Culture in Organization Essay

Introduction

Successful organizations are always highly focused and have profound understanding of their customers’ needs, the competitive environment, and economic realities. This can be attained through implementation of high performance work practices and effective management of the workforce (Pfeffer, 1998).

According to Schein, one important aspect of successful organization is organizational culture, which is defined as a set of unique values or beliefs shared by members in an organization (Schein, 2004, p.12).

Alternatively, organizational culture is also defined as a system of shared meaning in an organization (Dwevedi, 1995, p.9). Organizational culture has some key components including shared values, norms, expectations and assumptions (Fong & Kwok, 2009).

Managers have much influence on creation, maintaining and transmission of organizational culture; role modeling, teaching and coaching are some mechanisms through which leaders can embed culture (Holbeche, 2005, p.46). Generally, there are several types of culture that can be exhibited in an organizations i.e. power culture, role culture, achievement culture and support culture (Fong & Kwok, 2009).

This paper gives an assessment of degree of significance of understanding culture in order to create successful organizations, while at the same time exploring how managers can address culture.

Thesis statement: Organizational culture is a fundamental aspect that influences a company’s communication, decision-making, behaviors, attitudes, and productivity, and cohesiveness of work-teams.

Role of culture in an organization

Culture is an important concept in organizations, as it influences process, strategic governance, training, roles, and responsibilities (Sanchez, 2004). McNeal (2010) states that culture provides mobilization, direction and unifies employees thus increasing their productivity. Primarily, culture facilitates both internal integration and adaptation with external environment.

According to Pfannerstill (2006), “a good organizational culture has the ability to maximize employees’ creative ideas and strategies.” The key components of an organization are individuals and the relationship between the employees and the organization’s goals and objectives.

For example, three basic principles of IBM’s culture are: respect towards an individual, strive for excellence and providing the services of the highest quality (Shah, 2007, p.5).

Values in an organization play an integral part in organizational culture, more so in enhancing cohesion among employees. Pfannerstill (2006) also emphasizes the importance of promoting a culture that is compatible with organization’s goals by arguing that success of an organization is influenced by the existing culture.

The research conducted by Jahanzeb Shah (2007) demonstrated that there is strong connection between organizational culture and employees’ job satisfaction.

Based on a survey carried out in the R&D organization Integrated Services with sample total size of 50, Shah argues that such components of a company’s organizational culture as respect towards an individual, appreciation of initiatives and innovations, everyday rules, high or low rate of bureaucracy form employees’ perception of their working environment and define the level of their job satisfaction.

The idea of Edward Jernigan’s study is to some extent consonant with the abovementioned statement. In his (2010), Jernigan demonstrates the connection between the so-called “substitutes for leadership”, the concept defined by Kerr & Jermier in 1978, and job satisfaction.

The notion of substitutes for leadership concerns the “specific factors or forces, which when present at high levels, act to interrupt the link between the behaviors of a leader and subordinate expectancies regarding desired outcomes” (ibid.); according to Jernigan, they influence employees’ opinion about organizational culture and their job satisfaction.

Management need to get culture right in order to have successful organization

Culture influences the decisions and actions of individuals, thus it has a potent effect on the success of an organization. Managers need to understand that there are aspects of culture that manifest in employees’ behavior and attitudes (Vandenberghe, 1999).

Moreover, the unique culture of an organization helps to distinguish it from others, hence creating competitive advantage (Barney, 1986). This statement has corroborated by managers in their practical activity.

Kevin Eikenberry who is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a consultuig company, supports this statement based on his practical experience in the company, and argues that not only is organizational culture a competitive advantage itself, but it is able to create other competitive advantages: for example, attract and retain talents (Eikenberry, a).

This emphasizes the important role of organizational culture in a company’s activity and demonstrates its connection with other components of the whole system.

Free and Macintosh studied the case of Enron and described in (2006) how the company lost its competitive advantage in the form of well-functioning organizational culture. According to the authors, the changes that took place in the course of the transition from the “Lay-Kinder era” (1986-1996) to the “Lay-Skilling era” (1997-2001) and affected Enron’s management controls and practice of ethics played the key role in the company’s bankruptcy.

By getting culture right, management identifies appropriate kind of culture that supports the mission, vision, and strategic intent of the organization (Sims, 2002, p.376). Management’s understanding of the organization culture enhances its ability to maintain a motivated workforce (Chegini, 2010) and hire employees with values that match the organization’s values (Khan, 2005).

In addition, the existing culture influences cohesiveness and effectiveness of work teams, as well as defining behavior, attitudes, and motivation level of the employees (Wallace & Weese, 1995). Thus, it is important to ensure that the management understands and respects the diverse cultural backgrounds of employees and then incorporating them in the core goals of the organization.

This idea is corroborated by the empirical studies conducted in 1960s-1970s by the famous sociologist Geert Hofstede who developed the framework for classification of cultures based on several criteria.

Outlining such dimensions of cultural differences as masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and other, he demonstrated that culture influences an employee’s individual values, which finds its reflection at the working place should be taken into account in the process of organizational culture management (Singh, 2010, p.413).

For instance, based on Hofstede’s ideas, it is reasonable to state that the values and motivation of representative of an individualist culture such as Germany, USA, Canada substantially differs from those of an employee who represents collectivist cultures such as China, Philippines or Colombia.

Singh provides an example: while in Germany long working hours are considered to be the indicator of an employee’s incompetence, representatives of Chinese and Indian cultures are willing to adjust their schedules (p.415).

Correct understanding of culture is usually important during strategy implementation and change management. In this case, Pfannerstil (2006, 60) notes that any change initiatives in the organization must be compatible with the organizational culture. Understanding of dynamics of culture helps leaders to transform culture in direction that leads to success (Khan, 2005).

There are various external factors compelling organizations to review their culture, in order to remain competitive (Steve, 2008). Schein (2009, p.118) describes the case of DEC who were not able to compete to IBM due to its organizational culture. Particularly, the company’s culture was not oriented on paying attention to the market changes, as well as did not encourage innovations.

As a result, the products were over-designed and did not meet customer’s growing requirements. Not only did not the company’s management have the effective change plan for creating a flexible, innovation-driven organizational culture, but it did not have the means to assess the current state and notice the fact that the changes were needed for a company to successfully compete in the market.

Besides, cultural values and beliefs in an organization influence the type of decisions made, which are normally geared towards improving the organization (Keyton 2005, p. 96). Therefore, it is particularly important that, according to Pfannerstil (2006, 59), understanding of culture allows one to formulate the best management system.

Success in an organization must be accompanied by proper and effective communication, which is in turn influenced by the existing organizational culture (Lauer, 1997). It is also important to understand that all employees have distinct personalities and experiences, which are likely to affect the patterns of communication (Rizes, 2011).

Managers’ full understanding of the organizational culture will help them to identify communication flaws brought by the existing culture and make necessary changes (Salanki, 2010). Particularly, these changes may allow an organization to have a higher competitive edge (Barney, 1986).

On the other hand, managers need to understand organizational culture in order to guide the fusion of employees and organizational culture (Khan 2005).

Managing culture in organizations

There have been diverse opinions pertaining to manageability of organizational culture (Witte & Muijen, 2000, p.497). According to Griffins and Mooerhead, culture in organizations can be managed through ‘taking advantage of the existing culture, teaching organizational culture, and changing organizational culture’ (2009, p.484).

Managers may conduct teaching or training devoted to organizational culture values (Giberson, et al. 2009). Besides, they can change organization by addressing difficulties that may arise from cultural change. Indeed, according to Witte and Muijen (2000), implementation of radical change in corporate culture requires change in leadership while incremental changes do not require change in leadership (Carter, 2000).

Google can be considered a good example of a company that perpetually adjusts its organizational culture to its aims and needs, as well as to its external environment. Serious changes were conducted when the company overgrew the position of a strong startup with its office located in a garage, and turned into a corporation.

At first, Google’s culture was quite informal, but gradually it became clear that Google would not be able to grow intensively in case the informality of its culture was not revised.

Other problems that took shape at that stage were the ineffective recruitment system and disunity of the top level command (Google’s Organizational Culture, 2004). Thus, the company conducted a serious organizational culture reform having adapted it to the level of a large organization.

Managing of culture is essential since some cultures leads to greater productivity than others (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000, p.5).

Particularly, the management should select and hire staff that strengthens the organization’s culture or support a shift depending on the needs of the management (Clegg, Kornberger, and Pitsis, 2005). At the same time, they should model the behavior and values desired in the organization (Wilkins and Ouchi, 1983).

The ideas offered above have been corroborated by the empirical study conducted by Alvesson and Sveningsson (2007). The researchers observed a subsidiary of the company Technocom during 2 years from the moment of its establishment: they analyzed the company’s activities, studied the documents, organized surveys and interviews involving the employees.

The authors noticed that even in the course of the company’s first steps, the organizational culture had been changing during the 2 years of observation being influenced by the individuals working in it, and by its external environment. The employees proved to be very responsive towards culture changes.

Conclusion

Culture in organization is important as it promotes commitment, guides employees’ behavior, guides decision-making, and provides identity for members and justification for actions. In most contemporary organizations, It harmonizes all employees regardless of their culture, while at the same time developing and enhancing their individual attitudes and behaviors (McAlearney et al. 2005).

A strong organizational culture (common consensus on the importance of values) is an essential ingredient for attainment of organization success, as it gives employees a sense of identity and the common goals, which are essential in order to attain organization success (Daft, 2009).

Managers who understand the existing culture are able to select and hire employees who are compatible with the organizational culture, as well as maintain the optimal balance between an individual and the whole company.

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