Organizational culture

“Culture consists of the symbols, rituals, language, and social dramas that highlight organizational life, including myths, stories, and jargon. It includes the shared meanings associated with the symbols, rituals, and language. Culture combines the philosophy of the firm with beliefs, expectations, and values shared by members. It contains the stories and myths about the company's founder and its current leading figures. Organizational culture consists of a set of shared meanings and values held by a set of members in an organization that distinguish the organization from other organizations. An organization's culture determines how it perceives and reacts to the larger environment (Becker, 1982; Schein, 1996). Culture determines the nature

All Organisations posses a distinct form of culture with some having more than a single culture. This culture is usually very difficult to measure, change and most especially change.

The term "culture" has been used more and more recently but what exactly does it mean? Some have even regarded culture as "the most central problem of all social science" (Malinowski, 1939). According to Merriam Webster (2016), culture is defined as the arts and other manifestations of human achievements. If culture was as simple as Merriam-Webster defines it then the lives of anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists would be much easier. As we know, culture varies greatly across religion, countries, and some cases in just states; the difference between the north and the south. We can conclude that culture is a set of shared thoughts, values, and cognitions (Geertz, 1973). With culture in itself varying tremendously based on values and location, then surely organizational culture is no simple concept either. The term "organizational culture" has just recently become to be used more (Barley, 1988). Though there may be disagreements on defining culture universally, researchers tend to agree that culture is of vital importance in an organizational context, whether that organization is a company or a government (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa, 1986).

Describing and identifying the importance of abstract terms is a difficult task because their meaning rely more on substance than form. For this and other reasons, individuals as well as organizations tend to overlook or underestimate their importance for a successful career and for the effective functioning of an organization. “Organizational Culture” is one of those terms, we can’t see it, but we can feel and experience it, and it has a profound impact in the way people behave in an organization. It denotes the attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values of the work group or team within the organization, which to an extent affect the organization as a whole.

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

It is commonly known that different organisations have their individual cultures. Culture describes who they are and what they stand for. It relates to the organisation 's traditions, customs, beliefs, meanings, morals, ethics, norms, language, shared values and practices. The business culture determines how people communicate within the company. There are numerous factors affecting

Culture within an organisation is a system of shared values, beliefs and norms of individuals in the organisation and how the value consensus creates a way in which people behave. The shared values have a strong influence on the individuals in the organisation and dictates how a person acts, dresses and performs in their job. A unique culture is developed and maintained by an organisation which provides guidelines and boundaries, through informal means, for the behaviour of the people within the organisation.

Organisational culture is described as a company’s personality or DNA. (Education Portal) has defined organisational culture as ‘a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations’. There are seven dimensions or characteristics of organisational culture. The Organisational Culture Profile (OCP) is one of many typologies that businesses use, to help them not only to describe its culture, but also identify, measure and managing it more effectively. Each organisation has a unique culture; every company will have a different value for each of the characteristics; furthermore when they are combined they define the organisations culture.

Organizational culture is also known as "corporate culture” that has a major impact on the performance of organization and especially on the quality of work life experienced by the employees. If people in the organization follow the same culture and accept the cultures as well, there would be unity formed within the organization that would lead to higher levels of efficiency resulting in an increase in the levels of performance. It is known that an increase in performance can lead to the development of a culture, which could lead to culture homogeneity in the way the organization works. A common culture results in having a common goal. People would agree to the decisions made more easily and be motivated to work, as the decisions made are the same as the

Organisational culture is a shared value belief which binds the people of an organisation together to achieve a particular objective. “In the early 1980s organisational culture became increasingly considered as both an obstacle to change and a vital ingredient of organisational success or failure” (Ian Brooks, 2003). Handy culture has social approach and focuses on the social factors. Whereas, Deal and Kennedy’s culture has management approach and focuses on what the managers want from a business, where managers find problems in cultural field,

An organization’s culture shapes the attitudes and behaviors of its employees by defining boundaries, providing a sense of identity and stability. It also establishes a standard in regards to what employees should say and do. Culture can be transmitted via stories, rituals, material symbols and language. Culture within an organization is no exception.

Every business has its own organisational culture. It is very significant to the organisation because well-developed culture will guide the successful business model. According to Tharp (2009, p.2) claims that “for some, culture is considered the “glue” that holds an organisation together and for others, the “compass” that provides directions”. The organisational culture is the system of shared actions, values, beliefs, norms, working language, systems, symbols and habits that develops and guides human behaviour in the organisation (Shermerhorn et al., 2012). According to Mullins (2010) states, that organisational culture is developing through long-term

Over the years, culture has been looked at in different ways. One such approach to culture is organizational culture. The behaviour of the employees and through this the external image of the organization is determined by the organization’s culture (Bratianu, Vasilache, & Jianu, 2006). Organizations have increasingly started to focus on the unique culture innate to them, trying to find ways to gain a competitive edge over others. There is no single widely accepted definition of organizational culture although one commonly known definition by Lundy & Cowling (1996) is that organizational culture is “the way we do things around here”. In other words, the culture of an organization can be understood through the values, beliefs and norms shared by the organization as a whole. Therefore through an understanding of the culture, managers should be able to determine a general trend on how employees of an organization think and behave in tandem with the organizational

Organizational culture is deemed to be the most important binding factors in a firm – an is the only thing that differentiates the employees of one firm from another. The culture of any organization also determines the power relationships between the different players of the firm, how communication and key decision making is handled as well as how different key stakeholders relate with each other. A culture that empowers every employee will se an organizational structure that mirrors this empowerment, and will consequently have a structure that allows more people to take part in decision making and value their contributions.

An organization ' 's culture encompasses everything it does and everything it makes. That is, it not only affects the manner