Understanding and Developing 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 employee 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.
What Is Organizational Culture?
An employer must begin with a thorough understanding of what culture is in a general sense and what their organization's specific culture is. At the deepest level, an organization's culture is based on values derived from basic assumptions about the following:
Human nature. Are people inherently good or bad, mutable or immutable, proactive or reactive? These basic assumptions lead to beliefs about how employees, customers and suppliers should interact and how they should be managed.
The organization's relationship to its environment. How does the organization define its business and its constituencies?
Appropriate emotions. Which emotions should people be encouraged to express, and which ones should be suppressed?
Effectiveness. What metrics show whether the organization and its individual components are doing well? An organization will be effective only when the culture is supported by an appropriate business strategy and a structure that is appropriate for both the business and the desired culture.
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.
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.
References:
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/understandinganddevelopingorganizationalculture.aspx