Organizational Culture

Summary:  In this reflection, I have attempted to describe the culture of the organization where I have worked before and in the process, I have expressed my views about the same .I have also indicated the kind of impact which my organization created to me about work culture.

An organization's culture varies as widely as the nature of work itself. Often a unique different mix of values and norms govern the cultural environment of an organization. In today's fast changing business environment, the cultural make-up of an organizations plays a critical role in the success of the firm to achieve its strategic objectives. In this paper I will explore the idea of organizational culture and discuss factors associated with understanding the reality of an organization's culture, with examples presented to illustrate my discussion points.

Culture is not an easily defined concept, but generally it is the values, beliefs, and norms expressed in work practices and behavior. An organization's culture is not necessarily an articulated list of values found in a carefully worded statement or available as an appendix in an annual report. Rather, culture is created by the organization itself. How employees treat and interact with one another and the values of the employees and the organization, such as work ethic, manifest an organization's culture. Some cultures encourage innovation and risk taking, while others punish those who challenge established norms and practices. 

Here, I’d like to discuss about work culture at my organization. After finishing my undergraduate in India, I worked for a startup in US where I had a brief encounter with the organization’s culture. The speaker addressed us as Software Developers instead of interns, which was our designation and we were asked to address any employee by their name (which is not usual in India where the senior people are addressed as “Sir/Madam”, so that was a complete change of grounds for me). Also the Identity card never represented the designation of a person. The main reason behind this was to reduce the “Power-distance” which is usually very high in India.  There is a kind of domination by the people in higher positions. I used to work along with CEO, CTO and other senior people in the same office and they were very much accessible to me. Every day all the employees used to had lunch and dinner with CEO, CTO.

Another instance where the culture in my Organization had a positive impact on me was when I learned about the Values, which were believed and practiced by every employee of the organization. Those values are – Executive Support, Training Leading change, Integrity, Respect for individual, Learning and sharing. 

Executive support: Executives in the organization must support the cultural change, and in ways beyond verbal support. They must show behavioral support for the cultural change. Executives must lead the change by changing their own behaviors. It is extremely important for executives to consistently support the change.

Training: Culture change depends on behavior change. Members of the organization must clearly understand what is expected of them, and must know how to actually do the new behaviors, once they have been defined. Training can be very useful in both communicating expectations and teaching new behaviors.

Leading change: All the employees are given the freedom to think innovatively and make necessary changes to the project they are working in; the main motive behind this is that we believe that change is very essential and leading change helps us gain a potential advantage in the competitive market. 

Integrity: Integrity is a mirror revealing the truth about an individual or a corporation. It involves walking the talk -- not just talking it. Integrity is violated when corporate policies and procedures are thrown out the window in the quest for personal or corporate gain. From an organization's perspective, personal and corporate integrity are two sides of the same coin. In order for a corporation to have integrity, it must have an ethical environment with employees and business partners willing to follow and enforce corporate culture, policies, and procedures. From an individual's perspective, an employee or partner wants to for a corporation aimed at doing the right thing and in-sync with their personal values and beliefs.  

Respect to individual: As I have said before, all the employees are treated equally disregarding to their designation and role in the company and everyone has freedom to access any employee including the senior management.

Learning and sharing: One’s knowledge doubles when he/she shares it with others. I strongly believe in this and have always done that which I continued to do at work with my organizations support.

Considering the size of the company, I was a bit uncertain during the initial phase of my job but the clear mission, vision and value statements and the level of coordination and integration among the employees definitely reduces the uncertainty. 

Conclusion:Discussing all this, I should say that the culture at my organization definitely had a positive impact on me; it has created a positive and comfortable work environment. Organizational culture is a very important factor for a company and the culture of an organization represents the organization.