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INTRODUCTION:

Organizational Culture is the totality of beliefs, customs, traditions and values shared by the members of the organization. Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. It is important to consider culture while managing change in the organization. Culture can be both, as input and as output. While organizational culture is the term that reflects culture in any type of organization be it school, university, not-for-profit groups, government agencies or business entity, more concrete business terms are corporate culture and company culture or company's culture.

Although the idea that the term became known in businesses in the late 80s and early 90s is widespread, in fact corporate culture was already used by managers and addressed in sociology, cultural studies and organizational theory in the beginning of the 80s. The idea about the culture and overall environment and characteristics of organization, in fact, was first and similarly approached with the notion of organizational climate in the 60s and 70s, and the terms now are somewhat overlapping.

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WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?


Organizational culture is the collective behaviour of people that are part of an organization, it is also formed by the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, and symbols, and it includes beliefs and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviours and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. Ravasi and Schultz (2006) state that organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behaviour for various situations. At the same time although a company may have "own unique culture", in larger organizations, there is a diverse and sometimes conflicting cultures that co-exist due to different characteristics of the management team. The organizational culture may also have negative and positive aspects.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.


Innovation and Risk Taking. Attention to Detail. Outcome Orientation. People Orientation. Team Orientation. Aggressiveness. Stability.

FACTORS THAT CREATE AND SUSTAIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.


According to Schein (1992), the two main reasons why cultures develop in organizations are due to external adaptation and internal integration. External adaptation reflects an evolutionary approach to organizational culture and suggests that cultures develop and persist because they help an organization to survive and flourish. If the culture is valuable, then it holds the potential for generating sustained competitive advantages. Additionally, internal integration is an important function since social structures are required for organizations to exist. Organizational practices are learned through socialization at the workplace. Work environments reinforce culture on a daily basis by encouraging employees to exercise cultural values. Organizational culture is shaped by multiple factors, including the following: External environment. Industry. Size and nature of the organizations workforce. Technologies the organization uses.

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The organizations history and ownership.

Fig 1: Organizational Culture External Adaptation And Internal Integration.

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HOW EMPLOYEES LEARN CULTURE?


Gerry Johnson (1988) described a cultural web, identifying a number of elements that can be used for employer to learn or influence organizational culture:

The Paradigm: What the organization is about, what it does, its mission, its values. Control Systems: The processes in place to monitor what is going on. Role cultures would have vast rulebooks. There would be more reliance on individualism in a power culture. Organizational Structures: Reporting lines, hierarchies, and the way that work flows through the business. Power Structures: Who makes the decisions, how widely spread is power, and on what is power based? Symbols: These include organizational logos and designs, but also extend to symbols of power such as parking spaces and executive washrooms. Rituals and Routines: Management meetings, board reports and so on may become more habitual than necessary. Stories and Myths: build up about people and events, and convey a message about what is valued within the organization. These elements may overlap. Power structures may depend on control systems, which may exploit the very rituals that generate stories which may not be true.

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CREATING AN ETHICAL ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.

Top management Philosophy of organizations founders Organization culture Socialization

Selection criteria

Fig 2: Tree Diagram of Ethical Organizational Culture A) Philosophy of organizations founders: The ultimate source of an organizations culture is its founders. The founders behavior acts as a role model for the employees. With the organizational success, the founders personality is embedded in the organizational culture. B) Selection practices: Explicit goal identifying and hiring individuals having knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the jobs successfully. Individuals having values consistent with those of the organization are selected as per the decision makers judgements. Selection becomes a two-way street as it provides information about the organization to the applicants.
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C) Top Management: The actions of top management establishes the norms for the organization as to Whether risk taking is desirable. How much freedom managers should give to their subordinates. What actions will pay off in terms of pay rises, promotions and other rewards etc. D) Socialization: New employees are not familiar with the organizational culture and are potentially likely to disturb the existing culture. The process through which the employees are proselytized about the customs and traditions of the organization is known as socialization. It is the process of adaptation by which new employees are to understand the basic values and norms for becoming accepted members of the organization.

CREATING A POSITIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE


Cummings & Worley (2004) give the following six guidelines for cultural change; these changes are in line with the eight distinct stages mentioned by Kotter (1995): 1. Formulate a clear strategic vision (stage 1, 2, and 3). In order to make a cultural change effective a clear vision of the firms new strategy, shared values and behaviours is needed. This vision provides the intention and direction for the culture change.

2. Display top-management commitment (stage 4). It is very important to keep in mind that culture change must be managed from the top of the organization, as willingness to change of the senior management is an important indicator. The top of the organization should be very much in favour of the change in order to
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actually implement the change in the rest of the organization. De Caluw & Vermaak (2004) provide a framework with five different ways of thinking about change.

3. Model culture change at the highest level (stage 5). In order to show that the management team is in favour of the change, the change has to be notable at first at this level. The behaviour of the management needs to symbolize the kinds of values and behaviours that should be realized in the rest of the company. It is important that the management shows the strengths of the current culture as well; it must be made clear that the current organizational does not need radical changes, but just a few adjustments. This process may also include creating committee, employee task forces, value managers, or similar. Change agents are key in the process and key communicators of the new values. They should possess courage, flexibility, excellent interpersonal skills, knowledge of the company, and patience. As McCune (May 1999) puts it, these individual should be catalysts, not dictators.

4. Modify the organization to support organizational change. The fourth step is to modify the organization to support organizational change. This includes identifying what current systems, policies, procedures and rules need to be changed in order to align with the new values and desired culture. This may include a change to accountability systems, compensation, benefits and reward structures, and recruitment and retention programs to better align with the new values and to send a clear message to employees that the old system and culture are in the past.

5. Select and socialize newcomers and terminate deviants (stage 7 & 8 of Kotter). A way to implement a culture is to connect it to organizational membership, people can be selected and terminate in terms of their fit with the new culture (Cummings & Worley, 2004, p. 491). Encouraging employee

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motivation and loyalty to the company is key and will also result in a healthy culture. The company and change managers should be able to articulate the connections between the desired behaviour and how it will impact and improve the companys success, to further encourage buy-in in the change process. Training should be provided to all employees to understand the new processes, expectations and systems.

6. Develop ethical and legal sensitivity. Changes in culture can lead to tensions between organizational and individual interests, which can result in ethical and legal problems for practitioners. This is particularly relevant for changes in employee integrity, control, equitable treatment and job security (Cummings & Worley, 2004). It is also beneficial, as part of the change process, to include an evaluation process, conducted periodically to monitor the change progress and identify areas that need further development. This step will also identify obstacles of change and resistant employees and to acknowledge and reward employee improvement, which will also encourage continued change and evolvement. It may also be helpful and necessary to incorporate new change managers to refresh the process. Outside consultants may also be useful in facilitating the change process and providing employee training. Change of culture in the organizations is very important and inevitable. Culture innovations is bound to be because it entails introducing something new and substantially different from what prevails in existing cultures. Cultural innovation is bound to be more difficult than cultural maintenance. People often resist changes hence it is the duty of the management to convince people that likely gain will outweigh the losses. Besides institutionalization, deification is another process that tends to occur in strongly developed organizational cultures. The organization itself may come to be regarded as precious in itself, as a source of pride, and in some sense unique. Organizational members begin to feel a strong bond with it that transcends material returns given by the organization, and they begin to identify with it. The organization turns into a sort of clan.

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SPIRITUALITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE


Spiritual influence in the workplace has gained momentum in recent years and is often described in terms of organizational spirituality. While sustained and strenuous effort is needed to move an organizations culture and structure down the continuum from limiting toward inspiring, more is required. Figure illustrates the elements of

organizational spirituality and a culture of success required to move an organization from limiting to inspiring. The differentiating factors that define and determine cultural orientation and values must first be identified.

Fig 3: Elements of a Culture of Success. These factors include basic workplace attributes, organizational climate, and core values. Once defined, these factors must be communicated and supported throughout the organization. As a people-centered culture emerges, individuals capacities expand as do their opportunities to use them. The natural result is that their organizations
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flourish. Success reinforces cultural change and provides momentum to move toward an inspiring organizational culture. Fortunately, the literature has begun to discuss the key issues involved in building an inspiring organizational culture with a particular focus on the issues of core values, organizational climate, and workplace attributes.

CONCLUSION
Culture adapts to diverse circumstances. Managers need to understand the nature and role of culture. Managers must understand the importance of culture for organizational change. Corporate culture also impacts the day-to-day decision-making of the organization.

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LIST OF FIGURES
1. Fig 1: Organizational Culture External Adaptation and Internal Integration. Page No.04. 2. Fig 2: Tree Diagram of Ethical Organizational Culture 3. Fig 3: Elements of a Culture of Success. Page No. 06. Page No. 10.

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REFERENCES
1. Adkins, B. and Caldwell, D. (2004). "Firsm or subgroup culture: Where does fitting in matter most?" Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(8) pp. 969-978 2. Burman, R. and Evans, A.J. (2008) "Target Zero: A Culture of safety", Defence Aviation Safety Centre Journal, pp. 22-27. 3. Cameron, Kim S. & Quinn, Robert E. (1999), Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-201-33871-3, reprinted John Wiley & Sons, 2011 4. Chatman, J. A., & Jehn, K. A. (1994). "Assessing the relationship between industry characterestics and organizational culture: How different can you be? Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 522-553. 5. Cummings, Thomas G. & Worley, Christopher G. (2004), Organization Development and Change, 8th Ed., South-Western College Pub. 6. Denison, Daniel R. (1990) Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness, Wiley. 7. Denison, Daniel R., Haaland, S. and Goelzer, P. (2004) "Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness: Is Asia Different from the Rest of the

World?" Organizational Dynamics, pp. 98-1 09 8. Deal T. E. and Kennedy, A. A. (1982, 2000) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1982; reissue Perseus Books, 2000 9. Janis, Irving L. (1972). Victims of groupthink; a psychological study of foreignpolicy decisions and fiascoes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-14002-1. 10. Milliman, J., Ferguson, J., Trickett, D. and Condem, B. An Investigation of a Spiritual Values-Based Mode. Journal of Organizational Change Management 1999 12 (3), 221. 11. Jung, C. G. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: New York, 1933.

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