Southern Mindanao Colleges

Pagadian City
“The maker of today’s leaders in Western Mindanao”
GRADUATE SCHOOL

Discussion Paper
“ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE”
ED 234

Submitted by:
Mr. Seth S. Lamoste
Masterand

Submitted to:
Dr. Ben Hope Ruelo
Professor
 Organizational Culture

The Problem

The organization is an organized body of people with a

particular purpose and inside of it there are different kinds of

individuals having different kinds of beliefs, values, customs,

traditions, and practices which we call culture. Culture affects

the way people relate to each other either inside or outside an

organization. The nature and kind of employees’ personalities

describe their work performance and achievement toward the

organizational goal. As problems arise inside an organization,

the dissensions and conflicts among employees intensify until it

will fully destroy the organization. Often the underlying causes

of these problems are the lack of direction and guidance to

employees, poor communication and feedback, lack of awareness,

and etc. So, we need to understand that developing the

organizational culture is important in order to build up the

relationship of each employee inside an organization, also it can

result in clarity of goals and understanding about the perception

of works. The key to a successful organization is to have a

culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs

that are supported by strategy, condition, and structure.

Importance of Organizational Culture

An organization's culture defines the proper way to behave

within the organization. This culture consists of shared beliefs

and values established by leaders and then communicated and

reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employees’

perceptions, behaviors, and understanding. Organizational culture

sets the context for everything an enterprise does. Because

industries and situations vary significantly, there is not a one-

size-fits-all culture template that meets the needs of all

organizations.

Organizational culture affects all aspects of business, from

punctuality and tone to contract terms and employee benefits.

When workplace culture aligns with employees, they’re more likely

to feel more comfortable, supported, and valued. Companies that

prioritize culture can also weather difficult times and changes

in the business environment and come out stronger.

Culture is a key advantage when it comes to attracting

talent and outperforming the competition. 77 percent of workers

consider a company’s culture before applying, and almost half of

employees would leave their current job for a lower-paying

opportunity at an organization with a better culture. The culture

of an organization is also one of the top indicators of employee

satisfaction and one of the main reasons that almost two-thirds

(65%) of employees stay in their job.

Consider Microsoft and Salesforce. Both technology-based

companies are world-class performers and admired brands, and both

owe this in part to prioritizing culture. Microsoft, known for

its cut-throat competitiveness under Steve Balmer, has been

positively transformed by Satya Nadella, who took over as CEO of

the company in 2014. He embarked on a program to refine the

company culture, a process that upended competitiveness in favor

of continuous learning. Instead of proving themselves, employees

were encouraged to improve themselves. Today Microsoft’s market

cap flirts with $1 trillion and it is again competing with Apple

and Amazon as one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Salesforce puts corporate culture front and center and has

experienced incredible growth throughout its history. Marc

Benioff, Salesforce’s founder and CEO, established philanthropic

cultural norms that have guided the company over the past two

decades. All new Salesforce employees spend part of their first

day volunteering and receive 56 hours of paid time to volunteer a

year. This focus on meaning and mission has made Salesforce one

of the best places to work in America according to Fortune, and

it hasn’t compromised profits either: Salesforce’s stock price

has surged year after year at an average of over 26% annually to

date.

A strong culture is a common denominator among the most

successful companies. All have consensus at the top regarding

cultural priorities, and those values focus not on individuals

but on the organization and its goals. Leaders in successful

companies live their cultures every day and go out of their way

to communicate their cultural identities to employees as well as

prospective new hires. They are clear about their values and how

those values define their organizations and determine how the

organizations run.

Conversely, an ineffective culture can bring down the

organization and its leadership. Disengaged employees, high

turnover, poor customer relations, and lower profits are examples

of how the wrong culture can negatively impact the bottom line.

Mergers and acquisitions are fraught with cultural issues.

Even organizational cultures that have worked well may develop

into a dysfunctional culture after a merger. Research has shown

that two out of three mergers fail because of cultural problems.

Blending and redefining the cultures, and reconciling the

differences between them, build a common platform for the future.

In recent years, the fast pace of mergers and acquisitions has

changed the way businesses now meld. The focus in mergers has
shifted away from blending cultures and has moved toward meeting

specific business objectives. Some experts believe that if the

right business plan and agenda are in place during a merger, a

strong corporate culture will develop naturally.

Change

Organizational culture is difficult to transform or change.

For example, the behavior and attitudes of employees toward the

organization are influenced by the behavior of other employees.

When entering an organization, new employees are actually

entering a subsystem that transforms their attitudes and opinions

about certain business practices. New employees then continue to

perpetuate this culture until it becomes entrenched as their own

reality. Thus, the organizational culture can be very challenging

to change for those both inside and outside that culture. This is

something many managers, management consultants and coaches have

to deal with when trying to transform an organization’s culture.

Organizational Communication

The effectiveness of organizational communication can be

derived from an organization’s culture. The flow of information

vertically from the managers to the subordinates, and

horizontally across the same department levels, is determined by

the organizational culture. For example, an organization with a

culture of openness may experience the free flow of information

among all levels of the organization. A culture that emphasizes

structure and hierarchy may hinder effective communication or

slow down the flow of information. The conclusion here is that

the culture can be used to determine the effectiveness of

communication, and vice versa.

Organizational Performance

An organization’s performance can be understood from the

organization’s culture. The organizational culture here can be

defined as the collective attitudes that employees have toward

the company, the leaders, co-workers, shareholders and customers.

Culture determines whether employees will value their

customers, along with business innovations and the reduction of

costs. The absence or presence of this value then determines the

performance of the employees and the organization at large. For

example, an organization that has an entrenched customer-oriented

culture will tend to be more efficient and have a more loyal

customer base compared to an organization that lacks such a

culture.

Leadership Styles

The organizational culture reveals the leadership styles of

those leading the organization. It also shows that the culture

influences the type of leadership, and the type of leadership

influences the culture. For example, an organization with a

culture of less competition and more collaboration in achieving

goals reveals that the leaders (managers) are more participation

oriented or have a participative style of leading. On the other

hand, transactional leaders will tend to create an organizational

culture of reward and punishment, with a focus on the hierarchy

separating leaders and subordinates. The conclusion is that

leadership and organizational culture influence each other.

Business Case

If an organization's culture is going to improve the

organization's overall performance, the culture must provide a

strategic competitive advantage, and beliefs and values must be

widely shared and firmly upheld. A strong culture can bring

benefits such as enhanced trust and cooperation, fewer

disagreements and more-efficient decision-making. Culture also

provides an informal control mechanism, a strong sense of

identification with the organization and shared understanding

among employees about what is important. Employees whose

organizations have strongly defined cultures can also justify

their behaviors at work because those behaviors fit the culture.

Company leaders play an instrumental role in shaping and

sustaining organizational culture. If the executives themselves

do not fit into an organization's culture, they often fail in

their jobs or quit due to poor fit. Consequently, when

organizations hire C-suite executives, these individuals should

have both the requisite skills and the ability to fit into the

company culture.

HR's Role

Culture plays a vital role in an organization's success.

Therefore, HR leaders and other members of the HR team should

foster a high-performance organizational culture.

HR leaders are responsible for ensuring that culture

management is a core focus of their organization's competitive

efforts. For HR leaders to influence culture, they need to work

with senior management to identify what the organizational

culture should look like. Strategic thinking and planning must

extend beyond merely meeting business goals and focus more

intently on an organization's most valuable asset—its people.

HR has been described as the "caretaker" of organizational

culture. In carrying out this essential role, all members of the

HR team should help build and manage a strong culture by:

 Being a role model for the organization's beliefs.

 Reinforcing organizational values.

 Ensuring that organizational ethics are defined, understood

and practiced.
  Enabling two-way communications and feedback channels.

 Defining roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

 Providing continuous learning and training.

 Sustaining reward and recognition systems.

 Encouraging empowerment and teams.

 Promoting a customer-supplier work environment.

 Recognizing and solving individual and organizational

problems and issues.

Factors That Shape an Organization's Culture

Organizational leaders often speak about the unusual natures

of their company cultures, seeing their domains as special places

to work. But organizations such as Disney and Nordstrom, which

are well-known for their unique cultures, are rare.

Most company cultures are not that different from one

another. Even organizations in disparate industries such as

manufacturing and health care tend to share a common core of

cultural values. For example, most private-sector companies want

to grow and increase revenues. Most strive to be team-oriented

and to demonstrate concern for others. Most are driven, rather

than relaxed, because they are competing for dollars and market

share. Some of the cultural characteristics that distinguish most

organizations include the following.

Values

At the heart of organizations' cultures are commonly shared

values. None is right or wrong, but organizations need to decide

which values they will emphasize. These common values include:

 Outcome orientation. Emphasizing achievements and results.

 People orientation. Insisting on fairness, tolerance and

respect for the individual.

 Team orientation. Emphasizing and rewarding collaboration.

 Attention to detail. Valuing precision and approaching

situations and problems analytically.

 Stability. Providing security and following a predictable

course.

 Innovation. Encouraging experimentation and risk-taking.

 Aggressiveness. Stimulating a fiercely competitive spirit.

Degree of Hierarchy

The degree of hierarchy is the extent to which the

organization values traditional channels of authority. The three

distinct levels of hierarchy are "high"—having a well-defined

organizational structure and an expectation that people will work

through official channels; "moderate"—having a defined structure

but an acceptance that people often work outside formal channels;

and "low" —having loosely defined job descriptions and accepting

that people challenge authority.

An organization with a high level of hierarchy tends to be

more formal and moves more slowly than an organization with a low

level of hierarchy.

Degree of Urgency

The degree of urgency defines how quickly the organization

wants or needs to drive decision-making and innovation. Some

organizations choose their degree of urgency, but others have it

thrust on them by the marketplace.

A culture with high levels of urgency has a need to push

projects through quickly and a high need to respond to a changing

marketplace. A moderate level of urgency moves projects at a

reasonable pace. A low level of urgency means people work slowly

and consistently, valuing quality over efficiency. An

organization with high urgency tends to be fast-paced and

supports a decisive management style. An organization with low

urgency tends to be more methodical and supports a more

considered management style.

People Orientation or Task Orientation

Organizations usually have a dominant way of valuing people

and tasks. An organization with a strong people orientation tends

to put people first when making decisions and believes that

people drive the organization's performance and productivity. An

organization with a strong task orientation tends to put tasks

and processes first when making decisions and believes that

efficiency and quality drive organization performance and

productivity.

Some organizations may get to choose their people and task

orientations. But others may have to fit their orientation to the

nature of their industry, historical issues or operational

processes.

Functional Orientation

Every organization puts an emphasis on certain functional

areas. Examples of functional orientations may include marketing,

operations, research and development, engineering or service. For

example, an innovative organization known for its research and

development may have at its core a functional orientation toward

R&D. A hospitality company may focus on operations or service,

depending on its historical choices and its definition in the

marketplace.

Employees from different functions in the company may think

that their functional areas are the ones that drive the

organization. Organizational leaders must understand what most

employees perceive to be the company's functional orientation.

Organizational Subcultures

Any organization can have a mix of subcultures in addition

to the dominant culture. Subcultures exist among groups or

individuals who may have their own rituals and traditions that,

although not shared by the rest of the organization, can deepen

and underscore the organization's core values. Subcultures can

also cause serious problems.

For example, regional cultures often differ from the overall

culture that top leadership tries to instill. Perhaps

aggressiveness that is common in one area may not mesh with a

culture emphasizing team building. Or an organization with a

culture built around equality may have trouble if the national

culture emphasizes hierarchy and expects people to bow to

authority. Managers and HR professionals must recognize those

differences and address them directly.

Conclusion

The culture within an organization is very important,

playing a large role in whether it is a happy and healthy

environment in which to work. In communicating and promoting the

organizational ethos to employees, their acknowledgement and

acceptance of it can influence their work behavior and attitudes.

When the interaction between the leadership and employees is

good, the latter will make a greater contribution to team

communication and collaboration, and will also be encouraged to

accomplish the mission and objectives assigned by the

organization, thereby enhancing job satisfaction.

Organizational culture is increasingly understood as a

critical element in the creation of high-performance workspaces.

A company’s prevailing values, attitudes, beliefs, artifacts, and

behaviors all comprise its culture and help to create a sense of

order, continuity, and commitment. Not only does the corporation

as a whole have a culture, but it commonly contains numerous

subcultures. Understanding culture at both levels is important

because one workspace design will not necessarily best support

differing work cultures. Culture becomes embedded in people's

thinking and feeling as unquestioned assumptions, and in their

actions and patterns of relationships as unwritten rules of

behavior.

References

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Denison DR, Mishra AK. Toward a theory of organizational culture

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10.1287/orsc.6.2.204.

Deal T. E. and Kennedy, A. A. (1982, 2000) Corporate Cultures:

The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin

Books, 1982; reissue Perseus Books, 2000

The Business Dictionary. Organizational culture

Needle, David (2004). Business in Context: An Introduction to

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123547