The organizational culture approach was developed, like systems theory, to give a big picture view of the communication that takes place in organizations. It is an approach that works very well with our communication perspective on organizations. It is difficult to define exactly what culture is but most scholars of culture come up with definitions that make the interaction between people (communication to us) at the heart of the culture construction process. Of all the approaches we will use to study organizational communication, organizational culture is probably the most communication-friendly.
Ironically, it is this very communication-friendliness that makes organizational culture one of the most difficult approaches for a manager or organizational communication practitioner. The organizational culture approach makes it very clear that the culture producing process is not top down. All of the interactions between all of the members are coming together and adding up to a whole that is an organizations culture. There is seemingly little a manager or communication expert can do to control the organizational culture that develops in an organization. In fact, the managers may not even really know what the organizational culture of the organization is. In The Mighty Machine, a paper a colleague and I wrote in the early days of organizational culture research we found that in the organization we studied the managers and employees had completely opposite characterizations of the culture in the organization. The managers believed the organization had a "people-first" culture while the employees reported they felt strongly that the culture of the organization was driven by the machines and technology of the organization--first and foremost.
This bottom-up nature of culture is difficult for managers because it is virtually uncontrollable yet has a powerful impact on the organization. It is even more difficult because what management of culture is possible does not follow the patterns and processes typically followed by managers. Management of culture must be symbolic. That is, management must use symbols to guide and direct the culture. Symbolic management is even harder than it might be because the "one cannot not communicate" concept reminds us that EVERY action potentially is an important symbol that can communicate. Actions that are not thought of as any part of the communication with employees, new carpet in the managerial suite, for example, or a reward trip for employees in a certain department, end up being major factors in creating the culture. The actions themselves send messages, intended or not. Employees' reactions to these messages reverberate and create cultural realities that shape the organization.
Bottom line, it is better to understand how organizational culture works and have an awareness of the impact of potential messages than to be unaware. Symbolic management is practiced, and practiced effectively, by managers and organizations. It would be great if organizational culture could just be avoided but that is a luxury organizations just don't have.
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Organizational culture can be a great tool for management if they see it the same way that their employees do. As you mentioned, it can also be a big problem if managers see it one way, and that way is different for the employees. I think if management put the time and energy into shaping their organizational culture and made sure their idea was consistent with the employees' idea in reflecting the overall vision and goals of the organization, things would be so much better. This might be accomplished through frequent community building activities (i. e. family picnics, work outings), frequent surveys of employee perceptions of the workplace and culture, and even meetings where organizational goals are reinforced. I think too often, workplaces get so caught up in the "work" aspect that it becomes tiresome or difficult to evaluate the culture, and decide what needs to change or adjust to the growing demands of the working world. Then, the cycle continues to be a detriment, as the "daily grind" becomes more of the culture than it's original vision and goals. A job is just a job to some people, and they become disconnected from the reality that is the vision of the workplace. When an organizational culture such as South West or Disney makes work more than just a job, I think that is an accomplishment that puts them ahead of the game, and the competition.
I completely agree with Shelly, and think that if an organization can embrace the culture approach in the right way the employees, managers, and overall company could be completely happy and successful. I don’t necessarily think that being a top-down approach to management is always the ideal of organizations and employees, and personally I would much rather work for a company where my thoughts and ideas were equal to everyone else’s. In this type of organization I think it would be helpful to not put the label of “boss” or “manager”, and rather refer to everyone as employees, where everyone is at the same level of opportunity. I agree that this does not work in every organization, but places that depend on the diversity of opinion employees have to offer; this is possible the best and only way to run the company. Like systems theory organization culture looks at EVERY aspect of the organization, and remembers that without one of the parts, it would not be successful, and this is a quality of a “job” that appeals to many people.
I think that organizational culture is probably the most valuable tool for an organization in a sense. If the culture is good, it makes people want to get up and go to work in the morning. Employees feel understood, more respected, and are happier when the organization around them is geared more towards their needs and the culture around them is their to build their motivation towards the organization's tasks that lie ahead. Someone who goes to work in a boring and dull organizational culture where no one interacts and their needs are not put first, is less likely to produce high quality work than a person who loves to go to work and has fun at their job. I think that when both the employer and the employee have the same perception of what the organizations culture is, or what in that culture can be improved, the overall satisfaction of the company will be greatly benefited. People are much more motivated to work when they feel that they are respected and have better relationships with the people they work with and for. I know that I personally perform better at work when I'm happy with my surroundings. Overall, i think that with good communication between empolyers and employees about a positive organizational culture, production from organizations would run much more smoothly and easily!
I definitely think that organizational culture is an important tool for organizations and their management. In my opinion, if I were part of an organization where my beliefs and ideas weren't as valued as others, such as management, I would no longer want to be apart of that organization. I think it is extremely important for employees to be treated as equals to their management otherwise organizations are going to come to find that their employees would rather work somewhere else. Not only that, but organizational culture could really improve an organization in the sense that you would have employees who would feel valued and would want to come to work. I think participation would be greater and the working environment in general would be greatly improved. Organizational culture is basically something that would bring management and employees on more level terms, creating an organization that could work together in improving the working world.
I agree completely with everyone so far. I believe that it is essential for organizations to take a look at their culture; unfortunately, I don’t think they do as often as they should. Management needs to be able to not only hold their position as managers but take a look at the culture of the business as a whole. If I were to be an employee of a business who makes it obvious that they value their culture, I would be much happier as someone who may not have that experience. As Shelly suggested, using community building activities would be a great way to strengthen the culture of an organization. Social events make people feel welcome and give them the opportunity to make new friends that they are able to carry with them to the workplace. By making the culture of an organization a good one, the employees will want to get to work in the morning, work hard while they are at work and the organization as a whole will function smoothly. Every aspect of an organization has to be noted and I believe that culture is one of the most important!
Organizational culture is a concept that I don’t think many business think about. They are too busy just trying to keep up with the world and make a profit. However, it is such an important aspect just like the other bloggers mentioned. I never really thought of the org culture at the places I have worked, and now looking back I can see how there could have been huge changes had the managers cared about culture. The thing we need to think about is how can we make more business aware of organizational culture? Would many businesses even listen? I know several of my previous employers wouldn’t even think about changing anything because of “culture.” So many businesses are set in their ways and not willing to change, especially if the work is getting done. I guess our duty as comm. majors/minors will be to encourage the idea of creating a positive organizational culture when we go out and find professions. I can only hope that the big bosses will be open to listening and changing.
In another class of mine, we discussed the difference between a leader and a manager. Managers have a top-down communication style and are less interactive with their employees. The difference in a leader is they are interested in the value of their subordinates and give them an opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise. I believe that if organizations took more of a leadership approach in their culture (rather than a management approach), it would greatly benefit employees, which in turn would benefit the overall atmosphere of the company.
I absolutely agree with some of the previous responses about organizational culture. It is the most important factor in an organization that with determine the success of the organization. For example, if there is a community environment in the work place and employees work together to create synergy the organization will most likely be successful. However, if employees are not respected by management and there is no positive interaction between these members then it is more likely that the organization will be less successful in the long run. As a HRM major I have taken many classes that discuss organizational culture. It is interesting to me that along with different cultures come different approaches to HR functions. For example, if a culture values individuality over collectivism there would be a need for individual performance based pay or bonuses, instead of bonuses given to successful groups. I have taken some international HRM classes and I have found the differences between HRM functions in different countries to be very great. For example the difference between the French with their very bureaucratic, hierarchical structure and the Scandinavian centralized decision-making and teamwork. I one aspect that surprises me the most is that there can be different organizational cultures within one country. At a glance a country may seem to have only one culture. However, when you look deeper you can see the many differences. I think it is important to note that just because organizational cultures may be different that does not mean they are wrong. If this was true entire countries out be bankrupt for operating on their given assumptions. It is the combination and meshing together of many different cultures that make the most successful organization.
When talking about an organization's culture, i totally agree that it is created from the bottom up. The employees are the important cogs that make the machine work. The fact that they are all workers means that they have something in common, whereas the managers and bosses really can't connect on that level. I think that this is a main reason why some managers never grasp the culture of their organizations because they aren't the ones doing the work of the worker, they are managing the worker. They don't know what it is like doing mundane tasks or going into the break room and complaining about specific tasks. Who does the manager really get along with? Probably other managers and people that actually have something in common with them. I agree that managers should send good signals and positive symbols to their workers to promote a positive org. culture, but i don't want them acting like they are workers as well and try too hard to fit in. Org. culture is what the employees make it and the managers job is to steer that culture in the right direction if needed.
Organizational culture is one of those things that can make or break a company or business. Pretty much everyone has said that if the culture is good, and the employees are happy with the culture than the business is productive and profitable. I’m glad to say that this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about organizational culture in a class. In fact it’s probably the 3rd or 4th class. This tells a lot about how important organizational culture is to every major. Even if someone doesn’t have a job, the organizational culture concept can be found in social groups and activities and basically everything a person is involved with. Management should be able to recognize what the culture is like and what things they can do to improve the culture. When I worked at a store in the mall our manager tried to change the culture of the store by providing incentives to sell certain things. All in all, it was good in theory, but the manager didn’t follow though as well as she could have and the whole plan fell through. I’m hoping that in my career my future managers will be more able to adapt to the culture of the organization.
Cultures inescapably arise within organizations. As previously mentioned, I too agree it is important to understand how an organizational culture works and have an awareness of the impact of potential messages than to be unaware. Multiple cultural elements create an organizational structure, and in my opinion, an organization would be more successful if mangers were aware of the different cultural elements that define the organization. Each member’s attitude and actions are constantly defining and redefining the organizational structure. Employees will appreciate managements attempt to better understand the organizational culture, therefore making the employees feel appreciated. Management must recognize the bottom-up nature of the culture and not work to change it, but understand it. An organization is shaped by its members; the more content the members – the more successful the organization. It is in the hands of management to take their understanding of the culture and work with it, not against it.
I do believe that most businesses today are blind to organizational culture. Manager's assume that they provide a "people first" environment but most employees and from the expirences of other blogger's, it seems they feel a little differently. I wonder,when it comes down to it will a company even care if a organizational culture exists? Why would they if they are in a steady state and making profits? I hope that this system of bottom-up in organizational culture is implemented in my future work place. It would definantly persuade me to continue on in the organization or move on to something else.
I also agree with what people have been saying. I think that not ony figuring out an organization's organizational culture is dificult but how about adjusting to numerous organizational cultures that exisit from department to department. I think that if you are constantly working with people from different departments or even different locations you could potentially run into a lot of problems as a result of differing organizational culture. Also something that came to mind is chaning jobs completely. Going back to our first blog when we talked about how a person can expect to go through 5 different carrer changes. Imagine with each change having to become accostumed to another organizational culture. I think that it would be difficult at first to continuously assimilate to a new organizational culture everytime you change jobs/ careers. I think something else that would be hard when changing jobs is how your thoughts and feelings are respected. In some organizations you might be in a positition where your thoughts and feelings were taken into account. Where everyone was on an even playing field and noone was better than the other. Now imagine having to go to a new orgainization where your new position does not recieve an equal oportunity to express feelings compared to other positions. I think that in that case it would be extremely hard to adjust to new organizational cultures from job to job.
It seems most of us are sold on the idea of managers using organizational communication to better their companies. Relating back to chapter one with the new world of work challenges and the shifting loyalties. If an employee likes his job because it’s “a great place to work” they are probably referring to the organizational culture which can be great for retaining those best employees in such a high competition world. I think another reason we all like organizational culture is because it is a fun way to look at organizations, having heroes and legends rather than an organization as a time oriented, production machine. But the creation of a solid organizational culture must be extremely difficult. It doesn’t seem that the organizations with a good culture are at all aware of how it happened; people just told the stories because they were entertaining and people became heroes probably on luck that the company hired them and placed them in the right position. I would assume that organizations with poor culture are no more aware of how that happened, or is happening, than the good culture organizations. Organizational culture is a great tool and way to look at organizations and a good culture is definitely something you want on your side. I just think it’s a fairly retroactive way to look at organizations and doesn’t really provide a lot of practical ways to solve cultural problems. There is no perfect formula to create a good organizational culture, the best I can think of is to hire good people which is something everyone already tries to do and has already proven itself a bit of a crap shoot. Rick K out.
I think it's interesting that management and employees think there are different organizational cultures. I can see that looking at the organizational culture at Applebee's. I think that our management thinks they focus on the employees and make sure we are happy, but some days we just don't feel that culture. The culture does change when different managers are there and even different employees. We all add our own part that changes the culture daily. So coming in as a new person, there is a lot to learn as far as interaction goes between everyone who works there. The organizational culture does effect if Applebee's runs effectively.
Since I am a Communications studies major with a minor in business administration, I have had the opportunity to compare manegement classes with organizational communication classes. In my experience, management classes seem to focus more on what the manager can do to control the employees and thw workplace. It is very business focused, discussing mostly profits and productivity, with little emphasis on the contentment of the employee. Organizational communitcation classes seem to focus more on the organization as one whole unit, not seperated into management and employees. These classes focus on the culture of the entire organization, and how it can be changed or improved. This difference is one of the key reasons why I left the school of business and changed to a communications major. I really like that communications focuses on the people, all of the people, and how the culture they create influences the workplace. This is much mor einterestign to me than simply the traditional management classes.
I agree that it is the workers and their interactions who define culture. Before I started my current job, it was what the people who were or had worked there that influenced my decision of getting the job. All of them had good things to say and what they said made me want to work there even more. At this job I am now currently the manager and I find it interesting that I might not even know what the organizational culture of the organization is. I feel I communicate well with everyone that works under me but I also can see how they may look at things differently. I believe that the culture is the same as when I worked at the bottom, however, it might not be that way. I also find it very hard to be the manager and relate to the other employees. I feel that it is important for organizations to be able to communicate on the same level and to have a more open communication style between managers and employees. I know at some organizations have a hard time keeping communication on a more even level. However, I believe this would make the system of the organization work even smoother and more productive.
I hate to beat a dead horse here (and sorry for the terrible analogy) but I agree with most of the previous statements. Molly made a great point on the differences of leader and manager. While using a term like manager we automatically associate that with words like 'employee' or 'work', making it seem like everything that is going on is to directly benefit the manager. But with leader we think of 'team', in which the leader is using everyone's assets to achieve a common goal. I think the most important words in that sentence are 'common goal', this means that everyone is working together and not going just for personal gain.
I think a cool organization to look at is this University. It is interesting to look at the aspects of school life that are pushed or represented by our recruiters. Or perhaps it would be more fun to look at our own class. In the syllabus Rodrick wrote about the different ways we learn: presentational learning, experiential learning, and active and peer-to-peer learning. I would be interested to see what Rick has as a teacher perspective and what the students have from a student perspective on that subject. If you were to define the learning aspect of this class, how would you do it? Also, look at our school website. Do the things that are represented in it really represent our school?
I can see how organizational culture can be a double-edged sword. Every corporation has it and it cannot be avoided. I see elements of it every day I go to work. There are some employees who think they are clocked in to do absolutely nothing while others work their posteriors off! I myself am the latter of course. I earn every dollar. My two managers are very much alike in that they see how the business should be run. It is more than just a job to them, but a lifestyle. If the customer isn't happy, then they aren't happy. I've seen them in action and believe me, they get the point across. I try to stay in a positive mood while working, but some days it's just too hard. I know that other employees don't see what signals our manager is sending, and that is what has formed the current organizational culture.
Organizational culture is a huge piece of organizational communication. It sets the bar for how interactions between all organization members. Management should put more time and energy into making the work climate as good as they can for all the employees. Input from staff can be very helpful and can give management a new perspective. This also helps keep the organization current on issues that are going on inside their company and may even give them a heads-up to deal with them faster.
When work becomes monotonous people loose interest and get restless more easily. Too many companies get focused on the bottom line and forget how important the people are who help them get there. When people do not think that their opinion matters and they are not appreciated they tend to stop giving their opinions and just do what they have to to get the job done.
I see organizational culture as a crucial aspect of running an organization. I think it is important for people in positions of power in an organization to value the beliefs and input of their employees. I feel that if organizational culture is valued by management then employees will feel more equal to their superiors and be more dedicated to their work and their organization, and therefore the work environment would ultimately improve overall. In response to some businesses not being willing to change in terms of culture, I feel it is unfortunate that employees would be neglected just because an organization is so set in their ways. I find it interesting what Molly P said about leaders being interested their subordinates and giving them an opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise. I agree that organizations should take a leadership approach as opposed to a management approach because it would create a much more productive work environment.
Organizational culture is such an excellent concept in theory. People feel that they are an important and necessary part of a group and in turn they are willing to do thier best in order to give back to the organization that they are working for. Though it seems like it would be somewhat easy to create a comfortable environment for employees, the most interesting thing to me is that that isn't the case at all. To create an environment to where everyone feels heard and welcome is in fact, pretty difficult. I think that when managers and bosses do things like reward people for a job well done, and try to recognize the specific aspects that everyone in the organization do well, a positive organizational cutlure is created. This is the type of organization I would like to find myself in when I enter the working world. One where everyone pulls their own weight, managers are approachable, and people are recognized for individual and group acheivements.
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