Organizational Culture and Its Counterculture

There are two approaches to organisational culture mainstream and critical, both will be evaluated and explored throughout. Starting with mainstream, Smircich defines mainstream organisational culture as ‘something that an organisation has’ (1983). When looking at culture through this perspective it is understood to be

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

Various television shows have pushed boundaries to create positive differences in social perception of minorities, but only few have had the power and influence to make a noteworthy impact on American culture. Television Comedy has been able to cleverly impact acceptance of American Culture boundaries for years on end. From the show “Good Times” all the way to “The Office”, comedy has been an effective way of creating positive perceptions and acceptance of all different kinds of views on our society. An easily countable number of academic texts give evidence to Black-watched, Black-targeted television narratives. (Marc, 1997). Racially directed comedy television shows have, in my opinion, have been one of the most prevalent types of television

According to Mclean and Marshall (1993) organisational culture is defined as the collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that contribute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation. (ie) this means that these factors actually determine how we think as well as act and react not only to people from within the same organisation but also to anybody on the outside who has some sort of interaction with the organisation. As can be seen with the part-structure in Figure 1, this organisation (WHD) has various levels of management. There is quite

Organizational culture at our place of employment can promote improved patient outcomes. How we feel about ourselves, our personal investment and our relationship to our work environment are additional factors that contribute to patient satisfaction and our sense of professionalism and accomplishment (Manojlovich & Ketefian, 2002). We will look at the role of our organizational structure and its impact and contribution to the issues involving Nurse A.

In order for one to evaluate and identify with the diverse business structures, he/she must be aware of the meaning and standards that makes that structure. Various businesses functions in different ways as the world is full of technology and new structures, company cultures and new ways in which companies are run. In order to fully grasp the concepts of Organizational structure and culture in the movies, I will use the Movie Up in the Air and The Devil Wear Prada movies to analyze a business scenario from them.

The organizational culture and subcultures within a business determines, to a larger extent, how the business performs and the quality of people that comprises an organization. Such culture is often initially created on purpose, but takes on life and identity of its own, developing organically and eventually controls and cultivates people within the organization.

The OCI Circumplex showed that the company has a culture with moderately strong Oppositional and Humanistic-Encouraging styles. It also significantly displays Avoidance and Self-Actualizing styles. The two least prominent styles are Perfectionistic and Approval. At first glance, the organization may seem to be working against itself, since the styles are on opposite sides of the

According to Robbins and Judge, organizational culture is, “a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations” (Robbins 249). A strong organizational culture is one whose organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared. After viewing Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, it is obvious that Enron had not only an organizational culture that was strong, but one that was extreme and aggressive. This aggressive and strong organizational culture discouraged both teamwork and ethical behavior and in the end it only plagued Enron until it eventually collapsed under its downfall.

The culture of an organization is as unique and diverse as the individuals are who live and work within it. In fact, the above definition of organizational culture provided by Schein (1985a) suggests an image of a living, breathing and influential force engaged in a series of reciprocal interactions with its members. Furthermore, the culture of an organization does not simply appear but is one that is constructed and developed over a period of time. For example, Stackman, Pinder and Conner (2000) describe organizational culture as being comprised of a system of layering or as a “deep construct.” The idea being that the culture of an organization is similar to the skin of an onion encompassing layers of values, beliefs, assumptions,

(Ch.2) It was while reading the introduction of this chapter that the realization hit me that ‘Culture’ governs every walk of our life. Right from what we wear and what we speak, to what we perceive as beautiful (or ugly), how we behave differently with different people, our idea of right and wrong – everything is part of our culture, which has been handed down to us as accepted from our past generations. This has been very beautifully explained in the first two pages of the chapter. I particularly liked one example in the ‘Case In Point’ (p. 9), where it is pointed out that crossing your ankle over your knee is a posture that is considered rude in Japan. This might not seem a big deal to people in other countries, but when in Japan, it would do us good remember this.

Culture is an important aspect of an identity. It is what we believe, how we behave and culture influences an identity’s decision making. Organisational culture is the deep, basic assumptions, beliefs and shared values that define organisational membership. It is also defined as member’s habitual ways of making decisions and presenting themselves and their organisation. In this essay, I will be discussing about organisational culture in the post-bureaucratic era. First of all, I will be talking about how top management and employees related through culture by utilising

Organizational culture influences many aspects of work life. Workplace cultures that are grounded in strong and formally articulated values and modes of behavior define an organization. Well-communicated values influence employee behavior and drive how employees relate with all stakeholders within the organization—from co-workers, management and members of the board to clients, shareholders and the community at large. When organizations seek to change their culture, HR—as change agent and educator of the change process—plays a significant role in this endeavor. In addition, HR's role is both up front and in the background, by leading, supporting, coaching, encouraging, measuring and evaluating the change during the process and over time.

Organizational culture and leadership both affect every day working lives, even if you notice it or not. There is no single definition for organizational culture but the concept consists of socially developed rules of conduct that are shared by members of an organization. Some researchers believe that many traits of an organization’s culture are so vague and general that even the members of the organization cannot accurately describe them. The reason for culture is to offer members with a sense of identity and to create a commitment to the beliefs and values of an organization. An understanding of organizational culture is crucial to building effective organizations since an organization’s culture affects the entire organization. Organizational leadership is a management approach that works towards what is best for individuals and what is best for a group as a whole. The attitude and a work ethic of a leader empowers an individual in any role to lead from any part of an organization. A leader 's success in business depends upon understanding organizational culture. Organizational culture defines leadership and to understand one’s leadership you will have to understand one’s culture.

Fard, Rostamy and Taghiloo (2009) states that organisation culture is assumed worldwide as a gadget that is utilized by management to frame and deal with the beliefs, prespective and behaviour of people and taking into account that the organisation can attain to their vision and their mission.