Organization Culture
Organizational culture is believed to be the way of doing things characteristic of a particular corporate. Most notably, the term is used to refer to the employees of the organization. It explains how they behave, think and carry out their regular duties around and outside the firm. An excellent corporate culture enhances the image of the company which is good for the business since it attracts new customers and helps retain the existing ones (Alvesson, 2016). Furthermore, it elevates the standard of the firm above its competitors. As a result, managers strive to create and maintain a better culture that is embraced wholly. This achievement is due to the establishment of a good communication system, which allows the right information to reaches the workers from the managers and vice versa (Garcia, 2012).
Role and importance of organizational culture
The idea of creating a harmonized culture in the organizations plays a significant role in enhancing the company’s image (Alvesson, 2016). That is, the way people view the business regarding its products and services, working conditions and its overall management. The best employees are most attracted by corporate with a promising future (Rakowska, Valdes-Conca, and Juana-Espinosa, 2015). Additionally, investors can only invest their resources in a stable company. This stability is a reflection of the firm’s image. On the contrary, products and services of such an organization are likely to gain a better place in the market as compared to their counterparts. People believe in a real name. Therefore, it is most probable that would purchase products coming from a well-known firm.
Organizational culture facilitates a robust growth and development in a business venture by creating a branding image unique in its trade (Sehhat, Kenari, & Mijani, 2012). Practically, this is only realized through co-operation between the employer and workers. An active collaboration motives employees to work harder for the good of the firm. To accomplish this, the companies’ leaders encourage co-existence through the creation of competitive teams as well as rewarding best performance (Zhang and Zhu, 2012). The rewards are considered as paramount motivators depending on needs level of the staff member. The better the reward, the more the personnel work to acquire them. On the other hand, teamwork persuades people to utilize their individual talents to boost their productivity. Additionally, the workers can better their skills and personality through the healthy competition in the groups.
Through corporate culture, the firm can set its standards that are unique and different from their competitors (Ybema, Yanow, and Sabelis, 2011). If the values and beliefs are exceptional, people tend to view the company from a better perspective than their business rivals. Consequently, it is possible for the sales to get better thus increasing the profit margin of the corporate, and indeed result in its expansion.
Positive Organizational Culture
The correlation between a positive corporate culture and communication is emphasized through various practices. One such practice is transparency. Clear communication strengthens the bond between people working together (Kehoe, Jones, and Shockley-Zalabak, 2013). Such individuals feel appreciated and important in away because nothing is hidden from them. In fact, this information is viewed as significant and followed by many.
In cultural context, Sensitivity is quite significant in ensuring that people of different backgrounds co-exist peacefully. Respecting other people’s values and beliefs increases collaboration. Indeed, people learn to respect different cultural practices and hold them as unique and valuable through proper communication (Hill, Joyce, & Rivers, 2007). Besides, this assists in eliminating the behavior of stereotyping others instead of considering individual characteristics. Thus, working together with such persons creates an admirable way of life at work.
Listening with empathy to co-workers brings an emotional connectional and a sense of oneness. It involves paying close attention to another person compassionately. The practice demonstrates the ability to understand issues affecting other people. Additionally, it reveals the ability to work as a family by sharing thoughts and feelings. Therefore, it helps overcome tough times together without affecting organization’s work.
Workers value directness in passing information. A direct message is easy to process and remember. Thus, individuals appreciate such words that can easily talk about amongst themselves without getting confused from different interpretations. Nonetheless, straight forward information prevents misconception of the messages intended to reach the members of staff in the firm.
Solution seeking communication is always an important tool in having a positive culture in the business. When a problem arises, the company leaders are supposed to come up with solutions that would prevent future crises. The two sides involved in the crisis are called together, and a resolution is made in the presence of a mediator. The aggrieved party is compensated where necessary and offender punished or given a warning. Through this action, other workers are deterred from repeating such a mistake.
A positive organizational culture can be built through uses inclusive, non-sexist language. Words that are considered to be abusive should not be used at any one time. Conversations portraying chauvinism or gender discrimination should be discouraged as they tend to belittle a particular group of people. However, inclusive language has a tendency of bringing people together to work in harmony without feeling left out.
In most cases, cross-cultural communication issues arise within an organization. It happens when an individual community feels that their cultural practices are superior to the rest. This action creates enormity and lack of willingness to work together even where teamwork is recommended. In such situations, organizational culture is undermined, and a negative image is formed. Therefore, such issues can be addressed by creating seminars and forums to educate people on the importance of respecting other cultural practices. Moreover, a common language should be used to communicate across the organization as a unifying factor. However, the management should organize festivals to bring all cultures together.
References
Alvesson, M. (2016), Organizational culture, Sage Publications Inc.
Garcia, H.F. (2012), The power of communication: skills to build trust, inspire loyalty, and lead effectively, FT Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Hill, A., Joyce, M. & Rivers, D. (2007). Key Themes in Interpersonal Communication : Culture, Identities. McGraw-Hill Education, Buckingham.
Kehoe, D., Jones, G. R., & Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2013). Communicating in organizations: People, processes and problems - textbook and selected readings /compiled. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.
Rakowska, A., Valdes-Conca, J., & Juana-Espinosa, S. D. (2015). Affecting Factors of Public Employees’ Ganizational Commitment. International Journal of Synergy and Research Ijsr, 3, 5.
Sehhat, S., Kenari, M. J., & Mijani, M. (2012). An empirical study on relationship between organizational culture and administrative corruption. Management Science Letters MSL, 2(5), 1589-1602. doi:10.5267/j.msl.2012.05.008
Ybema, S., Yanow, D. and Sabelis, I. (2011), Organizational culture, Edward Elgar Pub., Cheltenham, UK.
Zhang, Z., & Zhu, X. (2012). Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Or-ganizational Culture and Organizational Performance. Proceedings of 2012 National Conference on Information Technology and Computer Science. doi:10.2991/citcs.2012.14
