Organisation Culture

Edgar (2004) define organizational culture as a set of understandings or meanings shared by a group of people that are largely tacit among members and are clearly relevant and distinctive to the particular group which are also passed on to new members. This definition implies the culture’s characteristic of being shared and learnt. In general, it can be understood that organizational culture is all the cultural elements, such as norms, rules, language, communication style, that the organize selects, creates, uses and manifests during operating process, and from that it creates the organization’s own character.

Culture affects the behaviours of the member in its society. So a strong organizational culture would clearly influence the way employees behave in the firm. That is to say the organizational culture may generate competitive advantages for the organization by enhancing employees’ performance and cooperation with each other. Besides that, a strong culture helps

to reduce the conflict within the organization, to dispatch, control and motivate employees.

A strong culture fastens the connection among members, helps them to share the common understanding for an issue and valuate, choose and orient their action in the same orientation. When there is a risk of confliction on the organization, the shared norms and values are the elements to unite people, help them to evaluate the situation correctly and behave properly. Secondly, organizational culture dispatches and control members’ behaviours by the standards, procedures, regulations, In addition, the culture helps to narrow down the area to consider during decision making process because a decision gains the effect only when it matches the culture to get them members’ approval.

 

On the other hand, organizational culture helps the members to gain a clear view of the task’s target and orientation. A strong culture also creates good relationship among members as they share common understanding and interest. It improves the working environment to be comfortable and healthy. When an organization is successful in building a strong culture, it creates the employees’ faithfulness to the firm, which makes the members feel proud of the organization as well as the job they are doing. With the combination of the above effects, organization’s culture can positively influence the firm’s performance; creating its differences in the market. That is a competitive advantage for the company.

reference

Deloitte and Touch Human Capital, 2011. Stratagic Internal Communications. Boosting Corporate Culture, Productivity and Profitability, Jaunary. pp.42-56.
Edgar, H.S., 2004. Organisational Culture and Leadership. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Ellson, T., 2004. Culture and Positioning as Determinants of Strategy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gough, V., 2009. Organizational change: which model should I use. [Online] Available at: http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/lead/culture/organisational-change-which-model-should-i-use [Accessed 11 January 2020].