Role of Employees is Formulating Organizational Culture - Research Paper Example

 Organization Culture Organizational culture is the behavior that is collectively displayed by those people who work in or work with a certain organization. These are collective behaviors which are taught to new employees once they join an organization which enshrine the ideals and objective of such an organization. Organizational culture influences how the members of an organization conduct themselves in almost every aspect of their lives to create a good image and it affects how employees interact with each other, their clients and also those people who have a stake in the organization. The organizational culture of an organization can also be defined as the values which contribute to the creation of a conducive psychological and social environment within which to work. These values are based on the previous and existing knowledge of the organization which form the philosophies that hold the organization together. There may however be many different conflicting cultures within an organization, especially the large ones, due to the different characteristics displayed by the various management teams that work in the organization. Organizational culture may have both positive and negative effects on the individuals involved and these among others will be discussed in this paper. While the management of an organization plays a major role in the formulation of an organizational culture, the employees of such an organization also have a role to play in its formulation. According to the book Changing Organizational Culture: The Change Agent's Guidebook by Marc Schabracq, the organizational culture involves the social expectations and standards which determine the values and beliefs which hold the people working within an organization together. Furthermore, this culture is heavily influenced by the signs and symbols which an organization is recognized by and this determines the way the people who work within this organization behave, thus they are the embodiment of the organization’s culture. A shared language is very important in the development of an organizational culture because language is the glue that holds a society together and without a common means of communication within the organization, then the organization would collapse. Organizational culture is the single most important thing that determines whether and organist ion will be successful or not. There are four major elements of culture which determine the success of an organization: the values which define the beliefs at the heart of corporate culture; the individuals within the organization who embody its values; the routine interactions between members of an organization which are full of strong symbolic qualities to make them feel like part of a family; and finally, the informal communication system within the organization. Although it is a very difficult thing to happen, the culture of a particular organization is subject to change. This does not come easily and may require a very competent person or people to succeed in changing it. In order to change an organizational culture, one has to be aware of what exactly it takes to change the existing culture. Moreover, the ability to change the culture is in the hands of the top management of the organization and it is they who are responsible for the institution of such change. Lastly, organizational structure helps to resolve the dilemma of bureaucracy because although formal procedures are necessary for business integrity, bureaucracy also ends up stifling autonomy and creativity. The organizational culture consists of many subcultures which interact with one another for the sake of the running of the organization. It can be said that this culture is not as homogenous as one would expect and may in fact consist of many coexisting cultures which work hand in hand out of necessity. Each of these subcultures have created their own characteristics and sense of identity and an example of this is within the workplace where employees can easily classify themselves socially according to their areas of specialization, membership in a particular union, and age. Although these subcultures may be diverse, each of them is developed for the purpose of furthering the goals of the organization through different means. Through the initial interactions with new members of an organization, the older members tend to gradually transmit their cultural values to these new members and in time, they become completely absorbed into the dominant culture. The organizational culture may not necessarily be united due to the existence of subcultures and it is from these subcultures that change to the overall culture develops. An example of this is when a new management takes over a corporation with the aim of improving its image and making it a more popular brand. This new management will more likely target the culture of this corporation because it is its essence. The best way to do this would be for the new management to create a counterculture whose aim would be to replace the existing one. Most of the people in this organization, after an initial resistance, would be forced to conform to this new culture; otherwise, they would risk losing their positions. Changing an organization’s culture is one of the most difficult challenges that its leadership can face and this is because of an interlocking set of roles, processes, values and attitudes. Changing a culture is a large undertaking which should be done on a large scale in order to make it successful. All the organizational tools for changing minds should be put in play and if they do not work, the use of coercion and punishments should be put in place as a last resort to ensure compliance with the new changes. In conclusion, culture has great influence within the organization and it affects almost everything that happens in it. It functions as a unifying factor between the different members of an organization and it helps in the development of the organization’s image as a community of interests. It can be considered to be the essence of an organization, determining its values, and objectives, which is a very important element in a modern corporation. There has been speculation about whether or not an organization’s culture can be managed and while some believe that it can be managed, others do not. It is my belief that the management of culture within an organization is possible if it has a strong management at the helm. Work Cited Schabracq, Marc. Changing Organizational Culture: The Change Agent's Guidebook. Lanham, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2007.Print. Read More