Corporate culture has been expounded by many pundits as the personality or the traits of an organization and its operations. The culture constitutes of assumptions, norms and tangible signs of organization stakeholders and their characteristics (Alvesson, 2002). Culture, in management, is a term that is complex to express but everyone notes it when they sense it. It plays out in very different ways. The cultural specifics can be identified from how information is relayed, feedback is given out, performance is handled and coordination of projects within the organization. The corporate culture is exhibited in the way the organization is structured or systems and processes that are followed within the organization (Pratt, 2010). Debra Woog McGinty and Nicole C. Moss short compilation of corporate culture survey is an ultimate tool for analyzing one’s company’s culture. On taking the survey, my company fell on the category of the Urgent/Seat of the Pants Culture. The McNamara type of cultures, on the other hand, ranks my company as having an Academy culture. The purpose of the McGinty/Moss assessment and McNamara categories is to enable one to get a better look at his or her corporate culture. These surveys are instrumental in the measure of organizational progress in pursuit of optimal results and a high-performance culture
The McGinty/Moss assessment is typically a 15-question survey basing answers on true/false format. The categorization of cultures is linked to the number true answers in every set of five consecutive questions. My company had the most true responses to the third set of questions that is questions 11 to15 hence making it Urgent/Seat of the Pants Culture. The basic characteristics of this culture is tight positive bond among employees, heightened employee commitment to firm’s mission and work, quality employee work and ease in organizational communication. I believe these qualities match the qualities of my firm. The survey has provided me with the opportunity of putting into perspective my organizational progress and possibilities of improvement. The assessment was not as in-depth as I expected, the questions were somewhat insufficient.
1. I know how my projects contribute to the success or failure of our organization. True2. Management here makes lots of announcements to employees. True3. I have colleagues from a wide variety of professional and personal backgrounds. False4. In this organization, people who are not ready to be promoted after a certain length of time at their level are generally encouraged to leave. False5. Departments or teams compete with each other for our organization's resources. False6. When people are not getting along here, it's a long time before we directly address the issue. False7. When it's time for me to learn a new skill, training is readily available at no cost to me. True8. When the boss tells us to "jump!" we ask "how high?" False9. It takes a long time for this organization to address customer concerns. False10. Many employees expect to work at this organization for their whole careers. True 11. Senior management says the door is always open -- and they mean it. True12. It is fun to work here. True13. We have three or fewer layers of management. True14. We have performance reviews less than once a year. True15. Compensation and benefits are relatively low here. False
Majority of my True answers fell between 11-15 making it Urgent/Seat of the Pants Culture.
The McNamara categorization ranked my organization as Academy culture. The Academy Culture according to McNamara is where employees are highly skilled and tend to stick to their respective organizations while working their way up into different ranks. The employers offer good working environment and career growth.
Comparing the two surveys, McGinty/Moss assessment and McNamara categories, similarities and differences can easily be noted. The basic characteristics of Urgent/Seat of the Pants culture is tight positive bond among employees, heightened employee commitment to firm’s mission and work, quality employee work and ease in organizational communication. The Academy culture, on the other hand, cites several qualities highly skilled employees working their way up the job ranks and, proper working environment that fosters employee career growth (Flamholtz, 2011). The two surveys have employee-friendly environments that are essential for their service delivery and input into the organization. The two exhibit progressive management that is keen on meeting the employees’ needs by having fewer restrictions in communication and personnel-handling. The differences, however, arise when it comes to the loyalty levels. In the Urgent/Seat of the Pants Culture portrays employees as greatly enshrined in their employing organizations while the Academy culture shows employees as highly skilled and mobile(Sonn, 2001). The former culture too is distinctively more liberal than the latter in terms of employee-management relations.
The McGinty/Moss survey has helped in pointing out the pitfalls of the Seat of the Pants culture offering one a chance in evaluation of one’s organization in order to boost its competence or appeal and avenues of possible improvement. The questions have allowed me to critically analyze my company in terms of employee relations, communication, objectives and periodic performance reviews. The McNamara categories provide an insight on how I can influence the culture of my organization. This is through emphasis of important objectives in the workplace, employee appraisal and rewards, discipline and gradual modeling of desired workplace behavior.
References
Alvesson, M. (2002). Understanding organizational culture. London Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE.
Flamholtz, E. & Randle, Y. (2011). Corporate culture the ultimate strategic asset. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Business Books.
Pratt, J. (2010). Long-term care managing across the continuum. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Sonn, J. (2001). Corporate culture and the quality organization. Westport, Conn: Quorum Books.
