The company we intend to found will produce software and will bear the name “A+Software” (“A+S”). To make the new business successful, it is essential that the founders establish and develop its organizational culture in a proper way. The work in that direction will include the following elements. First, establishing a regular sports game as a ritual that is meant to unite the employees. Then, evolving an organizational language to create an effective professional environment. Next, working out a method of socialization of new hires. Planning the cultivation of a corporate culture needs careful reflection on its values and defining characteristics to ensure high performance.
It is believed that, apart from professional interactions, other activities are necessary to strengthen the bonds between colleagues and to enforce corporate values. As we are utterly convinced, the best option is sports, and David W. Ballard from the American Psychological Association shares this opinion. According to Ballard, “promoting fitness activities communicates an organization’s commitment to employee health while fostering team spirit” (Harper par. 7). Ballard mentions the positive example of the employees at Alaska Pacific University, who stop working each Friday at three p.m. to participate in various physical activities. As he says, “Employees benefit from the physical activity and have the added incentive of ending their work day early if they participate” (Harper par. 7). From the latter fact, we can take the information that the activities have better be regular and scheduled at a particular time; Friday is a convenient day since the days off are next, and the workers would be more relaxed. So, the employees of A+S would participate in a sports games events every Friday at a certain time to develop team spirit, reinforce the interpersonal connections, maintain the spirit of the corporate culture, and, additionally, to boost their health.
The next significant problem is to develop a specific professional language that would support the organizational culture and help provide high working performance. As business consultant Robin Jaques states, “Among other things, culture is made up of all the small conversations we have on a day-to-day basis but as businesses we often fail to look at this language element when we’re trying to effect change” (Jaques par. 2). To create a common language, all the company’s documents must contain the same professional jargon (West par. 4), and the newly hired staff would learn it through the training process. Fortunately, the jargon of software producers already exists and is wide-known, so there is no need for A+S to invent any language.
In the UAE, Arab culture provides a rich substratum for creating a strong and adaptive organizational culture. As the authors of a research report, “Our sample firms in the UAE strongly embraced a constructive culture, where every member of the firm is expected to provide initiative, there is effective communication both up and down the channels, and members are encouraged to be decisive, take realistic risks, and be accountable for their performance” (Klein, Waxin, and Rednell 53).
Arab societies were proven to have a low level of tolerance for uncertainty (Klein, Waxin, and Rednell 47), which is a positive characteristic of an organizational culture. Three values of Arab culture can ensure the development of a strong and adaptive corporate culture. The first one is collectivism, i.e. the representatives of Arab culture value working in a collective: according to the research conducted by Hofstede, the Arab world has a score 38 in individualism, whereas the average number over the world is 64 (Klein, Waxin, and Rednell 47). The next value is particularism: people believe that unique relationships and circumstances prevail in importance over some general principles (Klein, Waxin, and Rednell 48). Finally, there is the hierarchy: “in high-hierarchy cultures, a hierarchical system of ascribed roles ensures socially responsible behavior” (Klein, Waxin, and Rednell 48).
Introducing the new employees in such a way that they could perceive our organizational culture is the next important task that the founders of A+S should fulfill. We are planning to employ the following model of organizational socialization. First, since managers play a significant role in the process of socialization (Kinicki and Fugale 47), they will be put in charge of helping the newly hired to integrate into the corporate culture. The socialization tactic will include the next elements. Collective method, i.e. the newcomers would be organized into groups and would face common experience, which is consistent with the values of our organizational culture (Kinicki and Fugale 48). Informal method, which means that the new employees would not be separated from the experienced members during the socialization period (Kinicki and Fugale 48).
Sequential and fixed, rather than random and variable, socialization, i.e. the new member would have to go through several defined steps until they get a new role (Kinicki and Fugale 48). A serial process, which implies the involvement of a senior employee as a role model (Kinicki and Fugale 48). And, finally, investiture, which means that the new employees would not be required to leave aside their previous role identities in order to obtain a job position (Kinicki and Fugale 48). To promote ethical behavior among the newly hired, we will employ such methods as special ethical training, reward ethical behavior, and the use of a role model.
Corporate culture, no matter whether it was established intentionally or has grown by itself, affects all the aspects of a business, every employee and the customers (“Corporate Culture” par. 8). As we are convinced, the defining characteristics of organizational culture are: vision, i.e. a clear statement of a company; values; practices, i.e. methods employed by a company to translate the values into reality; the methods that are used to maintain human resource; “narrative,” or origin story, which is significant for a successful public image; and the geographic location of the company, which has a serious impact on its organizational culture (“Corporate Culture” par. 7-8).
A company’s organizational culture has a direct influence on organizational performance and effectiveness, and, consequently, on success. It is known that the unique corporate cultures of such companies as Google and Apple, which involve “fostering creativity, collective problem solving, and greater employee freedom” (“Corporate Culture” par. 6), were the key to these companies’ success. As Richard Perrin said, “Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization” (Watkins par. 10).
To conclude, the success of our new company depends on the organizational culture we will attempt to establish. To do so, we will unite the employees by joint sports activities, evolve a common organizational language, and develop a socialization model for the new employees.
Works Cited
Corporate Culture n.d. Web.
Harper, Jessica. “The 5 Best Bonding Outings for Co-Workers.” US News 2012: n.p. Web.
Jaques, Robin. 2013. What’s In A Word – The Power Of Language For Improving Organisational Culture. Web.
Kinicki, Angelo and Mel Fugate. Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices. 5th ed. 2012. New York City, New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Watkins, Michael. “What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?” Harvard Business Review. 2013. Web.
West, Jan. n.d. Communication Key To Success: Create A Common Language Within Your Organization. Web.