Module 3

Organisation culture:

Meaning of culture:

Culture means a set of rules, values and beliefs which community adopts as its norm. Culture refers
to the distinctive ways that different populations, societies or smaller groups organize their lives or
activities.

The important components or parts of culture include:

 Communication
 Language
 Dress and appearance
 Food habits
 Time
 Rewards and recognition
 Values and norms.
Characteristics of culture:
The following are the characteristics of culture:
1. Culture is learnt - Culture is acquired through learning and experience.
2. Culture is shared – Members of particular groups or organisations and societies share a
particular culture.
3. Culture is trans generational (Socialisation) – It is passed from one generation to the next,
parent to children, teacher to students and so on.
4. Culture is symbolic- It depends on individual’s capacity to symbolize or to use one thing to
represent the other.
5. Culture is patterned- It possesses structure and is integrated.
6. Culture is adaptive – It depends on human capacity to adopt to change.
7. Culture is descriptive – It defines the boundaries of different groups.
8. Culture has historical dimension - A nation’s culture develops over time due to history and
economic development.
9. Finally culture has different layers. They are:
 Symbols of words, gestures and objects carry particular meaning. For example, Flag.
 Heroes- That is the persons that are highly prized in society.
 Rituals – That is the social norms that need to be followed. (Greetings of friends).
 Shared values – That is the collective beliefs and feelings.
Constituents of culture:
The constituents of culture are:
 Beliefs
 Values
 Attitudes
 Behaviour
The continued relationship between beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviour may be
considered as components of culture.
Organisation Culture:
Organisation culture may be referred to the pattern of beliefs, values and leaned ways of
coping within an organisation. The environment and culture will stimulate individuals to
perform in the desired manner. In a dynamic organisation, these values and assumptions
drive behaviours that create value for the organisation’s major stakeholders, be its
customers, employees and other groups such as suppliers etc. Success of the organisation
depends on strong and widely recognized corporate culture the organisation should have.
This culture of the organisation may change in accordance with the change in culture due to
competition.

Definition:
Organisation culture is a set of values, often taken for granted, that help people in an
organisation to understand which actions are considered acceptable and which
unacceptable (Moorhead and Griffin).
Organisation culture is the pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by members of an
organisation. It conveys the way in which “people work and think”.

Characteristics of Organisational culture:

The essence of organisational culture includes the following:
 The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and risk taking.
 The degree of expected precision and attention to deal.
 The degree to which management focuses on result orientation rather than the
technique and process.
 The degree to which management has people orientation – its decisional effect on
the outcome on employees.
 The degree to which activities are organized on team work rather than individuals.
 The degree to which people are competitive and aggressive rather than people are
easy going.
 Degree to which organisation activities emphasise stability in contrast to growth.
Importance of Organisation Culture:
Corporate culture is important for:
 The growth of organisation.
 The success of the corporation.
 The excellence of the corporation.
 The survival of the corporation.
 The motivating effect on employees.
 Influence in organisation’s competitiveness over time.
A better culture is very essential for the survival and growth of every corporation in
the present time.
Advantages of culture:
 Organisational culture is necessary to adapt changes arising out of competition.
 It helps the business and the people to behave in an accepted way.
 It influences one’s perception of business.
 It leads to high morale, source of commitment and organisational people.
 It leads to motivation and productivity.
  Variation in cultural values will have an impact on employees’ turnover, absenteeism
and job performance.
 Culture involves values and beliefs and a sense of common direction, energy and
guidelines for day to day behaviour.
 The cultural values provide guidelines to employees for taking decision.
Building and maintaining organisational culture:
Organisation culture is the shared understanding of norms, values, attitudes and beliefs of an
organisation, which leads to change. It is a system of shared meaning and an understanding
to employees of “the way things are done”. It also conveys the ways in which “people work
and think”.
The pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of introducing within an organisation is
organisational culture. These are all the process of the organisation, visible in structure and
the ways in which the employees behave. In short, shared values and common assumption
held by the people within the organisation is called an organisation’s culture.
The following are the steps involved in starting, formatting and maintaining of organisational
culture. They are:
 The founders formulate a statement of organisational philosophy and communication
to employees.
 Creation of vision
 Creation of core groups from key:
 People of sharing a vision, mission, values, goals and strategies to be
institutionalized and become reality.
 The founders act in concert to create an organisation culture strictly following
the values.
 Managerial modeling behaviour strongly influences the employees.
 Common values are built and made solid by involving other employees while
developing organisation’s values relationships to customers, social
responsibility and managerial style are considered.
Maintaining organisation’s culture:
The process of maintaining organisation’s culture involves the following:
a. Selection criteria: Using standardized procedures for selecting the entry level personnel to
fit into the organizations team – oriented culture.
b. Socialisation: It is a process that adapts employees to the organisation’s culture.
c. Job mastery: Mastering one’s own job after cultural shock.
d. Measuring and rewarding individual performance and matching employees values to
those of the organisation. The actions of top management have a major impact on the
organisation’s culture i.e., that is pay raise, promotion, etc as the action of management
which increase organisation culture.
Managing cultural diversity:
Meaning of cultural diversity:
Cultural diversity means the difference in the culture practiced by individuals and it will differ
from one person to another. These differences may be due to:
 Pattern of life style, values, beliefs, ideals, and practices followed by individuals.
 Race, national origin, language, age, and religion of individuals.
  Views held about the world, codes of social behaviour, communication styles followed
by individuals.
Importance of cultural diversity:
 Cultural diversity is one of the challenges of the global business. So it is important for
the success and validity of the organisation.
 In order to attain competitive advantage in globalization, it is necessary to have an
understanding of various cultures and the ways of managing it.
 To develop policies on sexual harassment, grievance systems for equal opportunities.
 In managing diversity, ethics programmes are useful in acknowledging different values
and perspectives.
 To develop organisation culture for valuing differences.
 Education of employees for mind set about diversity.
 Avoid discrimination in policies to make a harmonious work place. So that all
employees benefits from wider range of experiences and ideas.
Advantages of managing cultural diversity:
 Creative and better problem solving made possible through group of people with
diverse backgrounds.
 To develop a favorable reputation for those companies which manage cultural
diversity.
 Get better customers out of cultural diversity.
 Increases the adaptability and flexibility of management to react to environmental
changes, if the concerns have the ability to manage cultural diversity.
 Global business advantage made possible through managing cultural diversity in a
successful manner.
Guidelines:
 Managers and employees must understand that a diverse work force will embody
different perspectives and approaches to work and must truly value variety of opinion
and insight.
 The leadership of organisation must recognize both the learning opportunities and the
challenges that the expression of different perspectives presents for an organisation.
 The organisational culture must create an expectation of high standards of
performance from everyone.
 The organisation culture must stimulate personal development.
 The organisational culture must encourage openness.
 The organisation culture must make workers feel valued.
 The organisation must have a well-articulated and widely understood mission.