Organizational Cultures Are Created To Solve Problems

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

According to Edgar H Schein, organisational culture is ‘a pattern of basic assumptions about how the group copes with the outside world where these assumptions define how members should perceive, think and feel about problems’ (Smith, 2003) The organisational culture of a firm should be influenced, changed and manipulated in order to benefit the employees, their performance and the company in whole. (Wilson, 2000) For a multicultural organisation to flourish, it relies to on effective and expedient management of disputes. At the global level, understanding and resolving conflict are important issues to be considered to maintain peace within a firm. For example, how one chooses to resolve a conflict within a workplace may be affected by the status of the other party—whether superior, subordinate or peer. (DeVore, 2005)

The culture of an organisation should be deep, pervasive, patterned and neutral as a result of which it would have a direct influence and impact on leadership. Leadership plays a very integral role in the wellbeing of a company as it is the source of the beliefs and values that get a group dealing with internal and external problems. To understand and assess the deeper levels of culture, functionality of assumptions made and to deal with anxieties is a major challenge and focal point for managers and other business leaders in a firm. (Schien, 2010)

The impact of organisational culture on individuals is based on factors such as employee morale, commitment, productivity along with physical and emotional well being. A lot of importance to these factors was given by firms such as Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, Circuit City and Plenum Publishing and as a result of good, stable and powerful organisational culture these firms were the top 5 performers in terms of growth and success in the past 2 decades. (Cameron, Quinn, 2006)

In an investigation of the relationship between culture and corporate performance, according to Kotter and Heskett ‘Corporate culture can have a significant impact on a firm’s long-term economic performance being an important factor in determining the success or failure of firms in the next decade by inhibiting strong long-term financial performance’ Corporate Culture is difficult to manage and change as a result of a number of factors where organisations may persist in their cultural values even  though these values inhibit the organisation from adapting to a changing business environment. (Smith, 2003)  In many cases, leaders who sponsor change efforts may fail to develop and communicate a compelling need for the change where leadership may lose confidence early in the change process when business results are disappointing. Sometimes, the length of time to accomplish culture change may also be problematic. Some examples of companies which attempted major cultural change like General Electric, Xerox and British Airways where the length of cultural changed ranged between 8-10 years. (Smith, 2003)

Altering the corporate climate and culture of an organisation is considered to be of great importance in today’s changing world where competition is at large at every possible field and level. The organisation's climate can be defined by employee views of organization's fundamental reason for being, the company's overall mission and goals and their importance for them. Following which, the corporate climate then breeds an organisational culture consisting of what employees see as the management's beliefs and value systems. Climate and culture determine how each employees shape performance by setting and achieving their goals.(Mason, 2010)

The four primary indicators of work-place change are a change in the organizational structure, launch of a new product or service, management change and new technology. Change in organisational structure can be brought through major downsizing, outsourcing, acquisitions or mergers. For example, the launch of a new product may lead to change in production, sales and customer service.  Management change too brings a transition period during where upper-level managers are likely to alter existing business processes and personnel policies. The steps involved in implementing changes in organisational culture are involving key people, developing a plan and supporting the plan through effective communication. (Mason, 2010)

For companies that are performing well, the effectiveness of the chosen approach to organisational culture is dependent upon contextual factors relating to both the internal and the external environment.  Thus though the context determines maintenance of culture, the strategies adopted by the company are determined by the paradigm and perspective subscribed to by the manager or change agent. In dealing with the management of organisational culture, it is necessary to identify the attributes of the existing or new target culture — the myths, symbols, rituals, values and assumptions that underpin the culture. (Millett, Willcoxson 2000)

Though organisational culture plays an integral role in the wellbeing of a firm there may be a backlash in certain cases and scenarios. Sometimes, there may be section of people who may not adhere to changes in organisational culture. They resist the change in organisational culture because they do not want to get out of their comfort zone, areas of expertise and relationships with co workers. Sometimes, when an organization proposes large-scale change, those affected begin worrying about changes which may be inculcated in their jobs, the new skills to be acquired, change in responsibilities, change in line of established communication and change in working relations. In many cases, the most successful members of a company may feel threatened because they were able to perform so well under the previous organizational structure. Common employee reactions to change include confusion, denial, loss of identity and anger. (Mason, 2010)

But in today's world the corporate management is realizing that showing their own concerns about organizational change also helps other personnel to deal with theirs. It affords them opportunity to teach others how to identify best practices under less than ideal circumstances by letting employees know they empathize with their concerns. (Mason, 2010) So all in all, organisational culture plays an integral role in the wellbeing of a firm and its employees but needs to be changed from time to time keeping in mind the changing trends and employee reactions.

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