Organizational Culture

Q. 1 What are the characteristics of high performance and low-performance cultures?

  Culture is defined as the set of values, beliefs, and traditions shared by the members of organizations. In the business organizations, the culture is the way the companies manufacture and establish its products, handles the business problems, pays its bills, treats its employees and perform other operations of business. The organizational culture is mostly referred to as the internal culture of the company. It is a strong strategy that develops internal equity and assists the organization in the external environment. The implementation of a certain strategy by the organization is also a part of its culture.

    Culture provides the values and principles according to which the organization runs its functions. It determines how the organization responds to the external environment and the change. The successful organizations make sure that they develop a strong culture within the organization. There is a strong and a weak culture. The strong culture is the one that ensures the values are made widely across the organization i-e from the top management to the bottom management. Similarly, the weaker culture is the one where there is either little or no consensus on the norms, ethics, and values governing the behavior of the organizational members. Similarly, there are certain characteristics that determine whether the culture is low performance or high performance. The low-performance culture is the weaker culture that makes the organization weaker as well. The high-performance culture is a stronger culture that influences the organization positively.

    As far as the high-performance cultures are concerned, there characteristics firstly include culture reinforcement tools. Reinforcement tools are the management tools that can be utilized to enhance the performance of the organization. These tools include ceremonies, stories, rewards, politics, and language. The high-performance culture always includes different sorts of ceremonies. They enforce a culture where there are no barriers to the tongue. These cultures also include politics; the leaders possess the political skills. They use these political skills to build the trust within the organization, build relationships with the followers and run the other organizational operations effectively. So, it becomes necessary to adopt the political behavior at the organization. Also, the political skills develop confidence in the leader. Leaders also use their political skills to establish the convincing power to convince the employees to agree on his decisions. The high-performance cultures also share the stories of success, motivation and encouragement. These characteristics contribute to developing a high-performance culture at the organization.

    Secondly, the high-performance cultures are strong people-oriented. They work for the betterment of the people involved in the organization. The high-performance cultures involve the respect for the employees. At this culture, the employees are given value, dignity, and respect. Employees are considered as family members, and their opinion is considered valuable. These cultures also tend to grant employees enough autonomy to contribute extremely well. These cultures also hold managers at every level responsible for the growth & development of the people. They use the full range of rewards & punishment to enforce high-performance standards. They also encourage employees to use their initiative & creativity. They set reasonable & clear performance standards for all employees. One more thing is that these cultures emphasize on achievement.

    Considering the low-performance cultures, they believe in inward thinking. This is the thinking that makes the organization avoids looking outside itself for the best strategies and practices. Another characteristic of the weak environment is their resistance towards change. Some organizations focus on maintaining the same environment; avoid taking the risk and making mistakes. This is a weak approach that makes the organization suffer from several issues. They never appreciate change in their organization or are reluctant to change. It also determines the weak and preventive leadership in the organization.

The low-performance cultures include the politicized internal environment. In these types of cultures, the issues and problems are resolved under the influence of power. This culture includes personal lobbying; vocal opposition or support and establishment of coalitions interested in specific outcome asphyxiate changes. These cultures also have unhealthy promotion practices. This culture is an example of a person being appointed in the management having a good experience, hardworking but lacks leadership skills. These determine the poor practices by the organization that leads to several disadvantages.

Q. 2 How leaders serve as the creators of culture in the organization?

    Leaders play a great role in establishing the culture in the organizations. Leaders build the culture through different ways. They operate from a set of norms and values and acknowledge the significance of those standards and values. These values must be planted in the minds and hearts of the people. They also establish culture by operating with greatly emotional intelligence. It is critical to have the ability to work well with the people. Without the emotional intelligence, the leaders do not have the skill to convert the intentions into the meaning with the people. Leaders that have the low emotional intelligence have the blind spots in the leadership.

They also create the culture by building the trust. Trust is an essential thing in the leadership. The leaders have the ability to build trust in their followers. Political skills are used by the leaders for building trust. It gives them the ability to understand others. The successful leaders always develop and use their political skills. They reward the people by building trust. The employees are encouraged through the reward system, and this creates a high-performance culture in the organization. The leaders also establish a good culture by creating a positive vision of the future. Vision is quite important for the organizational culture as it identifies the direction for the work. In an organization, the people have a common goal and are communicated well, and this is a culture where the people support each other. This is a supportive culture developed by the leaders.

Leaders are often the role models in the organization, and they take all the responsibilities including developing the organized culture in the organization. They influence their standards to the employees working under them and hence develop a culture where they motivate the employees by sharing their experience and success. The leaders have the capability to lead the change well. They accept the changing environment and lead by example. Hence, these are the ways the leaders develop the culture in the organization. 

Q. 3 What is the impact of the change in the organizational culture?

Change is a transformation of culture influenced by some important factors. Change is an inevitable part of the business. Some leaders embrace the change while some leaders reject the change. Change is a risk taking, but useful thing, and the successful leaders often embrace change. The change has certain impacts on the organization and its culture. Change helps the business stay current with the trends of the market and the trends of the industry. It offers some new opportunities for the leaders and the organizational stakeholders to promote the business. It also gives the opportunities to compete with the competitors.

Mostly the impacts of the change are positive. It encourages the innovation in the company. In the modern era, the technology is quite important. The advancement in the technology is required on a consistent basis. The change allows the company to advance the technology. The new technology is embraced by the organization to enhance the benefits for the business. The change increases the efficiency of the organization. Change can build the efficiency of work procedures, which can make for more fulfilled clients and also representatives. Another conveyance procedure can expand the speed in which a client gets stock. Changing to an automated finance process may imply that a salesman is paid his payments sooner. Another bit of hardware can help a specialist in accelerating a part of the generation procedure in a manufacturing plant.

The organizational change also improves the attitudes and behaviors. A philosophical or work force change in an association can positively affect representative states of mind and resolve. A change in HR reasoning that considers a more casual workplace, for example, actualizing an easygoing clothing regulation, might be invited by representatives. At the point when a nearby disapproved of the administrator is supplanted with one who is interested in new thoughts, workers may feel that they have more information in regards to their occupation capacities. Hence, the only negative impact that I see is that it involves a few risks associated with the change. Overall, the impact of change is positive most of the times.