ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational Culture



Introduction

Organizational culture is the set of values, beliefs and important understandings that members of an organization have in common. Culture provides definite forms of thought, feeling and reaction that guide decision-making and other activities of the participants in the organization.

Organizational Culture definitions share common concepts. Organizational Culture is the social or normative glue that holds an organization. It expresses the values or social ideals and beliefs that members of the organization come to share, expressed in symbolic elements such as myths, rituals, stories, legends and a specialized language. (Charles & Hill, 2001, Pp. 42-48)

Discussion

Organizational Culture has two meanings: one refers to the individual training of man and in particular the wealth of knowledge and experience acquired. The second meaning refers to the set of knowledge, beliefs, behaviors and beliefs cultivated and passed down from generation to generation.

Change in organizational culture is vital for management and administrative processes within an organization to identify and recognize cultural patterns that are characteristic of the social group. This happens because these are the determining factors which may or may not achieve through the management process. Besides all these, the organizational culture acts especially on two aspects of the group members' resistance to change and their perception of the environment. So, an organizational culture can be change with proper management. (Johnson, 1998, Pp75-91)

People at work are basically two scenarios of change that must be faced:

A new culture, to enter.

The gradual change of its distinctive ambience.

When minor cultural changes occur, they are easily assimilated by people in the group through processes of adaptation, which is the mechanism that allows employees to restore the balance. But on the contrary, the changes significantly affect the organization or create instability and affect their levels of effectiveness, until they are restored again the initial state of harmony between the parties that compose it. (Schein, 2005, Pp. 15-16)

The organizational culture includes guidelines that shape the enduring behavior. It fulfills several important functions to:

Convey a sense of identity to members of the organization

Facilitate commitment to something greater than myself

Strengthen social system stability

Offer premises recognized and accepted for decision making

Organizational culture can be changed by several internal and external forces. They are:

External Forces

Market

Laws and regulations passed by governments

Technology

Fluctuating labor market

Economic changes

Internal Forces

Reset or change the organizational strategy

New equipment

Employee attitude

Composition of the workforce (Handy, 2005, Pp. 204-216)

A manager can implement a project of ...