Shaping Organizations

Shaping Organizations

Shaping Organizations

Introduction

Culture and value

The definition of an Organization can be defined as "A structure through which individuals cooperate systematically to conduct business". It includes routine behaviors, norms, or a type of climate that is conveyed. The purpose and function of culture in the workplace is to help create and maintain integration, bring employees from all levels of the organization closer together, and to enhance performance and productivity. (Black, Richard J. 2003, 123-77)

Organisation culture can be defined as the collection of relatively uniform and enduring beliefs, values, customs, traditions and practices which are shared by an organisation's members and which are transmitted from one generation of employees to the next. One view in the field of organisation culture is the culture metaphor. A metaphor is a word or phrase applied to an object or action which it does not literally denote.1 Metaphor can be powerful means of communicating ideas and are in common use in many organisations. It asserts that culture is a mental state that has to be tolerated since it is incapable of being changed by management. It adopted a phenomenological standpoint and conceptualised culture as a 'process of enactment' - not as something that exists 'out there' separate from people, but which was actually manufactured by company employees as they interacted with one another on a daily basis within the workplace.2 In highlighting the symbolic significance of virtually every aspect of organisation life, the culture metaphor thus focuses attention on a human side of organisation that other metaphors ignore or gloss over. The culture metaphor opens the way to a reinterpretation of many traditional managerial concepts and processes. It also helps to reinterpret the nature and significance of organisation environment relations.

Explanation

Understanding Culture

Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is made up of the assumptions, values and norms of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization soon realize the particular culture of an organization shortly after being hired. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they see it. For example, the culture of a large, for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different that that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what members wear, etc., similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someone's personality.

The culture of an organization operates at both a conscious and unconscious level. Often the people who see an organizations culture more clearly are those from the outside, the new hires, the consultants or vendors. Those not living inside the culture can often see it more objectively. Better to ask a New Yorker to tell you what Californians are like than ask a Californian. (Black, Richard J. 2003, 123-77)

Cultural Change, value and its applciation

The concept of culture is very important when attempting to manage an organization-wide ...