Ways of Introducing the Desired Organizations Culture - Essay Example

Name: Institution: Unit Title: Date of Submission: Professor: Table of Contents Abstract 2 Abstract Organizational culture is one of the most vital issues most of the organizations have struggled to embrace. The organizational culture consists of specific values, assumptions and norms which define the ways in which the organization understands its employees. Therefore, like any other research material, this paper will utilize a wide research sources including Mintzberg’s methods of classifying organization’s culture which regulate the employees behavior, organization’s culture classification by Trompenaar and Handy. Thesearch words include organization’s culture, organization’s behavior, control, benefits and organization. Introduction Organizational culture can be defined as systems of values, assumptions, attitudes and norms which play a role of regulating organization’s members’ behavior. The culture is manifested by use of new symbols adopted by the organization’s members which guide them behave in the desired organizational ways. The shared values, assumptions and norms shape the organization’s employees interpretative schemes which enable them understand the reality of the surrounding environment. The existence of a shared organizational culture indicates the organization employees understand the required systems of management, functioning and adopting changes. Therefore, organizational culture shapes other organization’s components such as the leadership style, structure, organizational learning and strategic leadership among other organization’s components. Effective adoption of the organization’s culture largely depends on a collaborative network referred to as the cultural web. The cultural web consists of organization’s stories, symbols, power structure, routines and rituals, control systems and organizational structures. Integration among these components contributes to the establishment of an organizational culture which is applicable to all the organization’s levels and promotes productivity. Therefore, this essay will analyze in detail the relationship which exists between the organization’s culture and its excellent performance, taking into consideration some of the benefits and risks associated with organization’s culture. Additionally, the essay will analyze some of the techniques which can be used to introduce the desired culture in an organization. Ways of introducing the desired organization’s culture One of the ways in which organization’s management can employ to instill the desired organization’s culture is through educating the employees on the need for adopting the culture. This may include using various interventions such as arranging for seminars and conferences where the employees are thought on the newly desired organization’s culture. Educating the employees creates awareness thereby reducing resistance to the adoption process. Minimizing resistance to adopting the new changes reduces the costs associated with providing further training hence, increased productivity (Keyton, 2011).  The organization should involve the employees in setting the objectives of the newly desired organizational culture. This includes involving them in planning the organization’s vision, mission and values which provide the basis for the current organization’s culture. Involving the employees makes them feel appreciated and promotes program sustainability. Additionally, the organization should come up with development programs that promote employees intellectual and emotional learning. This may include coming up with coaching systems where the top management officials guide the employees in employing the interventions required for culture adoption (Reginato & Guerreiro, 2012). The organizations management should align the organization’s desired behavior with the organization’s core objectives. This may include the top management team becoming other employees’ role models by leading the culture adoption process. Incentives can be provided to the employees to facilitate the adoption of the newly desired organizational culture. This includes providing the employees who abide by the desired organization’s culture with incentives such as salary increment, job advancement and performance recognition. Consequently, this contributes to employee motivation, innovation and job satisfaction (Ortega-Parra & Sastre-Castillo, 2013). The organization’s management can provide the necessary resources required for effective adoption of the newly desired culture. This includes providing resources to enhance senior management and employees’ capacity building on the newly desired organizational behavior. Moreover, the organization can embrace the development of effective leadership style which promotes new culture adoption. The leadership style adopted to should be transformational so as to ensure equal employee participation in the implementation process. The organization’s management should employ interventions which empower actions towards culture adoption and reduce barriers which may hinder the adoption process. The process may necessitate the development of participative exercises which promote open and interactive employee participation (Ogbanna & Harris, 2006). The organization can adopt the development of systems which promote free and open communication within the organization. Strategic communication systems ensure that informational related to the culture to be adopted is transmitted to all organization’s levels. Effective communication system should focus on stating the expected goals from the newly adopted culture and the employee efforts required for the adoption process.Other methods which can be employed to facilitate the adoption of the newly desired organization’s culture include coercion, manipulation and putting the resources for managing resistance to change in place (Lee, & Yu, 2004). Benefits of organizational culture Effective adoption of a desired organizational culture enhances the development of a controlled behavior in an organization. This includes development of effective behaviors which are required in the organization’s planning, organizing and development of effective leadership styles. Successful adoption of an organization’s culture promotes standardization of processes in the organization. Newly adopted culture modifies the mechanisms in which tasks in an organization are carried out. The employees are able to act in accordance with the organization’s instructions, regulations, procedures and standards. Therefore, this enhances organizational performance and effectiveness (Kemp & Dwyer, 2001). Organization’s culture promotes employee freedom and autonomy. Freedom at the work place leads to standardization of output and other related processes increasing the organization’s productivity and reducing the costs of production. Additionally, autonomy and freedom among the employees reducing the employee turnover rates and enhanced job satisfaction. Ultimately, this leads to employee motivation, creativity and job satisfaction. Culture promotes decentralization of activities and resources in an organization. This eases the ways in which various tasks are performed in an organization and standardizes the organization’s output. Therefore, employee motivation, innovation and job satisfaction alongside decentralization of organization’s resources increases the productivity in an organization (Reginato & Guerreiro, 2012). Organization’s culture ensures that various organizational activities work in unison with the core aim of excellence performance and attainment of organizational objectives. This enhances the organization’s competitive advantage since other organizations find it difficult to imitate the organization’s culture. Culture promotes the stabilization of an organization’s performance. This is achieved through the ease rates in which the organization’s activities are achieved, sharing of the top management visions and assumptions and development of strong leadership in an organization. Effective adoption of the desired culture by the organization’s management enhances the promotion of ethical culture. This maintains the organizational growth, quality services provision and effective conflict resolution hence, improving organization’s performance (Ogbanna & Harris, 2006). Organizational culture acts as a form of social control which plays a role in influencing the employee decisions and behavior. Culture regulates the ways in which the employees behave and decide on the ways in which activities are to be performed in the organization. This is due to the presence of designed organization’s values, norms, rules and regulations which controls employees’ behavior. Corporate culture plays a vital role by acting as social glue. It acts as social glue which bonds the employees together making them feel as part of the organization’s family. Cultural bonding motivates the employees to fulfill the organization’s objectives and their urge of social identity (Walter & Hollank, 2009). Corporate culture helps the organization in the sense making process. This occurs through it enabling the employees have a better understanding of the organizational events. Thus, it minimizes the time wasted in performing organizational tasks as they are aware of what the organization expects from them. Simplification of the sense making process promotes efficient communication in the organization. This enhances the cooperation and facilitates the realization of the employees and organization’s shared common goals. Effective adoption of an organizational culture enables the senior management to understand and provide high quality services which meet the consumer demands. This increases the organization’s sales improving the organization’s performance (Pareek, 2006).  Corporate culture potentiates the development of ethical conduct in an organization. This includes promoting the need of employee transparency and accountability at the workplaces. Transparency and accountability reduces the cases of workplace corruption and misuse of organizational resources. Consequently, this increases organizational productivity and enhances effective use of organizational resources. Culture shapes the activities which the organization perceives to be the correct decisions. The process occurs due to the alignment of the newly adopted culture to the organization’s goals, objectives and daily practices (Kemp & Dwyer, 2001). Corporate culture shapes the ways in which employees, work groups and the organization deals with and responds to challenges. This occurs through the promotion of collaborative decision making within the organization and team work hence, enhanced job efficiency. Shared organizational norms, values, rules and regulations speeds up the rate and efficiency of tasks accomplishment in the organization. The fast rates of tasks accomplishment occurs due to the promotion of employee freedom which leads to their motivation and job satisfaction. Culture enables the organization’s management understand and come up with the necessary interventions required for managing any incidences of employee resistance to change (Keyton, 2011).  Adoption of the new corporate culture enables the management come up with new interventions required for shifting the nature the organizational operations. This includes interventions for shifting the organization’s strategic management and direction, adoption of new technology and introduction of new organizational processes. The adoption of new organizational culture changes outside stakeholders’ negative attitude towards the organization. Heightened organization’s visibility and improved performance reduces outside skepticisms hence, promoting organizational image. Effective adoption of the desired organizational culture creates an enjoyable environment for employees to work in. this occurs especially in situations where the employees identify themselves with the organizational culture. Consequently, this boosts the employees’ morale hence, improved performance (Marković, 2012). Corporate culture increases the organization’s marketability. Sharing of ideas among the employees promotes the establishment of best brand which attracts a large portion of the consumer market. Through this, the organization’s marketability increases alongside the nature of talents required in the organization. Increased organizational marketability contributes to the overall improvement in the organization’s productivity. Improved productivity results from improved employee understanding of the organizational goals and enhanced loyalty and transparency in the organization (Ortega-Parra & Sastre-Castillo, 2013). Embracing organizational culture increases the overall employee engagement. Additionally, it attracts new customers increasing the utilization of the organizational products and services boosting the organization’s revenues. Increased employee engagement increases the rates of employee retention, consumer satisfaction and reduction in the organization’s operational costs. Corporate culture promotes healthy competition within the workplaces. Employees are motivated to produce their levels best in order to perform better than their workmates leading to competition at the workplace. Additionally, the employees can compete for other benefits such as appreciation, advancements and job recognition (Feldman, 2002).  Furthermore, organizational culture brings all the organization’s employees to a common platform. It promotes equal treating of the organization’s employees and respecting of the employees’ workplace rights. The culture acts as a representation of the policies which guide the employees’ actions at the workplace. Culture defines the roles and responsibilities designated to every employee and the interventions that must be done to accomplish those tasks. Organizational culture plays a role in uniting organization’s employees who have different cultural backgrounds. This enhances organizational performance as the varied cultural backgrounds are aligned to a common organization culture, goals and objectives (Schein, 2010).  Corporate culture promotes healthy relationship among the organization’s employees. Common organizational culture minimizes the risks of incidences such as threats at workplace which negatively affects the employee relationship. Culture enhances direct supervision of organization activities by the management. This occurs through the development of an effective organizational structure which provides flexible environment where the managers are in close contact with the employees and ease supervision. Through direct supervision, the management is able to evaluate the employee response to the newly adopted organization’s culture, resistance and improvements (Lee, & Yu, 2004). Corporate culture promotes the development organizational behavior that enhances direct interpersonal communication among the organizational employees and the management. This ensures that the organizational teamwork and collaborative decision making are effectively coordinated to ensure organizational success. Additionally, direct interpersonal communication helps in the coordination of individual employee actions, early identification of challenges experienced by the employees and behaviors of each and every employee in the organization. Cultureshapes the management response to the human resource needs in their organizations. This is done by evaluating the consumer needs and the required resources which can be provided to meet the human resource demands (Rowe, 2007). Culture enables the organization come up with measures which can be implemented to respond to legal, social, economic and environmental changes. This includes interventions which can be employed to ensure that the employees’ needs such as recognition, achievement, advancement and responsibility are met. Additionally, it includes ensuring consumer needs are addressed to. These include needs such as providing quality services and responsive customer care services. Corporate organizational culture increases organization’s behavioral consistency. This leads to improvement in organization’s performance due to the increased efficiency and effectiveness in tasks accomplishment (Ogbanna & Harris, 2006). Strong organizational culture reduces management costs required to reinforce the organizational formal rules and regulations. The reduction in the management costs occur as a result of the development of a more effective organizational formal strategy which enhances ease in task accomplishment. Culture enables the organization’s employees effectively adopt and respond to demands from external and internal environment. This benefits the organization since the employees are committed to excellent performance irrespective of the threats (Rashid et al. 2003). Culture is vital element in strategic planning and organizational management. It governs the daily workplace behavior, attainment of the organization’s long term goals and strategic sustainability of the organization’s mission. Culture enables the management adopts the best organizational control (the soft control) which promotes productivity. This corporate control shapes the organization’s norms. Values, beliefs and symbols used by the employees and the managers in their daily decision making processes. Culture enables the management understand the value of personal practices in contributing to the organizational performance. The practices include job rotation, collaborative decision making, employee involvement in strategy formulation and less specialized career paths (Janicijevic, 2012). Effective adoption of an organizational culture results in the reduction of barriers existing between organization’s thinkers and doers. It creates a common awareness of organizational mission and philosophy. Thus, the employees know that their organization encourages them to be innovative, and come up with new ideas which can be used to enhance organizational performance. Corporate culture contributes to a greater degree of organizational employees’ team orientation, innovation, humanism and supportiveness. Culture contributes to the establishment of environments which are more innovative to the employees. This arises due to the differences brought by the employee orientation secondary to the cultural change in the organization (Kemp & Dwyer, 2001). Disadvantages of organizational culture Despite the above benefits, organizational is associated with disadvantages which the organization management should consider. One of these disadvantages is the increased risk of sell-commitment and interest in the organization. This results from organizations hierarchical structure which stresses the value of more compensation and power to the employees. Consequently, this leads to unnecessary competition within the organization which may distract the employees from attaining the organizational goals (Reginato & Guerreiro, 2012). Organizational culture increases the risks of knowledge-skill sharing barrier in the organization. Corporate culture discourages the development of knowledge sharing among companies to solve specific problems. Additionally, corporate culture forms a barrier which inhibits knowledge sharing between employees of two different levels hence, affecting learning with the organization. Corporate culture increases the risks of organizations developing corporate greed. This entails culture that promotes unhealthy competitive behavior and unethical business activities (Ortega-Parra & Sastre-Castillo, 2013). Coming up with a universal corporate culture is a difficult process. This is due to the varied employee cultural differences. Therefore, the chosen organizational culture may favor one side of the organizational employees creating inequality in the organization. Additionally, conflicting employee values due to the varied cultural backgrounds may lead to reduction in synergies existing between different organization’s departments. Corporate cultures is associated with both the visible and the invisible cultural levels. Organization’s failure to understand the value of these cultural levels will impact negatively on the new culture adoption process (Rashid et al. 2003). The chosen organizational culture may discourage employee innovation and creativity. This often occurs in cases where the organization does not recognize of adaptability and flexibility in the organization. Additionally, wrong leadership style may affect the adoption process. This includes adopting leadership style which is not in alignment with the stated organizational goals and the desired culture. Employee personalities in an organization vary. Optimistic employees readily embrace the adoption of new organizational changes. On the other hand, pessimistic employees resist adoption of the organizational change. Therefore, personality differences might negatively affect the new culture adoption process in the organization (Ogbanna & Harris, 2006). The desired organizational culture may not be in alignment with the organization’s mission, vision and objectives. This affects the employees negatively by discouraging them from being creative and innovative. Therefore, this results to poor communication of strategies, poor interrelationships, lack of empowerment and inability to achieve organizational goals. Consequently, this affects the organization’s overall performance (Lee, & Yu, 2004). Introduction of new culture in an organization might be faced with a lot of resistance to change. This might arise due to various factors such as personality differences, lack of proper communication to the employees, lack of employee awareness on what is expected from them and employees fear to change. These challenges impact negatively on culture adoption process and necessitate the need of introduction of other measures to facilitate change. The measures include manipulating, coercing with the employee, educating, facilitating and involving the employees in the re-implementation process. Therefore, these interventions require extra costs which make the process expensive hence, becoming less effective to the organization (Janicijevic, 2012). Conclusion Despite the above disadvantages, it is evidently clear that there is strong relationship existing between the organizational culture and organization’s competitive advantage. This is evidenced by the high number of the benefits of culture on the organization in the above analysis. However, the high number of advantages does not rule out the possibility of failures in the adoption process of a culture in an organization. Therefore, organization’s management should take into consideration the threats associated with the introduction process and come up with interventions which can be employed to counteract these challenges. Managers should appreciate the fact that experience is the best teacher in their organizations and should strive to try new interventions to enhance their organizations performance. References Feldman, S. P. (2002). Memory as a moral decision: the role of ethics in organizational culture. New Brunswick [u.a.], Transaction Publ. Janicijevic, N (2012). The Impact of Organisational Culture on Control of Behaviour in Organisations’, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Economics, ‘Economic Themes’, Year 50, no. 3, pp 289-308. Kemp, S & Dwyer, L (2001). An examination of organisational culture – the Regent Hotel, Sydney’, Hospitality Management, 20, pp 77-93. Keyton, J. (2011). Communication & organizational culture: a key to understanding work experiences. Los Angeles, SAGE. 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