Discuss about the Organizational Culture and Organizational Performance for Corporate Culture.
Many factors work together to influence the performance of organizations. While some traditional theorists do not consider organizational culture to be a key determinant of the success of organizations, recent research indicates that a strong culture is vital for the superb performance of organizations. A strong organizational culture is a culture that is internally consistent, makes apparent what it requires and how people should achieve it, and is widely shared among members (Cartwright et al. 2001). According to Witte and Muijen (2000), a strong organizational culture as one that reinforces the central beliefs and actions that the management wants and at the same time weakens the values and behaviors that the management rejects. On the other hand, he considers a weak culture as one that has little alignment with organizational values. In the light of these definitions, it is clear that a strong culture promotes constructive behaviors and weeds out negative behaviors among members. However, a weak organizational culture either promotes unconstructive behaviors or does nothing to help members to focus on realizing the organization’s vision (Samson & Daft 2015).
In the traditional setup, organizations viewed culture as a means of improving internal integration and coordination. However, the modern view of this concept shows that culture is essential in mediating adaptation to the environment. The traditional view of a stable organizational culture could not agree with the current understanding that a strong culture has the ability to help organizations to adapt and change (Ybema et al. 2011).
For many decades, organizations have also viewed a strong culture as a conservative force. Some researchers still hold that a strong culture is dysfunctional for contemporary business organizations that should be change-oriented. However, in contrary to this view, Schein argues that an organization will not be resistant to change simply because a strong culture is relatively stable (Martin 2007). According to him, the content for a strong culture can be change-oriented, and therefore promote change more than a weak culture that offers little or no direction to the organization.
Additionally, the expert holds that the fact that some strong organizational cultures in the past frustrated change do not make a stable culture inappropriate in any way. With effective management, an organization can reap the benefits of a stable culture and still be responsive to change. He also provides that for modern organizations to be successful, their cultures should be strong but limited, thereby differentiating fundamental assumptions that are essential to their survival and success. Since modern organizations operate in rapidly changing environments and extensive internal workforce diversity, a strong organizational culture can help them to perform much better (Martin 2007).
However, the type of organizational culture that fits in the current environment one that is less pervasive regarding laying down strict norms and behavior patterns that one must exhibit to be considered a member of the community. Cultures that existed in the past did not put this into consideration, and that led to the failure of many organizations. This finding was supported by Alvesson (2016) in one of their famous studies that focused on the reasons behind the impressive performance of companies that had strong and lasting success.
Other than the implications of a strong organizational culture at the organizational level, it also has implications at the individual level. Since everyone in an organization has different cultures, people must first try to adjust to following the norms and values of the organizations where they work. The adoption of the organizations’ culture is critical for the employees’ success. Research has shown that adoption of a new organizational culture is easier when people are walking towards one direction within the organization. The commitment of the employee as well as the efficiency of the group plays a critical role in helping individuals to adopt the value and beliefs of the organization (Samson & Daft 2015).
Organizational culture can influence the behavior of members. Weak value systems promote the integration of expectations of the philosophy of the management, organizational rituals, customs, and preferred behavioral patterns through some form of coercion. When coercion is use, members experience stress and dissatisfaction. This idea is based on the foundation that human beings will always resist any integration process that does things contrary to their will. Members are able to cope up with any integration process through aggressive behavior, which can result in far-reaching consequences at both organizational and individual level. The outcome can be organizational dysfunction (Karlsson 2012).
A strong organizational culture should take care of irrationality of thoughts. The extent to which this makes them feel satisfied or stressed up depends on how they perceive the new demands and try to cope with them. A strong value system should support employees to meet the new challenges head on. If this does not happen, they will experience anxiety and tension (Karlsson 2012).
When employees are stressed, a strong work culture will require that they avoid taking up challenging situations. In a strong organizational culture, there are numerous rational ways of coping than in a power-centered weak culture where there is greater emphasis on using coercion to ensure all members adjust with culture. With coercion, conflicting situations increases (Quatro, 2002).
Additionally, a culture that is not challenging and improvement oriented can contribute the development of a tendency of idling around and continuing with routine practices as it does not create an environment that is taxing to the brain and skills. Human beings find it pleasurable to sit idle and enjoy the benefits that their organization offers. An idle value system that does not put constructive pressure on employees to perform is responsible for this destructive coping behavior. If the management introduces rigid measures in future, the scope of employees is to develop into a military behavior, which ensures that the organization cannot introduce any change for improvement (Pritchard & Eliot 2012).
Organizational culture can create room for suspicious mentality is not helpful. Employees are usually clear on their expectations towards motivational and maintenance needs. A culture that cannot rectify their doubts regarding the realization of relatedness, existence as well as growth needs can lead employees to develop a suspicious attitude towards their superiors. In an authoritative value system, there is limited room for interaction and interrelationship. Members, therefore, easily develop suspicious mentality towards their leaders’ decision-makings that relate to their personal goals. The result of this is individual-industrial action (Jennex 2010).
The workplace embraces the principle of equal sharing of responsibilities. However, the readiness to do this does not come automatically. An organizational culture that calls for mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual acceptance, and mutual trust makes it possible for people to be willing to share organizational responsibilities (Schermerhorn et al. 2008). If the culture does not value communication between employees and the management, rigidity, suspicion, lack of confidence, low-level cooperation, and distrust become the byproduct of that particular situation. The outcome is more psychological and physical problems to employees and adverse hazards to the organization.
Organizational culture also determines the emotional health of its workers. If an organization’s culture ensures its employees internalize the norms and behaviors through a supportive approach, it creates room for improvement. During socialization, the desirable behavioral patterns can be molded in employees, and this process of learning is considered complete only when it generates mutual support and mutual interest. Compulsion cannot yield any positive results. Socialization in a power-distance culture, instead of developing emotional maturity so that members can be able to behave appropriately, makes members react more antagonistically and immaturely (Schermerhorn et al. 2008).
For any organization to succeed, it must produce high-quality products, have effective co-operation at all levels, and abide by proactive management policies that make up a positive value system. A culture that ignores these factors and promotes labor-management conflict, mutual non-acceptance, mistrust, and rigid rules cannot help an organization to win the unconditional trust and cooperation of employees (Worley 2000). The only way to have the trust and confidence is to create a healthy psychological contract between the organization and the employees. A culture that creates room for the disruption of this psychological bond can destroy this contract and put the organization at the risk of failure.
A value system that has good things to transfer recognizes the essence of having a comprehensive induction and training program. This program helps to develop a realistic perception of what the company expects from its employees. Weak organizational cultures do not have anything to transfer as they believe people are “unique” and their actions should demonstrate that. This plants an unrealistic attitude in employees. Socialization agents such as management, peer groups, and trade unions influence the behavior of its members. If an organization’s value system promotes an excellent culture, these agents transfer the same belief system to new employees. However, if they promote weak culture, these socialization agents’ contribution will only help to build unrealistic attitudes and lead to the development of unrealistic value expectations and demands (Ulrich & Ulrich 2010).
A weak organizational culture promotes dependency to superiors and submissive attitude that result into a personal rivalry. Members are forced to follow their superiors since they can hold their timely promotions, payment, and other benefits. Greater job stress and job dissatisfaction are key indicators of this type of rivalry. The growth opportunities for workers, their creativity, and their improvement in the skill and knowledge are denied. This rivalry can lead to high-level organizational conflict t(Flamholtz & Randle 2011).
Organization culture can also affect the development of an individual’s self-concept. The manner in which an organization extends an opportunity for its members to understand their versatility, their life, and meaning attached to the organization, realistic perception and potential determines how they view themselves. Since people differ in many ways and these differences can create a lot of differences in work performance, a strong organization culture should create room for diversities. A power driven weak culture destroys the enthusiastic mindset of employees, and when employees encounter such situations, they develop maladjusted behavior.
Organizational culture also has an effect on the attitude and behavior of employees (Flamholtz & Randle 2011). It can lead members to quit their jobs or continue. A cohesive culture and supportive culture influence the behavior of members positively. On the other hand, in a culture where there is no value for members’ work, no objective feedback, and there is increased marginalization and victimization, members will always quit the organization. In such a culture, the rate of labor turnover is high, absenteeism high; there is low quality of production, and less profit (Blanchard & Miller 2004).
Additionally, organizational cultures affect the quality of life of members of organizations. The extent to which members of an organization can meet their personal needs by being employees of that organization can be affected by the organization’s culture. The members want the organization to offer them job security, a cordial work environment, employment benefits, autonomy, collaboration, openness, and adequate pay, among many other benefits. These factors influence the kind of life that these individuals lead. If an organization offers most of these things, the quality of life of their employees goes up. In a weak organizational culture, as there is less job security, weak interpersonal relationships, low growth opportunity, and poor labor management, the quality of work life is incredibly low (Blanchard & Miller 2004).
In conclusion, this analysis provides severe consequences that relate to both a weak and a strong organizational culture. The greatest lesson for managers is that they should identify these consequences at both the organizational level and individual level and adopt a culture that offers the most benefit. Of the greatest significance is how they should prevent the adverse effects of a weak culture. Since policies can influence the culture of an organization, it is appropriate to have managers take care of the policy formulation and implementation. As this analysis indicates, it is true that a strong organization culture is essential for superior organizational performance. The stronger an organization’s culture is, the higher the work motivation, loyalty and work ethic, and work commitment.
References
Alvesson, M 2016, Organizational culture, SAGE Reference, Los Angeles
Blanchard, K H, & Miller, M 2004, The secret: what great leaders know–and do, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco
Cartwright, S, Cooper, C L, & Earley, P C 2001, The international handbook of organizational culture and climate, Wiley, Chichester
Flamholtz, E G, & Randle, Y 2011, Corporate culture: the ultimate strategic asset, Stanford Business Books, Stanford, CA
Jennex, M. E 2010, Ubiquitous developments in knowledge management: integrations and trends, Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA
Karlsson, J 2012, Organizational misbehaviour in the workplace: narratives of dignity and resistance, Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Martin, J 2007, Organizational culture: mapping the terrain, Sage Publ, Thousand Oaks
Organizational culture and context 2003, Pergamon Flexible Learning, Oxford
Pritchard, K, & Eliot, J 2012, Help the helper: building a culture of extreme teamwork, Portfolio/Penguin, . New York, NY
Quatro, S 2002, Organizational spiritual normativity as an influence on organizational culture and performance in Fortune 500 firms.
Samson, D, & Daft, R 2015, Fundamentals of management: Asia Pacific Edition, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne, Vic
Schermerhorn, J R, Osborn, R, & Hunt, J 2008, Organizational behavior, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Ulrich, D, & Ulrich, W 2010, The why of work: how great leaders build abundant organizations that win, McGraw-Hill, New York
Witte, K D, & Muijen, J 2000, Organizational culture, Psychology Press, Hove UK
Worley, S 2000, Organizational culture and meanings in tension: an analysis of the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
Ybema, S, Yanow, D., & Sabelis, I 2011, Organizational culture, Edward Elgar Pub, Cheltenham, UK
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