Introduction
Corporate culture is the pattern of shared and stable beliefs and values that are developed within a company across time (Gordon and Ditomaso, 1992). This definition brings the time factor into the picture. In other words the corporate culture will become more ingrained and reinforced the longer an organization is in existence. Medical One, founded in 1992 had a distinct and powerful corporate culture of its own that its employees believed had brought about a high level of care to its patients. However cost overturns and bad planning had placed the company under a great deal of debt, leading to its acquisition by Health Plus, a much smaller but financially successful company operating throughout Arizona and New Mexico. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of culture within an organization, culture types, culture components and how best to effect its change.
Components of Culture
Coleman (2013) argues that within the numerous differences in various corporate cultures, there are six common traits: Vision, values, practices, people, narrative, and place. The starting point to a great corporate culture is the mission statement. It helps guide employees in their everyday decision making process, while informing customers, suppliers, etc. of the company’s vision. A company’s values serve as a guideline to achieve the company’s vision. Practices are what the company actually does that support their stated values. There would be no coherent culture
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.).
Organizational culture could almost be considered the roots of a company. The way a company’s employees think, the way the customers feel, and the company’s decisions are made are all based around the culture that the company has laid for itself. An employee’s values, thoughts, and actions should reflect those stated in the company’s mission. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, while both attempting to create a culture that is comfortable and pleasing to their
“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
Corporate culture influences everyday employee actions – it’s how they interact with customers, each other, and make decisions. If the company culture does not align with the mission statement, it can create an identity crisis of sorts.
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,
In healthcare organization, it is necessary to hold a proper link between the culture and structure in relation to the successful execution of the organization's strategies.
“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” (Baack, 2012). These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Culture plays a huge role in the guiding of the behaviors of employees of an organization. There are three stages of culture that interact with one another to influence the behaviors in the organization. These stages are: observable artifacts, espoused values, and enacted values.
The culture of an organization plays a major role when it becomes time for an organization to make changes or take any decisions; this is also one of the things that the American Red Cross faces on a constant basis. The effectiveness and efficiency by which an organization makes decisions may make the variance between accomplishment and failure. An organization culture plays a major role in the ethical decision making of the organization. When we are taking of about a small business entering the medical field the organization will focus more on the profit that the business should be making and in turn the
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.
In this paper I will discuss the effects and responsibilities leaders have on an organizational culture. I believe leaders have an enormous effect on the well-being of an organizational culture. Leaders must take an active role within their organization's culture. Whether positive or negative, in an organization, things tend to follow suit "down hill." A leader has the power and influence to maintain, create, or repair an organizational culture. However, this can prove to be a delicate and challenging task.
There is a tremendous amount of literature regarding Organizational Culture as it relates to corporate business. Peters and Waterman (1982) book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies, became the blueprint for organizational success. With the paradigm shift of hospitals becoming more “business- like” through mergers, acquisition, and pay for performance, organizational culture in a hospital setting will need to be furthered analyzed and defined as a predicator of success.
In today’s dynamic business environment leadership must understand the value and importance of their organizations’ culture. While it may never be formally defined, leadership must have a vision of their intended culture and a plan for creating and maintaining it. This vision will serve as the potter’s clay that determines everything from the dress code to the organizational structure. This paper examines two methods organizations can choose to create and maintain a healthy culture.
Management researchers seem to agree that the things that companies do called "corporate culture" is an intangible concept and hence difficult to define. Among the attempts to define "corporate culture", the following definition is useful as a starting point:- "culture represents an interdependent set of values and ways of behaving that are common in a community and that tend to perpetuate themselves, sometimes over long periods of time" (Kotter and Heskett,1992,141) Peters and Watermann argue that changing a culture cannot be accomplished.
The culture of an organization is the set of values, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes that helps its members understand what the organization stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important"(Griffin, 49). In other words, "the way things work around here" (Dr. Williams). In order for any small business or large corporation to be successful, the employees must understand what is expected of them. While things might be slightly different in a large corporation versus a small "mom and pop shop", the goal of both is the same. MAKE THE BUSINESS MONEY. The topic of my paper will be on makes a good corporate culture.
Existing culture can in times be very hard to continue with because of the change in the growth or in the strategic change in the organisation. At such appropriate web of culture is important to be identified or that can be a problem in the progress of the organisation. These identified elements will give organisation a bigger picture of what was going wrong and how can they change it towards betterment of the organisation.