The Relationship between Organisational Culture and Employee Job Satisfaction - Coursework Example

The Relationship between Organisational Culture and Employee Job Satisfaction Table of Contents 1.0. Introduction 03 2.0. Organisational Culture and Job Satisfaction 03 3.0. Organisational Performance 04 3.1. Goal 04 3.2. Efficiency 05 3.3. Effectiveness 05 4.0. Levels of Organisational or Corporate Culture 05 4.1. Artefacts 05 4.2. Espoused Value 06 4.3. Shared Tacit Assumption 06 5.0. Strong Corporate Culture 06 5.1. Strong Culture and High Job Satisfaction 07 5.2. Strong Culture and Low Job Satisfaction 07 6.0. Weak Corporate Culture 07 6.1. Weak Culture and High Job Satisfaction 08 7.0. Conclusion 08 8.0. References 09 1.0. Introduction The job satisfaction level of employees occupies an important place in the list of major concerns of the human resource management. Job satisfaction may be a result of many factors like the fairness of rewards, growing chances, participatory level in decision making, incentives, compensations, etc. The culture of an organisation is a set of beliefs, values and work style of the organisation. Job satisfaction of employees is highly linked with the performance level of the company and so the culture has to very assertive regarding the satisfactorily level. The assignment throws light upon the level of organsiation culture and relationship between the two aspects organisational culture and job satisfaction. The influence of high and weak culture upon the job satisfaction level of the employees is further discussed. It makes the study very clear regarding the fact that there is a direct link between corporate culture and job satisfaction. 2.0. Organisational Culture and Job Satisfaction With the evolvement of global markets and increase in the worldwide competition along with the technological advancements has made the organisations to face many new challenges. Organisational culture has become a major factor in this regard and has a strong relationship with the employee job satisfaction level. Job satisfaction has become the most frequently variable that is investigated in organisational culture. The organisational culture has been studied as a persistent and patterned way to understand the task of human and their relationship within an organisation. It is also considered the model to get the things done within an organisation (Lund, 2003). There is a strong link, between the two, which makes the study and evaluation of the job satisfaction level of the employees very precise and clear depending upon the relationship that one generates against the other. The cultures of an organisation are more of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that act as a social binder and hold the organisation together. The strong culture of an organisation ensures that there exist common values and codes of conduct for all employees thus directing them to attain organisational goals. 3.0. Organisational Performance Organisational performance is the analysis of an organisation’s actual performance in comparison to its goals and objectives (Schwepker, 2001). The performance or outcome of an organisation is analysed through three primary outcomes namely, financial performance, market performance and shareholder value performance. It requires the effective and efficient use of the resources, by any organisation, to achieve its goals and objectives. 3.1. Goal The ultimate end that an organisation looks to attain through its operation and existence is the goal of the organisation. They are predetermined and the future result depends upon the set goals and the current efforts are directed in the same direction. They are the strategic objectives established by the management to outline the expected outcomes and supervise the efforts of the employees. Official and operative goals are the two major types of organisational goals and it is different for each level of management. The strategic goals are set by the top management levels and are applicable for the entire organisation and are set for five or more years. The tactical goals are set by the middle level of management and the duration range is one to two years. The tactical goals define the future state of many departments and divisions. 3.2. Efficiency The efficiency of an organisation is the measure of the relationship between the organisational inputs or resources and the outputs or the produced goods and services. It is directly related to the term productivity and so a lot of stress is given to the efficiency levels in an organisation. It is doing things in the right manner. 3.3. Effectiveness Effectiveness is doing the right things and organisational effectiveness is related to the attainment of the organisational goals. The use of resources by an individual or a group towards effective outcome is considered as their effectiveness to attain the set goals. 4.0. Levels of Organisational or Corporate Culture The set of organisational culture for an organisation is a set of creative culture that have be devised for an attempt to evaluate the task that is carried out in the form of a business. The behaviour and satisfaction of an individual or an employee can be directly affected by the different kinds of levels and culture. Organisational structure is very complex in it but still considered as composite of prevailing styles of leadership, management, process and procedures, daily routines and customs and the measure of success within an organisation. Organisational culture has three distinct levels which can be studied as very visible to very tacit and invisible. The three levels are further discussed in the assignment. 4.1. Artefacts The first level of organisational culture is very easy to observe as it is related to what can be seen, heard and felt in the organisational environment. This level is associated with the physical and social aspects of the organisation that includes factors like architecture, technology, layout of the office, dressing mannerism and the visible interaction between the staff and the outsiders too. The vision and mission statements, slogans and all other important creeds are a part of the artefacts of the organisation. 4.2. Espoused Value The behavioural pattern in the first level is explained by the second level of organisational culture. This level analyses and observes the behavioural pattern in much deeper levels and helps in understanding the artefacts that are expressed explicitly. The senior organisational members, who generally form the customs and standardised procedures could clearly explain the manifested artefacts and understand the espoused value behind the same. 4.3. Shared Tacit Assumption This is the deepest level of an organisation’s culture as it is related with the unconsciousness. With the passage of time, the espoused values and others get transformed into unconscious level and starts being taken for granted as being known. This change is assumptions become very tough to be redefined or relearn in the culture. These assumptions are unseen and unidentifiable in the case of many members in their daily work culture. 5.0. Strong Corporate Culture An organisation with a strong culture has values, patterns and practices interconnected to the different level of organisational culture. This strong culture scenario emerges when there is continuity in leadership and other such organised factors. Johnson & Johnson is a company that presents an example of strong corporate culture. 5.1. Strong Culture and High Job Satisfaction Strong culture helps in reduction of symptoms of psychological distress, decrease in the level to leave an organisation and most importantly increase the levels of job satisfaction. It increases the commitment level of each individual thus relieving the work load or stress from the shoulders of an individual or a group and thus improves allocation of work which directly affects the job satisfaction level of the employees. Also the employees are brought under the system of hierarchy and are accountable to their respective team leaders or managers making them build their own relationships and job culture (Lok and Crawford, 2004). Wal-Mart, Walt Disney, Adobe are some example of companies with strong corporate culture and job satisfaction. 5.2. Strong Culture and Low Job Satisfaction Not all organisations with strong culture reflect high level of job satisfaction. The bad characteristics of the corporate culture shall result in insecurity of job, resulting in low level of job satisfaction. Excessively strong culture of an organisation binds an employee from presenting something that is new and innovative which reduces the satisfaction that one is due for attaining form an organisation. The strong culture may result in employee morale and level of performance but surely does not determine the satisfaction level which they may attain or not. Cultures once set are very difficult to be changes or re-drafted. Examples of low job satisfaction are K Mart which lacks customer service culture and P&G where the highly analytical culture of the organisation decreases the level of job satisfaction. 6.0. Weak Corporate Culture The weak organisational culture can be considered as the one which is loosely knitted (Sempane, Rieger and Roodt, 2003). Opposite to the strong culture the behavioural patterns and common values are not interconnected. Frequent assimilation of employees or diversification into new and different businesses may lead to the development of weak corporate culture. Not all weak cultured companies result in low level of job satisfaction. This may also result in some high level of employee job satisfaction. 6.1. Weak Culture and High Job Satisfaction Low corporate culture may result in encouraging individual thoughts and contributions by the employees and it becomes very beneficial for companies that need to grow through innovation. Likewise employees within a group can turn up to be very vibrant and forward planners that shall assist in managing future plans (Chang and Lee, 2007). General Cinema is a company, as an example, which is also engaged in beverage industry and Pitney Bowes indulges in Computer and Office Equipments. 7.0. Conclusion Every individual employee of the organisation has his own norms and values and beliefs towards the organisation. Organisation culture has deep impact on the performance of the employees rather than helping employees to satisfy themselves regarding their duties. The culture highly influences the commitment level, satisfaction and retention of the employees and the satisfaction level has been discussed in the assignment in context to both strong and weak culture of the organisation. 8.0. References Chang, S. and Lee, M. S. (2007). A study on the relationship among leadership, organizational culture, the operation of learning organization and employees‟ job satisfaction. Learning Organization, 14(02):155- 185 Lok, P. and Crawford, J. (2004). The effect of Organizational Culture and Leadership Style on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment: A Cross National Comparison. Journal of Management Development, 23 (4), 321- 338 Lund, D. B. (2003). Organizational culture and job satisfaction. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 18(3), 219-236 Schwepker, C. H. (2001). Ethical climate’s relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention in the sales force, Journal of Business Research, 54(1), 39–52 Sempane M., Rieger, H.S. and Roodt, G. (2003). Job satisfaction in relation to organizational culture. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 28(2): 23-30 Read More