Cohesive Organizational Culture

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Why Synaptic Needs a Cohesive Organizational Culture
Conclusion
References

Introduction

This assignment is a case study on the importance of a cohesive organizational culture. The case study is based on a San Diego based organization called Synaptic, which is faced with management challenges.

The challenges have led to poor working relationship between two key departments, namely the Information Management (IM) and computational scientists departments.

The main cause of the misunderstanding is poor organizational culture; which does not promote cohesiveness and harmony between various organizational departments.

As a consultant, I would recommend that the organization adopts a cohesive organizational culture and reduces the centers of power.

Discussion

Organizational Culture

An organization is a group of people who work together with coordinated efforts to achieve certain objectives or goals.

Organizational goals and objectives are of various categories and it is this variation of the goals and objectives which classify organization into three main categories namely profit-making, service-based and social responsibility based organization.

Organizational culture is a very important aspect in any organization which aspires to realize its vision and mission. The reason is that organizational culture determines whether the organization is able to work together towards the realization of its vision.

Organizational culture is closely related to organizational structure in that the manner in which decisions are made by the top management influences the relationship between the top management and the other employees, which consequently determines the culture of the organization (Project management institute, 2013, p.78).

Organizational culture is learned implicitly through interactions within an organizational setting. The employees learn it through imitating other employees.

This imitation happens unconsciously due to the human instinct to adopt behaviors which make him or her fit in the social environment which he or she finds himself or herself in.

Through communication and interaction with each other, employees come up with unique ways of relating to each other as they go about their duties.

Employees also learn organizational culture through conditioning and reinforcement.

If for instance, a certain behavior is rewarded by the management of an organization, the employees tend to perfect that behavior which eventually becomes part of their culture (Project management institute, 2013, p.78).

Likewise, if a certain behavior is negatively sanctioned by the management, then the employees will tend to avoid it, thus becoming one of the don’ts in the organization.

A strong organizational culture is found in organizations where the employees are committed to their work and discharge their duties with little or no supervision while a weak organizational culture is found in organizations where the employees have little commitment to their duties and are closely supervised so as to discharge their duties effectively.

Organizations vary greatly in terms of their mission, vision, objectives, resource base philosophy and coverage. Due to this, each and every organization must cultivate a culture which is unique to itself so as to achieve its mission and objectives.

This means that what may be considered as values or norms in one organization may not be considered as such in another organization.

However, despite these variations and differences, there is importance of having a cohesive organizational culture regardless of the organizational structure, mission and objectives.

Why Synaptic Needs a Cohesive Organizational Culture

One reason is because organizations are managed by people for the benefit of people. All employees in all organizations are social beings complete with needs, feelings and emotions.

In many countries for instance, it is almost impossible to separate personal life and work among employees, which calls for an integration of employees lives with their work environment so as to make work both satisfying and enjoyable as well as a means of realizing happiness and fulfillment in one’s life (Heldman, 2011, p.37).

But what is a cohesive organizational culture? Many organizational researchers agree that a cohesive organizational culture is one in which all members of an organization hold to similar beliefs and values which glue them together as an organization.

These beliefs and values may be implicit or explicit to the organization. In this kind of a culture, what matters most is the commitment of each and every member of the organization to these beliefs and values (Keshavarzi, 2007, p.152).

For example, an organization may value hard work, honesty and teamwork and believe in transparency, utmost good faith, ethics and morality. A cohesive organizational culture has got many benefits.

One benefit is that it leads to high motivation among the employees because they share common beliefs and values.

When employees are highly motivated, there is minimal use of resources in their supervision which in turn increases their productivity because to them, what matters most is the good of the organization as a whole but not personal good.

Another benefit of cohesive organizational culture is that it facilitates the alignment of organizations for the achievement of their objectives, mission and vision without much difficulty.

The reason is that the employees are not only fully aware of the mission, vision and objectives, but have also internalized them, thus making them to work hard to achieve them. This makes them more motivated to accomplish the set organizational goals, targets or objectives.

Strong organizational culture also boosts organizational efficiency because of the internalization of what is required of each and every employee.

The sharing of values and beliefs creates a good working environment free from any kind of confusion, ambiguity or lack of understanding among the employees, which apart from increasing efficiency also saves on time wasted when things seem not to move in the right direction because the employees are able and free to consult each other without the fear of victimization or intimidation especially by the senior managers.

Employees also portray good behavior at work because they know what is right to be done and what is not right.

Furthermore, strong organizational culture leads to cohesion among various departments of an organization which leads to harmonization of all organizational procedures, policies and practices in each and every department.

This cohesion leads to proper utilization of organizational resources without sabotage as well as sound, logical and relevant polices on how to coordinate organizational activities in a manner that would maximize the organizations’ chances of realizing their mission and vision.

Cohesion among various organizational departments also leads to the sharing of information by various departments which increases the employees’ levels of understanding of how various departments work.

This is very important because it enables employees to multitask, especially in times when staffs in some departments are not available.

For example, the understanding of administrative issues in the organization by the head of accounting department may make him or her work on behalf of the head of the administration department when he or she is not present.

Strong organizational culture enhances control, good coordination and consistency within an organization.

The reason is that the employees and the management are in good terms and thus are able to agree informally on various procedures and practices without compromising the quality of services offered.

This saves on time because employees implement the changes which they find necessary without having to wait for bureaucratic board meetings and discussions to approve even the slightest change in procedures or practices.

Lastly, not the least, cohesive organizational culture enhances teamwork, group leadership and collaboration of the employees in various tasks.

This is of crucial importance to organizations because it opens the room for employees’ creativity, innovativeness and openness to positive criticism which makes work not only enjoyable, but also enriched with a multiplicity of ideas.

This, in turn, leads to increased achievement levels by the organization as opposed to situations in which employees’ creativity and innovativeness are not entertained by the management of the organizations.

Conclusion

As a consultant, therefore, I would advise the top management to ensure that all members of the organization are working towards the same goal. I would also recommend that the organization reduces the centers of power.

Based on the organizational chart, it is evident that the organization has many centers of power and that is why there is poor coordination of the departments.

If for example, the organization could have just one director in charge of information and communication technology, then the wrangles witnessed before would not happen again.

For the organization to solve the problem once and for all, therefore, it needs to embrace cohesiveness and have few centers of power.

References

Heldman, K. (2011). PMP Project Management Professional exam study guide, (6th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Keshavarzi, H. A. (2007). The effect of organizational culture on knowledge sharing behaviourin the auto industry in Iran. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, London, UK: Aston University.

Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (5th ed.). Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Click Here To Order Now!