Components of organizational culture.doc

It is a short and brief description of components of organizational culture is explained.

1. Worabe University
Department of Public Relations and International Communication


Components of organizational culture


By:
1. Surur Bedru
2. Kasim Ahmed


January 2022
Worabe

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Table of Contents
Titles Page
1. Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------2
2. Definition of Organization ------------------------------------------------------------3
3. Definition and Concepts of Organizational Culture------------------------------4
4. Components of Organizational Culture --------------------------------------------6
5. Impacts of Culture on the general setting of an organization ------------------8
6. Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
7. References -------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

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1. Introduction
In recent decades, organizational culture has become an increasingly promising and
popular field of study, with a goal of better understanding the nature of work,
including employees’ attitudes, workplace behaviors, and performance in the
context of their organization’s culture (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Malinowski, 1944).
Elementary components of organizational culture can be regarded as values, norms
and cultural patterns, developed and distributed in the social community (A.
Klosowska: 2007). Organizational culture affects all aspects of any business firms,
from punctuality and tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When
workplace culture aligns with employees, they are more likely to feel more
comfortable, supported, and valued.

Organizational culture creates conducive environment in the organization and
influences the nature of the long-term plans that move the organization toward its
vision. Culture also dictates the policies and processes that enable the organization
to live its mission every day. Organizational culture is comprised of three major
components including artifacts, articulated beliefs and values and underlying
assumptions. Variations and different combinations of these three components
define an organization’s culture.

The objective of doing this term paper is searching different sources about the
components of organizational culture, trying to understand and explain the issues
with different contents on the paper as follows.

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2. Definition of an Organization
Through different research papers and related essays Organization has a number of
Conceptual definitions. Based on the theories and behaviors of organizational
communication, Organization is a collection of people working together in a
coordinated and structured fashion. It is a dynamic system of organizational
members, influenced by external stakeholders, who communicate within and
across organizational structures in a purposeful and ordered way to achieve a
superordinate goal. Organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities
or force of two or more persons to achieve one or more goals.

Organizing is a process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed,
defining and delegating the responsibility and authority, and establishing the
relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively together
in accomplishing common objectives. Organizations are systems created to achieve
common goals through people-to-people and people-to-work relationships. ...
Organizing is also the process of defining and grouping activities, and establishing
authority relationships among them to attain organizational objectives.
There are a variety of legal types of organizations, including corporations,
governments, non-governmental organizations, political organizations,
international organizations, armed forces, charities, not-for-profit corporations,
partnerships, cooperatives, and educational institutions etc.

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3. Definitions and Concept of Organizational Culture
Culture is defined as a basic set of understandings that are shared by members of
an organization that influence decision-making and are shared and passed on to
new members of the organization. Researchers in various disciplines such as
psychology, sociology and anthropology applied their collective perspectives and
approaches to study culture and have, over time, proposed more than 54 different
meanings and conceptualizations of organizational culture (Verbeke, 1998). This is
largely because culture is abstract, dynamic and often subtle in its character.
Organizational culture is the collective set of reasons why employees across all
levels of an organization behave the way they do. It is "patterns of interpretation
composed of the meanings associated with various cultural manifestations, such as
stories, rituals, formal and informal practices, jargon, and physical arrangements"
(Martin, 2000: 330). Organizational Culture may maintained through attraction-
selection-attrition, new employee on boarding, leadership, and organizational
reward systems.
It is also can be defined as a set of shared underlying assumptions about an
organization regarding what is valued, how people should behave, and beliefs
about what is “normal” within the organization (Schien, 1999). These shared
assumptions come in the form of formal rules (e.g., policies and processes) and
informal rules (i.e., commonly understood expectations, standards, and norms)
guiding workplace behavior and defining what is accepted and what isn’t. It is the
collective set of reasons why employees across all levels of an organization behave
the way they do.
A combination of symbols and values create culture. Cultural symbols-are physical
indicators of organizational life ((Rafaeli & Worline, 2000). Organizational culture

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is a set of values, beliefs, and behavior patterns that differentiate one organization
from other organizations (Ortega-Parra & Sastre-Castillo, 2013). King (2012)
defined organizational cultures as a system of values that subconsciously and
silently drives people to make each choice and decision in the Organization.
Organizational culture is how the members of an organization interact with each
other and other stakeholders (Simoneaux & Stroud, 2014). Organizational culture
includes the norms that the members of an organization experience and describe as
their work settings (Schneider et al., 2013). Norms shape how members behave
and adapt to get results in the organization.

Organizational culture is important to improve performance and productivity
(Eaton & Kilby, 2015). It is the way that managers and employees solve that
managers and employees solve problems in the organization (Schneider et al.,
2013). A strong culture is one which is deeply embedded into the ways a business
or organization does things. With a strong culture, employees and management
understand what is required of them and they will try to act in accordance with the
core values. There are many great examples of organizations with strong cultures.

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4. Components of Organizational Culture
According to A. Klosowska (2007) elementary components of organizational
culture can be regarded as values, norms and cultural patterns, developed and
distributed in the social community. Components of Organizational culture are a
set of values, beliefs, and behavior patterns that differentiate one organization from
other organizations (Ortega-Parra & Sastre-Castillo, 2013). An important
component of Organizational culture is the means of communication that can be
described by: stories, narratives, myths and metaphors. Stories, narratives and
myths are informal, verbal descriptions provided by employees of an organization.
Metaphor is one of important component of organizational culture which reflects
the essence of the organization
Organizational psychologist Edgar Schein proposed four common elements of an
organization’s structure: common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor,
and hierarchy of authority. Common purpose unifies employees or members by
giving everyone an understanding of the organization's mission, strategy, and
values.

Schein in his (2004)’s model illustrate the fundamental components of
organizational culture in brief manner. He concluded that Organizational culture is
comprised of three major components, including artifacts, articulated beliefs and
values and underlying assumptions. Variations and different combinations of
these three components define an organization’s culture.

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As Schein’s (2004) model: Components of organizational culture includes the
following three major parts:
1. Artifacts:
There are four major categories in artifacts:
A. Symbol: natural or manufactured objects, physical settings.
B. Organizational language (jargon, slang, gestures, humor, slogans)
C. Narratives (stories, myths, legends) and
D. Practices (rituals, taboos, traditions) (Trice & Beyer, 1993).

2. Articulated Beliefs and values
Articulated beliefs and values are the strategies, goals, and philosophies of an
organization (articulated justifications). There are five key characteristics of
organizational values:
1) Concepts or beliefs,
2) Desirable end-states/behaviors,
3) Transcend situations,
4) Guide selection or evaluation of behavior and
5) Events that are ordered by relative importance (Schwartz, 1992:4).


3. Underlying Assumptions

Unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and feelings
(Ultimate source of values and actions). Challenging basic assumptions
produces anxiety and defensiveness because they provide security through
a sense of identity and a level of certainty (Schein, 2010).

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5. Impacts of components of Organizational Culture on the general
setting of an organization
Organizational culture is the single most important factor in determining an
organization’s success or failure (Deal & Kennedy, 1982). Organizational culture
can be abstract; however, it is a powerful force permeating across all levels of an
organization and oftentimes across functional boundaries as well as geographical
locations. It is important to note that there is no “good” or “bad” organizational
culture.
Company culture influences employees’ job satisfaction, morale, performance,
engagement, attitudes, motivation, commitment to their organizations and turnover
(Cameron, 2011, Warrick, 2017). Companies only achieve favorable business
outcomes when the culture is aligned with business objectives and strategies.
Company values are closely related to culture and are typically an articulation of
what is important to the organization. However, many organizations espouse a set
of values based on those they would like to have, not necessarily those that are
current and manifest in the organization.
Top Leadership Principles, Nature of the Business, Company Values, Policies and
Work Ambiance, Clients and External Parties & Recruitment and Selection are big
factors that affect one’s organizational culture.
Factors which can influence organizational culture include: the organization’s
structure, the system and processes by which work is carried out, the behavior
and attitudes of employees, the organization’s values and traditions, and the
management and leadership styles adopted. A positive culture should be the
foundation of an organization. Meaningful work, appreciation, wellbeing,
leadership, and connection are all aspects that contribute to your culture.

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Employees spending nearly 1/3 of their lives at work should feel a deep and
personal connection with the work they do daily

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6. Conclusion
Overall, knowing the basic components of the organizational Culture and being
clear about its influence on the general setting of one’s organization or company is
our theme. Organizational culture has a big role in determining an organization’s
success or failure. Organizational culture is an important contributor to whether
people want to work for a company, how hard they work, and how long they stay.
A. Klosowska (2007), (Ortega-Parra & Sastre-Castillo, 2013), Edgar Schein and
other researchers illustrate that components of organizational culture mainly the
organization's rules, traditions, and personalities. The rules of an organization are
the beliefs, norms, values, and attitudes that have been codified by the
organization's leadership into expectations, policies, and procedures.
Organizational culture affects all aspects of any business firms, from punctuality
and tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When workplace culture aligns
with employees, they're more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and
valued.

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7. References
Joann keyton, Communication & organizational culture: 2005: Library of
Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, United States of America: Sage
Publications, Inc.
Organizational Culture: Research Paper: published in 2020, LIMEADE
INSTITUTE
ŁUKASZ SUŁKOWSKI , Elements of Organizational Culture-theoretical &
methodological problems: 2012, Vol.16, No. 2

Orla O’Donnell & Richard Boyle, Understanding and Managing Organizational
Culture: 2008, ColourBooks Ltd, Dublin

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