Category: Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture: Symbols, Beliefs, Myths, Rituals, Artifacts And Stories

Abstract

A culture emphasizes significant role in the organizations. In Schein’s culture triangle, there are five mechanism for leaders to keep up the organization culture. The article gives us examples of the companies how leaders focus on social appearances includes symbols, belief, myths, rituals, artifacts and stories.

Introduction

Organizational culture defines aspect of culture in similar approaches the organizational employee’s hold that helps differentiate an organization from the other organizations. Organizational culture represents how members perceive organizations. However, people from different levels within an organization that might have different perceptions. According to Schein culture triangle, organizational culture begins within three ways which includes basic assumptions, artefacts and values and beliefs. (Robbins and Judge, 2014)

Basic assumptions show such as a boss brings would like to hire that kind of employees who think and feel the same approach with him. There are various kind of differences between in traditional and cultural approaches in managing organizations. While traditional culture focus on external environments, cultural approaches focus on internal environments. External environments involve adaptability, flexibility, growth in the organization. However, internal environment focuses more information management which includes rules and procedures. The example of General Motors and Digital Equipment Company, leaders presented their approaches about the assumptions to manage organizational culture. DEC has changed their cultural assumptions to improve their culture more than any other companies because they researched why the failures of organizational culture in past years and then they learned them from some companies. (Brown,1992)

An organization’s culture characterizes the correct way to act inside the organization. This culture consists of shared convictions and values set up by pioneers and after that communicated and strengthened through different strategies, eventually forming representative discernments, behaviors and understanding.

The key to an effective organization is to have a culture based on an emphatically held and broadly shared set of convictions that is bolstered by procedure and structure. When an organization includes a solid culture, employees would know how beat administration needs them to reply to any circumstance, representatives accept that the anticipated reaction is the right one, and workers know that they will be remunerated for illustrating the organization’s values.

Artifacts are unmistakable part of culture, they are simple to define and have a few psychical shapes, however its discernment shifts from one person to another. They incorporate components such as dress codes, myths, customs, and real things such as grants, item shows, logos, furniture and stylistic layout.

Artifacts are greatly critical to the victory of a company since they are unmistakable things that let representatives to gotten to be a portion of that company’s organizational culture. This can be particularly genuine for companies whose brand is well-built up inside a society, as a great, or awesome company, with amazing items or administrations. Individuals not as it were need to work for these companies, they crave to be recognized inside their possess society by wearing company regalia, driving company vehicles showing their brand symbol, or any some ways in which they can share their eagerness for their employer’s victory. Of course, as you might expect, the inverse is genuine where workers may not be as excited in advancing their employer’s trade such as dirty environment as an example of Crystal, a Large Glass Manufacturer. (Brown,1992)

In organizational contexts, a symbol that prompts internalized sentiments gives a way to get it and act upon those sentiments. Symbols reflect fundamental viewpoints of culture, creating passionate reactions from organizational individuals, and speaking to organizational values and presumptions. (Rafaeli and Worline, 2000)

In an organization that values organizational culture, corporate pioneers act as typical supervisors (Bargain and Kennedy, 1982). On the off-chance that values are the souls of the culture, then heroes embody those values and epitomize the strength of the organization (Bargain and Kennedy, 1982). A successfully leader always symbolize their brand for the organization such as Steve Job is a symbol for Apple. This kind of leaders always help the organization by externally and internally to become the part models for many of the organizational individuals.

Social appearances such as stories and ceremonies serve as pass on basis for social uniqueness of an organization. Stories has two categories which includes positive and negative. Positive version is the top individuals within organizations are honorable and approachable but negative one is the opposite of this explanation.

As a conclusion, a logic of company, counting values and convictions, begins from the nuts and bolts of myths, ceremonies, stories, and symbols, where the last mentioned are essential sense shapes, and not vice versa. It infers that each great company and its managers ought to know the complete extend of opportunities available in making a cluster of ceremonies and rituals that represent the culture. An effective leader always has to manage organizational culture with symbols, stories and myths and the examples can help to improve their experiences.

REFERENCES

1. Organizational Behavior by Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 16th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2014,
2. Andrew Brown, (1992) ‘Organizational Culture: The Key to Effective Leadership and Organizational Development’, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 13 Issue: 2, pp.3-6,
3. Rafaeli, Anat and Worline, Monica (2000). ‘Symbols in Organizational Culture,’ in Ashkanasy, Neal M; Celeste, Wilderom P M and Peterson F, Mark (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp 75-84.
4. Deal, Terrence E and Kennedy, Allan A (1982,1. Corporate Cultures: The Rita, Rituals of Corporate Life, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Organizational Culture And Change Management

Introduction

The greek philosopher, Heraclitus, once stated: “Change is the only constant in life”. In the age of globalization, change has become a normal part of our everyday lives. At the same time, more and more companies do their business across country borders. Companies find themselves in markets that change rapidly, and in order to keep their position and market shares, companies are forced to adapt and change as well. In order to meet the expectation of both foreign customers, ownership, shareholders, and workers, companies need to understand local customs and business practices (Champoux, 2011). The change in both consumers and workforce demands a change in the way companies are managed, due to an increase in diversity and constant changing internal and external environment(Cornelissen, 2017). The importance of an understanding of and respect for culture within organizations has increased drastically within management theories, and as the management consultant, Peter Drucker once put it “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

ECCO – the case

Following the changes in the Japanese market caused by the economic crisis in 1990, ECCO found it necessary to conduct structural changes in their business in Japan. After having worked together in a joint venture for more than three decades, ECCO and Achilles decided to part ways. Mostly because Achilles no longer seemed to be the right fit for the retail business ECCO wished to conduct in Japan. In order to ensure and enable ECCO Japan to align with the global strategy and goals of the ECCO group, ECCO decided to move from a joint venture to a wholly-owned business. In order to turn things around and change the image of ECCO Japan, Rikke Dahl-Throup was appointed president. The case describes Rikke Dahl-Throup’s experience of working with the international team in Japan and the challenges she and the other team members faced. The case is based on interviews of the team members, and their perceptions of the team dynamics and what they found work well and not so well in times of change.

Diversity

According to Champoux´s definition, workforce diversity are the variations within a workforce, in relation to personal and background factors of employees (Champoux, 2011). There are many dimensions of workforce diversity, including age, gender, and ethnicity (ibid).

Diversity Management

Diversity management involves the promotion of the perception, recognition, and implementation of diversity in organizations and institutions(Champoux, 2011).

There are multiple reasons for diversity management. Firstly, demographic changes are forcing companies to look beyond their own country borders (Champoux, 2011) With the ever-growing globalization, the workforce is not only more diverse but also more flexible in regard to what country it works in. Secondly, it allows the company to recruit the most talented for the position, regardless of where this person might be located. (ibid.) Thirdly, there are market opportunities to be exploited with a diverse team (ibid.). Finally, diverse teams are known to breed more innovation and creativity (Stahl et. al, 2010).

Organizational Culture

Champoux defines organizational culture as a complex and deep aspect of organizations that can strongly affect organization members (Champoux, 2011). It includes both observable and unobservable characteristics, such as values, norms, rituals, and heroes (ibid). Each organizational culture is a construction of a number of subcultures, such as the different departments, age groups or ethnicity within an organization (ibid).

Schein – Three levels of Culture

Edgar Schein defined culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration” (Schein, 1992). He described three levels of culture namely, artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions (see appendix). The artifacts are the visible, and often undecipherable, aspects of an organization. In sum, it is what we do. The espoused values of an organization work as guidelines of the organization members for what they should do in different situations. Although the espoused values of an organization aren’t visible to the eye, it is possible to discover and learn them. The basic assumptions are the unconscious aspects of the organizational culture, they can only be learned through trial-and-error. The basic assumptions are unconscious to the organization members and they are aspects of both behavior and relationships between humans (Schein, 1992).

Hofstede – Cultural Dimensions

Geert Hofstede executed a thorough cross-cultural study of employee values between 1967 and 1973 (Champoux, 2011). With his study, he mapped out five cultural dimensions; power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation. These dimensions are used today to understand cultural differences in organizations, which international managers should consider before deciding how to manage an organization (Champoux, 2011).

Functions and Dysfunctions of Organizational Culture

The adaptation to an organization’s external environment and coordination of its internal systems and processes is considered one of the functions of organizational culture (Champoux,). It gives the employees and other organization members a clear vision of the organization’s mission and it defines the rewards and sanctions that managers can use. Additionally, organizational culture gives a set of definitions, concerning group boundaries and inclusion as well as rules of power. The ideology that defines what the organization is all about, is both developed and communicated through the organizational culture.

There are many functions of organizational culture, but there are also dysfunctions connected to organizational culture. Firstly, members of an organization might show resistance to change if it goes against the organizational culture (Champoux, 2011). The necessary change can, for example, be caused by changes in the external environment of the company or when two companies merge (ibid).

Teams

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993).

Pentland

In his study, Pentland found that building a team is a science, and it can be studied from dynamics that are observable, quantifiable, and measurable. Pentland argues that the communication behavior of team members is more important than individual intelligence, personality, skill, and substance of discussion combined. His study showed that the best indicator of productivity in teams was the team’s energy and engagement outside of formal meetings, for instance in a social gathering or taking the coffee break together.

When building a team it is important to not select the individuals based only on their intelligence and accomplishments, but also on their communication behavior and their contribution to the team. Organizations facing external changes often need to make internal changes as well. Successful ways of reactivating a team are plentiful, the most common and easily done is to reorganize the office. Another is that the manager sets a personal example, by encouraging even participation and conducts more face-to-face communication with him-/herself. Lastly and perhaps the most drastic tactic is to hire and fire.

Change Management

Organizational change can be defined as the movement from the current state of an organization towards the future or target state (Champoux, 2011). There are many different forces of change, both internal and external (ibid). An example of an external force of change can, for example, be the competition for global market shares, whereas internal forces of change can be dissatisfaction and stress (ibid). Usually, there are opposing forces, so-called forces against change, these can be found both within and outside of organizations. A distinction can also be made between unplanned and planned change. If the necessity for change overwhelms the resistance of change, it is defined as unplanned change. Whereas, if there has been a deliberate effort from a part of the organization to change, it is defined as planned change (ibid). Both types of change will often be faced with resistance from the organization members. There are various reasons for resistance to change, including the feeling of something valued being lost, feelings of future unfairness, the lack of trust in the person bringing the change, and not sharing the same perception of change (ibid). If managers fail to communicate adequately about the change it is more likely to be met with resistance (Cornelissen, 2017). The management has different ways to react to this resistance, it can either be seen as a problem or a sign of a lack of information given about the change (Champoux, 2011). To reduce the resistance towards change, managers should communicate clearly the reasoning behind the change, and at the same time outline how it will happen and how it will affect the organization (ibid).

Analysis and Findings

Diversity

As an international company, ECCO values diversity. Point 3 in the ECCO Code of Conduct states that “ECCO respects equal opportunities and fights discrimination in the workplace”. The team in Japan is diverse in regard to both cultures, ethnicity, and gender (see appendix no.). Japan is a country where demographic changes will force companies to seek workers from outside the country’s borders, in order to accommodate consumer demand (Clausen, 2015,).

Culture

“ECCO is a guest in each of the countries in which it operates and respects the local culture” (ECCO). This is the first point of ECCO’s code of conduct, outlining the type of behavior that is expected and what is prohibited within the organization (Champoux, 2011). Danish and Japanese organizational cultures are very different. According to Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture, the countries score most differently on masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation (Hofstede Insights,). In all of these dimensions, Denmark has a lower score than Japan. The high score in masculinity indicates that Japan is a very competition-driven culture, at the same time with a strong focus on excellence and perfection (Hofstede Insights,). The detail orientation of the ECCO team in Japan was especially evident as Rikke Dahl-Thorup mentions how they have 40% more manpower than….(average for ECCO??) for the logistics and operational part of the team, mostly due to the high detail level. Furthermore, she describes how her Japanese team members will do anything to avoid making errors, as they regard it as unacceptable to do so. The high level of uncertainty avoidance could stem from the occurrence of natural disasters in Japan, everything should be planned with maximum predictability and precision (Hofstede,). This is an aspect that can make it hard to go through with changes in corporate Japan. The precision level demanded in Japanese culture aligns well with Rikke Dahl-Thorup’s experience as she described how brainstorming didn’t work in the Shibuya office, because the team members wanted information that was 100% relevant to the execution. The high score on long-term orientation indicates that companies focus on the profitability of the company in the long run, rather than quarterly (Hofstede,). Rikke Dahl-Throup shows knowledge of this aspect as she describes that investments done in Japan are long-term, well aware that this makes it harder to reach the goal, but in return for the hard work ECCO will get loyalty and sustainable long-term business.

Miyuki Kiuchi, Rikke Dahl-Thorup’s assistant and right hand, is of great help to avoid and overcome cultural misunderstandings (Clausen, 2015). Miyuki is responsible for translating for Rikke Dahl-Thorup if meetings are held in Japanese, but as her cultural helping hand she doesn’t only translate the language, but also what is actually being said. In regards to understanding the organizational values, which aren’t visible to the eye, Miyuki Kiuchi is very important for Rikke Dahl-Throup.

One of the challenges Rikke Dahl-Throup faced was understanding how to communicate with her team in Japan. This can be due to some of the basic assumptions within the team, which can only be learned by trial and error, Rikke Dahl-Throup understood early on that her mission in Japan would differ from the ones she had in Australia and Canada, which in turn lead to a lot of learning throughout the process. In order to communicate efficiently with the team members, Rikke learned to be more specific with what she was saying. If she left information between the lines or gave abstract examples it was easy for the team members to misunderstand. Another aspect that Rikke learned through trial and error was the way her team reacted to brainstorming. Although this is commonly used in western companies, it didn’t work in the Japanese office. The ideas the team members presented were thoroughly thought through beforehand with a high level of precision, which is not something that comes in a brainstorming process. To work around this, Rikke Dahl-Thorup found that direct orders were the best way to ensure efficient work.

Another of his tasks was to spread corporate values, including passion, commitment to excellence, care, and heritage, hereby making sure that all the organization members are aware of the organizational culture.

Teams

Changing the team was necessary to get new energy to ECCO Japan. This implied firing old employees and hiring new ones. According to Pentland, hiring and firing can be a successful tactic of bringing more energy to teams (Pentland, 2010). Rikke Dahl-Thorup explains that this was a way to avoid the mindset of “this is how it has always been done” (Clausen, 2015) Neurettin, the HR manager, made sure that the new employees were good matches with the company. Throughout the hiring process, he made sure that the interviewee would be a loyal employee to ECCO and not just any company. Furthermore, new employees needed to be open to change. He spent time ensuring that the new team member would contribute with energy to the team. Pentland argues that it is more important to consider how the new employee will contribute to the team, rather than their individual smartness and accomplishments (Pentland, 2010).

According to Pentland, the best indicator of productivity is the team’s energy and engagement outside of formal meetings (Pentland,2010). Rikke Dahl-Thorup acknowledges her team’s hard work and tries to celebrate it, not only with bigger annual parties but with for example ice cream for the entire office on a sunny day (Clausen, 2015). Events such as this will, according to Pentland, increase the productivity of the team and accounts for 50% of positive changes in teams (Pentland, 2010).

The importance of communication is stressed throughout Pentland’s study. The better the communication, the higher the performance (Pentland, 2010). The communication with the ECCO team in Japan was one of the main challenges for Rikke Dahl-Thorup. The cultural differences in communication style were something Dahl-Thorup learned throughout her time in the team. Although she had international experience in change management from Australia and Canada, the differences in communication between Denmark and Japan were greater than the two other countries. Pentland argues that uneven contribution is a cause of poor team performance in his study of a Japanese team he found that they were reluctant to speak up, which in turn led to low levels of energy and engagement in the team (Pentland, 2010). Rikke Dahl-Thorup’s depictions of her team’s reaction to for example brainstorming illustrates Pentland’s picture of uneven communication well. Pentland argues that with sufficient training the team should be able to overcome these uneven communication levels, however, Rikke Dahl-Thorup decided to work within the framework in which her team members found themselves comfortable. She succeeded in doing so by giving the team members direct orders and working around the brainstorming techniques that she had used in Canada and Australia (Clausen, 2015).

Change Management

Rikke Dahl-Thorup is an experienced change manager, she described herself as a person that fits better in a place of change, than maintaining the machinery. She has dealt with change before and said that she trusts her navigation skills and wasn’t afraid to tackle things head-on. Dahl-Thorup was made responsible for bringing ECCO Japan to the target state, which was a wholly-owned subsidiary that was aligned with ECCO’s global strategy (Clausen, 2015,). In order to do so, a lot of changes were necessary. This included restructuring the team by hiring and firing. ECCO Japan was forced to change due to external forces, more specifically the changing markets and customer demands. To an extent, there were also internal forces, since the partnership with Achilles was no longer satisfactory for any of the parts involved. The change was a planned change, where there were management efforts to move the office in Japan towards the target state. In the case of ECCO Japan, the resistance was minimal. The team in Japan was overall welcoming to the organizational change (Clausen, 2015). However, Miyuki Kiuchi explains how some team members were less accepting of the change, and she argues that this was due to their lack of experience with change (Ibid). The way Dahl-Throup communicated the change may have played a crucial role in the overall positive reaction. Rikke Dahl-Thorup explains how she has been reminding herself that what seems logical to her does not need to be logical to others (Clausen, 2015). On the basis of this, she consistently shared her plans and her reasoning behind them.

Organizational Culture In Disney, The Circle And Adobe

There are many factors that may contribute to a company sucess, one of them been its organizational culture. A company organizational culture refers to the set of values, traditions and customs that have a direct effect of their employees motivation and behaviors as a whole. In this analysis we are taking a look at the differences in the organizational culture of Disney and the The Circle and how both of them combined differs from Adobe.

The Walt disney company mission is to make people happy in other word ‘to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information’ (Farfan, Barbara, 2014). The company has an organizational culture for excellent entertainment so the differentiate the products they offer to their audience meaning they do not just stop at their productions and their amusement parks. Always been at the top of the entertainment industries, Diney most visible culture is the customer service and unforgettable experience they provide at their theme park. Their employees represent their greatest asset been reffered to as cast members, when you get a job at Diney you become automatically ‘part of the show’. At Disney ‘actions speak louder than words’ . On the other, at the Circle, the fiction company in the movie named the same ; they offered everything : emails, social media ; online Banking, image and video sharing and the list goes on. The company as presented in the movie is a totalitarian monopoly, giving little to no privacy and personal choice to their employees.

Both companies exercice control over their employees. At Disney, before joining the team in other to ‘make all dream comes true’ you are expected to be in line with the kind of culture they want to have. For that to happened, the company exercice control over its employees physical appeareance meaning no tattos, excessive piercings, unnatural makeup and hair color. Besides these, Disney employees need to follow the company seven guidelines which are keeping eye contact, greeting every guest, displaying appropriate body language and thanking everyone (Sparks, Wally, 2007). Dinsey use those rules as a measure to protect his family-friendly culture he tries to convey to the audience. Monitoring its employees physical appearance have been effective for Disney as even thought some employees prefer to leave, the company can get rid of the individuals that are not good for their image and what they stand for. Disney is also know as a smile factory, where the employees are required to always shows happyness every single day, such rules can sometimes be too intense where employess could get lost in as their emotions are been controlled. Meanwhile at The circle, employess are required to have no privacy and personal choice. Their informations are to be display because ’sharing is caring ‘ wanting to keep things to yourself is considered antisocial and selfish. The company excercice control over its employees by monitoring their everyday life. The circle use this control system to make sure its employees stay at the top of their productivity. However this technological control system is not effective as shown by when Mae mentor break down after learning the truth about her ancestors throught PastPerfect.Also the Circle is looking for real experience as far as emotions are concerned, they required to see exactly what the individuals is facing which can lead to them faking it because people are watching them.

Working in an environment where every single details is monitored either by customers, supervisors or coworkers can cause stress. The employess may feel like their every move is been watched therefore they may fear not doing the task the correct way therefore reducing productivity.

I believe Diney employees are motivated because they believe in the purpose of the company which is all about maintaining that Disney magic. Also by encouraging free thinking, Disney give its empoyees the opportunity that they are an important part that organization making them more willing to be commited. However the dictatorial corporate culture of the Circle make it one of the last places someone will want to work because I believe that even thought the whole surveillance strategy is helpful in providy visiblity of employees productivity and company involvement at time is prioritized above the employee itself which can be harmful.

Examples of companies that use corporate culture positively, effectively and ethically to motivate and control employees include Adobe. Adobe is an award winning company which culture is based upon four core values : Genuine, exceptional,innovative and involved.

Adobe is known to be a company that fully encourage its employees to undertake challenging projects then fully supporting them. As it all about creativity and freedom in this company, employees are not micromanaged nor tracked to ensure their availivility during working hour, while exploring their ideas they are also giving permission to fail. Part of empoyees benfits at Adobe also includes holiday pay, medical insurance, retirement plans and education reimbursement.

The Peculiarities Of Organizational Culture

The definition of organizational culture is the ideals and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. Every organization today has a belief system that falls under what they call their culture. According to Baack (2012) culture in terms of an organization consists of symbols, rituals, language, and social drams that highlight life at that organization this include myths, stories and jargon. At Avis Budget Group they pride themselves on operational excellence while offering the customer exceptional customer service. “To create customer enthusiasts and increase market share, we combine our long history of operational excellence with a level of service that meets the specific needs, wants and preferences of each of our customers.” (‘Avis Budget Group | Culture’, 2016)

If you look at their logo it says Avis Budget Group Customer led Service Driven. This is on every letterhead, envelope and posted all over at most stations, although colors may vary depending on what branch is sending the document out. Their colors are red for Avis, blue for Budget, blue & yellow for Payless and green for Zip Car. By having these specific colors, it helps to be able to be a brand that is memorable to customers. When a customer is asked about a rental company majority of the time they can tell you the color of the company logo before they can tell you the name. As a company they are very big on the family friendly environment. They encourage each and every one of us as employees to work together as a family to ensure that the customer has a great experience each and every time. This is what they pride themselves on when they say Customer Led Service Driven. They want each and every employee to feel like we don’t just care for the customer but they care about the employee as well. They feel that this type of attitude will extend to the customers and be able to increase their continued success in the future. Customers are always encouraged to write a review on us and are usually sent a link to a survey that they can take at the end of each rental. This helps each station to see where their strengths are and where their weakness is, especially in terms of customer service. Majority of customers can come and talk to management pretty easily at my location even if it is just to tell them how great of a job an employee did with helping them.

Employees of our location say that they value that the rewards that management gives to show that their hard work is appreciated. Employees also say that they appreciate the culture of always being able to voice their ideas to help the station run better and having those same ideas actually be considered and a lot of the times implemented. “Empowerment is the degree to which employees are encouraged to make certain decisions without consulting their managers. In an empowered firm, decisions are made at the level at which the best information is available.” (Fey & Nordahl, 1999) This empowerment is something that an employee values, the fact that you can make certain decision without management is so valuable in this line of work. They also value that every manager has an open-door policy when it comes to being able to be comfortable to talk to any of them. Most of all they value being able to help the customers out and appreciate when a customer leaves feeling like they got the best bang for their buck. This all ties into the success of the company as whole as well as each individual station. By encouraging employees to be proactive within their particular stations activity it helps to continue the value that the company has put into play. It also helps increase morale. At my location we always say that we are a family and we try to be there for one another since majority of the time we are with each other more than our actually families.

Baack (2012) states that enacted values are the values and norms exhibited as employee and managerial behaviors. At my location management is always striving for a positive employee environment through different activities on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. There are contest that our held on a daily and monthly basis to encourage workgroups to strive for the best. There are also workgroup listening meetings twice a year where each workgroup goes to voice their opinions on how things are being done and if they have any ideas they can also be said. At my specific location our District Manager and City manager have employee BBQ’s usually every two months where they have management cooking for the employees to show them that they appreciate everything that they do on a daily basis. The company as a whole also has a yearly rally every year called rolling pride this is to not only have the CEO’s come to major stations and meet the people that work for them. It also helps the employees to see that these same C-Level executives are approachable and actually care about how they feel and what they have to say.

These few things among other things help to ensure that the culture created by our company is still going strong. That is not to say that my company does not ever change their culture. Mihalache & Albu (2016) say that “By analyzing the organizational culture, we may identify different procedures, rules, values, statements and decisions that may be implemented, next to models of behaviors and attitudes that may comply with the same principles or not.” Sometimes a company must see where their culture that was originally in place is no longer working and then go about changing it. At the end of the day as long as the employees accept the culture of the company and the corporation is actually encouraging the employees to go along with the culture, the organization has the ability to thrive.

References

1. Avis Budget Group | Culture. (2016). Avisbudgetcareers.com. Retrieved 19 July 2016, from http://www.avisbudgetcareers.com/culture.html
2. Baack, D. (2012). Organizational Behavior. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
3. Fey, C. F., & Nordahl, C. (1999). Organizational Culture in Russia: The Secret to Success. Business Horizons, 42(6), 47.
4. Mihalache, R.-A., & Albu, R.-G. (2016). Organizational culture – a factor of potential positive influence on the collectivities of any organization. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov, Series I: Engineering Sciences, 9(1), 149-156.

Organizational Culture As The Factor For Workplace Environment Formation

“IF YOU GET THE CULTURE RIGHT, MOST OF THE OTHER STUFF WILL JUST TAKE CARE OF ITSELF” is a much underrated statement. The organization’s culture and the workplace environment are very important factors while attracting brilliant mindsets. There is a reason that some companies are more successful than others. The common reason that why people choose one organization over the other is that the former has a very friendly and good organizational culture. Employees sometimes do not mind a few rupees here or there if they are getting the environment that makes them want to work more.

The organizational culture is basically created by the people working in the organization. From the way they dress to the days they don’t work are all a part of organization’s culture. But let’s still have a look at where actually does the organization’s culture come from.

Foundation of any organization’s culture

Organizational culture is nothing but a shared set of beliefs and values that the employees of the organization have in common. The initial culture of the organization is created by the founders and the directors of the organization. But eventually, the people in the organization finalize the culture. The culture is also dependent on the stakeholders of the organization, the ethics and beliefs of the organization and the organizational structure.

1. Characteristics of the people within the organization: The human resource of an organization is the only asset of the organization that can think for itself. The people in the organization are the ones that make the culture of that organization. Every employee that works in the organization put a little bit of himself in the organization. This is one of the reasons that people are only able to work in those organizations that have similar values as they do. The people in the organization are actually the face of their organization at one point or another and the clients will judge the culture of the organization based on their experience with the representative that they interact with.
2. Organizational Ethics: Organizational ethics are the standards and the principals on which an organization works. Organizational ethics are a reflection of the core values of a business and they are an important part of any business’s activities. Organizational ethics are the moral grounds or moral principles on which an organization works. It is very essential that a business follows proper ethics and guidelines. But this is not always the case. Many companies have been exposed who have been practicing unethical behavior and putting the life of their customers at risk, just in order to gain some benefits. Once a company is exposed of its malpractices, then no matter how much the company improves, people will always have a doubt about it.
3. Stakeholder’s rights: Stake holder’s rights are the powers and rights that the company’s stake holders have over the resource of the company. Not all the companies have similar organizational practice when it comes to stake holders, but the rights of stake holders distinguish the company’s culture from other companies. The rights of the employees build the attitude of the employees, which will eventually become the culture of the organization.
4. Organizational structure: The way an organization defines how the tasks and work responsibilities will be distributed among the members is called the organization’s structure. There are two types of organizational structure.

• a. Centralized Organizational structure: In this kind of organizational structure, the power is given to a few authorities. It is a completely bureaucratic system which provides stability in the work.
• b. Decentralized Organizational structure: This kind of organizational structure is more flexible one. There is free flow of information and it is very adaptive in nature.

The kind of structure that an organization has will make a part of the organization’s culture.

Ways of learning an organization’s culture

Antara who has recently joined the company can be made to understand the culture of the organization in various ways. They are as follows:

1. Stories: We all remember our childhood time, when our elders used to narrate some stories to us. There is a possibility that we still remember most of those stories. The reason behind this is that when things are made interesting, people will be attentive to it and will remember it for a long period of time. Similarly, when the people of the organization will narrate various past events that happened in the organization (such events that highlight the culture of the company), then Antara is sure to remember those events.
2. Rituals: Things that we see are not very easy to forget. Rituals are the activities that an organization conducts, which give a clear picture of the fundamental values of an organization. The rituals can be anything from annual function to corporate parties. When Antara is made a part of these rituals, it is very unlikely that she will forget them.
3. Material symbols: There are some companies such as Google, whose culture is well known not only to their employees, but also to the outside the world. This is because these companies provide a very healthy working space and environment to their employees. When Antara is provided with a supportive team, good salary package and a beautiful office, she will understand that the company’s culture is to keep their employees happy.
4. Language: What you speak tells a lot about you. When the employees in the office will follow a particular language code, decency level and behavior, it will give an idea about the culture of the company.

Conclusion

In the end it can be stated that employees are what make the culture of any organization, and hence we should choose employees whose values match the values of the company. It is also not very difficult to make the new employees aware of the company’s culture, but they need a little amount of time to understand it and make it a part of their life.

Organizational Culture And Work Climate

Of all the components that an organization consists of, culture and climate are the most influential but yet, most difficult to change. Culture plays a “key role in impacting and improving organizational performance” (Azzolini, Riccardi, & Gray, 2018). Moreover, the climate of an organization can simply be the perception of the work environment and the affect that it has on motivation, productivity and employee behavior. The leadership within the organization needs to have an understanding of the culture and climate, or psychological climate, and how the actual perception of both can either be the same or different (Glisson, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to explore the culture and climate of the particular healthcare organization that I am a leader at and how it impacts providing healthy, safe and patient-centered care and work environment.

Organizational Culture and Climate Analysis

In order to perform an analysis of the organization’s culture and climate, subjective and objective data was collected. Assessment of the findings are as follows:

• The organization has a ‘Great Place to Work initiative’ that’s promoted through survey results
• Each unit has its own designated area for breaks/relaxation
• Hallways and floors are clean and free of clutter with the exception of supplies needed for daily responsibilities
• Electronic devices are relatively newer and up to date
• Adequate parking
• Communication is performed primarily though email and social media
• Employees are found to be meeting up with each other outside of work in a positive capacity
• Minimal ‘clicks’
• Plenty of opportunities for staff participation in decision making through committees and shared leadership

Through the mission of “Making healthcare easier, so life can be better”, the organization is focused on improving patient outcomes, development of the workforce in all service lines, and improvement/expansion of the facility to better meet the community’s needs (BHMC, 2019). Most of the improvements are focused on patient-centered care, and after speaking with some of the employees from each unit, the climate reflects the mission, but their responses are open to interpretation. While the patient satisfactions scores correlate the mission and the initiatives for 2019, the surveys that are given to measure nurse satisfaction paint a different picture. I had the opportunity to speak with some of the nurses on the units that had the lowest nurse satisfaction scores and their answers we all relatively the same. They like the patient population (geriatrics) and the people that they work with. They are not here for the lower than average pay scale or the upper management. The consensus is that upper management does not know the floor nurses and that they are driven by numbers and percentages. They feel as though their voices are not heard and interpersonal needs aren’t being met.

Person-Centered Care Environment Capacity

If individuals were to float in or visit the facility as a staff member, the culture that comes with the geriatric community that the facility was built would be enough to draw them in and motivate them to stay. Although the nurse leaders aren’t necessarily the ones that create or incorporate the culture or even the patient care models that are handed down, they are influential in promotion and utilizing transformational leadership to endorse them. Moreover, while using transformational leadership, nurse leaders set the tone and help employees “identify with the goals of the organization” (Nakov & Ivanovski, 2018). With that said, when the employees feel integrated with the goals and mission, the more likely the employees are to be committed and behave specifically due to the organizational influences.

Implications

Initiating and adapting to organizational culture and climate can be difficult. As assessed at my particular organization, there can easily be one that is fluid and one that is not. In any case, there are suggestions to address the areas of opportunity for improvement that can be utilized anywhere. The first is simply to empower the employees. This can be done through further explanation of the vision, mission and values that the organization has in place and teaching how they can be applied to everyday tasks within the facility.

Another suggestion for motivation of cultural and climate alignment is through engagement. It is the nurse leader’s responsibility to inspire, intellectually stimulate, motivate and influence their employees; all the while being influenced and motivated by culture and mission of the organization. It has also been demonstrated that influential nursing leadership has a positive impact on patient safety, an increase employee satisfaction and commitment (Asiri, Rohrer, Al-Surimi, Da’ar, & Ahmed, 2016). Which, as mentioned before, is a big area of opportunity from the performed assessment.

Conclusion

Correlating culture and climate is crucial for the success of any healthcare organization. If this does not occur, organizations need to change processes, identify opportunities, address the barriers and implement improvements in order to provoke positive change. Nurse leaders within the organization have a key role in mastering the changes that need to be made and inspiring others to do the same.

References

1. Asiri, S. A., Rohrer, W. W., Al‐Surimi, K., Da’ar, O. O., & Ahmed, A. (2016). The association of leadership styles and empowerment with nurses’ organizational commitment in an acute health care setting: A cross‐sectional study. BMC Nursing, 9, 15–38. https://doi-org.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/s12912-016-0161-7
2. Azzolini, E., Ricciardi, W., & Gray, M. (2018). Healthcare organizational performance: why changing the culture really matters. Commentary. Annali Dell’istituto Superiore Di Sanita, 54(1), 6–8. https://doi-org.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.4415/ANN_18_01_03
3. Garcia-Sierra, R., & Fernandez-Castro, J. (2018). Relationships between leadership, structural empowerment, and engagement in nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing 74(12), 2809–2819. https://doi-org.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/jan.13805
4. Glisson, C. (2015). The role of organizational culture and climate in innovation and effectiveness. Human Services Organizations, Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(4), 245–250.
5. Nakov, L., & Ivanovski, I. (2018). Managing the learning capacity of organizational culture in relation to organizational commitment: Methodological and empirical overview. Management of organizations: Systematic research, (80), 89–100. https://doi-org.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/mosr-2018-0015

Is Building Positive Organizational Culture Manipulative?

Introduction

In todays society it is difficult to find a business you truly want to work with. There are so many businesses competing for employees and clients. Each business has to constantly promote and market themselves as a company that people want. They have to prove their value to consumers and eligible employees. For future employees and consumers, they need to do excessive research on each company to find out if their reputation is positive. If a company has a good reputation then are their values upheld in difficult situations? It makes you wonder if a positive organizational culture is good for a company or manipulative?

Establishing Positive Culture

Positive organizational culture is important to a business when it comes to hiring employees and keeping employees happy while working. There are many benefits to having a positive organizational culture that helps the business and its employees. The first is attracting potential employees that want a permanent place at a business with a positive reputation. Positive organizational culture leads to employee job satisfaction, loyalty, and employee morale. “A positive culture facilitates social interaction, teamwork and open communication” (Kohll). It is very important for a company to help celebrate its employees uniqueness. When a company employees people of different backgrounds it helps consumers see that they are unique and value people of all demographics. Respecting others beliefs, goals, norms and their history is important in any company. A positive culture also leads to corporate having values such as: “honesty, pride, concern for others, independence, positive reinforcement for a job well done …” (Create). These values are not written but they are more like internal values that we uphold within ourselves. There are companies that do truly care about employees hard work and dedication and they are rewarded immensely for it. Rewards could be up to job promotion, bonuses, and paid vacations. If there is a problem at work the best solution is to bring it up to your boss until a solution is found. A company that has a positive work culture takes care of problems when they arise instead of sweeping it under the rug. An example would be discrimination between employees. It is best to investigate the problem and determine the best outcome of the situation. A positive work culture helps employees to enjoy their job and to maintain positive relationships with their bosses and coworkers. “This allows for better social connections, empathy, collaboration, and encouragement among team members, which will ultimately lead to the growth of your team and business as a whole” (Four).

Positive Work Culture is Manipulative

A positive work culture is sometimes manipulative because each company has steps towards one common goal. A company sets the steps, explains the goals and then the employees follow what they are given and finish the task given to them. The question is, is this what you really want to do? Is this task enjoyable to you or does it give you a purpose? A company can create this big huge image of how their business can give you a purpose driven life but when you’re hired, it turns out a fluke! Companies may promote that they are looking for candidates that think outside of the box and are determined to make a difference. When you promote ideas that are unique your boss may decide that he/she doesnt like it and puts you on the back burner. A multimillionaire company may promote an employee to full-time manager that comes with insurance that barely covers doctors appointments or emergencies! One example from my personal life at work is when I transferred from Rue 21 in Corsicana Texas to Rue 21 in Greenville Texas. In Corsicana, the minimum wage for a part-time associate was seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour. It was enough for me because I lived at home and was starting college full-time. When I transferred over to Greenville, my old store manager and I didn’t know that associates were paid eight dollars an hour. I worked at this location for a month and half before I found out I was being paid less than everyone at that store. I brought it up to the current store manager and she emailed our district manager and I never heard back from it. Now, I am a part-time assistant manager and I make ten dollars and fifty cents an hour with no insurance. I am not sure what it is like for other clothing companies but my job has a program that we are supposed to offer part-time associates to help them become full-time but the company cannot afford to change them to full-time. The store managers and their bosses along with the full-time managers are the only employees who receive insurance. Some days I enjoy my job other days I do not because of the customer service aspect. “The customer is right” is a quote I’ve heard all my life in movies, tv shows, and at the store. Now that I work in customer service I detest that quote with all of my might because the customer is not always right! It is understanding when an employee is rude to a customer for them asking a question because I’ve been on the receiving end of that. “When managers are unethical, employees will emulate the bad behavior. Eventually, the unethical environment will hinder business” (The Effects).There have been many times where a customer has been wrong about information but we still have to compensate for the mistake that they made. Every now and then a customer will come in to the store on drugs and attempt to hurt an employee and that is when a company will defend the employee. Any other problem with an employee the only advice you receive is for you to handle it the best way you can but always compensate them. This is why customer service or “the customer is always right” is very contradictory. “When it comes down to supporting your employees or supporting an insufferable, irate customer, you want to support your employees. You want customers to know that, while you value them, you won’t let them abuse your employees” (7).

Role of Management

The four basic functions for managers are: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. When operating in a foreign market, the first step is to start planning. Managers need to see challenges they will face and plan to fix those challenges (What). An example is a business is wanting to start a contract with China. One major problem to overcome is for the team to learn Chinese and research their customs. Doing this shows China that we are serious about doing business with them and that we do not want to disrespect them. The second function while operating in a foreign market is organization. “ … identify activities to be accomplished, classify activities, assign activities to groups or individuals, create responsibility and delegate authority” (What). The key to having a successful business is to organize every aspect of your team’s plan. By organizing every single little detail you will be on top of the game plan and will have everything figured out in the time frame given to you. An example of organizing is taking your goal and figuring out how you can do it and the steps you can take. Then, assign each group member a task or two to complete and then the group leader needs to put it all together. The third step to operating a business overseas is leading the operation. Once you’ve planned and organized your proposal it’s time to start leading. A big part of leadership is making sure that the tasks you’ve given are completed. When it comes to leadership on a global scan, it is difficult because you have more than one operation in different countries. It is best to talk with each team individually by planning calls and helping them figure out what the next step is. “projecting a strong sense of direction and leadership when setting goals and communicating new processes, products and services, or internal policy” (The Four). As a leader, employees look up to you. When you talk with your team overseas it’s best to complement them on the steps they take or suggest what they could do the next time a problem arises. The last step to operating a business overseas is being in control. After completing a project you still need to check on it and make sure it’s still helping the company the way it is designed. Just because you work has finished doesn’t mean its completed. In day-to-day operations, including overseas, it’s still important for you to communicate with your teams and make sure they are working hard towards the company goal. “ … managers should consistently monitor employee performance, quality of work, and the efficiency and reliability of completed projects” (The Four). Quality control is also very important as it makes sure goals are met with no problems. It helps to have an environment where employees are safe and feel happy while working (Quality).

Conclusion

It is a very hard decision to make when debating if positive organizational culture is genuine or manipulative. There are some companies that are positive and they keep up a great work environment and care for their employees. There are other companies that attempt positivity but have moment where the work environment is negative. I have had my fair share of both and the only thing I can do as a manager is to maintain positivity and help my employes out when I can. I truly believe in my opinion that one of the hardest aspects of a business is customer service. You walk a fine line with it because the customer treats you badly yet you can’t afford to lose their business so you compensate them. Since we are in the twenty first century maybe we can better customer service with different approaches or companies realize that the customer isn’t always right.

Sources Cited

1. Create a Positive Corporate Culture – Business Culture – Entrepreneur. Retrieved April 28, 2019, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/204890
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Starbucks Corporation’s Organizational Culture & Its Characteristics

Background

It all began in Seattle as apart of a hippie culture in 1971. A decade later Howard Schultz was working for a houseware company and was making a delivery to a new client and they offered him some of their coffee. So, impressed by this, he wanted to bring this experience to the United States. At first, he joined the company, then split off to create his own brand “Il Giornale coffeehouses” not being a success he returned to Starbucks in 1987 and took over as CEO.

The warm and inviting environment in these cafes was inspired from Howard Shultz’s trip to Italy as he was looking to bring the coffee experience to a whole new level. This concept of Italian culture and life style became part of the company’s cultural distinction from its American competitors, which include Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s McCafé. Starbucks has an organizational culture that relates with the company’s strategies for effective brand development regardless of challenges tied to economic instabilities and industry-specific movements.

Starbucks Coffee’s Organizational Culture Type and Features

Starbucks Coffee’s organizational culture is a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity. The blend of the company’s crucial cultural characteristics is exclusive and specific to the nature of its coffeehouse chain business. The internal cultural situation is through the company’s human resource development programs and baristas’ interactions with customers.

In this regard, the main features of Starbucks’ corporate culture are: Servant leadership, Relationship-driven approach, and Inclusion and diversity

Servant Leadership.

Starbucks Corporation has a servant leadership method, which the behavior of the company’s organizational culture that is among leaders, including corporate leaders and team leaders. With this approach, leaders, managers and supervisors emphasize support for subordinates to ensure that every employee grows in the company. This characteristic of Starbucks’ corporate culture translates to the employees-first approach. The company highlights the consideration caring for employees as a way of improving employee morale and customer satisfaction. Former Starbucks President Howard Behar developed this feature of the firm’s organizational culture because he believed that employees who are cared for are the ones who care about customers.

Relationship-driven Approach.

Starbucks also has an organizational culture that supports inviting and friendly relationships. For instance, at the company’s cafés, baristas exhibit warm and friendly bonds with each other. This feature of the company’s corporate culture extends to customers, who are also treated with warmth.

Inclusion and Diversity.

Starbucks has an anti-discrimination and anti-bias policy that defines its organizational culture. This policy forbids any procedure of discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age, cultural background, life experiences, thoughts, and ideas. Through this objective of the corporate culture, Starbucks can facilitate information sharing and positive rapport among employees, as well as innovation based on diverse ideas. This idea supports employee motivation and helps employee retention. This aspect of the company’s organizational culture also makes customers feel welcome and at home even when they are away at Starbucks

Note on Starbucks Coffee Company’s Corporate Culture

Today, the company’s organizational culture is a distinct characteristic that builds competitive advantage and develops a consumer population of loyal Starbucks fans from which the business derives stable financial performance.

The main corporate strategic management challenge lies in the effective implementation of this culture in the human resources of franchisees and licensees, as these business partners arguably have their own approaches to human resource management and associated organizational culture development.

References

1. Barney, J. B. (1986). Organizational culture: Can it be a source of sustained competitive advantage? Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 656-665.
2. Burack, E. H. (1991). Changing the company culture – the role of human resource development. Long Range Planning, 24(1), 88-95.
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6. Marques, J., Camillo, A. A., & Holt, S. (2015). The Starbucks culture: responsible, radical innovation in an irresponsible, incremental world. In Handbook of Research on Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibilities (pp. 302-312). IGI Global.
7. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
8. Starbucks Coffee Company – Diversity and Inclusion.
9. Starbucks Coffee Company – Our Culture of Inclusion.
10. Starbucks Corporation – Form 10-K.
11. U.S. Department of Agriculture – Economic Research Service – Food Service Industry – Market Segments.
12. Voigt, K. I., Buliga, O., & Michl, K. (2017). Globalizing Coffee Culture: The Case of Starbucks. In Business Model Pioneers (pp. 41-53). Springer, Cham.

Disney’s Organizational Culture And Innovation Performance

Abstract

The concept of organizational culture and innovation have well researched in organizational theory. Their important role of them has also gained a lot of attention in the manufacturing industry. However, only a few of researchers paid attention to their relationship. The tourism industry, as an important sector, which benefits for economic development at both country and firm-level, has been ignored by researchers. The core aim of this essay is to assess the relationship between organizational culture and innovation performance in the tourism industry. In order to achieve the objective of this paper, the Walt Disney Company is taken as an example because of its reputation and diversity as well as its success in innovation performance.

Keywords: Organizational Culture, Innovation performance, Disney

1. Introduction

The author search for journal articles using keywords organizational culture, corporate culture, and innovation on the ScienceDirect database. Only eleven journal articles’ topics include culture (organizational or corporate culture) and innovation together. Among them, six articles studied the relationship between culture and innovation. Two of them analyzed national culture and four discussed organizational culture. All of these four articles are empirical researches. Sullen et al. (2014) collected data from the professional service industry, law firms, and developed an empirical model based on Schein’s organizational culture model. Also, in 2014, Abdullah, et al. (2014) published an article that studied the relationship between organizational culture and product innovativeness by investigating SMEs in Malaysia. Julia et al. (2016) did an investigation in Spain companies to study the link between organizational culture and innovation. Similar to Julia el al. (2016), Shahzad et al. (2017) explored the relationship between organizational culture and innovation performance in the author’s country. They focused on Pakistan’s software industry.

Through reviewing the previous literature, it could be concluded that the relationship between organizational culture and innovation have not received enough attention considering their important role in the company. In addition, despite recent researchers pointing out the role of organizational culture as one of determining factors in a company, empirical researches have lacked as Abdullah, et al. (2014) and Julia et al. (2016) argued, especially in the service industry (Sullen et al., 2014).

Innovation has become the core pillar of achievement for every organization in the current business world. a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2010) highlights the potential of innovation for long-term economic growth. Innovation is a key driver of economic development and plays a crucial role in competition at both the national and firm levels (Cefis & Marsili, 2006; Tellis, Prabhu, & Chandy, 2009).

Innovation is now a core part of organizational strategies to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage in the market (Shahzad, et al., 2017). Prior literature proposes a positive link between innovation and a range of desired performance outcomes. Consequently, empirical interest continues to increase understanding- ing of paths to innovation. Not surprisingly, much of this research has focused on manufacturing firms. Few studies document processes that support innovation in service firms that deliver high “value-added” services, by comparison.

Organizational culture as the key to fostering pro-cesses that support innovation is one speculation (Khazanchi, Lewis, & Boyer, 2007; Tellis et al., 2009)

Innovation is the key to organizational survival and therefore the study of processes that support innovation should be of interest to researchers and practitioners alike. Schein’s multi-layered model of organizational culture offers a useful framework for thinking about processes that foster innovation. A defining characteristic of the model is the subtle but important distinctions between the varied “layers” of organizational culture (i.e., values and norms, artifacts and behaviors). The basic assumption of this study is that Schein’s model offers a tractable explanation of cultural processes that support organizational innovation, especially in service firms. Despite the intuitive appeal and practical value of Schein’s conceptual framework, empirical research in relation to the model is limited. This paper develops a rationale for an empirical model based on Schein’s conceptual model; the study reports a test of an empirical model. Data collected from approximately 100 principals of law firms provide a suitable empirical context for a test of the model. The findings generally support the hypothesized relationships. A key result is how layers of organizational culture, particularly norms, artifacts, and innovative behaviors, partially mediate the effects of values that support innovation on measures of firm performance. The findings have implications for theory and practice, especially in relation to building an organizational culture within professional service firms that foster innovative behavior.

Schein (1992) considers organizational culture as a social force that is largely invisible yet very powerful. Empirical evidence suggests that organizational culture significantly influences market-oriented behaviors, and market and financial performance (Homburg & Pflesser, 2000), employee attitudes and organizational effectiveness (Gregory et al., 2009), and has a greater contribution to knowledge management and organizational effectiveness than organizational strategy and structure (Zheng, Yang, & McLean, 2010). An organization’s culture strongly influences employees’ behaviors beyond formal control systems, procedures, and authority (O’Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991). As such, organizational culture is a powerful means to elicit desired organizational outcomes.

However, there are only a few studies examining the relationship between organizational culture and product innovation among SMEs in Malaysia. This study is aimed to bridge the gap by examining the relationship between organizational culture and product innovation

The concept of corporate sustainability has gained importance in recent years in both organizational theory and practice

The importance of innovation at various levels (national, industrial, organizational and individual) has been firmly established. Organizations that fail to innovate are at risk of losing their competitiveness and sustainability (Tidd et al., 2001).

The importance of innovation at various levels (national, industrial, organizational and individual) has been firmly established. Organizations that fail to innovate are at risk of losing their competitiveness and sustainability (Tidd et al., 2001).

A company’s organizational culture or corporate culture is a

2. Literature Review

2.1 Organizational Culture

The concept of organizational culture originates in cultural anthropology and is popular within the organizational behavior, management, and marketing literature (e.g., Gregory, Harris, Armenakis, & Shook, 2009; Homburg & Pflesser, 2000; Schein, 1992). Organizational culture refers to the values and beliefs that provide norms of expected behaviors that employees might follow (Schein, 1992). Many definitions of organizational culture exist, however, organizational culture generally refers to the organizational values communicated through norms, artifacts, and observed in behavioral patterns (Homburg & Pflesser, 2000; Schein, 1992).

While most prior research considers organizational culture as a single construct, Schein (1992) considers the importance of analyzing and distinguishing between several layers of culture (see Fig. 1). Further, Schein (1992) attributes the confusion in definitions of culture to failure in differentiating the levels at which organizational culture manifests correctly.

2.2 Innovation

Innovation has received a lot of attention by researchers in both theoretical and practical areas. Diverse definitions from various schools of thought were stated. Among these, the concept that defined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2005) is widely accepted and popularly cited. OECD defined innovation as “transforming an idea to a marketable product or service, new or improved manufacturing/distribution method or new social service method”. This definition described that innovation converts innovative thoughts of organization or employees into practice and then benefits to the company. These creative ideas focus on providing products or services that could meet customer and market needs. Hogan, et al. (2011) coincided with OECD’s definition and proposed a Three-point Model of organizational innovation, which includes client-focused, marketing-focused and technology-focused (Suellen, et al., 2014).

2.3 Relationship between Organizational Culture and Innovation

3. The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company started in 1923 as an unknown cartoon studio and has grown to an international media corporation with operations in more than 40 countries and approximately 166,000 employees (Global Footprint, n.d.). The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in four business segments: Media Networks, Studio Entertainment, Direct-to-Consumer and International; and Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products. Disney is a Dow 30 company and had annual revenues of $55.1 billion in its Fiscal Year 2017 (“The Walt Disney Company Announces”, 2018).

The Walt Disney Company is a diversified international corporate. The four business segments mentioned above are the manufactory industry and also a service industry. According to the development history of The Walt Disney Company, Disney is popular in the world because its cartoon movies at the beginning. And then, based on the cartoon characters, Disney created cartoon products. Now, Disney is very famous for its movies. cartoon products, and theme parks. Disney is a diversified international corporate. The four business segments mentioned above are not only the manufactory industry but also the service industry. Therefore, Disney is taken as an example to analyze in this paper.

The other reason that Disney is chosen is its success in innovation. In April, 2019, The Walt Disney Company has taken the No. 4 spot on Fast Company’s list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” (“Disney Ranks High Among”, 2019). How The Walt Disney Company find its way to creative success? According to Govindarajan (2016) stated, the key to success is innovation. In addition, William (2019) argued that Disney’s organizational culture contributes to excellent business performance, the Disney brand’s popularity and also motivates employees to maintain behaviors for strategic success.

For that reason, this essay will discuss the relationship between Disney’s organizational culture and innovation performance.

The Walt Disney Company’s corporate culture (Williams, 2019):

1. Innovation
2. Decency
3. Quality
4. Community
5. Storytelling
6. Optimism

Our Mission (About The Walt Disney Company, n.d.).

The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

14 iconic milestones of Disney innovation (Lev-Ram, 2014)

• 1929, Disney releases Steamboat Willie, pioneering “fully synchronized” sound cartoons.
• 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first full-length animation feature, makes its debut.
• 1963, The Tiki Room opens at Disneyland, introducing parkgoers to audio-animatronics (electro-mechanical robots).
• 1977, Lucasfilm releases Star Wars, the first film shot with the motion-control camera.
• 1982, The re-recording of Fantasia breaks ground as the first film done in digital sound.
• 1986, Captain EO, one of the first “4-D” films (a 3-D movie incorporating special effects such as smoke and lasers), opens at Disneyland.
• 1988, ABC airs the first network broadcast in high-definition television, the live-action version of 101 Dalmations.
• 1995, Pixar Animation Studios releases Toy Story, the first feature-length computer-animated film.
• 2005, In an unprecedented deal, Disney makes full-length TV episodes available on Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
• 2006, ABC becomes the first network to offer ad-supported TV episodes online for free, via its own branded player.
• 2009, ESPN launches the SportsCenter app, the most downloaded sports app of all time (with more than 55 million downloads).
• 2013, MagicBands debut at Disney World, allowing guest to enter the park and pay for food using the RFID-enabled wristbands.
• 2014, Disney stores adopt Apple Pay, letting customers make purchases using near-field communications capabilities on few iPhones
• 2015, Later this year, Disney will release an Apple Watch with guess who on the face.

Technological landmarks first introduced in Disney’s theme parks include (“Disney Blends Imagination”, n.d.):

• A 360-degree motion picture technology using multiple synchronized cameras (Circarama, U.S.A., Disneyland, 1955); later refined and updated for multiple attractions around the world including Le Visionarium (Disneyland Paris, 1992).
• The first daily operating monorail system in the United States (Disneyland, 1959).
• The first roller coaster to use cylindrical rails and urethane wheels (Matterhorn Bobsleds, Disneyland, 1959).
• The creation of Audio-Animatronics figures, which allow humans, animals and creatures of fantasy to be animated in three dimensions with an astonishing degree of realism (Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, Disneyland, 1963).
• The first computer-controlled thrill ride (Space Mountain, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort, 1975).
• An advanced 3-D motion picture photography system (Magic Journeys, Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort, 1982); later enhanced for multiple attractions around the world including “Mickey’s PhilharMagic” (Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort, 2003).
• A thrilling attraction with random programming for an unpredictable ride and drop experience (The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World Resort, 1994).
• State-of-the-art vehicles that move through three-dimensional environments with a capacity for random motion-simulator effects (Indiana Jones Adventure, Disneyland, 1995).
• Trackless ride vehicles that follow a random path by relying upon unseen transmitters in the floor (Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Tokyo Disneyland, 2000).
• A virtual hang-gliding experience that provides a panoramic view of sweeping landscapes augmented by scents released during key scenes (Soarin’ Over California, Disney California Adventure, 2001).
• A custom ride system that combines centrifuge technology with sophisticated virtual imagery for an exhilarating astronaut adventure to Mars (Mission: SPACE, Epcot, 2003).
• A blend of digital projection and voice-activated, real-time animation that permit live, unscripted conversations between theme park guests and an animated character (Turtle Talk With Crush, Epcot, 2004).
• The first Audio-Animatronics figure that features lips with a wide range of lifelike movements, and digitally animated eyes that can look directly at the particular guest with whom he is conversing (Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story Mania!, Disney California Adventure and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, 2008).
• Guests with visual disabilities can explore Walt Disney World theme parks in a whole new way through a handheld Disney-designed device that provides detailed audio descriptions of outdoor areas (Assistive Technology Device, Walt Disney World, 2010).
• Interactive Mickey Ear hats that glow in myriad colors, commanded with the latest technology to complement the imagery and beat of the fireworks and spectaculars (Glow With The Show, Disney California Adventure, 2012).
• Using spells in the form of trading cards, guests become active players in a role-playing game and are able to interact with Disney characters at an entirely new level (Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, 2012).
• A high-tech detection device called F.O.N.E., or Field Operative Notification Equipment, helps maneuver guests through an interactive, undercover mission (Disney Phineas and Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, Epcot, 2012).
• Radio Frequency (RF) located in MagicBands interacts with touchpoints located in places such as resort room doors, theme park and water park entrances, Disney FastPass+ entrances, payment locations and on mobile devices used by Cast Members (MyMagic+, Walt Disney World, 2014).
• Featuring an innovative, first-of-its-kind ride system, the mine cars rock back and forth during twists, turns, hills and drops (Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Walt Disney World, 2014).

Reference:

1. Cefis, E., & Marsili, O. (2006). Survivor: The role of innovation in firms’ survival. Research Policy, 35(5), 626–641.
2. Disney Blends Imagination and Technology to Deliver Landmarks in Theme Park Innovation (n.d.). Retrieved from https://wdwnews.com/releases/disney-blends-imagination-and-technology-to-deliver-landmarks-in-theme-park-innovation/
3. Disney Ranks High Among Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies (2019, February 14). Retrieved from
4. https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-ranks-high-among-fast-companys-most-innovative-companies/
5. Govindarajan, V. (2016, June 03). How Disney Found Its Way Back to Creative Success. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/06/how-disney-found-its-way-back-to-creative-success
6. Lev-Ram, M. (2014, December 29). 14 iconic milestones of Disney innovation. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2014/12/29/disney-innovation-timeline/
7. OECD (2010, May 27). Launch of the OECD’s innovation strategy. http://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/launchoftheoecdsinnovationstrategy.htm
8. Suellen, J., Hogan *., and Leonard, V. C. (2014). Organizational culture, innovation, and performance- A test of Schein’s model. Journal of Business Research, 67, 1609-1621.
9. Shahzad, F., Yixiu, G. and Shahbaz, M. (2017). Organizational culture and innovation performance in Pakistan’s software industry. Technology in Society, 41, 66-73.
10. Tellis, G. J., Prabhu, J. C., & Chandy, R. K. (2009). Radical innovation across nations: The
11. preeminence of corporate culture. Journal of Marketing, 73(1), 3–23.
12. The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved from https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/
13. The Walt Disney Company Announces Strategic Reorganization (2018, March 14). Retrieved from https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/walt-disney-company-announces-strategic-reorganization/
14. William, A. (2019, March 7). Disney’s Organizational Culture for Excellent Entertainment (Analysis). Retrieved from http://panmore.com/disney-organizational-culture-excellent-entertainment-analysis

Organizational Culture Essay

A Critical Approach towards an Integrative Dynamic Framework for Understanding and Managing Organizational Culture Change

The concept of an organizational culture virtually started in the 1970s. However, it started to gain momentum and prominence in the 1980s after researchers established the significant role that culture played in the workplace. A lot of authors argued that culture is both the source of problems and the basis for solutions. Therefore, studies on organizational culture centered on how people behave in an organization based on the organization’s shared beliefs and values. In simple terms, organizational culture is the social and psychological environment of an organization. In fact, the culture can be shown in the manner in which employees are treated in work organizations as well as customers. Organizational culture can also be observed through the communication flow of the organization, and the level of commitment in the employees toward the organization’s collective objectives.

Culture is a complex and multifaceted concept. Therefore, the concept of organizational culture can be understood through three different contextual approaches, the first is the Sociological approach, then the Anthropological approach, and the last approach is the Psychological approach. Culture develops in organizations due to external adaptation and internal integration. External adaptation reflects an evolutionary approach to organizational culture and suggests that cultures develop and persist because they help an organization to survive and flourish. If the culture is valuable, then it holds the potential for generating sustained competitive advantages. Additionally, internal integration is an important function since social structures are required for organizations to exist. (Schein, 1992 as cited by, Wanjohi, 2012)

The Sociological Approach to organizational culture is seen through the employees as social beings, for example, employees’ continuous participation in workplace activities. Sociologists understand culture as the symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts that are part of any society (Barkan, 2016 as cited by Umuteme, 2018) And the Anthropological approach is seen through the complex nature of interpersonal relationships. Anthropologists see culture as “customs and rituals that societies develop over the course of their history” (Schein, 2004, as cited by, Umuteme, 2018)

Both these approaches believe that the concept of organizational culture centers on shared values and objectives. However, these approaches do not provide an explanation of how these interactions affect organizational culture. Thus, this limitation created a need for a psychological approach that examines the correlation between shared values and objectives and the organizational culture. Although, no concept is in itself “right” or “wrong”. They all represent different worldviews and have diverse advantages and disadvantages. But arguments against conceptual models of organizational culture have been made on the grounds that they oversimplify complex phenomena; such models serve an important role in guiding empirical research and generating theory. (Hatch, 1993)

Each organization has its own unique culture, created over time through the shared attitudes, values, beliefs, language, perceptions, and customs of its members. The cultural dynamics model shows how culture is learned, passed on, and changed over time (Tricker & Tricker, 2014) Culture evolves and solidifies over time, as members preserve and evolve the history, rules, and norms of the organization. Cultures perpetuate themselves through socialization, particularly when new members are admonished for violating cultural norms or are rewarded for adherence or assimilation. There are times when a leader recognizes that the present organizational culture will not adequately support (or may be detrimental to) the achievement of the organization’s vision. It is at this point where a cultural shift is not just desired or hoped for but is essential for the organization to achieve its goals and desired future state. (Mierke & Williamson, 2016)

In an era where globalization is fast trending, every author in organizational culture agrees that change is not optional, its velocity will increase exponentially in the next 10 years and its influence is both ubiquitous and unpredictable (Hannah, et al., 2003 as cited by Constantinou, 2018). Therefore, an integrative dynamic framework was recommended as an effective means of managing culture change and organizational effectiveness. The Integrative Dynamic Framework serves as a lens through which the impact of culture change on organizational growth can be seen.

Constantinou (2018) argues that the emergence of culture occurs while four different processes are in operation, as follows: manifestation, realization, symbolization, and interpretation. The Integrated Dynamic Framework systematic process is an objective path that can encourage both management and staff members to voice their concerns without fear of prejudice. (Umuteme, 2018)

According to Schein, culture exists simultaneously on three levels: On the surface are artifacts, underneath artifacts lie values, and at the core are basic assumptions. Assumptions represent taken-for-granted beliefs about reality and human nature. Values are social principles, philosophies, goals, and standards considered to have intrinsic worth. Artifacts are the visible, tangible, and audible results of activity grounded in values and assumptions. (Hatch, 1993)

Manifestation is when cultural assumptions such as perceptions, emotions, etc. are translated into recognizable values, this process of translating is called manifestation. However, the model does not address the active role the assumptions play in creating the organizational culture. The realization process is when expectations or values are transformed into reality. And the symbolization process is when symbols and artifacts interact. A symbol is considered to be anything that represents a conscious or unconscious association with some wider, normally abstract concept or meaning (Dandridge, et al., 1980 as cited by Constantinou, 2018). These symbols are subjective, and therefore subject to unique interpretation. And this is the last process.

These processes involve interactions between cultural assumptions, values, artifacts, and symbols, which continuously operate in specific ways leading to the emergence of a stable culture, but also the creation of its inherent change when the time and conditions are appropriate. However, it is important to note that for one process to exist it requires the other three processes. In other words, all the processes are interconnected although they occur separately. And that the entire process should be repeated in order for change to occur. Therefore, this entire process provides an effective means of managing culture change and organizational effectiveness. This concept of cultural dynamics originated in cultural anthropology, where it refers to such issues as the origins and evolution of cultures, enculturation processes, and the problem of change versus stability (e.g., through diffusion, innovation, cultural conservatism, and resistance to change), although a few studies dealt directly with culture and tradition in the work organization.

Although the cultural dynamics model does not outline a sequential process of change implementation, it does explain many of the underlying cognitive transformations at work within the sense-making mechanisms implicated by efforts to implement organizational change. (Latta, 2009)

Organizational leaders play an integral role when it comes to facilitating cultural management, especially in the context of the recommended integrative dynamic framework, particularly transformational leaders. Transformational leaders help to create and manage culture. These leaders create a common language and share the organization’s values and objectives with their subordinates, the subordinates make assumptions about what they think the value and vision ought to be. And when planning for organizational culture, these leaders implement initiatives in a strategic manner and part of this initiative is explaining to subordinates why the organizational culture needs to change in order to achieve the desired outcome. As well as provide positive organization- wide support during this transition period, since most organizational cultures are deeply rooted and therefore changing these traditions can be taxing emotionally and sometimes physically.

A multisource approach was used to collect survey data from 32 Taiwanese companies in the electronics/telecommunications industry in 2011. The findings support a direct and positive link between a style of leadership that has been labeled as ‘‘transformational’’ and organizational innovation. They also indicate that transformational leadership has significant and positive relations with both empowerment and an innovation-supporting organizational climate. The former is found to have a significant but negative relation with organizational innovation, while the latter has a significant and positive relationship. (Jung et.al, 2003)

Change triggers emotions as employees experience the processes and outcomes of change, including cultural change. An organization’s effective culture, which shapes the way emotions are experienced and expressed, plays a particularly important part during changes to the culture or to any other significant aspect of organizational life. (Smollan & Sayers, 2009) Thus organizational leaders provide support by engaging and empowering organization members. People will support what they help create because they develop a sense of belonging and (Williamson, 2016)ownership.

Smollan and Sayers (2009) carried out a qualitative study to examine the relationship between culture, change, and emotions. The study indicated that when participants’ values were congruent with those of the organization they tended to react to change more positively. The cultural change provoked emotional reactions, often of an intense nature. When emotions were acknowledged and treated with respect, people became more engaged with the change.

Engaging employees in determining what the workforce could look like in the future creates significant buy-in, energy, excitement, and commitment to that future vision. It can challenge members to envision themselves as part of that future state, who then in turn inspire others to share in that vision. Those employees who cannot, for whatever reason, identify with the direction that the organization has set may feel compelled to find another organization they can better identify with. (Mierke & Williamson, 2016)

The understanding of organizational culture is fundamental to understanding what goes on in organizations, how to run them, and how to improve them (Schein, 1992). Therefore, these organizational leaders play another significant role in assessing the practical value of a recommended integrative dynamic framework for managing organizational culture change and organizational effectiveness.

Several empirical studies have been carried out across the world on organizational culture change and effectiveness. And one of the widely used tools is the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument, which examines six aspects of organizational culture and the desire for change. And the six aspects are Dominant Characteristics, Organisational Leadership, Management of Employees, Organisational glue, Strategic emphases, and Criteria of success.

According to Maximini (2015), the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument or the “OCAI” is based on the Competing Values Framework, which is founded in the work of Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) and places organizations in a continuum of four core values, called Flexibility, Stability, Differentiation, and Integration. “What is notable about these four core values is that they represent opposite or competing assumptions. Each continuum highlights a core value that is opposite from the value on the other end of the continuum”.

A meta-analytical test was carried out by three researchers from the University of Arizona on the relationship between three culture types and three major indices of organizational effectiveness (employee attitudes, operational performance [i.e., innovation and product and service quality), and financial performance). The test revealed that culture types are significantly associated with organizational effectiveness. These findings support the widely held proposition that organizational culture is an important organizational variable and reinforces the value of conducting quantitative investigations into the function of organizational culture. (Hartnell et.al, 2011)

During the OCAI assessment, a participant divides 100 points over a number of descriptions that correspond to four organizational culture types. The Clan Culture is where the organization is held together by loyalty and tradition. In the Adhocracy Culture, where experiments and innovation are the blocks that hold together the organization, the third culture type is the Market Culture. This is the type of culture that is competitive, and thus winning keeps the organization together. And the final type of culture is the Hierarchy Culture, where the structure is paramount to keep the organization together. This division of points is done according to the participant’s experience with the organization. This process assesses the mix of the four culture types that dominate the current organizational culture. After this process, participants are required to answer the questionnaire again except this time the 100 points are divided according to their preferred future organizational culture; change can be measured after this process. Then the 100 points are divided into four types of culture. By averaging all individual OCAI scores, a collective organization score can be calculated. (www.ocai-online.com, 2018)

Although the OCAI is a widely used tool, a few researchers have expressed concern in regard to its psychometric properties, especially the factor structure. A study was carried out in Australia to examine the factor structure and criterion validity of the OCAI using a robust analysis method on Australian employees. The study indicated possible weak criterion validity. (Heritage et.al, 2014) I contend that further examination should be carried out on the validity of the OCAI. As well as developing other tools that will measure the different processes involved in cultural dynamics and organizational culture change.

Despite the foregoing influences of culture in organizations, while some organizations are willing to address cultural imperatives within the sphere of their operational goals, others have not given the subject the attention it deserves (Schein, 2004). This discrepancy can be attributed to the following: the bias towards the impact of culture on performance (Kotter & Heskett, 2011), monotonous objectives that do not recognize the changes in the business landscape (Hall, 1981), over-reliance on historical successes (Gino & Staats, 2015), not recognizing the importance of a defined culture on employees’ sociability and solidarity, and how it affects their performance (Goffe & Jones, 1996), and fear of failure which makes it difficult for the organization leaders to accept culture change, but will rather become glued to their tested and old ways of managing the organization (Carucci, 2016). The implication of not taking cultural determinants seriously is even more in mergers and takeovers and can lead to failures (Barclay, 2015) from a transformational integrative leadership perspective, which should build formidable employee relations. (Umuteme, 2018)

Considering all that has been defined in this paper it is evident that leaders who desire to introduce an integrative dynamic framework for understanding and managing organizational culture change are encouraged to passionately observe the following:

1. Intentionally develop a transparent, clear, friendly, genuine, effective, and consistent communication strategy at all levels of the organization about performance enhancement and the role of culture. For example, scheduling regular sessions during which two-way communication is encouraged, plans are clarified, rumors are exposed and resolved, and answer questions are dealt with.
2. Introduce policies that will build and enhance motivation and participation throughout the organizational culture change process. Participatory approach centered on flexibility and adaptability would trigger unwavering buy-in at all levels of the organization.
3. Recognizing the importance of a defined culture on employees’ sociability and solidarity, and how it affects their performance bearing in mind that employees are the core asset of any organization. As such care, sensitivity and diplomacy should be practiced in good faith and beyond a reasonable doubt.
4. The importance of considering the fit or match between strategic initiatives and organizational culture when it comes to determining how to embed a culture that produces a competitive advantage.
5. That any organizational culture requires continuous monitoring and assessment to ensure effective management. This should be consistent with the design and implementation tools of the intended organizational culture change and management.

In sum, it has been established that organizational culture is dynamic and therefore it requires consistent monitoring and assessment to ensure effective cultural change. Therefore, it is important for organizational leaders to recognize culture as the root of the problem as well as the solution to the problem. This recognition will ensure increased production in the workplace.

As companies adapt to changes in markets, consumer expectations, and varied and new regulations, they are being forced to develop new strategies and change their structures. However, for those changes to be successful the organization’s culture needs to be in alignment with its strategy and its structure a process that often requires a culture change.

Some leaders believe that cultural change is too complex to be managed or that it takes too long to yield measurable results to make it worth dealing with. This can be good news for wiser leaders who understand that cultural change can be planned and managed: they can gain an advantage over their competition. To manage culture change, the first step is to observe and understand your organization’s culture as it is now, and to determine which values will best align with your strategy and structure. Once you decide what your values need to be, design a Cultural Change Plan using the action steps below. (Barsade & Bernstein, 2014)

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