Organizational Change and Culture
Aurora Fane
Union County College
March 8, 2017
Organizational Change and Culture
Organizational culture is defined as values, beliefs, and expectations that keep organizations together and also influence employees. Culture varies from organization to organization and that is what sets them apart from one another. As an employee, a company’s culture should play a major part when deciding if the organization is a good fit for you. If management is transparent with their employees and there is a clear understanding of what the company’s culture is, and what is expected of everyone, it will have a positive impact on employees. There can also be disadvantages in organizational culture and
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When the company is facing barriers, employees that are not accepting of the culture need to be dealt with individually, whether it be through additional training or termination (Faucheaux, 2009; Johnson, 2013). I personally experienced a change in culture eight years ago when the company I worked for was bought out by a Fortune 500 company. When I was first hired it was a small “mom and pop” company where there was no culture or values. I am in the business of packaging oil, shortening, and margarine, and it was not until the transition was completed that employees were made aware of the dangers we were facing on a daily basis. Picture a warehouse where there are production lines filling bottles with oil, racks stacked with thousands of pounds of oil, forklifts driving around the production area, and shipping docks. Further, imagine employees walking freely throughout the warehouse without any personal protective equipment. There were risks all around us and we did not realize that at any given moment someone could have been hit with a forklift, or have a pallet of oil fall from above injuring someone, and at the same time creating a slip hazard. We were very lucky that no one was hurt. The very first thing the company did was to educate and train every employee in the warehouse and office on safety. It was made clear that no one was permitted to enter the warehouse without a bump cap, safety glasses, and slip resistant boots. Eventually,
According to The Journal for Quality and Participation, "a company's culture is embedded in its DNA." With that being said, establishing a productive organizational culture is a crucial component to the success of the company, even before they are in business. In a nutshell, "organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions....which governs how people how people behave in a culture." When employees of a company are aware of what is expected and accepted, they are more likely to perform their jobs according to those set standards. Whether it be how they dress, speak, or respond to diversity, each area in an organization is highly affected by the culture. Due to the fact that organizational culture is what ultimately
Cultivating an organizational culture applies essentially to all industries. For a company such as Chevron, it is imperative that their employees know how much their utmost safety means to them. This is evident in the company’s principles when it comes to practicing safety first, being supportive and looking out for team members (Rossi,
Organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense 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.
Workplace culture is often hard to describe, because it means something different in every organisation and many times employees feel it’s ‘just the way things are’. But so often it can define a company and when it’s not working well, everyone knows about it.
The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,
Organizational culture is the heart of the organization performance it is critical for organizational success. It is a culture in which the core values are intensely and widely shared among the employees and stake holders.
A strong culture is important to today’s organizations in a fast pace environment affected by a diverse internal workforce (Baker, 2002 p. 4). Schein (as cited in Baker, 2002) defined organizational culture as an arrangement of shared beliefs that the group learned through problem solving, and adapting to internal and external environments (p.4). Culture is not only a means of bettering internal coordination, but is important in facilitating environmental adaptation (Baker, 2002 p. 4).
Employers can use multiple strategies to educate employees, but in this case there were internal control malfunctions. The main strategy is diversity cultural. Diversity cultural will train employees to understand sensitivity. Sensitivity is necessary to for every individual in respect standpoint. Respecting every persons feelings, culture differences, and values.
Organizational culture is not a new concept in the world of organizational behavior. Yet despite its age, it still has many varied definitions as well as philosophies on its importance and impact to the success of a company. One definition is that organizational culture is a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioral norms, and expectations shared by members of an organization (Greenberg, 2013, p. 368). Greenberg (2013) further explains organizational culture through an analogy of a tree. Organizational culture are similar to the roots of a tree.
Organization culture is the matter that holds a company intact. This is what makes each
Organization culture is the matter that holds a company intact. This is what makes each
I think it is best to describe in the two-minute video when Jon Katzenbach said, "When an organization is at its best a corporation is going to energize their employees and it's going to make people feel good, about what they do to advance the strategic operations of the company." Jon also said when this happens, "it's really an emotional energizer that you can't get anywhere else." I agree with Jon on this because he attacks the behaviors before attacking the culture. That is why I think the above example about the scrubs is a perfect example. The hospital not only attack a culture with change but they first and more importantly attack an "emotional commitment" to the employee and in doing so this made the culture change energized and
An organization’s culture governs day to day behavior. This type of power may be seen as a control mechanism, which businesses use to manipulate internal and external perception. Every organization has a set of assumed understandings that must be adopted and implemented by new employees in order for them to be accepted. Conformity to the culture becomes the primary basis for reward by the organization. “The role of culture in influencing employee behavior appears to be increasingly important in today’s workplace, as organizations have widened spans of control, flattened structures, introduced teams, reduced
An organization's culture is the set of norms that create powerful precedents for acceptable behavior within the firm. Culture is a powerful force and can provide an engine to achieve market success or an anchor pulling the firm toward failure. An organization's culture has a significant impact on one's performance. Defining the informal rules of the road, the culture determines the degree of creativity and risk that are acceptable, the patterns of communication, and even the types of relationships people have with each other. Organizational success depends on the creation of an identity that pulls together the multiple aspects of an organization. The effective management of identity changes would require both strong ties that connect people to their organization and loose ties that prevent them from getting too attached to the status quo.
Organizational culture is a vital aspect of any successful business or organization. A positive culture can help attract and retain loyal and committed employees, which, in turn, can strengthen relationships with customers and other partners. Just like any other asset, organizational culture must be monitored and nurtured to ensure that it reflects the organization and its