Organizational Culture
This week we explore the issue of organizational culture. Culture made its way into organizational theory and management by Anthropologists who thought it could help us to better understand how organizations work. Earlier organizational theorists failed to grasp the full significance and importance of the symbolic side of organizational life. That is, organizations are human systems manifesting complex patterns of cultural activity. There is a cultural element unique to each organization regardless of the national culture in which the organization is embedded. We try to unearth and understand these elements.
READ: Chapter 15: Organization Culture
Key Outcomes:
Identify key aspects that comprise organizational culture
Explain how organizational culture can limit effectiveness, as well as promote it
Background
This week we explore the issue of organizational culture. Culture made its way into organizational theory and management by Anthropologists who thought it could help us to better understand how organizations work. Earlier organizational theorists failed to grasp the full significance and importance of the symbolic side of organizational life. That is, organizations are human systems manifesting complex patterns of cultural activity. There is a cultural element unique to each organization regardless of the national culture in which the organization is embedded. We try to unearth and understand these elements.
There is a cultural element unique to each organization regardless of the national culture in which the organization is embedded. Organizations are seen as extended families or clans glued together by shared values and beliefs. These values and beliefs are established over time as organizations struggle with problems of internal integration and external adaptation.
Each organization has a unique culture because they are human systems (the Social Security Administration (routine tasks, service oriented) will display a different set of cultural traits to the Forest Service (long periods alone, values inculcated from initial training on, more oriented naturally to work in the service), or the Department of Justice, or the Treasury).
Each set of workers understand and interpret the world differently. The organizational members shared values and beliefs provide the glue that binds them together. Members share in a common cause, which in turn determines their level of loyalty, commitment, and performance. These values and beliefs are manifested through rituals that orient new members to the organization, guide daily decisions and also act as a control mechanism. Culture can sometimes make the organization seem dysfunctional. The manager\’s goal is to understand how workers understand the world around them and work from that understanding to motivate workers.
Consider the case of the Federal Emergency Management agency (FEMA), an organization that has been seen as a dumping ground for political operatives, with little or no experience in emergency management, an organizational wasteland after its heyday with James Lee Witt at the help and largely ineffective. What role might the organizational culture have played in our perception of that organization, or low worker morale. One of our readings delve into some of the cultural issues plaguing the agency.
Video Lecture
Video/lecture
This presentation explores the following question: What is organizational culture? In addressing this question we discuss the culture of the U.S. Secret Service and how that culture is impacting the agencys effectiveness. Attention is also paid to the role of leadership in changing culture.
Organizational Culture_PowerPoint
Attached Files:
File TompkinsChapter15_Organizational Culture Perspective and Symbolic Management Theory.pptx (132.297 KB)
Journal Article
Attached Files:
File Bureaucracy-Culture-of-Public-Service.pdf (591.808 KB)
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