Understanding Organizational Culture - Example

Title: Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: An organization is a social group of people which is managed to achieve specific set goals. Culture on the other hand refers to those characteristics that make one group of people unique from others. It is marked by elements such as values, beliefs, attitudes and many others. Schein, (2010) says that when culture is brought to an organization it provides meaning to the members in that organization since structures are created. According to him organizational culture is the values, attitudes, norms, routines, customs, rules and expectations that are so unique to an organization. They make up the environment of a group of people in an organization. These make up the driving force of a given organization since the members in the organization have these in common reducing chances of conflict. These elements of organization culture are what holds together the people in an organization and facilitate sound decision making since people are of one character. Culture in an organization provides a good ground for leadership. This help in ensuring there is a direction in the organization’s operations. Mobley, Wang & Fang, (2005), point out that organizational culture is the common understanding and thinking of a group of people in an organization that provides guidance to their activities and enable them work together towards achieving corporate goals. Organizational culture is established through ensuring that all team members clearly understand the organizations goals, vision and values. For any organization to have a good performance then it is important for them to ensure they enhance a strong organizational culture. This is because it promotes a good ownership of organizations goals by the team members and thus they can be committed towards the achievement of the same. An organization that has a strong culture is often well motivated to work towards the achievement of its goals this is because there is unity among the people reduced conflict and proper leadership among the group. Organizational culture is considered important to an organization because it is what defines and give identity to them. Through it an organization gains competitive advantage over other organizations. This culture is not itself visible but is expressed through some factors in an organization. It therefore calls for one to be observant to understand a given organizational culture. It is exhibited through how employees are treated, behaviors in the organization while some are written in the organizations documents. These are all expressed through an organizations history, the language in an organization, the programs and routines as well as the physical structures, organization’s products, dress code and symbols in an organization. These are all referred to as an organization’s artifact (Alvesson, 2012). All these are important in building or destroying an organization. They facilitate management of the organization; promote effective communication and good interaction among all people in the organization. They also brand an organization. These elements affect the daily activities of an organization help in understanding its history and in establishing relationships in an organization. Organizational culture is expressed through the language of an organization. This facilitates communication among the team members. Effective communication when embedded in an organizations culture promotes good leadership, facilitate giving and receiving of directions. It also promotes a language culture that ensures proper conflict resolution. Established language helps an outsider understand the existing hierarchy in an organization .In order to effectively sell goods and services to customers and to sustain the relationships a language that is unique to an organization is important. These sustain an organization despite the stiff competition that may exist in the market. It is through the language that is used in an organization that we get to understand the vocabulary that exists in an organization. This also speaks volumes about the organization’s activities, programs and how the workers find their working environment (Bennet & Bennet, 2008). The physical features of an organization too express the organizations culture. They communicate about the organization and it beliefs. They include the buildings used in an organization, symbols, structures, colors that are specific to the organization and the dress code among the team players. They market an organization as well as give it competitive advantage. The layout of the structures also speaks volumes about the organization. The size of an organization as well as the shapes that are evident in the organization too are important in building the culture of an organization. The observable hierarchy in an organization is an important tool in communicating that order, supervision and leadership is well established in an organization (Hatch, 2012). The physical structures and the symbols in an organization too show how an organization is managed. The physical structures in an organization should be well established so that they can assist the organization scale the heights of success. Every organization has its own programs, assumptions and routines. These are a good component of its culture since they give them identity from other organizations. They help one understand the organization’s goals and efforts in place to achieve the goals. These promote the welfare of the team players because they able to understand what to do when. The organization is also able to organize its activities well since they can well predict its programs. The existing programs dictate the routines in an organization which are dependent on the assumption underlying in an organization. The program in place dictates how long the workers work, whether they are given leave and the rewards given to the workers. They also contribute in shaping the behavior that is adapted in an organization. The availability of well defined routine in an organization promotes a good relationship among the team players (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Schein, (2010) argues that each organization has its history which helps in understanding the organizations past performance and even predict its future. This is because they help trace how the organization has come up. They facilitate in understanding of the environment in which an organization is based, it’s by understanding the history of an organization that one gets to fully grasp the organization’s goals and values. The products and service that are produced in an organization also express the culture of an organization. This is done through the branding, packaging and marketing of these products. While organizations can function successfully without supporting constructive culture style, we increase the probability of success by fostering constructive culture that is strong oriented towards the achievement of human encouraging ways; we therefore drastically increase our ability to succeed. As Alvesson (2012) quips, culture has a lot of effects on the organizations effectiveness in involvement of activities, collaboration between departments and employees, transmission of information across the organization, training and learning of new employees, relations and care about the clients, composition of strategic directions, incentive and reward system, the system of control, the communication process and coordination and integration in the organization. An effective organization should provide employee satisfaction and organizational commitment, as well as disseminate the customer concept to all departments. This requires a well communication and coordination mechanism. Disseminating the customer concept in our organization contributes to being a systems thinker as well as seeing the big picture. This afterwards carries the financial and growth performance. Therefore, culture concerns each member of our organization and so is effectiveness. This is the reason why organizational effectiveness is completely related with organizational culture as Gelfand & Erez (2007) explain. In consequence, concentrating on creating a culture in this organization facilitate reaching the effectiveness. This indicates that the organizational culture is directly involved in achieving effectiveness of this organization. If we are to achieve effectiveness, we must embrace a way of doing things (culture); this does not only distinguish ourselves from the other organizations but also positions itself from our competitors. The expressions of our organizational values are very important in helping achieve effectiveness. It does not only articulate our purpose but as well offers a set of guidelines on the mindsets and behaviors that we need to achieve effectiveness. Having clearly articulated set of values that are prominently communicated to all the employees, serves the clients well, treat the fellow employees courteously and uphold ethical and professional standards of our organization. The authenticity of values is more important as compared to their originality as many organizations find their values revolve around a few areas of the organization. Therefore, I conquer with Gregory & Harris (2009) that our values form a culture and the upholding of these values therefore improves the effectiveness of our organization. These values indicate a strong culture and as well provide a strategic competitive advantage as its beliefs are widely shared and firmly upheld in every department and in groups and teams. Organizational values realize such benefits as enhanced mutual cooperation and trust among the employees. This facilitates free flow of information among the employees there by improving the effectiveness. There are fewer disagreements among them and more efficient decision making process is established. This minimizes time wastage and unnecessary costs involved. Values set in an informal control mechanism, and as Nazir (2008) states, the management is able to track all the events taking place and have control over the activities which facilities open communication, develops a strong sense of identification with our organization, all people in the organization have shared understanding and provides justification for employees behaviors. Therefore values as expression of culture helps organizational effectiveness. Another expression of culture in our organization is vision. A good culture starts with a mission and or vision statement. It provide purpose to our organization and guide our values, it is this purpose that it orients the decisions that are made by the employees. Our vision is prominently displayed and deeply authentic and as a result helps orient suppliers, customers and other stakeholders. Our vision is short but it s a foundational feature of our culture. This helps us to achieve organizational effectiveness. Employee satisfaction is another way in which we express our culture in this organization. We utilize the workforce by bring out the best in them thereby helping us to be effective. This leads to a healthy competition within our organization and mostly in the human resource department; this consequently improves our organization effectiveness. The employee concept is in the center of human resource management. Lawler (1986) argued that a firm’s human resource strategy should be centered on developing skills and ensuring enthusiasm and commitment. In this statement, ensuring the motivation is concerned satisfaction of the employees. This is the reason why employee satisfaction takes an added significance in our organization. They are more productive and loyal when they are satisfied and their satisfaction affects the customer fulfillment as well as organizational output. Employee satisfaction (blend of affective reactions to the differential perception of what one wants to get as compared with what one actually receives) is expressed as a culture. Therefore, we try to supply the employee prospect in order to approach the employee satisfaction in the right way. In addition, emotional state of the employees may also affect their satisfaction. This makes the management to keep and sustain the desired working environment in our organization. One the other hand, as stated by Organ and Ryan (1995), the employee satisfaction is one of the basics of organizational citizenship conduct. That is, well-satisfied workforce will work more cheerfully and this contributes to effectiveness of the organization. Another way in which we express our culture is by integration and coordination among the workforce. Although they are closely related to communication, they have different expressions in which we identify ourselves. They ensure we work effectively with the personnel from all departments or teams when carrying out common work. They as well ensure that different departments or groups have many common things in form of tasks, goals. They work to ensure that there are no difficulties between departments when carrying out their common tasks or when sharing information. In addition, as Zheng & Yang (2010) notes, they ensure that it is not hard to work with persons from other departments in the same organization. This is necessitated by the presence of long term strategies outlining the procedures and method of integration and coordination. This helps us to be effective. Care about the clients is an organizational culture that we have embraced. This is related with satisfaction of our customers. Alvesson (2012) asserts that it starts with orientation of the customers (beliefs and degree to which the customer’s information is collected and used by the organization), thinking of the customer’s priority and classifying them depending on their various wants. This helps us to be effective in achieving the customer satisfaction which is the main objective in this organization. By the employees combining their experience and individual skills, we provide the clients a more enhanced level of services, caring and expertise. In this regard we are able to offer more comprehensive services than the clients would get in any other organization. This culture makes us to be effective as the exercise of expertise and the valuable experience adds value and innovation to this organization. However, as much as culture helps our organizational effectiveness, it also hinders it in some ways. Subunits like practical departments, product groups, and even teams have replicated their own unique cultures which are not in line with our organizational culture. There are sometimes difficulties in integrating and coordinating processes or organizational functions which are often as a result of culture clash amongst these different subunits. It is common to hear of conflicts between marketing and manufacturing departments, or to hear of withering comments about the human resource department, complains of put-downs of the revenue and development department. These cultural differences fragment us and make high levels of effectiveness impossible to achieve. It also fosters alienation and conflict among the departments, groups and teams. Each subunit, teams and groups should contain common expressions of culture which are typical of the entire organization in order to help achieve and improve organizational effectiveness. References Alvesson, M (2012) Understanding organizational culture Sage Bennet, D., & Bennet, A. (2008). Engaging tacit knowledge in support of organizational earning. INE, 38(1), 72-94. Cameron, K. S., & Quinn, R. E. (2011). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework. John Wiley & Son Gelfand, M, J, Erez, M, & Aycan, Z (2007) Cross-cultural organizational behavior Gregory, B. T., Harris, S. G., Armenakis, A. A., & Shook, C. L. (2009) Organizational culture and effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and organizational outcomes Journal of Business Research. Hatch, M. J. (2012). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press. Lawler III, E, E (1986) High-Involvement Management. Participative Strategies for Improving Organizational Performance Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104. Mobley, Wang & Fang. (2005). organizational culture:measuring and developing it in your organization. Nazir, N & Lone, M (2008) Validation of Denison’s model of organizational culture and effectiveness in the Indian context VISION journal of business context. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 356). Wiley. com. Read More