Organizational Culture: Bettering Company’s Performance and Efficiency

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Introduction

The term culture has its foundation in anthropology, and it is defined as a set of beliefs, morals, laws, values and customs. There are various definitions of organizational culture; it can be understood in the form of organizational work practices, values, assumptions and artifacts as well as in the form of norms, values, beliefs and practices.

Values stand for what the employees believe in; norms represent shared beliefs on how people should behave in an organization and; practices are the informal or the formal job routines and practices used in finishing tasks in an organization.

Organizational culture is anchored in the way the employees act in an organization, what they expect from one another and how they make use of each other.

There are various dimensions of organizational culture: process versus results, employee versus job oriented, parochial versus professional and open versus closed system.

Consequently, organizational culture is categorized into four orientations: goals, support, rules, innovation and inventions (Khan, Usoro & Majewski, 2010). In the corporate context, organizational culture is rooted in values and beliefs that are shared by the personnel in an organization.

Organizational culture is core principles that integrate the organization together, holds and motivates the employees in order to enhance their performance and to enable them develop some sense of commitment to the organization.

Organizational culture plays several critical roles in bettering the performance and efficiency in an organization as well as boosting the employee morale. Despite this however, there is no clear conventional way of measuring organizational culture.

Developing and Maintaining Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is derived from the collective rules of an organization. These rules are the shared behaviors, values and norms, and they define how individuals operate, interact and relate in an organization.

Organizational culture is derived from an organization’s vision statement, mission statements and the statement of values, which are formalized to form the organization’s culture.

Organizational culture can be actualized through an observable set of behaviors, for instance, how the employees conduct themselves when they carry out their daily duties (Khan, Usoro & Majewski, 2010).

Accessibility of the management by the employees also forms part of organizational culture. To develop and sustain an organizational culture, employees should be comfortable with the behaviors and the norms of the organization and the behaviors of the employees should be consistent with the known values of the organization.

Organization managers always set the motion of core values that should be adopted and adhered to by the organizational members. According to Charles Handy, organizations are considered dynamic and can define their direction when they deem necessary.

The beginning of organizational culture is the hiring process; at this stage, the managers enhance the organization’s culture by recruiting people who share similar values and vision that the organization believes in.

This is achieved when the employers take time with prospective employees before they are hired; and when they are hired, they will take little time to be indoctrinated with the organization’s values, and they will develop an objective view of the organization (Widde & Muijen, 2000).

Organization’s culture can be developed and maintained when managers develop a firm understanding of the dynamics of the organizational culture and the ways of transforming it.

An organizational culture can be designed by the founder, or it may develop over time when the organization experiences some challenges; organizational culture may as well be initiated by the management of the organizational (Serrat, 2009).

Organizational culture consists of the attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and the values of the organization that can be acquired via social learning and can control the way individuals and groups in an organizational work together and relate with each other in an organization.

Organizational culture is maintained when an organization has strong leadership that can promote the organizational culture and who may be in a position to change it when if fails to contribute to the success of the organization.

Functions of an Organizational Culture

The main function of an organizational culture is internal integration and coordination of employees. Other functions of organizational culture are to provide direction to the organization and to glue the organization’s employees and management together.

An organization can change any unfavorable culture with an aim of improving its performance and competitiveness; such a change will also improve employees’ attitude and work ethics (Khan, Usoro & Majewski, 2010).

The prominent instrument for measuring organization culture was devised by Robert Cooke, and it is referred as Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI); it measures various behavioral norms, which include constructive, defensive and offensive cluster among others.

Organizational culture is the principal instrument that enhances the competitive advantage of the company. An organizational culture enables an organization to tackle the dynamic challenges of adaptation to the external environment and the internal assimilation of the personnel, resources and policies of the organization and which can enhance external adaptation.

Organizational culture is a precursor for an effective management system. This is in the form of organization’s management practices and conduct. Organizational culture was considered a means to enhance internal integration, coordination and facilitating any adaptation to the immediate environment.

This original perspective is contrary to the capability of the organization to adapt to change. Since an organizational culture is fundamental in organizational rejuvenation, there is a need for fresh and new ideas that are required for organizational change (Cooke, 2011).

Forms of Organizational Cultures

There are various types of organizational cultures. Basic among them are: strong and weak cultures, and cohesive organizational culture.

Strong and Weak Cultures

All organizations have cultures; some have stronger and deeply rooted cultures than others. The culture of an organization can be considered strong or weak based on the commonality of the principal values among and within the organizational members and the degree to which the members are committed to these values.

The higher the commonality and commitment, the stronger the organizational culture since it enhances the consistency of members’ behavior. A weak culture, on the other hand, is the one that exposes avenues for each of the members which demonstrates unique concerns, and it is witnessed by limited degree of commitment by the organization’s members.

Consequently, organizational culture is said to be strong when the employees are quick to respond to a job stimuli due to their association to it; it is said to be weak when there is a little association and a limited control is exercised by the managers (Serrat, 2009).

Inherently, an organization is said to have strong culture when its beliefs, norms, values and assumptions are coherent and can be embraced by all members of the organization which is determined by the degree of consistency of the beliefs, values and assumptions.

It is argued that strong culture fosters commitment, identity and solidarity, which are critical for integration in the organization.

Cohesive Organizational Culture

Cohesive organizational culture is that kind of culture where the employees have a strong sense of team work and is also characterized by harmony of values.

Achieving a cohesive culture is a difficult task due to diversity of individual values. In a cohesive organizational culture, a common culture exists and cuts widely across an organization and there is a high level of agreement among the members of the organization, in contrast to fragmented culture where there exists many cultural ideals in one organization.

Types of Organizational Culture

There are three types of organizational culture: constructive, passive and aggressive cultures. Passive and aggressive cultures define the organizational state where the employees’ needs are not satisfied and, furthermore, the employees’ ego dominates their unhealthy and unethical ways.

Constructive Cultures

Constructive cultures are those kinds of cultures that enable the employees to interact and coexist with their fellows while working on tasks in a manner that will enable them to meet their job satisfaction. Constrictive cultures are characterized by the following qualities: achievement, power, competitiveness and perfectionism.

Constructive organizational culture fosters a strong sense of job satisfaction by both the employees and the management. It is the kind of culture that supports work environment where the members develop an improved interaction among themselves while striving to achieve the organizational objectives.

For an organization to implement a constructive organizational culture, it should endeavor to initiate a strong mission statement and have a well-defined purpose for the company (Cooke, 2011).

Constructive organizational culture is different from the passive and aggressive cultures because it supports values and norms in a workplace that seeks to enhance the following three main factors namely employee enthusiasm, intrinsic satisfaction and favorable behaviors.

Constructive organizational culture facilitates strong interpersonal work relations, which serve to reduce some case of work-place deviance. An organization can embrace constructive organizational culture by designing a work environment that puts into consideration the well-being of the employees’ and developing a support and create mission and vision statements that promote good interpersonal work relations.

A constructive organizational culture can be realized by embracing recruitment practices with the intention of recruiting well performing and enthusiastic employees who support constructive values (Alvesson, 2002).

In constructive cultures, employees are oriented towards excellence and are encouraged to develop, grow, achieve and nurture team work. This will result in high degree of trust among the employees and a collective support towards the realization of the organization’s goals.

Impacts of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture enables an organization to adapt to its environment; the success of an organization or the success of an organizational leadership is determined by the organizational culture.

Various challenges and the obstacles that confront leaders in an organization are due to their inability to understand and to evaluate an organizational culture. Organizational leaders may often experience these challenges when they formulate strategies and mission statements, which are inconsistent with the culture of the organization.

Organizational culture is also instrumental in boosting the morale of the employees. The nature of the organization’s corporate culture is a key determinant on how the employees are going to achieve the results.

The value system that the employees support determines the direction of the organization. A strong organizational culture facilitates better achievement of results since the employees will be performing their tasks under the guidance of the culture.

Organizational culture has a lot of impact on the motivation of the employees. It is unquestionable that there is a direct relationship between employee motivation and employee performance. A strong organizational culture has the tendencies of motivating employees hence leading to their high morale, and this can enhance their performance (Widde & Muijen, 2000).

Organizational culture also has some impact on the performance of the employees. Organizational culture is measured using three parameters: efficiency, effectiveness and financial viability.

The existence of a strong culture in an organization will lead to a cultural homogeneity which is realized when the employees and the management of the organization exhibit uniformity in values and norms and are committed to practicing it; this will enhance the profitability of the organization.

Good and appropriate organizational culture fosters the efficiency of the organization leading to the achievement of better results. A strong organizational culture is a recipe for strong performance and quality employee coordination and may lead to the minimization of cost and maximization of profit.

Strong organizational culture attracts talented employees. Highly talented individuals would like to work in an organization that provides better opportunities and room for advancement. Talented employees are often selective, and they have consideration for the companies with strong and positive organizational cultures (Widde & Muijen, 2000).

Elements of Organizational Culture

The values, beliefs and assumptions that characterize an organizational behavior operate below the plane of the organization. Each organization has a culture that is unique and organizations that embrace and appreciate their cultures often obtain benefits. Culture is not a creation of one element but it is developed from various diverse cultures.

According to Edgar Schein, there are three basic elements of organizational culture namely: artifacts that are only conspicuous for the surface of the organization, espoused values that an organization relentlessly pursues and the unconscious assumptions that are never taken seriously by the employees of an organization; these elements are explained in details in the subsequent paragraphs (Schein, 2004).

Artifacts: these are the tangible and conspicuous items that are considered symbols of culture. Artifact may be formal or informal. Formal artifacts are like the logo of the company or the handbook of the employees and informal artifacts are like the flowers in the office lobby.

Artifacts can as well be intangible or less tangible and may encompass the artifacts that one may not see, hear, feel or touch. Artifacts are the visible structures and the processes of the organization.

Values: values are considered instrumental in an organization. An organization cannot function without a value system. Values are exhibited in the form of organization’s values, norms, beliefs, strategies, philosophies and qualities.

Every organization has central values, which serve as the guiding principles and members of the organization are expected to strictly follow the values of the organization. The core values of an organization should also be laid bare since they are instrumental in stimulating development and productivity.

Examples of the values are integrity, creativity innovativeness, team work and cooperation. Values are considered to be espoused justifications, and they may include the strategies and goals of the organization (Schein, 2004).

Assumptions: these are the beliefs that are enshrined in an organization’s vision and are not subject to debate by the employees, since they regulate employee behavior by directing the thoughts, feelings and the actions of the employees. An assumption, for example, is the ability of the employee to effectively satisfy the customer and to make the customer happy irrespective of cost or time.

Assumptions pose great challenges to fresh employees who endeavor to learn them because they are not formal or documented. Assumptions are the unspoken rules and regulations of the organization, and they form the foundation with which other elements of culture are developed.

Every organization has underlying assumptions. Basically, assumptions are the unconscious beliefs that are not taken seriously. They are the origin of organizational values and actions (Schein, 2004).

Characteristics: for one to understand the culture of an organization, it is imperative that he/she observes how the employees interact with one another either formally or informally, observing whether the organization has a dress code, and if there are casual days in the organization.

Other factors that should be taken into account are the working hours, whether the organization allows telecommuting, or if they flex time and the organization’s stand on the maintenance of work-life balance. One also has to consider the way conflicts are solved or addressed.

The structure of the organization is also an important characteristic of deciphering an organization’s elements and analyzing how the management interacts with the employees and whether there exists transparency in sharing of information in the company (Huddleston, 2011).

Organizational Communication Perspective on Culture

Cultures in an organization can be synthesized into communication experience by applying the communication-rules perspective. This can be actualized by making use of inductive or multifaceted techniques, which are aimed at verifying the effectiveness of describing the culture of an organization by use of the operational rules.

It describes the daily interaction and routine activities between employees of the organizations. Communication perspective describes how actions are interpreted in an organization. Consequently, communication perspective emphasizes on how various norms or forms of behavior are facilitated or hindered by certain organizational cultures.

There are two forms of organizational culture, which should be differentiated: there is organizational culture as an organizational variable and organizational culture as a metaphor of the organization; in this case, there is culture as an item that the organization has and culture as something the organization is.

How an organization manages communication manifests its culture. Communication is a process as well as a function. Communication dictates the culture of the organization due to its ability to win the hearts and the minds of the employees by creating an environment of transparency (Keyton, 2010).

Conclusion

Organizational culture, from the analysis is a fundamental feature in every company. It is a critical aspect that can propel an organization into achieving its objectives. Every organization or a business firm needs to be ahead of its competitors.

Organizational culture which enhances employees’ satisfaction, motivation and boosts their morale should be encouraged as this kind if culture facilitates the realization of better performance and enhances efficiency.

It is imperative for every company to have a culture that can define its direction and, which can hold the organization together. Organizational culture serves the behavioral role, enhances stability of the organization, and it is a source of identity for the company.

References

Alvesson, M. (2002). Understanding organizational culture. California, CA: Sage.

Cooke, R. (2011). Model of organization culture. Management Study Guide. Web.

Huddleston, L. (2011). What Are the Key Elements of Organizational Culture? Lisa Huddleston Documents. Web.

Keyton, J. (2010). Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work Experiences (2^nd ed).California, CA: Sage.

Khan, U, Usoro, A & Majewski, V. (2010). An Organisational Culture Model for Comparative Studies: A Conceptual View. International Journal of Global Business, 3(1), 53-82.

Schein, H. E. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership 4^th (ed). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Serrat, O. (2009). A Primer on organizational culture. Asian Development Bank. Web.

Widde, D. K & Muijen, J. J. (2000). Organizational Culture. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(3), 1.

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