MN7181-Organizational culture defined-Blog 08

(Figure 1: organizational culture)

Organizational culture or collective culture - structures of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that may not be expressed, but this is how people behave in organizations and integration with things.

This definition ensures that organizational culture revolves around the subject of events within the organization. It refers to abstractions, such as values and norms that define, discuss, or ignore a part of the business.

(Video 1: What is Organizational Culture?)

The following are some other definitions of organizational culture:

 ● A strong culture is a system of informal rules that spells out how people are to behave most of the time (Deal & Kennedy , 2000).

● The culture of an organization refers to the unique configuration of norms, values, beliefs and ways of behaving that characterize the manner in which groups and individuals combine to get things done (Eldridge & Crombie, 1974).

 ● Organizational culture offers a shared system of meanings that is the basis for communications and mutual understanding (Furnham & Gunter , 1993).

● Culture is a pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with the problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to these problems

 (Schein, 1990).

How organizational culture develops

The values and norms that are the basis of culture are formed in four ways.

• The leaders in the organization, especially those who have shaped it in the past. Indicates that people identify with visionary leaders how they behave and what they expect. They note what such leaders pay attention to and treat them as role models.

• Culture is formed around critical incidents important events from which lessons are learnt about desirable or undesirable behaviour.

• Culture develops from the need to maintain effective working relationships among organization members that establishes values and expectations.

           

• Culture is influenced by the organization’s environment, which may tend to be dynamic or unchanging. Culture evolves over time as a result of shared experiences.

The diversity of culture

The evolutionary process described above may result in a culture that characterizes the whole organization. But there may be different cultures within organizations. There may be some common organizational values or norms, but in some respects these will vary between different work environments.

Leadership and Culture

Organizations largely function by means of managers and supervisors who exercise leadership in order to get their teams into action and ensure that they achieve the results expected of them. Leadership had a direct impact on organizational climate.

Power

Organizations exist to get things done; in the process of doing this, people or groups exercise power. Directly or indirectly, the use of power in influencing behaviour is a pervading feature of organizations,

Politics

Political behaviour is an inevitable feature of organizational life. The goal of organizational politicians is to have their own way of influencing people to accept their point of view without going through the usual channels or relying on their authority. Some people sincerely believe that the best way to achieve something is to use political means, especially when they are frustrated by normal decision-making processes.

Emotional intelligence

 The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and that of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves as well as others (Goleman, 1995) He suggested that its four components are:

 1 Self -management

 2 Self-awareness

 3 Social awareness

 4 Social skills

References

• Deal, T. & Kennedy, A., 2000. Organizational culture. 
• Eldridge & Crombie, 1974. Organizationa and culture.
• Furnham & Gunter, 1993. Culture in Organizations.
• Goleman, 1995. Leadership and organizational culture.
• Schein, 1990. Oganizational culture.
• Figure 1: organizational culture, (2014) Why Leaders Should Care About Organizational Culture, [Online] Available at : https://patimes.org/leaders-care-organizational-culture/ [Accessed 25 September 2019].
• Video 1: What is Organizational Culture?. [Online] Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cBN8xH-5Qw [Accessed 25 September 2019].