Unit - 4
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture" as comprising a number of features, including a shared "pattern of basic assumptions" which group members have acquired over time as they learn to successfully cope with internal and external organizationally relevant problems.
organizational culture as a set of shared assumptions that guide behaviors. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving and, even thinking and feeling. Thus organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. In addition, organizational culture may affect how much employees identify with an organization.
The organizational culture influences the way people interact, the context within which knowledge is created, the resistance they will have towards certain changes, and ultimately the way they share (or the way they do not share) knowledge. Organizational culture represents the collective values, beliefs and principles of organizational members. It may also be influenced by factors such as history, type of product, market, technology, strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture. Culture includes the organization's vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, environment, location, beliefs and habits.
Organizational cultures are created by a variety of factors, including founders’ values and preferences, industry demands, and early values, goals, and assumptions. Culture is maintained through attraction-selection-attrition, new employee onboarding, leadership, and organizational reward systems. Signs of a company’s culture include the organization’s mission statement, stories, physical layout, rules and policies, and rituals.
Conventions and traditions exist in the organizations. The leaders of the association more often than not have a general thought of how the association ought to address the issues of outside adjustment. These issues are: improvement of objectives and technique of the organization; advancement of objectives and intends to accomplish objectives; advancement of the assessment arrangement of the organization; advancement of remedial strategies, i-e strategies for correcting mistakes. Corporate culture is the method for comprehension and entrance. Demeanor managers and employees, who are in crisis, prompting the making of new standards, values, techniques for work and uncovers vital fundamental standards of corporate culture.
The creation and structure of the organization; framework and standards of the association; inside configuration, exterior and structures all in all; stories, legends and myths about the most essential occasions and individuals; official articulations and records pronouncing the organization's philosophy, its theory and belief system are auxiliary instruments to actualize corporate culture ideas and thoughts of its originators and managers. Corporate culture is a method for comprehension and infiltration. Environment assumes an imperative part in the advancement of culture.
Simply plan strategies and techniques embraced by the corporate culture that lecture the association are insufficient. The manager must have a genuinely complete picture of the corporate culture when all is said in done and specifically, shaping a corporate culture. Its undertaking is to comprehend the part and place of his own and corporate culture in accomplishing the association’s goals, capability recognizes its specificity, change and keeps up an ideal level. Three variables assume an unequivocal part in tackling the issue of keeping up a corporate culture framed. Inclination is given to those that are better with the organization's authoritative culture and esteem framework, which is indistinguishable to the last choice of the corporate.
Strong Culture vs. Weak Culture
Strong Culture
The strength of a company’s organizational culture ultimately determines its success.
Strategically, changing an organization’s culture takes a determined and effective leader who unselfishly puts the organization first before self. A strong culture is one which is deeply embedded in the ways a business or organization does things.
With a strong culture, employees and management understand what is required of them and they will try to act in accordance with the core values.
A company with a strong culture provides clear expectations for employees about their jobs, behavior, and dress.
There should also be a clear-cut chain of command. This type of atmosphere fosters a sense of wellbeing in employees and helps them to work towards the greater good of the company. The only danger of a strong organizational culture is a concept called “group think”.
This is a term coined by Irving Janis that occurs because a group thinks so similarly that they lose the ability to become innovative and make poor decisions. In a strong culture, the organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared.
A key benefit of a strong culture is that there is less need for detailed policies and procedures because the “way things are done around here” is well understood and accepted. There are many great examples of organizations with strong cultures.
Indeed, organizations built on a clearly defined set of core values, consistently applied, use their strong culture as a source of competitive advantage.
A strong organizational culture works like strong social glue, which bonds members of an organization together through shared goals. This builds loyalty and commitment among the group and makes them less likely to leave their tight-knit organization.
Although organizations with strong cultures experience fewer turnovers, it doesn’t mean that a strong culture is better than a weak culture in every instance. A strong culture is difficult to change in an organization and can stifle innovation because members of the organization are used to doing their jobs exactly the same way.
A strong culture exists when employees respond to stimulus because of their alignment to organizational values. Strong cultures help firms operate like well-oiled machines cruising along with outstanding execution. Minor tweaking of existing procedures enhances performance.
In thriving, profitable companies, employees embody the values, visions and strategic priorities of their company
Weak Culture
A weak organizational culture is one in which employees are not clear with what their goals are. A weak culture is evident when most employees have varied opinions about the organization’s mission and values.
The company is disorganized and this requires extra efforts and time to attain maximal unity of purpose. Employees waste time spinning their wheels, because of the inability to focus on what’s important. Weak organizational culture allows for an increase in turnover of employees because of a lack of corporate cohesiveness and mission. This spirals into low employee morale, and employee disengagement. A key consequence of weak culture is that there is a greater need for procedures, policies, and bureaucracy, in order to get things done in the desired way, within the turn, can add substantially to organizational costs.
Weak cultures can be advantageous for organizations that benefit, from independent thought and innovation by their members. In an unstable environment, organizations with weak cultures often function better than organizations with strong cultures, because they are much more adaptable to change.
In order for an organization to succeed, the culture of that organization must fit the environment in which it operates.
Research indicates that the strongest cultures embrace the importance of Kaizen or continuous improvement. Kaizen cultures require both conscious and subconscious thinking about improvements from everyone.
Conversely, a weak culture exists when there is little alignment with organizational values and control must be exercised through extensive policies, procedures, and bureaucracy.
Signs of a weak culture include lack of trust; focus on problems, staff losing confidence in their leaders and systems, and people spending more time focusing on problems rather than opportunities.
Soft Vs Hard Culture:
Soft work culture can emerge in an organisation where the organisation pursues multiple and conflicting goals. In a soft culture the employees choose to pursue a few objectives which serve personal or sectional interests. A typical example of soft culture can be found in a number of public sector organisations in India where the management feels constrained to take action against employees to maintain high productivity. The culture is welfare oriented; people are held accountable for their mistakes but are not rewarded for good performance.
Consequently, the employees consider work to be less important than personal and social obligations. Sinha (1990) has presented a case study of a public sector fertilizer company which was established in an industrially backward rural area to promote employment generation and industrial activity. Under pressure from local communities and the government, the company succumbed to overstaffing, converting mechanised operations into manual operations, payment of overtime, and poor discipline. This resulted in huge financial losses (up to 60 percent of the capital) to the company.
Formal vs informal culture:
The work culture of an organisation, to a large extent, is
influenced by the formal components of organisational culture. Roles, responsibilities, accountability, rules and regulations are components of formal culture. They set the expectations that the organisation has from every member and indicates the consequences if these expectations are not fulfilled.
Informal culture on the other hand has tangible and intangible, specific and non – specific manifestations of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions. This part of organisational culture comprising of artifacts, symbols, ceremonies, rites, and stories is highlighted in almost all the definitions of organizational culture.
An organizational culture is created with the combination of certain criteria that are mentioned below −
• The founder of the organization may partly set a culture.
• The environment within which the organization standards may influence its activities to set a culture.
• Sometimes interchange of culture in between different organizations create different new cultures.
• The members of the organization may set a culture that is flexible to adapt.
• New cultures are also created in an organization due to demand of time and situation.
The culture of an organizational can change due to composition of workforce, merger and acquisition, planned organizational change, and influence of other organizational culture.
A positive workplace culture is one that leads to increased productivity, better employee morale and
the ability to keep skilled workers. Negative attitudes in the workplace, particularly when they are
displayed by management or the small business owner, can have a dramatic impact on the entire workforce. Taking the steps to ensure that a positive culture is present in the workplace will go a long way towards keeping your organization running smoothly and keeping your employees happy.
Step 1: Creating a clear vision statement for your company. Employees like to know that the job they are doing is making a difference. By creating a vision statement about where we want our company to be in the future and how we want it to make the world a better place creates an air of striving for betterment in the workplace. This lays the foundation for a positive work culture.
Step 2: Looking for positive attitudes while hiring. Negative people can quickly sour an entire workplace. When hiring employees, look for a friendly smile and an upbeat disposition. Asking questions of new hires to determine how they handle conflict and interactions with others. If we already have negative employees on staff, take them aside to discuss their attitudes and make it clear that we are creating a positive work culture and negativity will not be tolerated.
Step 3: Making an open-door policy. When the boss is inaccessible and distant to employees, they may not feel as though their opinions matter. Establish an open-door policy and encourage interaction with employees. Asking their opinions, listening to what they have to say and remembering to be positive in our dealings with them.
Step 4: Engage our employees in daily operations of the company. Employees may not realize the good that the company is doing behind closed doors. Keeping them informed about exciting new changes or new horizons will help them stay engaged in the company and feel more positive about the future. Be honest and open with our employees.
Step 5: Let our employees know they are appreciated. Employees who are not recognized for the work they do can feel as though their work is unappreciated. Establish reward systems for excellent performance and never forget to thank an employee for a job well done.
A spiritual culture that recognizes that employees have both a mind and a spirit seek to find meaning and purposes in their work, and desire to connect with other employees and be part of a community.
Workplace spirituality is not about organized practices. It’s not about theology of about one’s spiritual leader. Rather, workplace spirituality is about recognizing that takes place in the context of an organizational community. Organizations that promote a spiritual culture recognize that employees have both a mind and a spirit, seek to find meaning and purpose in their work, and desire to connect with other employees and be part of a community.
The concept of spirituality draws on the ethics, values, motivation, wok/life balance, and leadership elements of an organization. Spiritual organizations are concerned with helping employees develop and reach their potentials. They are also concerned with addressing problems created by work life conflicts.
References:
1. Understanding Organizational Behaviour, Parek, Oxford
2. Organizational Behaviour, Robbins, Judge, Sanghi, Pearson.
3. Organizational Behaviour, K. Awathappa, HPH.
4. Organizational Behaviour, VSP Rao, Excel
5. Introduction to Organizational Behaviour, Moorhead, Griffin, Cengage.
6. Organizational Behaviour, Hitt, Miller, Colella, Wiley
