What is the nature and substance of organisational culture and why does it matter? This essay will set out to define what is organisational culture, examine the main attributes that characterise it and how cultural originate and develop within it. At the same time, this essay will also assess the importance of organisational culture to the financial performance and continued survivability of firms. Organisational theorists, depending on their school of thought, hold differing conceptions of organisational culture. Most theorists attempt to use a variety of metaphors, or images, to bound, frame, and differentiate that category of experience referred to as an “organisation” (Smircich, 1983). The most common comparisons made of organisations …show more content…
Organisational culture is emergent and socially created by constant interactions of organisational members with their environment as well as with each other. Looking at the former, Schein (1985) defines culture as learned solutions to problems that arise from positive problem-solving situations, be it problems of “external adaptation” or “internal integration”. Essentially, when confronted a problem that threatens the continuing survival of an organisation, members of the organisation would try out various responses until they discover one that most effectively remedies the situation. This solution, once accepted, is absorbed into the culture and becomes a cultural norm. For the latter, culture also emerges as a way for members to cope with environmental anxieties. For example, in order to cope with the stress of their occupational responsibilities and develop an effective way to communicate their points with each other, members of an organisation may develop their own jargon and language, which then becomes an implicit cultural …show more content…
It is a “pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience” (Brown 1994) that manifests itself into three layers: artefacts at the shallowest, values and beliefs in the middle and basic assumptions at the deepest. It is inseparable from the organisation that cannot be easily manipulated as it is fundamentally non-unitary and emergent. Finally, organisational culture is important as it is one of the main determinants as to whether a firm can enjoy superior financial and a comparative advantage over firms of differing cultures. Bibliography Frost, P. J., Moore, L. F., Louis, M. R., Lundberg, C. C. & Martin, J. (1991). Reframing Organizational Culture. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Miller, K. (2012). Cultural Approaches. In Organizational communication: Approaches and processes (6.th ed., p. 81 to 93). Boston, Mass: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Morley, D. D. & Shockley-Zalabak, P. (1991). Setting the Rules: An Examination of Organizational Founders’ Values. Management Communication Quarterly, 4, 422–449. Peters, T. J. & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. New York: Harper &
Another idea created by Johnson and Scholes (1997) is the cultural web. This aims to show how culture influences on behaviour occur and how this impacts on the organisation. The cultural web focuses on artefacts, which are defined by Dwyer (2001) as the “most visible and most superficial manifestations of an organisational culture” These include routines and rituals, stories, symbols, power structures, organisational structures and control symbols. Firstly, routine and rituals comprise the repeated patterns of behaviour from the workers. Routine is how employees behave towards those in and out of the organisation and supports Deal and Kennedy’s (1982) saying of “the way we do things around here”. Rituals, on the other hand, are more so social events which management arrange e.g. work meetings, Christmas parties. Another artefact is stories. Often colleagues will tell each other stories about the organisation which show and emphasise important qualities of staff. This will influence their behaviour and motivate. Symbols are often used in firms which Dwyer (2001) explains as “words, objects, conditions, acts or characteristics of persons that signify something different or wider from themselves, and which have meaning to an individual group” This even include the layout of the business and furnishings. Organisation structure is included in the cultural web. This is important as it is how the business delegates work and responsibility. It reflects the “centralisation, formalisation, complexity, configuration and flexibility in the firm” (Olsen et al, 1998, p, 211). Lastly, is control systems. This helps to control what is happening in the firm. Together, these make up the outer layer of a business’s ‘cultural web’.
One way to think about the culture of a company is through the Organizational Cultural
The organizational culture theory is a theory that conceptualizes why an organization operates in the manner it does and how the way they operate differentiates them from other organizations. For instance, in the Metaphors & Culture Web Lecture, it is noted that “different people have different metaphors for the same word, highlighting different interpretations of that word,” which shows that culture can influence the way one views certain ideas through the use of different metaphors for the same word. An example of this used in the lecture are the metaphors “true love can drive you crazy” and “they’re crazy about each other.” These differences in metaphors influence how one communicates their ideas with other individuals. This concept goes back to the theory of organizational culture, in organizational culture an organization 's principles, beliefs, and ethics are shaped from the head of the organization; the way the head of the organization views an idea and communicates that idea shapes the way other members, who are of lower ranking, views that idea. Thus, creating a dominant culture within that
This essay gives a basic idea of what organizational culture is, and emphasis on the controversial issues of managing organizational cultures. As there are various definitions for organizational culture, and none of them are universally agreed. Therefore, for an easier understanding by readers, the definition of organizational culture given in this essay focusing on levels of culture, and will be discussed t together with Schein's(1983) framework. Before talking about managing organizational cultures, the types will be introduced first. Because, there are some descriptions about managing different types of organizational cultures, in the following content.
While organization culture can be defined in many ways. Here are presented some of the meaning of organizational culture according to some members, according to Wood, Wallace, Zeffane, Schermerhorn, Hunt , Osborn (2001:391), organizational culture is a reliable and value system developed by the organization where it leads the behavior of members of the organization itself . While, according to Tosi, Rizzo, Carroll as quoted by Munandar (2001:263), organizational culture is the ways of thinking, feeling and reacting based on certain patterns that exist in the organization or is in the parts of the organization . Whereas according to Robbins (1996:289), organizational culture is a common perception shared by the members of that organization.
Organizational culture is a key element in any company. It shapes the working environment and the way employees communicate, behave and perform. Organizational culture is ‘the set(s) of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerges from the interactions of organizational members. An organization’s culture becomes the framework against which organizational
Organizational culture refers to a pattern of basic assumptions about a particular group, association, or organization that are so well integrated to help the group deal with issues concerning both its internal and external environment.They are upheld by all existing members of the group and passed on to new ones. (Schein, 1992, p. 111)
Organizational culture is a shared value system derived over time that guides members as they solve problems, adapts to the external environment, and manage relationship (Schein in Wooten and Crane 2003, Vol. 21(6), p.276). Organisational culture is about how things get done subtly without people watching so that the organisation runs smoothly. Organisational culture is needed so that company can run without hiccups and run efficiently. It shows organisation structural stability and patterning and integration (Schein 1997). Organisation culture also determines the type of leadership.
Linking with the above definition, organizational culture can also be indicates by Brown (1998) as the kind of beliefs, values, and learned ways of subsist with experience that have established during the course of an organization background, and which suppose to be explicit in its material arrangements and the members behaviours. In Schein (1992), organizational culture is extremely difficult to change, outlasting organizational products, services and other attributes of the organization. In general, there has one ar...
Organizational culture relates to a system of shared norms, ideals, values and assumptions that binds humans collectively (Larson, 2014). The way of life reflects the character of the organization and, similar to a character's personality,
Can the effects of cultural misunderstandings can be painful for the individuals, but also for the organization as a whole. Embarrassing situations and inadvertently insults, offenses and failure to achieve individual and organizational goals are among the consequences of the joint. Experience of many managers and researchers in the field of strategy, organization, and the development of the theory of the organization suggests all this ", the study of cultural issues at the organizational level is absolutely essential to a basic understanding of what goes on in organizations, and how it works, and how to improve" (Shin 1990).
Organizational Culture is the assortment of distributed values and beliefs that carry a company’s identification. Organizational culture is described as the primary pattern of shared values and hypotheses administering the way workers within an establishment think about and act on dilemmas and possibilities. Culture may be characterized as how an organization recognizes the world and how it should work. Culture encompasses the beliefs, values, attitudes, and expectations for conduct that the society considers to be good, effective, desirable, and beneficial (Pierce & Gardner, 2002). Culture is the social part of the climate, collective bargaining programming of the mind, and shared meaning system (Gelfand, Erez, & Aycan, 2007). Culture is ‘software of
An organisational culture is a system of shared suppositions, qualities and convictions which represent the general employees within the organisation, their occupations, conduct and even dress. Each organisation has rules of conduct and
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies states that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the de...