Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is defined as the behavior of individuals at work, which determines the successfulness of the organization. It entails all the major values that an organization drafts, the mission and vision statements, and the systems.
Changing an organization’s culture has never been an easy task since it entails behavior transformation. The organization has to involve each person in the process meaning that it calls for commitment and loyalty from employees, the management, and other stakeholders.
Organizational culture is a complex pattern of assumptions as group’s roles. In this case, it is expected that all values that guide behavior should be learned, but the process has to follow the established procedure to prevent the emergence of conflicts.
One of the challenges my organization is likely to face is adaptation to external change. Organizational members have never wanted to adopt the new ways of doing things, especially the senior members since they view this as an interruption to the normal work schedule.
Another difficulty that an organization is likely to face is establishing a survival mechanism, which calls for the development and sustenance of an integrated, firm, and internal distinctiveness (Baack, 1998).
In my current employment, organizational change is pursued through homeostasis, which is dual in nature whereby individual values and rituals are believed to be group efforts that allow people to survive and thrive in the tough environment.
Once an employee joins the organization, the new values are introduced to him or her, which paves way for behavior adjustment in the way people think, feel, and act.
The prevailing culture in the organization takes the form of adhocracy or developmental culture whereby the company is concerned with adaptation of new structures that allow its members to take advantage of the available opportunities in the market.
In this regard, decision-making process is never done at the headquarters, but instead each branch has its own mechanisms. However, information is supposed to flow from the top to the bottom, but an idea could emerge from anywhere, irrespective of the position of the employee.
Formation of groups and teams is highly encouraged under the system and this encourages accomplishment of projects. The management appreciates the role of risk taking, innovation, and teamwork in realizing organizational objectives.
The main challenge that the organization faces when it comes to adjustment to the foreign culture is employee resistance since many would want the organization to adapt to their ways of doing things, which is never possible.
The locals are often comfortable with their culture and they never expect the organization to dictate new terms that will radically change their values and beliefs. Employees are likely to be upset by the new terms.
Another challenge is the lack of consensus since organizations might fail to bring each person on board through comprehensive consultation
Mode of Communication
Email communication is an efficient mode of passing information from one department to the other and this explains why the organization encourages its usage.
To some clients, especially those with physical challenges, they often encounter problems in reporting their problems directly to the senior management through verbal communication, but the use of email has the potential of resolving this problem, as the individual is simply expected to type the message and send it directly to the concerned person or department.
This implies that the communication mode increases access to information for all groups.
Face-to face communication poses a challenge to many individuals since people might forget the instructions once they leave the office, but email communication is considered effective since employees have the chance of going through the text repeatedly.
When an individual visits the office, chances are high that his or her needs might not be met because of insufficient time, limited communication skills among professionals, and difficulties encountered in remembering all the things that were said.
Equally, the employee might not absorb enough information if a phone call is made because of human incapacity to store large chunks of information at ago.
If an individual is being informed of bad news that is stressful, such as changes in work schedule, suspension, and pay cut, he or she might not concentrate on what is being said. The use of email allows the employee to go through the text at his or her free time, which allows a deeper understanding (Barker, 2010).
Email communication differs in a number of ways with other forms of communication, such as written and oral in the sense that it gives individuals an opportunity to reply the messages at any time of the day, including night hours.
Unlike, verbal information, any data received through email is often taken through a rigorous process of review where senior members are required to give their views before any response is given.
Both letters and oral communications demand that an employee indicates his or her name before receiving any form of response, but the individual has an opportunity of sending the message without his or her real name, especially if the information being sought is controversial or sensitive.
Many people are known to have personal issues that they might not want to discuss in public. The email allows the management and other professionals to solicit the type of information that the junior employees would be reluctant to share in the letter or in a face-to-face communication.
Nature of Authority
The nature of authority in the organization is based on coercion whereby employees are constantly threatened with sanctions in order to achieve high results. In this case, workers are often intimidated, something that interferes with their free will to an extent of responding negatively to organizational set of standards.
The top management is expected to employ coercive power always since it is effective in ensuring compliance from employees.
The members of staff respond to what the management wants not because they are willing to do so, but instead they have no option, as they might face severe punishment in case they go against the set of laws.
In case an employee is found to have breached the contract, he or she is likely to be reprimanded, demoted, suspended, or in extreme cases dismissed. The nature of authority does not have any positive impact on employee productivity since the management is hated, as workers develop a negative feeling towards them.
Motivational Techniques
The organization appreciates the role of the reward system in enhancing productivity among employees.
The commonly used system is non-financial reward system in the sense that the needs of each worker are identified and the best option is explored pertaining to fulfillment. Based on this, the reward system is termed as extrinsic since it does not entice employees with money.
The following table shows the reward system applied in the organization, its attractiveness, the targeted employees, qualification for inclusion, the value or the benefit, and lastly the issues that emerge when applying it.
The organization underscores the fact that an employee should be given sufficient training to achieve both personal and organizational goals, as many individuals are concerned with career development and this cannot be attained without sufficient education.
Again, family issues tend to affect the performance of employees and the organization ensures that individuals are helped in solving their personal problems.
Areas of Emotional Quotient
This refers to emotional intelligence meaning the capability of the mind to function normally. The organization is concerned with the intellectual status of its employees because it influences creativity and innovation. The mixed model is mainly employed in measuring the intelligence capacity of employees.
The model focuses on capturing the important competencies and skills that influence leadership performances.
The model has five major constructs that have to be observed to realize the desired goals, one being self-awareness whereby the feelings, potency, limitations, drives, principles, and ambitions of an employee are established before choosing the most appropriate course of action.
The second construct is self-regulation, which means the organization undertakes the responsibility of controlling the conduct and behavior of employees.
The social skill is an additional factor that is considered, which entails managing the relationships with an aim of guiding people towards the right direction.
Empathy is a construct that calls on each employee to consider the feelings of others before acting particularly as regards decision-making. Finally, the model encourages the management to motivate its employees to achieve better results.
Virtual Elements
The organization makes use of non-virtual elements because unlike non-virtual teams, virtual teams rarely set clear goals, lack direction, and are reluctant to prioritize their objectives mainly because they suffer from poor communication given the fact that members are geographically dispersed.
In fact, virtual teams rarely manage to keep their members focused on similar objectives for some time. Members in non-virtual teams have clear-cut roles, but the case is different in virtual teams since many members are unaware of their roles leading to underperformance (DeRosa, & Lepsinger, 2010).
Similarly, virtual teams suffer from the issue of trust and cooperation since members rarely meet physically to deliberate on the issues facing them. Members employ a cautious approach when dealing with the group team because of lacking trust, but non-virtual teams allows members to commit themselves to teamwork.
However, the two types of teams are similar in the sense that they aim at addressing the issues that members face.
References
Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong’s handbook of reward management practice: Improving performance through reward. London: Kogan Page.
Baack, D. (1998). Organizational behavior. Houston, Tex: Dame Publications.
Barker, A. (2010). Improve your communication skills, revised second edition. London: KoganPage.
DeRosa, D. M., & Lepsinger, R. (2010). Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.