values that appear to be driving the doctors and nurses to treat heart attack patients, it is imperative to begin by defining the meaning of values in order to gain a full understanding of the whole concept. Ivancevich, Konopake & Matteson (2011, p. 36), define values “guidelines and beliefs that a person uses when confronted with a situation in which a choice must be made.

” Basically, the values guide a person to behave in a consistent manner across different situations and they enable that person to delineate the difference between something that is right or wrong. Thus, in the given case study, it has been observed that research conducted in eleven different hospitals showed that rapid, efficient and top quality treatment is important and crucial for survival. The shared value systems by the nurses and doctors in the hospitals mentioned in the case study are the major forces driving them to treat heart attack patients.

Basically, values are important because they generally influence attitudes and behaviour of the people in an organisation (Robbinson, 1993). In most cases, people in an organisation have shared values and beliefs as stated by their culture. Thus, in this particular case, the realization that heart attacks are life threatening is the main force driving health staff to treat cases that are related to heart attacks. Their values are based on the notion that life is crucial and it has to be saved and this notion is also supported by the culture which rewards quality improvement in the healthcare delivery service.

In this case, the value systems of the hospitals mentioned above play a pivotal role in shaping the behaviour of the staff to respond positively to life threatening situations such as heart attacks. It can be noted that the values lay the foundation for understanding of the attitudes which shape the perceptions of the members of staff to be in a position to make interpretations of right and wrong. In this particular case, it is generally perceived that saving life is a right decision by the doctors and nurses operating in the above mentioned hospitals.

Reasons why a person’s work habits have to match team culture It is widely believed that a person’s behaviour and performance in an organisation are shaped by organisational culture (Schultz, 2003). Therefore, it is important to define the meaning of team or organisational culture in order to understand how it impacts on behaviour and ultimately performance of the employees. Basically, organisational culture is defined as “a system of shared assumptions held by members of the same company which distinguishes one organisation from the other,” (Werner, 2003, p. 25). Whilst every person comes from a different background that is characterised by different values and cultures, research has shown that each individual’s work habits must match team culture such as the one depicted in the hospitals shown in the given case study.

Organisational culture is primarily concerned with portraying shared understanding among the employees within the same organisation which is based on shared values. There are likely chances that a person sharing the same values with the organisation is likely to share its same vision as well. Given such a scenario, it can be noted that all efforts will be driven towards the attainment of the same goals. This in turn leads to improvement of employee performance as well as the organisation as a whole.

The concept of organisational culture is mainly concerned with inferring shared meanings in an organisation that manifest themselves in behaviour, feelings, artefacts and language (Shein, 1985 as cited in Wener, 2003, p. 36). Such knowledge generated from shared meanings is acquired through the socialisation process which is used to support the goals of the organisation. Every organisation is characterised by its own culture which is used to design its policies, employee support structures as well as the code of conduct which is why organisations ought to implement their desired organisational cultures which can guide their operations.

Whilst people come from different backgrounds with different cultural values, these have to be merged into one team culture that can give them an identity. Thus, individual work habits have to match the team culture in hospitals depicted above in order to attain the same goals based on shared understanding of the cultural values. Conclusion Over and above, it can be concluded that the concept of cultural values is very important in the operations of every organisation. The behaviour of the employees in any given organisation is shaped by its cultural values which in turn impact on their performance.

Therefore, it is important for every member in the organisation to match individual habits with team culture so as to be in a position to share the same identity. It has been noted that doctors and nurses portrayed in the case given above are driven by the organisational values that are supportive to initiatives meant to give quality treatment to heart attack patients. References Ivancevich, J.M., Konopaske, R. & Matteson, M.T. (2011). Organisational behaviour and management. 9th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Irwin.

Pfeffer, J. (1998). The Human equation: Building profits by putting people first. Boston MA: Harvard Business School Press. Robbins, S.P. (1993). Organisational behaviour: Concepts, controversies and applications. 6th Edition. NJ: Prentice Hall. Schultz et al 2003. Organisational behaviour. CT. Van Schaik Publishers Werner, A. (2007). Organisational behaviour. 2nd Edition. CT. Van Schaik Publishers.