Every company has its particular values, rituals, and norms that affect the way the employees perform their work. They unite in the organization’s culture, which promotes success if all members of the staff share the same ideas. Diversity is likely to cause misunderstandings and discords, so a strong culture is a thing on which the whole company depends. It is defined as “a pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems” (Ledimo, 2013, p. 161). In other words, organizational culture can also be treated as an ideology maintained by a particular organization in order to implement its strategy easily and achieve successful performance.
Organizational culture allows the employees to reach excellence, as it creates a positive atmosphere at the working place and motivates the personnel (Stok, Markic, Bertoncelj, & Mesko, 2010). To maintain it, the organization is to refer to its main elements:
- Projectized organization – a plan of how the work is to be done, monitored, assessed, and the organization developed;
- Values – particular views and beliefs that are shared by the personnel;
- Rites and rituals – all activities that reinforce the employees and make them feel like a unity, including parties, meetings, etc.;
- Heroes – the outstanding members of the staff who are the embodiment of the organizational values;
- Communication networks – the channels that can be used by the employees to communicate regarding job-related and other themes;
- Norms – the rules that indicate how to act;
- Stories, myths, and legends – the history of the organization, which includes the description of the previous experience and the role of values;
- Organizational climate – the atmosphere that exists within the working environment and is created by the personnel (Elements of culture, 2015).
The success of any organization depends on these elements, as they promote its constant development. They ensure the effectiveness of the activities conducted by the staff, as they are meant to enhance relationships, strengthen team spirit, and motivate the workers. The most important element, which allows the organization to create and maintain its culture as well as to fare well, is shared values. Values-based culture is thought to be the most successful, as it is beneficial through good and bad times. It makes the personnel proud of their job, as values form the organization’s identity that allows the staff to feel unique and differ from other working teams (“How a values-based culture pays off”, 2002).
They are created regarding the primary goal of the organization and help people to achieve it. New members absorb the values that others have, which gives them an opportunity to blend into the team and feel like a part of the tight-knit organism. In this way, they are determined to work hard and bring success to their organization. It is crucial to accept the values shared by the personnel, as they form the way people see reality. If this view differs from one person to another, the conflicts are likely to occur and affect the performance negatively as well as personal and working relationships. Thus, without shared values, the existence of a decent organization’s culture is impossible, and the achievement of success becomes unobtainable.
Values are crucial in the corporate world, as they guide the employees’ actions. If something happens and one loses the course, values are to put one back in the swing. They influence the lives of personnel by directing and motivating one. They provide them with a focused purpose and make sure that everyone realizes its importance and does one’s best to reach it. Values are the reflection of the organization and people who are working on it; that is why they always differ due to the peculiarities of field or leader, etc. The most vital thing is to stick to the positive values that include trust, respect, caring, and others. The success of the values’ implementation can be seen in the example of JetBlue Airways, as they have chosen an unusual one as a primary. Thus, they believe that “fun” is crucial for their organization, and they try to deliver it to the customers. This word can be even seen on their Web site so that every person knows what they are targeted at. It attracts clients and promotes the achievement of the company’s goals (Gard, 2006).
Many researchers divide all organizational values into two groups and distinguish core values, “which relate to output and how work is to be conducted within the organization, and psychological values such as trust, respect, and integrity, which focus on the aspirations and moral beliefs of employees” (Ferguson & Milliman, 2008, p. 441). Such ideas were implemented in the corporate world long ago. However, the individuals occur to be unprepared to reflect such values as soon as they are hired. That is why, recently, they also entered the field of higher education and became widely spread.
Nowadays, the corporations pay more attention to the positive organizational culture than to the assessment of duties. Higher education is a tool that can be used to imprint shared values to the minds of individuals. Recently the instruments of quality control were in the focus of education, but today it has changed for empowering personnel and students. In this way, organizational values taught at the institutions can be brought by the students to their working places and altered regarding their needs. The culture in higher education depends on communication and interaction, which are based on shared values and beliefs. It streamlines the education process by enhancing the interaction between teachers and learners, which contributes to the successful implementation of the management of education organizations as well as teaching and learning strategies (Ehlers, 2010).
To prove that new approach really works, the experiment was conducted, and students of the University of Exeter Business School, Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies and some others were involved in the majority of the academic areas. The results have shown that due to the communication of values that existed among the personnel, they understood what is expected from them and became inspired. They participated in numerous projects, communicated with academic staff and other students with no problems.
In 18 month all activities were accomplished successfully and many higher education establishments also referred to the new approach, seeing that it enhances commitment of academic and professional staff as well as students and streamlines development, which allows them to make a hand in teaching and learning processes (Kay, Dunne, & Hutchinson, 2010). As today we tend to globalization, shared values can also allow educational institutions to direct at producing educated and experienced individuals so that they will meet the demands of the society.
Gorenak and Košir (2012) also prove that organization’s culture is crucial for success and emphasizes that values play the most important role in achieving it. Organization can be successful only if its main targets are tightly connected with the organizational values, which, in their turn, are connected with personal ones that belong to the employees. Just like human values, organizational ones define how the staff treats this or that things and what actions they are undertaking in various situations. They are fundamentals of the organizational culture, as are created by dint of experience and form the framework of activities. They are moved along by the leaders and push the organization towards its goals. Values are communicated in interaction, during which the leader shows his example, motivates, inspires and influences the team (Yukl, 2010).
Needless to say that the employees are to reflect organizational values in everyday functions and operations. They are to be reminded that each decision they make is to be based on the shared values. Many organizations create posters with their values and provide the employees with handbooks (Holloway, Eijnatten, & Loon, 2011). Still, the most effective ways are orientations, example and training (Aust, 2004). There is no better method to communicate values than the interaction with other employees.
Thus, the culture of any organization defines its success and is based on the shared values. Realizing current society’s need of global citizenries, higher education establishments promote shared values and prepare individuals to refer to them at their future working places. In this way, the organizational culture is easily undertaken by every employee, which allows one to blend into the team and be in successful operation.
References
Aust, P. (2004). Communicated values as indicators of organizational identity: a method for organizational assessment and its application in a case study. Communication Studies, 55(4), 515-534.
Ehlers, U. (2010). Changing cultures in higher education. NeWYork, NY: Springer Science & Business Media.
Elements of culture. (2015). Web.
Ferguson, J., & Milliman, J. (2008). Creating effective core organizational values: A spiritual leadership approach. International Journal of Public Administration, 31(1), 439-459.
Gard, M. (2006). The development and validation of a values-based organizational cultural framework useful to higher education institutions. Web.
Gorenak, M., & Košir, S. (2012). The importance of organizational values for organization. Web.
Holloway, S., Eijnatten, F., & Loon, M. (2011). Value crafting: A tool to develop sustainable work based on organizational values. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 13(4), 18-36.
How a values-based culture pays off. (2002). HR Focus, 79(10), 6-7.
Kay, J., Dunne, E., & Hutchinson, J. (2010). Rethinking the values of higher education. Web.
Ledimo, O. (2013). Managing organizational culture through an assessment of employees’ current and preferred culture. European Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance, 1(1), 161-168.
Stok, Z., Markic, M., Bertoncelj, A., & Mesko, M. (2010). Elements of organizational culture leading to business excellence. Zbornik Radova Ekonomski Fakultet u Rijeka, 28(2), 303-318.
Yukl, G. A. (2010). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.