Question

Organizational culture can have both functional and dysfunctional effects on the people and the organization itself. Identify and explain at least two situations under which culture acts as a liability to an organization.

Answer 1

Though organisational culture acts as an asset most of the times but there can arise some situations where it can act like a liability too. Some of those conditions are described below:

1) Barrier to change:

Culture is a liability when the shared values are not in agreement with those that will further the organization’s effectiveness. This is most likely to occur when an organization’s environment is dynamic.

2) Barrier to diversity:

Hiring new employees who, because of race, gender, disability, or other differences, are not like the majority of the organization’s members creates a paradox. Management wants new employees to accept the organization’s core cultural values but, at the same time, they want to support the differences that these employees bring to the workplace. Strong cultures put considerable pressure on employees to conform. They limit the range of values and styles that are acceptable.

Strong cultures, therefore, can be liabilities when:

• They effectively eliminate the unique strengths that diverse people bring to the organization.
• They support institutional bias or become insensitive to people who are different.

Please do not forget to upvote the answer. Thanks :)