Organisational Culture (Research Paper Sample)

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Organisational Culture
Introduction
An organisational culture, from a human resource perspective, refers to the dominant values accepted in an organisation. Culture is a perception viewed as a norm around a group of people, may they be in a village or workers of an institution. Their lives and functionality are based on the established culture within the boundaries. In addition, this is what separates one organisation from the rest, offers the workers a sense of identity and something to relate. It is crucial to maintain a culture among the workers as it creates uniformity in their thinking and acting, which is essentially beneficial to the organisation (Schein, 2010).
Creating an organisation culture is an initiative that begins with the pioneers of the company. They formulate the ideologies behind the founding of the company and relay the same to their human resource management. The human resource management controls the selection criteria and feeds the workers with the information guiding them about the organisation’s culture. Knowing the company’s goals and where it is headed is the most vital aspect to maintain when formulating an organisation’s culture. Once this has been identified, the same is relayed to the subordinates, and they are expected to replicate it. As time elapses, the organisational culture is adopted and passed on to the new workers. Sustaining a preferred organisational culture is an easy task as it is the definition of how people act and function while at the workplace. For instance, arriving at the office at 8 o’clock in the morning can be an organisational culture. As such, many workers would find this as a normal routine that they follow it without failure or complacency.
There are several merits associated with having a credible organisational culture and they include heightened productivity at the workplace. Culture, as developed by the founders of an organisation and relayed by the human resource management, encompasses the company’s goals and stakeholders’ needs. Thus, when the workers are in tune with the desired goals, they all have a similar focus, which often leads to successful completion of work as per the expectations of the managers. Finishing work on time and within the expected standards are aspects best fuelled by having an outstanding organisational culture, and it often leads to success of the company, at large. It is necessary to maintain a feasible culture that is accepted by all the workers in the organisation to ensure that all is running smoothly (McGunagle, 2012).
Teamwork is yet another aspect encouraged by a functional organisational culture and is an advantage to the company. It creates uniformity among the workers with many following what the human resource management guides its workers. Additionally, the workers perceive ideas and culture as per the managers’ guidelines; hence, as they make decisions, they act in a similar way at the workplace. Working together among such employees is easy as they have common goals and functionality. This is beneficial to the organisation as the productivity is high, and the workforce is dependable with teamwork (Bowyer and Martinelli, 2004).
An organisational culture is an aspect that relates to a company’s brand and is important when hiring employees. For example, Google Incorporation has been recorded as a company where workers have a right to freedom, which is their culture and a brand often related to the organisation. When potential employees seek a job with Google Incorporation, they already know the work environment they are about to join (Pfister, 2009). Other companies have a very stringent working environment, which is their organisational culture. Often, when people describe such organisations, they define them as strict because they already know the working environment based on the normal behaviour and functionality in the workplace.
Organisational culture creates a sense of belonging to the workers, and they feel proud about it. When employees join a company, they learn about the culture of the organisation either prior to their job application or afterwards. This offers them the chance to decide to either leave or stay and adapt to the new culture. Some may feel the challenge of accepting the change while others may readily join the company and embrace the organisational culture. Such members comprehend the human resource management’s plans and goals, which they also strive to achieve. They gain a sense of belonging by conforming to the managers’ needs and feeling as a part of the organisation because they are encouraged by the prevailing culture. Having a uniform culture from the top management down to the subordinate staff members creates a team that everyone is proud to be a part of in the workplace (Flamholtz and Randle, 2011).
Organisational culture also has its demerits that often discourage its application in various settings. Having a common routine that people follow creates monotony that hinders creativity from prevailing. Workers in an organisation that encourages culture development and maintenance follow an already decided plan without any diver...