Importance of Organizational Culture - Coursework Example

Organizational culture Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Organizational culture is the behavior of people in an organizational. These behaviors always are attached with some meanings that influence people to behave in such a manner. Many organizations in the modern business are concerned with their organizational culture. This is because organizational culture helps to improve the performance of an organization as it enables employees to be motivated. For instance, if the trend in an organization is that promotions are only made according to different ranks and based on the performance of an individual then all employees will be encouraged to work hard and improve their performance so that they can be considered for promotional opportunities when chance arises. Organizational culture is expressed through leadership and management of the organization (Daglish & Miller 2010). In this regard therefore, many organizations are considering and giving their organizational culture concern so that the culture can enable them to be competitive in the market and gain competitive advantage. In this essay, I will discuss the importance of culture to organizations and various concepts about organizational culture and how it can be expressed in organizations. Culture plays a great role in organizations. To start with, culture helps an organization to improve its performance. This is because if there is good culture in an organization and employees are satisfied, they will be motivated hence increase their productivity (Smith 2003). For instance if the culture of the organization is to promote employees depending on their performance, then each employee will be motivated to work hard so as to gain favors when there is a chance for promotion. Culture also enables organizations to be able to attract and retain employees. This is because the reputation of the organization is good hence attracting many potential skills as well as maintaining them (Smith 2003). Further, culture enables an organization to satisfy the customers by providing quality products and services with appropriate pricing strategy. Finally, culture enables originations to reduce their operations costs hence generate good profits. This is because, when the employees are motivated and satisfied with their jobs, they utilize the resources of the company effectively without wastages which in turn reduces the cost of production as there is optimal utilization of resources. Dimensions of culture Culture in organizations can be expressed in various dimensions. The first dimension is the universalism and particularism. In this Universalism approach, the rules are applied in all sets of management while in particularism approach; the culture is expressed in various relationships in the organization (George & Jones 2008). In the universalism culture, a leader is restricted to rules and cannot make decisions which are not based on the set regulations. In particularism culture, the leader is always expected to make decisions which are based on the current situation and not necessarily on the set rules. Culture can also be expressed in the dimension of individualism and communitarianism. This is the dimension in culture that emphasizes on the on the group the culture focuses more. In the individual approach, the culture considers individuals better than any other group because it is people who will enable the organization to improve its performance (Daglish & Miller 2010). In the communitarian approach, the leadership focuses and concentrates on groups more than the individual people. In general, this dimension or culture puts more emphasis on people as they contribute more on the performance of the organization through their human skills. Another dimension of culture is the neutral and emotional culture. In neutral cultures, the leader generally focuses on the objectives of the organization while emotional cultures are where the leader is driven by emotions based on a certain context (George & Jones 2008). The leader expresses his or her views through expressions like gesturing and the facial expressions. Emotions are considered irrelevant and the most important thing is the role being played and this culture led to development of bureaucratic style of leadership. There is also specific and diffuse culture dimension. In the diffuse cultures, a leader and a follower are considered to have good relationship between them. In this approach, there are no exact rules designed to enable people to develop good relationship but it is because of their moral values. With specific approach, culture is strictly based on the principles and moral laws that govern the behavior of individuals in the organization (George & Jones 2008). Specific approach ensures that there is specific relationship between organizations, for example the specific purpose of conducting business is to make profits. With diffuse cultures, the relationship can be between two parties for example the employees and the employer so that they can build trust among them. This dimension expresses how good relationships can be achieved in the organization. There is also achievement and ascription dimension of culture in organizations. This is the culture that is oriented to achievement of individuals and groups. It focuses more on the achievements than anything else. Focus is put on the leader to know what he has been able to achieve (George & Jones 2008). In ascription dimension, the focus is put on the external factors that influence the achievement of an individual like the experience and the educational level. In this effect, culture can be expressed through the achievements of an individual. Expression of culture through leadership Culture is majorly expressed through leadership of the organization. Leaders serve as role models to the followers and therefore the employees can emulate what their leaders do. Leaders normally behave in a way that is based on the culture of the organization and therefore through the leadership style, one can easily tell the kind of culture in that organization (Trompenaars & Prud’Homme 2004). Leaders do try to integrate the followers’ values with the values of the organization. Culture therefore has a big role to play in the relationship between the leaders and the followers in an organization. Culture influences the leaders in the following ways; First, culture influences the leader’s perception of situations when trying to find a solution to the problem. The ways a leader responds to various situations can clearly indicate the type of culture in the organization (Robbins & Coulter 2007). For example, a leader may make a decision based on the situation but not on the rules and obligations available. This shows the culture in which the leaders have the authority to make decisions to save a situation and not necessarily on the rules of the organization. Culture also influences the way leaders perceive various groups in the organization. In this regard therefore culture can be expressed by observing how the leaders perceive different groups in an organization (Robbins & Judge 2008). For example if the leaders concentrate more on the individuals than groups then the culture can be said to be individualism but if the leaders put more concentration of the groups than individuals then it can be concluded that the culture is communitarianism. Culture can also be expressed by the way in which the leaders perceive different achievements of leaders in the organization. If the leaders are more concerned with the achievement of the organization, then the culture can be said to be achievement oriented (Robbins & Coulter 2007). Culture affects the manner in which the leaders perceive the organization. The management maybe much concerned with the achievement of the leaders or the employees by focusing on the objectives designed and the much the organization has been able to achieve so far. Values further influence the way leaders perceive various issues. Through the cultural values, the leaders can be able to define the ethical and unethical issues. The way a leader behaves shows the way in which culture of the organization is structured. For example, if the leader in the organization is able to differentiate the right and wrong, then the culture of the organization can be said to be well managed or not. The ethical values show that the organization is ethically oriented. Culture can also be expressed by the way an organization responds to both external and internal issues. Different organizations respond differently to issues that may affect their operations (Robbins & Coulter 2007). Some organizations are well prepared to handle any calamities that might come up which for example changing in the weather conditions which can in turn affect the supply of raw materials. Through this preparedness, the organization can be buying more stock by forecasting the weather changes. This show a culture of preparedness by the organization unlike an organization which does not prepare for any calamities which can either be external or internal. Culture in organizations can also be expressed through the communication channels. There are various channels of communication that can be applied by various organizations (Robbins & Judge 2008). For example, there is upward and downward communication and there is only downward communication. When there is both upward and downward communication then it can be concluded that the culture in that organization allows for mutual sharing of ideas and information because even the junior employees have the chance to give their views to the top management. In an organization where there is only downward communication, the culture of the organization can be said to be dictatorial because the employees are not given the opportunity to give their views and expressions. On the other hand, culture in organizations can be expressed into various layers. The first layer of the culture in organizations is the national level culture. This is the topmost level of culture in organizations. In an organization, culture can be expressed as national culture. This is the general guidelines or the code of ethics set by a state to govern the organizations (Dubrin & Daglish 2003). From this code of ethics, someone can easily recognize the type of culture in that organization. For instance, national culture is determined by the way an organization conducts its operations and how it observes the legal laws of the country. Culture can also be expressed in terms of regional level of culture. This is the expression of the culture whereby an organization’s culture can be identified through religious or ethnic perspectives (Robbins & Judge 2008). Different organizations have different ethnic backgrounds and therefore, through these regional backgrounds an organization culture can be easily expressed. This is because different regions have different values therefore organizations have different cultures depending on the regions where they are located. Further, culture can be expressed in terms of gender differences. Different organizations perceive gender differently. Gender classifies the employees into male or female employees. In most organizations the number of male employees is higher than the number of female employees (Robbins & Judge 2008). This expresses a culture of gender imbalance because the number of male employees is higher than the number of female employees. In some organizations further, the male employees are considered for promotions than the female employees and this trend continues even when the management staff changes. Culture can also be expressed in terms of generations. This is the culture with which an organization keeps on passing its values to upcoming generations or new managements. An organization can be identified by assessing the way its past management used to accomplish their tasks (Trompenaars & Hampden 2002). These ways are then passed on to other subsequent management teams. For example, an organization’s culture can be expressed by comparing its past and current performance in terms of quality of the products. It can be the culture of that organization to practice continues improvement in terms of quality. Moreover, culture of an organization can be expressed in terms of their social class. Social class can be through education or the occupation. This is the layer of culture whereby an organization’s culture can be recognized in terms of the skills the organization has or its occupation (Trompenaars & Hampden 2002). An organization can be specializing in a field where not many organizations operate or hiring employees with high education levels than, most of the organizations. In this regard, education and occupation can distinguish an organization’s culture from others. In addition, an organization’s culture can be expressed in terms of corporate governance. Different organizations have different structures and rules which their day to day operations. For example, there are different methods of recruitment and selection (Trompenaars & Hampden 2002). One organization can use internal sourcing while another one uses external sourcing. Due to these different sourcing techniques and other general rules of the organization, culture changes from one organization to another and thus it can be expressed in terms of the corporate governance. Conclusion Organizational culture is the general way an organization operates. It includes the behavior of employees and the reasons for that kind of behavior in organizations. Culture is important because it enables organizations to improve their performance in terms of quality and quantity, reduces the costs of production, attracts and maintains employees and leads to customer satisfaction. The dimensions of culture include universalism and particularism, individualism and communitarianism, neutral and emotional culture, specific and diffuse culture dimension and achievement and ascription dimension. Culture can be expressed through leadership because the leaders’ values portray the culture of an organization. Organizational culture can also be expressed by various layers of culture which are national level, regional level, and the differences in gender, generational, social class and corporate governance. References Daglish, C. & Miller, P. (2010). Leadership: Understanding its global impact. New York: Tilde University press. Dubrin, A. & Daglish, C. (2003). Leadership and Australian Focus. Sydney: John Wiley & sons, Milton. George, J.M. & Jones, G.R. (2008). Organizational culture and ethical behavior. In Understanding and managing organizational behavior. New Jersey: Pearson International Edition. Robbins, S.P. & Coulter, M. (2007). Organizational culture and environment: The constraints. In Management. New Jersey: Pearson International Edition. Robbins, S.O. & Judge, T.A. (2008). Organizational culture. In Essentials of Organizational behavior. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc Smith, M.E. (2003). Changing an organization’s culture: Correlates of success and Failure. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 24, No. 5, p. 249-261. Trompenaars, F. & Prud’Homme, P. (2004). Managing change across corporate cultures. UK: Capstone Publishing Ltd. Trompenaars, F. & Hampden, T, C. (2002). Riding the waves of culture. Nicholas Brealey publishing, London. Read More