The Positive and Negative Aspects of Developing an Organizational Culture - Assignment Example

Introduction Organizational culture is defined as “a pattern of behaviour developed by an organization necessary to help them cope with business problems related to external adaptation and internal integration aside from enabling the employees to feel and think positively” (David, 1999, p. 143). In almost all cases, the cultural of a business organization can provide a company with a “set of norms, beliefs, principles and behaviour that gives the organization a unique character” (Brown, 1995). Specifically the presence of an organization culture can strongly influenced not only the business performance of a company but also the ability of the company to fulfill its current and future business goals (Ravasi and Schultz, 2006; DuBrin, 2002). On the contrary, having a weak organizational culture can also lead to the development of a poor business performance. To ensure that business organizations could benefit from having a strong oranizational culture, this study will purposely examine the positive and negative features of organizational culture. Prior to conclusion, this study will discuss how a strong and weak organizational culture can affect the business performance of a company. Positive and Negative Aspects or Features of Organizational Culture According to Lussier and Achua (2010, p. 369), “strong corporate cultures improve performance by facilitiating internal behavioral consistancy”. It simply means that the ability of the corporate leaders to positively manipulate or influence each employee’s work-related values, attitude, norms, behavioral practices, and expectations play a significant role towards developing further improvements in the busienss performance of a company. Organizational culture can either be classified as weak or strong (Anghel, 2012, p. 135; Lussier, 2009, p. 51). In relation to having a strong and well-defined organizational culture, one of the most obvious and common features of having a strong organizational culture is one that has aligned organizational vision, mission, and goals (Hill and Jones, 2012, p. 32; Lussier and Achua, 2010, p. 370). Commonly shared by the managers and staffs, the presence of a well-defined organizational vision, mission, and goals serve as a guiding attitude and behaviour within a business organization (Lussier and Achua, 2010, p. 370). Therefore, employees within a business organization with strong culture are subconsciously sharing assumptions on how they will achieve the organizational goals (Lussier, 2009, p. 51). In the absence of any of these features, it would be more difficult on the part of the business managers to come up with more effective business decisions and strategies in the near future. Aside from having a clear organizational vision, mission, and goals, other typical features of having a strong organizational culture include: (1) having a unified organizational identity; (2) performed work activities are considered as a group performance; (3) each department within the business organization are well-coordinated; (4) supervisors and business managers have a higher control over the group of employees; and (5) the team has a strong ability to control and tolerate risks and conflicts among others (Schwalbe, 2010, p. 52; Divedi, 1995, p. 10). Contrary to having a strong organizational culture, a business organization that has a weak organizational culture is often characterized by having no clear organizational vision, mission, and goals. It means that a business organization with a weak or no organizational culture are the ones that has a group of employees with no shared purpose (Divedi, 1995, p. 11). For this reason, business organizations with a weak organizational culture are the ones that usually experience problems related to internal and external conflicts such as miscommunication or serious arguments among the corporate employees (Lussier, 2009, p. 51). Specifically the characteristics of a strong and weak organizational culture partly explain why there are some business organizations that can easily and successfully expand their business in a foreign country but not all. In line with this, Basu (2009, p. 256) explained that companies with a strong organizational culture are the ones the can benefit from expanding their business in another country but not those companies that has a weak organizational culture. Impact of Positive and Negative Organizational Culture on Business Performance Having a strong organizational culture can be a good “source of competitive advantage” (Lussier and Achua, 2010, p. 370). For example, Hill and Jones (2012, p. 32) explained that a strong organizational culture plays a significant role in terms of being able to encourage and direct a large group of employees to work together towards a single organiztional vision, mission, and goal. In line with this, the act of directing the rest of the corporate employees to work together harmoniously could somehow increase the company’s monthly sales and profitability (Langerak, 2003). Within this context, it is clear that the process of having a strong organizational culture could somehow improve the overall business performance of the company. The presence of unnecessary misunderstanding and miscommunication is common in business groups with cross-cultural differences (Kawar, 2012). To avoid unnecessary misunderstanding and miscommunication, managers should focus on creating organizational culture which aims to promote the importance of diversity within the work place (Okoro and Washington, 2012). As a result of establishing a strong organizational culture that strongly promote work diversity, the corporate employees could easily develop norms, work-related attitude and behaviour that highlights the need to observe and make use of effective communication techniques. Basically, this strategy is effective in terms of reducing the risk of internal conflicts A strong organizational culture that focuses on promoting work diversity can also effectively control and lessen the risks wherein the corporate managers could face business- and work-related problems caused by having unnecessary internal conflicts (Eaves, Weiss and Visioni, 2003). Since the corporate employees can be trained to work harmoniously, there is a higher chance wherein the business organization can effectively increase the workers’ individual performance, group performances, or both. There are quite a lot of benefits associated with having a strong organizational culture. For example, in relation to higher sales and profit, the process of having a strong organizational culture that offers “reward and recognition programmes” can lead to the higher level of work performance and the development of a highly motivated employees (Slechta, 2013; Milne, 2007). Aside from the use of rewards and recognition strategy, creating organizational culture that strongly promotes the importance of organizational learning and employee involvement can equally works well in terms of increasing the work performance and overall work motivation and satisfaction of each employee (Joseph, 2009; Egan, Yang and Bartlett, 2004). Since each employee can be highly satisfied with their work environment, there is a higher chance that the corporate employees will remain loyal to the business organization (Pandey and Khare, 2012; Abdullah et al., 2009). A positive organizational culture should also promote the practice of good leadership, effective communication techniques, respect to others, work with integrity, professionalism, collaboration and teamwork (Slechta, 2013; Woodside, 2010, p. 20; Sarros, Cooper and Santora, 2008). For instance, as a result of integrating teamwork, collaboration, leadership and communication skills within the organizational culture, corporatate managers can effectively manage and control organizational change (Slechta, 2013). Since employees will be knowledgeable and properly trained to become more adaptive to business changes, companies that have a strong organizational culture are the ones that can benefit from higher employee commitment, higher individual and group productivity, better organizational and product innovation, and higher sales and profitability (Sarros, Cooper and Santora, 2008). There are many ways on how a negative organizational culture can adversely affect the overall performance of a business organization. In line with this, a weak organizational culture could somehow demotivate highly competitive employees from giving their best work performance for the company (Ahmad, 2012). A business organization that has a weak organizational culture is often characterized by having no clear organizational vision, mission, and goals. Caused by a weak organizational culture, a business organization can be at risk of developing work-related discrimination (i.e. racial, cultural, or gender discrimination) (Bhattacharyya, 2010, p. 86; Burke, 1997, p. 921). Eventually, the presence of internal conflicts can gradually lead to a lower sales and profitability. Teamwork is very important so that that a business organization can maximize the full potential and talents of each employee. Since having a negative organizational culture do not have a clear organizational vision, mission, and goals to guide each member of the team, business managers may find it difficult to lead and persuade a group of employees to work in team. Indirectly, the absence of teamwork can “cripple” the business organization in terms of improving its business performance (Slechta, 2013). It will also prevent the company from having more business opportunities in the near future. Aside from the absence of teamwork, the presence of a negative organizational culture can also increase employee work disatisfaction, employee turnover rate, distrusting attitude and behaviour, secrecy, and negative work attitude (Slechta, 2013). Because of the negative effects of having a weak organizational culture, it would be more difficult on the part of the business managers to persuade the group of employees to work towards a single organizational goal, mission, and vision. As a result, business organizations with negative organizational culture are the ones that finds it more difficult to increase its monthly sales and profitability. It will also make the company unable to expand its business in a foreign country. Conclusion and Recommendations Organizational culture can either be positive or negative. To be able to increase the company’s sales and profitability or the ability of the company to expand its business in a foreign country, the corporate managers should focus on being able to establish a positive organizational culture. Creating a positive organizational culture is possible by first creating a clear organizational vision, mission, and goals. Eventually, corporate managers should create a positive organizational culture that promote the importance of diversity within the work place, develop positive work-related norms, attitude, and behavior such as respecting others, work with integrity, professionalism, and the use of reward and recognition programmes, effective communication techniques, leadership skills, and work collaboration. By doing so, the corporate managers can make the company benefit from higher employee commitment, higher individual and group productivity, better organizational and product innovation, and higher sales and profitability. Having a negative organizational culture can lead to unnecessary internal conflicts. It will also increase employee burnout and work-related dissatisfaction. Aside from having a much lower sales and profit, a business organization with a negative organizational culture often have a higher employee turnover rate. 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