SUSTAINING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE & MEANS OF TRANSMITTING.

Organizational culture

The term ‘Culture’ signifies values, beliefs, morals, customs, habits and knowledge acquired by the people living in a society.

Organizational Culture is the acquisition of values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations..etc by the employees of an organization.

“Culture is the soul of the organization — the beliefs and values, and how they are manifested. I think of the structure as the skeleton, and as the flesh and blood. And culture is the soul that holds the thing together and gives it life force.” - Henry Mintzberg.

Sustaining Organizational Culture

The following approaches are useful

Selection Identify and hire individuals who will fit in with the

culture. Actions of Top Management

Senior executives establish and communicate the norms of the organization.

Socialization Organizations need to teach the culture to new

employees.

SELECTION

An individual who is well qualified and trained may not be prepared to accept the organization’s culture.

It is important that the principle of ‘right man for the right job’ is applied to find out the preparedness of an individual to accept and follow faithfully the organization’s practices.

Actions of Top Management For keeping the organizational culture

alive, the top management should reiterate is values, beliefs, and goals by advising the middle and lower level managers and through them the employees of the entire organization.

If any deviation occurs from the basic norms of the organization, it shall take appropriate action to set things right.

Socialization

Preparing the new employees to adapt & understand the org culture, which has the following 3 stages.

Prearrival Encounter Metamorphosis

Socialization Process Outcomes

Commitment

Productivity

Turnover

Stages in the Socialization

Pre arrival The period of learning prior to a new employee joining the

organization.

Encounter When the new employee sees what the organization is really

like, He/She starts comparing the expectations they had in the pre-arrival stage with the reality.

Metamorphosis

When the new employee changes and adjusts to the work, work group, and organization. At this stage the employee masters the art of adapting to the organization’s values and norms.

Means of Transmitting Org Culture The Organizational culture is transmitted

to the employees usually through the following means.

Stories Rituals Symbols Language Slogans

Stories

Transmitting the org culture by narrating the hardships and sufferings of people who have founded the organization.

Once the employees are understand the same, they will be able to appreciate and emulate the values and beliefs for the promotion of which the org has been founded.

Rituals

Repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization.

Examples- Daily morning prayer, weekly family dinner, monthly picnic, annual award presentation..etc are a few examples of such rituals.

The performance of these rituals helps the employees appreciate the organization’s culture.

Symbols

Certain physical symbols used in the organization do reflect its culture.

Examples - Inscribing the logo of the org in all the stationery items provided for the staff, uniforms for different categories of employees, reserved car park for executives, luxurious office furnishing..etc.

These symbols become important tools of transmitting and sustaining the culture of the organization.

Language

Every org develops certain unique terms to describe the staff, customers, suppliers, equipments, work situation and so on.

It may take sometimes for a new employee to become familiar with these terms that are used effortlessly by the existing employees.

By learning the language of the org the members convey their acceptance of the organizational culture.

Slogans

Slogans can be useful not only to the employees but also those who deal with the organization to understand and appreciate its culture.

Example – ‘customer satisfaction is our motto’, ‘Every customer is important to us’, ‘Think Different’-Apple, ‘We bring good things to Life’-GE, ‘We love to see you smile’- Mcdonalds, ‘The choice of new generation’- Pepsi…etc are few slogans that symbolise what the organization stands for.

These are the means through which, new employees learn about the culture of the org to adapt, understand and value the org.

Thus Org culture plays a major role like a soul in a human body to keep it alive and grow and make impact in the society.

THANK YOU