Organizational Culture

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What is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture is the pattern or trend of the people or employees in the organization how they think, how they behave, what are their customs and beliefs which will affect the organization. 

In simply we can say the way we do things around here in an organization (Furnham & Gunter, 1993).

Organizational culture is the pattern of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that may not have been articulated but shape the ways in which people behave and things get done. Values refer to what is believed to be important about how people and the organizations behave. Norms are the unwritten rules of behavior (Armstrong, 2006).

Culture can be defined as an active living phenomenon, which refers to ideas and values of people and can affect their actions without explicitly being noticed (Teräväinen et al., 2018)

Organizational culture is the values, principles, traditions, and attitudes that affect the way members of an organization behave (Robbins et al., 2007).

Organizational culture is the general pattern of mindsets, beliefs and values that member of the organization share in common, and which shape the behaviors, practices and other artifacts of the organization which are easily observable (Deshpande et al., 1993).

Types of Organizational Culture

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There are four types of organizational cultures Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy.

·         Clan (cooperative) Culture

This is a culture like an extended family like with a focus on mentoring, apprizing and doing things together. Clan culture possesses high attachment, concern with teamwork and participation (Quinn & Spreitze, 1991).

·         Adhocracy (Creative) Culture

This is a culture like dynamic and entrepreneurial. Risk taking and innovation are encouraged by management. It is a developmental organizational culture which is based on risk taking, innovation and change (Quinn & Spreitze, 1991).

·         Market (Competitive) Culture

It’s a result oriented culture with focused on job completion, goal oriented and competitive. This is a rational culture which emphasizes efficiency and achievement (Quinn & Spreitze, 1991)

·         Hierarchy (Control) Culture

It’s highly structured and control oriented culture which focuses on efficiency, stability and doing thing right. The hierarchical culture reflects values and norms associated with bureaucracy (Quinn & Spreitze, 1991).

Importance of Organizational Culture

An organization can have many employees with different cultures but when they work in an organization they had to adapt to the culture of the organization. So they can keep the unity of working with others or else it can affect the efficiency of the organization.

“Culture represents the ‘social glue’ and generates ‘we-feeling’, thus counteracting processes of differentiations which are an unavoidable part of organizational life. Organizational culture offers a shared system of meanings which is the basis for communications and mutual understanding. If these functions are not fulfilled in a satisfactory way, culture may significantly reduce the efficiency of an organization” (Furnham & Gunter, 1993).

A healthy culture encourages the employees to stay motivated and loyal toward the management. It promotes healthy competition at workplace which will bring the best out of each team members. It gives a sense of direction to the employees. It brings all the employees in a common platform. It keeps the healthy relationship among the employees. It goes long way in creating the brand image of the organization (Juneja, 2018).

References

Armstrong, M., 2006. A Handbook of Human Resources Management Practices, 10th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited

Deshpande, R., Farley, J. U. & Webster, F. E., 1993. Corporate culture, customer orientation, and innovativeness in Japanese firms: a quadrad analysis. The Journal of Marketing, pp. 23-37.

Furnham, A. & Gunter, B., 1993. Corporate Assessment. London: Routledge.

Juneja, P., 2018. MANAGEMENT STUDY GUIDE. [Online] Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/factors-affecting-organization-culture.htm

[Accessed 24 9 2018].

Quinn, R. E. & Spreitze, G. M., 1991. The Psychometrics of the Competing Values Culture Instrument and an Analysis of the Impact of Organizational Culture on Quality of Life. Research in Organizational Change and Development, Volume 5, pp. 115-142.

Robbins, S. P., Odendaal, A. & Roodt, G., 2007. Organisational Behaviour – Global and South African Perspective. South Africa: Pearson Education.

Teräväinen, V., Junnonen, J.M. & Ali-Löytty, S., 2018. Organizational culture: Case of the finnish construction. Construction, 18(1), pp. 48-69.

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