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Workplace Observation Paper Organizational culture is the system of values and traditions supported by members of organization. Organizational culture reflects attitude of employees toward organizational strategic aims. When organizational culture doesnt contradict to companys strategic goals, the company receives more opportunities to reach them. In such a way, organizational culture is very important part of management. Organizational culture of our company can be examined as management approach that increases productivity and helps to create positive image, reliable reputation and recognizability of our company at the market.
It consists of a complex of social standards, concepts, beliefs and traditions that make our employee to act in a certain manner. At its visible level our organizational culture is represented by organizational policies, artifacts, symbols, stories, dress code, language, peculiarities of communication processes and conflict management. Organizational culture is widely explored as the main mechanism that increases the effectiveness of the company, because it can influence: Motivation of the employees; Attractiveness of the company as an employer. In case the company is recognized as an attractive employer, the churn rate decreases; Moral values of the employees and their business reputation; Productivity and effectiveness of business activity; Quality of work; The character of personal and labor-management relations in organization (Alvesson 1993); Labor behavior; Creative potential of the employees; Hence, the effective organizational culture is crucial to the companys success. Now lets dwell on several aspects of organizational culture. Communication is arguably the most important aspect of organizational culture, because the language is an objective form of accumulation, storage and transmission of individuals experience (Burack 89).
Language as a medium of communication plays the decisive role in all situations. Besides, organizational culture is shaped and formed by means of language in particular and communication in general. One can ask the question concerning the importance of dress code. The companys dress code directly and indirectly formalizes and standardizes all you can and you cannot things. It is difficult to underestimate the importance of the companys style because it allows shaping guiding lines of the companys development, defining corporate etiquette, etc. Besides, companys style forces an employee to be more responsible (Hampden-Turner 28).
Companys myths and legends also play an important role. They can be formed both by employees and the managers. By example of our company, the legends and stories mainly exist in form of metaphoric stories and jokes. They tell the employees about the history of our company, its further development, life and activity of our companys founding fathers, to mention a few (Schein 2006). The aim of these stories is to get the employees across our corporate values and traditions.
The most popular stories answer vitally important questions. For example, the legend can tell a success-story of an ordinary worker who became a manager (such story can enumerate the methods of career development), or any other story that can be a motivating stimulus for the employee. According to the rules of organizational culture the employees obey organizational policies. These policies relate to employees behavior, the standards of communication between the workers and are reflected in companys documents, codes of honor, codes of corporate behavior (Billington 1997), etc. Organizational policies can be divided into three main categories: Prohibitions. For example, the employees are not allowed divulge commercial classified information; Instructions and directions.
These policies reflect the desirable actions workers should do (for example, the workers are obliged to follow the policies and rules, to obey management procedures, etc); Recommendations. These policies are less strict as they recommend workers doing something (Stenzel 45). For example, the employees are recommended to master their creativeness, to be devoted to organization, etc). Organizational policy is often used as an impersonal mechanism of conflict management because it increases the effectiveness of organization and facilitates work of the managers. The ability of organization to neutralize socially-negative conflicts is the qualitative characteristic of strong organizational culture (Schnell 48). When organizational culture is strong, the employees arent afraid to discuss conflict and problems.
In such a way, they are able to find the subject of contradictions and work out new methods that allow the employees regulating conflicts. Moreover, conflicts often become a litmus paper for stability and friendship of employees, organizational values and principles of organizational culture. On contrary, weak organizational culture is unable to withstand socially-negative conflicts. In such a way, strong organizational culture embraces a range of effective methods that are aimed to enhance the companys effectiveness and helps the company to reach its strategic goals.
On contrary, weak organizational culture can ruin the effectiveness and productivity of the company by spoiling labor-management relations. References Alvesson, M. (1993). Cultural Perspectives on Organizations. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP. Billington, James. (1997). The fundamentals of managing up.
Harvard Management 2 (9) pp. 10 - 11. Burack, E. H. (1991). "Changing the Corporate Culture - The Role of Human Resource Development", Long Range Planning, 24 (1) p. 88 - 95. Hampden-Turner, C. (1990).
Corporate Culture, Hutchinson Business Books. Schein, Edgar H. Organizational Culture & Leadership, Retrieved November 3, 2006. web Schnell, J. (1985). Organizational Culture and Conflict Resolution: A Study of a Greek Lettered Social Organization. University of Cincinatti Stenzel, C. , & Stenzel, J. (1997).
Re-visioning the organization: silence and song of her majesty. Journal of Strategic Performance Measurement 1 (6), pp. 43 - 46.
Free research essays on topics related to: dress code, organizational culture, conflict management, corporate culture, strategic goals
Research essay sample on Organizational Culture Strategic Goals
