WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?
EMMANUEL A TURUKA
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Organizational
culture is seen as static; When implementing change what are the most
important components of culture that need to be addressed to facilitate change?
Organizational
culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes
and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results
when a group arrives at a set of generally unspoken and unwritten rules for
working together. An organization’s culture is made up of all of all the life
experiences each employee brings to the organization. Culture is especially influenced
by the organization’s founder, executive, and other managerial staff because of
their role in decision making and strategic directions. An organization’s
culture develops to help it cope with its environment.
Culture
is shared rituals virtual norms values and assumptions of a group every one who has ever worked for the organization
played some role in shaping its culture in most organization’s the executives
, director play a very major role in the
culture yet all staff play a role even those who feel discounted to their
organization’s culture. Organizational culture comprises the normal practices
and customs of a certain organization by practice I mean the beliefs held by
workers and managers in the organization about the way operating ought to work
while the practice and customs that have become the norm and various factors
are valued either positively or negatively. As Martin (2001) argues that, “much
neglected in many attempts to enlighten organizational cultures: hence fail to
demonstrate success because of problems in defining measuring successful
outcomes”
Culture
is deep seated and difficult to change, but leaders can influence or manage an
organization’s culture. It is important to understand how deeply the roots of
organizational culture go. Organizational culture is rooted in their shared
tacit assumptions of the organization. Organizational culture provides members
of the organization with stability, consistency and meaning. Organizational
culture change is necessary to support almost all organizational change
efforts; strategically, structural, or process. The problem organizational
cultural change can be slow and frustrating, but the benefits can include
dramatically improved organizational performance. Organizational culture has a
powerful effect on the performance and long term effectiveness of
organizations.
How
can we change the culture through variable i.e. Changes occur through a
management directive and intervention or through root metaphor whereby changes occur
through natural evolution all members influence culture. The organization
decided to change its culture it must understand the current culture then
decide what the organizational culture should look like to support success what
vision does the organization have for its future and how must the culture
change to support the accomplishment of that vision. Key components are;
·
Values – basic beliefs and concepts
·
Heroes – personify cultural values
·
Rites and rituals – public performance
that display and enact values
·
Cultural network – primary carrier of
cultural information
Executive
support in the organization must support the cultural change and in ways beyond
verbal support. They must show behavioral support for the cultural change. The
executive must lead the changes by changing their own behaviors. It is
extremely important for executives to consistently support change. Individuals
in the organization must decide to change their behavior to create the desired
organizational culture.
Culture
is the environment that surrounds you at work place all the time. Culture is a
powerful element that shapes your work enjoyment, your work relationship and
your work processes. Culture is like a personality, the personality is made up
of values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, interest, experiences, upbringing
and habits that create a persona’s behavior. Organizational cultures are
created to maintain and transformed by people. An organizational culture is in
part also created and maintained by the organization’s leadership. Productive
cultural change will occur if leaders correctly analyze the organization’s
existing culture, and evaluate it against the cultural attributes needed to
achieve strategic objectives.
Important
steps
1. Clarify what does not seem to be working
in the culture and get specific about how this element is holding the
organization back.
2. Informally and formally develop allies.
It is almost impossible to have an effect in a culture by yourself involve
other people
3. Formally define the business problem
without defining specific issue that staff can work together to correct or
improve discussions of culture become underground in reality.
Culture
provide a lens through which its members interpret interact with and make sense
of reality, it also help to explain patterns of behavior and thought that
characterized individuals and the groups with which they are associate hence it
focuses on values attitudes and beliefs of members. Organizational culture
provides meanings for routine organizational events, thereby reducing the
amount of cognitive processing and energy members needed to expand through the
day.
Explain
the potential barriers that exist to prevent change and why they are not easily
overcome
Changing
organizational culture is difficult but it is the best way to ensure that the
organization operates more safely in the future. Culture is a complex
communicative phenomenon rooted in the history of the organization's events.
Culture is a changeable by management. Changing organizational culture is the
toughest task, because organizational culture was formed over years of
interaction between the participants in the organization it can feel like
rolling rocks uphill. Organizational culture matches the style and comfort
zones of the company founder cultures frequently echoes the prevailing
management style. Since managers tend to hire people just like themselves the
establishment organizational culture is reinforced by new hires.
Organizational
culture grows over time people are comfortable with the current organizational
culture. People consider culture change a significant event which rocks their
world and get peoples' attention. As Tobias & Wilson (2004) argue, “in many
organizations change intervention is a fear, it is like the mosquitoes in the
night that swarm around the swamp of organizational power” therefore fear in
many cases paralyzes initiatives, and as many scholars argued it accelerate the
nakedness of accountability. If you recall the case of NASA which you brought
in class; in this case placing the mission ahead of safety concerns was the
first priority, however when a strong focus on the mission begins to affect
safety organization should start to think about change, and how to go about the
only way to change is to concentrate on organizational culture.
Therefore when an
organization needs to make changes in culture, the changes must be demonstrated
and practiced on a continual basis. The toughest thing about changing culture
is that without someone focusing on keeping the changes permanent, the culture
usually reverts back to the way it was. We should keep in our mind that always
changes must be incremental and institutionalize. I for one believe strongly
that here is no one right way to achieve an inclusive organizational culture
change given that organizational is constantly changing. To navigate smoothly
through the change process, an organization needs visible leadership, and its
leaders will need ongoing coaching so they can model the necessary skills,
behaviors, and attitudes effectively and with authenticity. If leaders are
given the opportunity to practice and improve, the results will come.
References:
Eisenberg,
E.M.,Goodall,H.L & Trethewey A. 2007. Organizational
Communication: Balancing Creativity and Constraint (5th ed).
Boston: Bedford St. Martins
Martin, J. (2001). Organizational
culture: Mapping the terrain. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Tobias,
L.L., & Wilson, N. 2004. The thriving person and the thriving
organization. Parallels and Linkages Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research Winter
2004
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