...Understanding an Organization's Culture Goal: This activity is designed to help you identify the dimensions of an organization's culture and acquire more than a simple definition of these concepts. * Wal-Mart appears to be well structured. They do their best every day to provide the greatest possible level of service to everyone they come in contact with. Their power distribution and job autonomy is great. Their beliefs are the foundation of their culture: service to their customers, respect for the individual, striving for excellence and acting with integrity. Wal-Mart sociability is described as the importance of respect for every associate. They also have encourage opportunities for growth and rewarded employees accomplishments. The key to their success is constantly looking for ways to improve themselves and improve their business. They strive to lead not just their industry, but also each associate to the next level of success. Wal-Mart’s tolerance for risk and change is to be objective by making decisions based solely on Wal-Mart’s interests while operating in compliance with all laws and their policies. Wal-Mart’s conflict tolerance is to be honest by telling the truth and keeping your word. Last but not least, Wal-Mart’s emotional support is to be fair and open when dealing with associates, suppliers and other stakeholders. Then, answer the following questions: 1) Define the eight dimensions of organizational culture described in the text. * Sociability-...
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...The influence of organizational culture on organization’s performance MGMT2384 Submission date: March 20, 2013 With the development of global market, companies use different ways to improve their profit. Making novel advertisement, changing marketing method and adjusting strategic plan are common ways to improve company’s performance (Yanfang, 2011). As the time goes on, people find that these ways sometimes do not work. The problem is about organizational culture. It is why organization does not have good performance (LaGuardia, 2008). Organizational culture has a long history but no one realized it until 1980. There was a drastic business competition between American and Japan. Japanese companies changed their organizational cultures to make their companies better. After that many foreign companies followed (Albert & Jean, 2007). The huge influence of organizational culture was found by people at that time. This essay aims at understanding the influence of organizational culture on organization’s performance. It will use theoretical knowledge to explain the influence of organizational culture on organization’s performance. Then organizational examples will be used to apply to theoretical knowledge. Organizational culture includes many elements such as leadership, values, beliefs, symbols and so on. Organizational culture shows the concept when you meet some situations and do some specific work. What are some familiar stories and symbols they often tell and...
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...2.1 STUDIES ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Baker, (1980) accessible that it can complete the modify by aggressively overriding, using a diversity of strategy to promote the preferred culture and close the cultural gaps. Nevertheless, the management of culture must be suspiciously measured and cautiously undertaken because it may engage some risk since some of the consequences are often surprising. Deal and Kennedy (1982) recommend that the require to modify a culture arises when the organization's advance changes. Culture change is a must when introducing quality principles into an organization because quality represents a new culture, which frequently contradicts the traditional culture that exists within that organization. Bookbinder (1984)...
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...Organizational Behavior Terminology & Concepts Organizational Culture An organization’s culture can be both corporeal and mental in nature. What does this mean? Well, organizational culture is shared by members of the group, and as such, guides the day-to-day activities of the work environment. Organizational culture is made up of values, assumptions, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, norms and artifacts of an organization’s members and their behaviors. Organizational culture is created through the sharing of values between people and groups in an organization. This sharing controls the way the individuals or groups interact with each other as well as with external stakeholders. Organizational culture is comprised of those items that guide action; including the written value statements of visions set forth by the organization. This is an example of the physical aspect of organizational culture. The mental components of organizational culture include behavior norms; how people relate to co-workers and customers during the business day (Schein, 2004). Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior, in its simplest definition, is how people act within organizations. This concept is closely related to organizational culture, since an aspect of the organizational culture can guide an employee’s behavior in the work environment. Organizational behavior as a field is the systematic study of the individual and their behavior within the organizational context. Diversity ...
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... and mores, and subcultures are the basic elements of an organizational culture (Fottler, Ford, & Heaton, 2010). I feel that an employee should be fired if they do not meet the organization’s organizational culture. We all know that every individual has his/her own beliefs; however, if the person does not match the beliefs and values of the organization, problems can arise. If an organization says that they are focused on their consumers and when the employees interact with consumers they are rude and inconsiderate, the consumer may not return. I worked in a nursing home as a CNA for almost two years. Our patients all were elderly and had Down’s syndrome. Our organizational culture was to treat each patient with dignity and respect, as well as giving each patient their right to privacy. We were all trained on these beliefs, as well as all of the HIPAA rules. Our facility hired a young girl to work the floor as a CNA as well. I caught her making fun of one of our consumers with one of her friends. I turned her in, and she was fired on the spot, no questions asked. Like I stated before, I do believe that an employee should be terminated if they do not meet the organization’s culture. I also believe, however, that if the employee is trained properly, they should have a chance to get their attitudes in check. Once given that second chance, if they still do not meet the organization’s culture, then they should be terminated. I personally do not see any issues arising...
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...Organizational Culture Profiles In many organizations, one typically finds that corporate culture affects everyone. Culture is important because it can influence human behavior, can be difficult to change, and its near invisibility makes it hard to address directly. The MIG’s current and preferred culture shown in the OCAI in Appendix A focuses on some core attributes of the organization. The OCAI is a key component to help the MIG understand and conceptualize its organizational culture, its nature, determinants and predictions, as well as the relationships among culture's diverse set of variables. Organizational culture is widely considered one of the most significant factors in bringing about organizational change and modernizing public administration and service delivery (Jung et al., 2009). The Competing Values Framework (CVF) four quadrants of culture are clan culture, adhocracy culture, market culture, and hierarchy culture. These are extremely useful in organizing and interpreting organizational phenomena (Cameron &ump; Quinn, 2011). The OCAI produces an overall organizational culture profile as a guide for leaders to initiate change in each of the four quadrants. There are many ways to look at organizational culture: as a means to provide leaders with tools to measure various aspects culture, and to get a view of where the organization is and where it needs to be. Organizational culture profiles are interpreted from at least six standards of comparison: type...
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...Accountants COM/530 January 14, 2013 Abstract An organization’s espoused values are the mission, philosophy, vision, and value statements. These statements represent what the organization values and the enacted values show what the company does. This paper will show the alignment between the espoused values and the enacted values along with describing how the role of communication influences the perception and organizational culture and identify the role of conflict in group communication in Cisco Systems, Incorporated. Cisco Systems, Inc. - Organizational Behavior and Communication The values of an organization originate from the organization’s mission, philosophy, values, and vision statements. How the organization performs may be the same or different from its values. The intention of this paper is to establish if not only Cisco Systems’ espoused values align with its enacted values but also describe how the role of communication plays in the perception and organizational culture along with observing the role of conflict in group communication. Organizational Culture “Cisco Systems remains the world’s largest provider of the routers, switching systems and related hardware, and software and services needed to interconnect computers and make high-speed telecommunications possible” (Cisco System, Inc., 2010, p. 27). One reason Cisco Systems is at the top of its industry is that Cisco Systems’ organizational culture has developed from the seven primary characteristics:...
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...SUMMARY CHAPTER 4 MANAGING IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT WHAT IS THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT? • Global organizations • Organizations that operate and compete in more than one country • Operating in the global environment is uncertain and unpredictable • Global environment • Set of global forces and conditions that operate beyond an organization’s boundaries but affect a manager’s ability to acquire and utilize resources • Task environment: Set of forces and conditions that originate with suppliers, distributors, customers, and competitors and affect an organization’s ability to obtain inputs and dispose of its outputs because they influence managers daily • General environment: Wide-ranging global, economic, technological, sociocultural, demographic, political, and legal forces that affect an organization and its task environment The Task Environment • Actions of suppliers, distributors, customers, and competitors: • Affect a manager’s ability to obtain resources and dispose of outputs • Have a significant impact on short-term decision making • Suppliers: Individuals and organizations that provide an organization with the input resources that it needs to produce goods and services • Raw materials, component parts, labor (employees) • Relationships with suppliers can be difficult due to materials shortages, unions, and lack of substitutes • Suppliers that are the sole source of a...
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...Chapter 5: Culture and history The Chapter 2, 3 and 4 have considered the important influences of the environment, internal capabilities and stakeholder expectations on the development of an organization’s strategic. However, it is danger that mangers only take into account relatively recent phenomena without understanding how those phenomena have come about or how the past influences current and future strategy. Many well-established organizations such as Mitsui Group are strongly influenced by their historical legacies that have become embedded in their cultures (JSW, 2008). The business environment cannot be understood without considering how it has developed over time. The capabilities of an organization, especially those that provide organizations with competitive advantage may have historical roots and hove built up over time in ways unique to that organization. Therefore, such capabilities may become part of the culture of an organization which is difficult for other organizations to copy. However, they may also be difficult to change. So understanding the historical and cultural base of such capabilities also informs the challenges of strategic change. The powers and influence of different stakeholders are also likely to have historical origins that are important to understand. Thus, this chapter will explain the importance of history and culture in relation to strategy development in section 5.1 and 5.2; then followed by section 5.3 to address the challenges...
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...impact on financial performance.1 Shareholders: Organizational values need to meet the needs of the new breed of shareholders that are only investing in companies that: (a) meet socially responsible investment criteria; and (b) compete to be the best companies to work for, or other quality awards. Potential employees: To attract the best people, the organizational values need to meet the needs of potential new employees who are choosing to work in organizational cultures that align with their personal values. Existing employees: To retain the best people, the organizational values also need to meet the needs of existing employees and support them in finding personal fulfillment at work. • • • Employee Fulfillment Whilst attention to all stakeholders needs are important, the most critical are: (a) How existing employees feel about their organization, and (b) The ability of the organization to attract the best employees. Both these issues can be addressed by building a vision-guided, values-driven corporate culture that focuses on employee fulfillment. Research shows that: • • Corporate performance, including financial success is strongly correlated with employee fulfillment – 39% of the variability in...
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...building a culture, that supports the new mission, goals, strategies and practices, increases the probability of success exponentially. This necessarily involves a large cross section of the organization in assessing the current system of norms and beliefs, determining what changes are needed, and designing an implementation plan. These new beliefs and resulting behaviors needed to be elevated to a conscious level so that the company could choose how it needed to modify its practices. New assumptions and values should be articulated and systematically communicated through every channel and should be reinforced at every opportunity. It is true that changes in organizational culture are brought about through employees, so the employees play a major role. But role of the leader cannot be overruled because they influence the organizational culture very deeply. Culture is deep seated and difficult to change, but they can influence or manage an organization's culture. It isn't easy, and it cannot be done rapidly, but leaders can have an effect on culture. Productive cultural change will occur if leaders correctly analyze the organization's existing culture, and evaluate it against the cultural attributes needed to achieve strategic objectives. Consequently, they must first possess a clear understanding of the strategic objectives for their organization and identify the actions needed to reach those objectives. They need to create the conditions for the transformation of a culture. Leaders...
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...REFLECTION PAPER An organization's culture varies as widely as the nature of work itself. Often a unique different mix of values and norms govern the cultural environment of an organization. In today's fast changing business environment, the cultural make-up of an organizations plays a critical role in the success of the firm to achieve its strategic objectives. Culture is not an easily defined concept, but generally it is the values, beliefs, and norms expressed in work practices and behavior. An organization's culture is not necessarily an articulated list of values found in a carefully worded statement or available as an appendix in an annual report. Rather, culture is created by the organization itself. How employees treat and interact with one another and the values of the employees and the organization, such as work ethic, manifest an organization's culture. Some cultures encourage innovation and risk taking, while others punish those who challenge established norms and practices. Here, I’d like to discuss about work culture in one of my previous employers, Chevron. Coming from a local auditing firm before Chevron, I was really in awe and culture shocked during that time. Everyone in the company address each other on a first-name basis which is not usual in a local set-up where the senior people are addressed as “Sir/Madam”, so that was a complete change of grounds for me. Also the Identity card never represented the designation of a person. The main reason behind...
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...Organizational Culture and Climate Organizational Culture and Climate Lisa R. Gaulden Organization Communications 3240 Professor Debra Boyd October 22, 2012 The Correlation Between Organizational Culture and Climate Introduction Organizations are regarded as living, breathing, complex organisms. These organisms are made up of various forces; two of which are organizational culture and organizational climate. An organization must maintain an awareness of not just the dynamics of its culture, but also of its organizational climate. Although theoretically two separate forces, each is closely connected and interdependent upon the other. In essence, an organization’s culture helps to shape its climate just as the organization’s climate has a notable impact on its culture. Organizational culture is developed from the values, beliefs, myths, traditions, and norms of the organization. Furthermore, organizational culture may consist of other sub-cultures. Organizational climate is based on the behavior and environmental perception of the organizational members. The climate of an organization is oftentimes viewed differently in comparison to subordinates and their superiors. Companies would be remiss to focus solely on their culture and not heed to the climate of their organization. Organizational Culture Culture exists within an organization “. . . when people . . . share . . . language, values, beliefs, and interpretations of experience. [Culture] is reflected...
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...mind when thinking of the company culture at Google. Many people would agree working at this company is like walking into a dream every morning. Some more of the amenities offered at various Google office locations are a pub-style lounge in Dublin, Ireland, a pool table in the conference room of Tokyo, Japan, a rock climbing wall adorns the “tech talk” area in Boulder, Colorado. (Google, 2012) Google’s company culture is technically an adaptability culture. According to Draft (2010) adaptability culture is defined as “culture characterized by strategic leaders encouraging values that support the organization’s ability to interpret and translate signals from the environment into new behavior responses”. Google is a company whose values promote individual initiative, experimentation, risk taking, and entrepreneurship. (Draft, 2010) Value’s play an important role in developing any companies culture. For example, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) prides itself on recruiting well educated black engineers to improve the black community just like Google prides itself on hiring well educated people who are geniuses in their particular field to improve technological advancement. NSBE and Google appear to be aligned but their cultures are slightly different. NSBE is not quite adaptability but is at the next level on the corporate culture scale, achievement culture. According to Draft (2010) achievement culture is defined as “culture characterized...
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...A culture of safety includes the organization’s activities, standards, approaches, communication methods, and leadership attitudes to prevent or minimize adverse events, and to support safety behaviors at all levels. “Improving the culture of safety within health care is an essential component of preventing or reducing errors and improving overall health care quality” (“Safety Culture,” 2016). A culture of safety would benefit Drew’s case and the patient’s at his hospital, because a culture of safety promotes the staff’s commitment, confidence, increase the staff’s morale, and consistently safe behaviors among leaders and healthcare providers. In addition, a culture of safety would improve the communication and collaboration between co-workers,...
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