Culture as an Essential Ingredient for a Successful Organization

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Table of Contents

Introduction
BEN Inc
Description of the Organization’s Structure
Bibliography

Introduction

Organizations are much deeper than what they appear on the surface, they are complex adaptive needs, whose success depends not only on its products but also on its employees. Therefore, attracting and retaining satisfied employees is one of the top priorities for organizations today (McNamara, 2000). It is at this point that the importance of organizational culture comes in as it serves as one of the most important building blocks for a successful organization and can be defined as an asset of shared values and beliefs among the members of the organization. In more practical terms, healthy organizational culture is important as it defines the day-to-day activities of its employees and the organization and is one of the primary determinants which separate an organization from being a “champion” or a “looser” (Organizational Culture, 2002).

BEN Inc

The organization is divided into two major divisions named GMS –Global Manufacturing Supply and Commercial. In both of the divisions, immense emphasis is laid on quality, and this commitment is permeated into production by applying for the lean sigma program. Besides this, the company is also involved in Employee Recognition Programs, Leadership Programs and trains its employees regularly. According to an employee, Bravo Cards are awarded by supervisors/ managers to their subordinates on a good performance and the reward system is based solely on target achievement.

Description of the Organization’s Structure

The cultural paradigm amidst BEN Inc revolves around a combination of various factors which generally merge to formulate a net aggregated culture of an organization. The organizational structure is hierarchical, with a lot of power concentrated at the top.

The product portfolio of the organization is divided into three different industry segments

Prescription medicines
Vaccines
Consumer healthcare.

The organization is divided onto two major divisions named GMS –Global Manufacturing Supply and Commercial. In both of the divisions immense emphasis is laid on quality, and this commitment is permeated into production by applying the lean sigma program. Besides this, the company is also involved in Employee Recognition Programs, Leadership Programs and trains its employees regularly. According to an employee, Bravo Cards are awarded by supervisors/ managers to their subordinates on good performance and the reward system is based solely on target achievement.

In terms of physical space and work environment, it was observed that the organization promotes a more interactive environment with fewer offices and more cubicles. In the case of offices, there are thick glass walls rather than concrete walls, and all employees are encouraged to have lunch in the same cafeteria. Though mentor- protégé systems are applied; friction between the mentor and protégés has also been identified from time to time. A mentor is always assigned from a cross-functional department.

Some of the salient features of the organization’s culture as observed and through interviews showed that the overall culture of BEN Inc was not bureaucratic at all, there was more cooperation among employees than the competition, and hence organization politics was minimal. There was a lot of independence as to how to execute tasks. Employees are empowered, in that they were not told exactly what to do and how to do it. However, since it is a pharmaceutical, the nature of the industry is such that there has to be a certain level of hierarchical dependence as far as decision-making is concerned.

Since work revolves around medicine, the work is extremely sensitive, and certain guidelines have to be adhered to, and approval for any new idea/product must be taken from an appropriate source. For example, approval for the launch of a new product or idea has to be approved by the Managing Director and the Medical director. Without their signature, such a venture cannot go through Independence is also curbed because one must go through certain channels before you start to execute a task. One must have at least five references supporting the decision, as the work is extremely sensitive and research-based.

In contrast, other departments cannot exercise innovative skills as much. For example, the finance department has to deal with only number crunching, cash flows; budgeting, etc. there is hardly any room for creativity in this department. If an employee’s level of performance falls, or if he/she makes a mistake while working, the management will reprimand him/her in private but will defend him/her in front of other departments.

Based on this information, it has been concluded that the general culture that prevails is Constructive. However, there are some aspects of passive-defensive and aggressive defensive as well.

From the interviews, individual differences among employees were spotted in the sense that when we consider the self-concept of individuals, some of the employees initially joined to enhance their self-concept by doing something worthwhile for society, i.e. being in a business that manufactures medicines. However, according to Sarah Paulson, marketing manager at BEN Inc, she found that after joining, one becomes so caught up in technical procedures and heavy workload that one loses sight of the initial vision which they enter with. Also, employees have positive self-esteem as the top management engages in the projects which makes the employees feel that they are working on something valuable and worthwhile.

We believe self-development is everyone’s personal responsibility and we ensure that employees have at their disposal, various tools, and opportunities to realize their development plans.” (Michael Ford: HR Learning and Organization Development)

When asked about personality traits and job allocation, the response from the employees was that the management does not take into account individual personality differences when designing or allocating tasks. For example, there was one employee who lacked extraversion and was not comfortable with doing a lot of fieldwork. But the management did not excuse her from this aspect of her job. Her boss called her in the office and stated clearly that fieldwork was in her job description therefore she had to do it.

Employees generally have an internal locus of control, because the nature of work is such the employees are given whole tasks to complete. When given a particular project, the employee is expected to start from scratch and be responsible for everything, from getting the approval, to conducting the research, to getting the final results. Therefore, they feel that if anything goes wrong, they are to blame. At the same time, if the task is successful, they feel that they can take complete credit for it.

Apart from the well-stated organizations’ values, certain implicit and espoused values prevailing in the organization which dictate the norms of work and acceptable work behavior at BEN Inc were also gathered. Among the implicit values, honesty is very well understood, any behavior that violated this implicit value is highly unacceptable.

Openness is another implicit value. At work, all employees are encouraged and expected to be open about their concerns and opinions. No backbiting or backstabbing is acceptable. Team Building is another example of implicit value at BEN Inc. Employees are expected to work in teams as per the requirement of the project and help and guide other members of the team.

When we take into consideration the espoused values, the employees reported that there is little or no inconsistency between stated and espoused values. They are trained as to how to design their work tasks so that they adhere to the stated values. Employees are also evaluated on the extent to which they are adhering to company values and policies. If the upper management detects any inconsistencies between stated and espoused values, more frequent training takes place (Kabanoff, 2002).

Congruity between stated and espoused values contributes to a higher level of trust in the upper management. The employees feel that the upper management is sincerer and more loyal to their work, and this loyalty and sincerity then trickles down to the lower levels also.

Another important factor at BEN Inc is the work and family life balance. Training sessions which take place every six months also include training about how to balance work and family life. Work hours are very flexible and if for any valid reason employees want to leave early or want to take a day off, they can do so easily (Selmi, 2008).

The only major complaint that the employees had was there is a lack of incentives. The starting salaries for new recruits are usually at par with other companies, but the salary increments are very small and infrequent. The bonuses are also small and unsatisfactory. Thus, there is hardly any extrinsic motivation. Rather than giving material rewards, management feels that employees should be satisfied with the fact that they are working for such a prestigious organization. This means that the organization focuses more on intrinsic motivation.

This form of motivation, however, is not what the employees are looking for, and this is a source of great dissatisfaction. They would much rather prefer extrinsic rewards in the form of higher salary increments (Bateman).

As mentioned earlier the organization promotes interaction. The communication channels existing in the organization for routines tasks were via email, however, for complex problems or conflicts, a face-to-face discussion was highly encouraged. This was done because the company has an open-door policy and it is appreciated if everybody is honest and open about their opinions

Based on the above discussion, one can conclude that the organizational culture at BEN Inc is constructive and appreciated by employees. The open-door policy adopted by the management helps minimize conflicts and politics within the organization. However, there is a growing concern among employees regarding their involvement in the organization’s decision-making activities. Also, the management needs to realize that the motivation level of employees needs to be boosted with more emphasis on extrinsic rather than intrinsic rewards. Negligence on this aspect can contribute to an increase in employee turnover.

Bibliography

Bateman, T. S. (n.d.). Revisiting Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation.
Kabanoff, B. (2002). Espoused values of organisations. Australian Journal of Management
McNamara, C. (2000). Organizational Culture. Web.
Miller, K. (2008). Organizational communication. Approaches and processes (5th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth
Organizational Culture. (2002).
Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (2000). The impact of supervisor and subordinate immediacy on relational and organizational outcomes. Communication Monographs, 67(1), Pg85-95.
Selmi, M. (2008). The Work-Family Conflict: An Essay on Employers, Men and Responsibility. University of St. Thomas Law Journal.

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Culture as an Essential Ingredient for a Successful Organization

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