Question

Team 3 answer the following questions

1-What are 4 key things you learned about the topic from reading their paper?

2-How does the topic relate to you and your current or past job?

3-Critique the paper in terms of the organization and quality.

Organizational Culture and its Effect on the Corporate Environment
           An organization is a commercial or non-commercial place of business created for a particular purpose, where individuals from many different backgrounds, both educational and personal, come together to achieve a common goal. This shared goal is based on organizational or management objectives, but the primary goal of most organizations is long term success by achieving productivity, profitably, and financial benchmarks set forth by company executives and shareholders. The organizational culture of the workplace encompasses the beliefs, values and guiding principles that help decide the way employees, and other stakeholders interact with one another, while pursuing a path towards long term success (Brown, 2011). Although company cultures are differentiated based on classification and function, every organization has a culture. There are many classifications of corporate culture from normative, to pragmatic, to club cultures, however there are two main categories of organizational culture which these classifications fall under; strong organizational culture and weak organizational culture.
            A strong organizational culture pursues corporate goals by ensuring that all employees conduct themselves in an ethical and professional manner to reach corporate benchmarks by promoting a shared set of values, beliefs, and principles described in the organization’s mission, vision, and values statements. A weak organizational culture does not. The organization’s culture is shaped by the members of the organization, and is subject to constant change based on who remains within the organization over time. In society today, corporate culture is said to be influenced by the motivation of the employees and stakeholders. As we examine in depth what exactly makes up a strong versus weak organizational culture, we can better prepare a strategic plan for an organization that is preparing for change, as well as determine the best possible solutions for an organization that is receiving resistance, and other challenges to change by its employees.

Characteristics of Strong Organizational Culture
            A myriad of traits and norms encompass strong culture, and a strong culture is something that is built over time. According to the Harvard Business Review (2017), “culture is among the primary levers at top leaders’ disposal in their never-ending quest to maintain organizational viability and effectiveness.” In order to have a strong organizational culture, a company should have these four characteristics: a strong purpose, a sense of enjoyment, a plan for learning, and evaluation of results.
           When discussing an organization’s culture, one of the most important characteristics is a strong purpose. As stated by the Harvard Business Review (2017), “work environments with a strong purpose are tolerant, compassionate places where people try to do good for the long-term future of the world. Employees are united by a focus on sustainability and global communities; leaders emphasize shared ideals and contributing to a greater cause.” When an organization has a clear and strong purpose, employees are attracted and motivated to work there, and are also easier to retain. Working for an organization with a strong purpose would be fulfilling that need of belonging and importance that most employees seem to be striving for today in the workplace.
            Another characteristic that makes up a strong organizational culture is enjoyment. A majority of the working class may have been working the same job for many years, and have become almost habitual in their everyday tasks. A company that can bring enjoyment to the workplace is taking one of the necessary steps to build a strong organizational culture. The Harvard Business Review (2017) stated, “enjoyment is expressed through fun and excitement. Employees are united by playfulness and stimulation; leaders should emphasize spontaneity and a sense of humor.” Businesses should strive to provide excitement within the workplace, whether its during work hours or after hours.
            Another important characteristic is learning or professional development. The Harvard Business Review (2017) wrote that, “work environments are inventive and open-minded places where people spark new ideas and explore alternatives.” When it comes to learning and training employees, one particular organization stands out; Keller Williams Realty. Training Magazine had named Keller Williams Realty a top five training organization for five consecutive years across all industries because of their incredible employee development programs called MAPS (McLaughlin, 2014). Today, people are always looking to grow both personally and professionally, so an organization that invests in the time, training and personal development of its employees is investing in its future.
            Lastly, a strong organizational culture is likely to produce results. Per the Harvard Business Review (2017), “results are characterized by achievement and winning. Work environments are outcome-oriented and merit-based places where people aspire to achieve top performance.” For example, I can reflect on a time with a past employer where I found no strong, meaningful purpose in the work I was performing. The organization also lacked a sense of excitement, and there were no employee development programs or promise of advancement. There was no desire from my employer to keep pushing the boundaries for better results, and organizational success. Maybe one day that will change for my former employer, but for organizations that have all four characteristics; purpose, excitement, learning and results, a strong organizational culture is attainable.
Characteristics of Weak Organizational Culture
               As stated by the Journal of Applied Psychology (2012), organizational culture is not a steady culture, but it is constantly evolving. It is important to stay up to date on current research as to what constitutes a strong or weak organizational culture, and how to maintain a strong culture within a company. Members of a weak organizational culture may have vastly different visions, pulling the organization in their own or opposite directions. A research study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (2012), which attempted to find a correlation between organizational culture and performance. The study used a sample of 138 different organizational teams within a Fortune 500 company. The study showed that there was a strong, positive correlation between a high-level performance and a strong cultural organization, and a negative correlation between low-level performance and a weak organizational culture.
             According to a journal article within the Global Business Review (2017), “the more the organizational members agree on, widely share and remain committed to a set of common values and practices, the stronger the culture tends to be.” Therefore, a weak organizational culture is when members do not share common values. A great example of a weak organizational culture would be the summer camp I once worked for. The camp did attempt to maintain a shared vision throughout all its members, but did lack some elements of a strong organizational culture. My camp attempted to attract international diversity within their employees, and I had worked with co-counselors from vastly different backgrounds. All of us had different values, attitudes, and beliefs, which contributed to a lack of similar vision of what an effective summer camp counselor should be. Therefore, no matter how much training was given to each of the counselors during orientation week, based on my observations, we were all fundamentally different in our styles of interacting and disciplining the children.
Impact of Change on Weak Organizational Culture
              A company, no matter its market share or competitive advantage, will always run the risk of falling behind the competition if it does not maintain a strong or effective company culture. According to the course content, many outside factors, such as the general health of the economy or societal strains, may have an impact on an organization’s culture. Problems in organizations are often shaped by a host of factors including, critically, those internal to organizations (Howard-Grenville, 2007.)
           Employees need to feel comfortable with the idea of organizational change in the workplace in order for executives to not be faced with resistance, or at the very least, face little resistance. The reason for resistance is that an organization’s employees are usually invested in the current policies and procedures that their organization currently operates under. If something were to change later on, whether suddenly or over time, they would have to adjust, which humans have a natural aversion to. According to the course lectures, the following are some common reasons for resistance to change, which may cause an organization’s culture to be weakened: fear of the unknown, complacency, poor communication, and lack of involvement.

          In regard to a fear of the unknown, employees are usually afraid of how a change will impact them. For example, their own job or pay will face the possibility of change, and it is also possible that the employees may even face termination or demotion. The term complacency refers to the employees being unaffected by the change, and may contribute to employees being indifferent about what management would like for them to change. These specific individuals will do the bare minimum, and be on their way. As for poor communication, a lack of clear direction will also cause employees a good amount of confusion, which can lead to them not being sure what is expected of them, and can lead to them being passively or aggressively reluctant to change. Finally, a lack of involvement refers to the importance of involving the entire team in process of the organizational change.
           For example, as a front of house manager at the restaurant I used to work at, I saw a huge need for cultural change to be implemented. There were many other operational changes necessary, however we could not tackle the issues together because everyone was divided due to denied promotions, pay discrepancies and a lack of motivation. Eventually our employee turnover rate almost tripled in my department. As a higher-level manager, I would have tried to repair the weak organizational culture by attempting to tackle majority of the issues as they became more prominent.

Impact of Change on Strong Organizational Culture
          A company’s culture is the DNA of the organization, and a strong culture is deeply engrained in the way a company conducts its business. There is cohesion around traditions, rituals, behavioral rules, and beliefs, and they usually will have more than one prominent leader who will articulate their rules, rituals, traditions and beliefs that are in line with the customer needs and the company as a whole. A strong organizational culture may not pay off financially from a short-term perspective, but the long-term results will be positive when you have happy and loyal employees (Dizik, 2016). To convert a weak organizational culture into a strong organizational culture, there are a few key details to focus on. First, as a manager myself, I would focus on the wellbeing of my employees before anything. An organization should begin by implementing a clear mission and vision statement that includes the company’s values. Employees should know what their direct manager or organization expects of them in terms of productivity and conduct, and how they can achieve those expectations or objectives. This step will give employees a sense of purpose and understanding of the managerial goals or objectives they should strive to achieve on a daily basis.
          Second, a manager or organization should have a clear and concise code of conduct. The code of conduct will set guidelines that will be used by all employees to specify how employees should conduct themselves when interacting with one another. The code of conduct should also bring the behavior of each employee into alignment with what the company goals are in dealing with day-to-day client, partner and third-party interactions. In other words, it should specify the behaviors or actions that should and should not be said or done.
           Third, a company should focus on pursuing a collaborative teamwork environment within the workplace. It is important to push for a synergistic environment, and to employ managers that will help employees work together as a team. Also, a company should be able to face challenges and adapt to constant change. When change arises, employees are usually distracted by the impending fear of the unknown. This fear debilitates development, and distracts employees from the mission and vision of the company, but by keeping a strong organizational culture, the organization should be able to face certain challenges with ease and advance through tough times.
            Lastly, organizations should offer a safe and healthy workplace for all employees. A safe and healthy environment demonstrates the corporate and social responsibility of the corporation for their employees. The well-being of the employees is just as much, if not more important than the high standards for product results. Physically and mentally, employees should feel well taken care of. But beyond that is the enhancement of their skills and talents through healthy venues. A safe and healthy work environment makes employees want to work harder, show up on time and stay motivated to finish the job at hand with utmost care.

Maintaining a Strong Culture & the Future of the Organization
            An organization’s culture can be seen as the foundation and driving force behind its practices, goals, and achievements. One of the main challenges is being able to comply with the company culture at any given moment, because changes do occur that can have either a positive or negative effect on the culture of the workplace and its employees. According to Chapter 16, it states that “organizational development is an ongoing process because an organization cannot remain static and be effective. In today’s changing environment, organizations must develop adaptive mechanisms and anticipative management systems,” (Brown 2011). This is true, because consumer preferences, the economy and supply chain systems are constantly changing, and these operations are a crucial part in the overall functionality of an organization. For a company’s culture to be able to remain strong throughout times of change, there needs to be a strong management system in place. Leaders of the corporation need to be headstrong with unique and effective strategies that will uphold the foundation of the company.
              Second, there should be a clear understanding of the ethics and values that remain true to the organization’s structure. Employees should consent to abide by this aspect of the work culture no matter what changes occur. Furthermore, relationships and a proper code of conduct need to be implemented. Given a circumstance, as if I were to be in a managerial position and had to handle changes that could affect the culture of my own team, I would be sure to inform my employees of what changes have or could be taking place that may have a direct impact on our company or team. Then, I would demonstrate how our organizational culture will successfully adapt to that change, and remain vigorous so that our working system, values, mission and procedures do not fail under the pressure of those changes. Workshops, programs and orientations are vital tools that can be used to make sure that employees stay up to date and be reminded of the culture so they can perform their duties for the company.

Answer 1

1. The four key things that I have learned after going through the topic are as follows:

• In order to build a strong organizational culture it is very important that organizations should have a strong purpose and should strive to work on that purpose and achieve the organizational goals. The employees should be given an open environment and make the workplace a happy place to work at. Importance should be given for the learning and development of the employees and also results should be evaluated on time.
• If proper direction is not provided to the employees and they have different visions and there is a lack of united and common goals then the organizational culture will turn out to be very week, hence leading to low level of employee performance and low morale.
• If the organizational culture is strong enough then change can be easily implemented in the organization and the employees will not be resistant to change, on the other hand with a week organizational culture, any small change will be resisted by the employees and their loyalty will also be affected thus leading to lack of involvement and low morale and low level of productivity.
• In order to create and maintain a strong organizational culture, the involvement of the managers is must and their continuous efforts to make the organization a strong place to work at is equally required. The managers should not compromise on the ethical and moral values and should follow proper code of conduct in order to maintain the culture of their organizations strong.

2. The topic Organizational Culture and its Effect on the Corporate Environment relates to every organization and affects the morale of every employee. It affects my present workplace as well. The organization with which I am working is a College where different courses are run. The topic relates to my organization in the following ways:

• The organizational has clear and precise set of vision and mission and has already set achievable goals for the coming years.
• The employees are given importance and are made to realize at home by asking their view points, involving them in decision making, working for their benefits, treating them equally and paying them fairly.
• The level of communication is very strong and the employees are very well informed about small changes to be made in future.
• The top management does not compromise on the ethics and moral values and takes any decision keeping in mind the ethics and morals.
• An open environment is provided to the employees and they are not restricted on small issues are free to take decisions under their control.    
• There is a sense of enjoyment in the work place and employees enjoy working in the organization without any burden or compulsion.

3. The paper so presented highlights the meaning of organizational culture and how important it is to maintain a strong organizational culture. The author says that culture in an organization can be strong or it can be week. It is right on the terms that a strong organizational culture will result into a strong place for the employees with improved level of loyalty for the business, increased morale and high level of productivity.

On the other hand a week organizational culture will lead to low employee morale and less level of loyalty on the part of the employees. This will also lead to increased level of resistance for change, poor communication level between employees and management, lack of enjoyment in the workplace and lack of learning and development initiatives taken for the welfare of the employees.

In order to maintain proper quality in the workplace it is very important to follow ethics and moral values by the managers and proper and continuous follow up is important in order to maintain a strong organizational culture. Moreover high level of communication and involvement of the employees is very important for consistent and long lasting strong culture in the organization.