Learning, training and developing the organisational culture

Taslim Ahammad :
Every single company has its own distinctive personality, just like most of the people do. The exceptional personality of an organisation is referred to as its culture. A group of people who work together in an organisational culture is an invisible, however, powerful force that influences the behaviour of the members of that group. Organisational culture includes an organization’s expectations, experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it together, and is expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are considered valid. In other words, it’s the general attitude, mood, and motivation, or lack thereof, of the people in the company. It affects the organization’s productivity and performance, and provides guidelines on customer care and service, product quality and safety, attendance and punctuality, and concern for the environment.
The way organisational culture creates and communicates. Leaders must appreciate their role in maintaining or evolving an organization’s culture. A deeply rooted and established culture illustrates how people should behave, which can help employees achieve their goals. This behavioural framework, in turn, ensures higher job satisfaction when an employee feels a leader is helping him or her complete a goal. Leaders can create, and also be created or influenced by, many different workplace cultures. These differences can manifest themselves is a variety of ways including, however, not limited to: Person culture and market culture – How members of an organization conduct business, treat employees, customers, and the wider community are strong aspects of person culture and market culture. Person culture is a culture in which horizontal structures are most applicable. Each individual is seen as more valuable than the organization itself. This can be difficult to sustain, as the organization may suffer due to competing people and priorities. Adaptive culture and adhocracy culture – The extent to which freedom is allowed in decision making, developing new ideas and personal expression are vital parts of adaptive cultures and adhocracy cultures. Adaptive cultures value change and are action oriented, increasing the likelihood of survival through time. Adhocracy cultures are dynamic and entrepreneurial, with a focus on risk-taking, innovation, and doing things first. Power culture, role culture, and hierarchy culture – How power and information flow through the organisational hierarchy and system are aspects of power cultures, role cultures, and hierarchy cultures. Power cultures have one leader who makes rapid decisions and controls the strategy. This type of culture requires a strong deference to the leader in charge. Role cultures are where functional structures are created, where individuals know their jobs, report to their superiors, and value efficiency and accuracy above all else. Hierarchy cultures are similar to role cultures, in that they are highly structured. They focus on efficiency, stability, and doing things right. Task culture and clan culture – How committed employees are towards collective objectives are parts of task cultures and clan cultures. In a task culture, teams are formed with expert members to solve particular problems. A matrix structure is common in this type of culture, due to task importance and the number of small teams in play. Clan cultures are family like, with a focus on mentoring, nurturing, and doing things together.
The way organizational culture change ? It is the duty of leaders to convince their employees of the benefits of change and show through collective experience with new behaviours that the new culture is the best way to operate to the success. Formulate a clear strategic vision. This vision gives the intention and direction for the future culture change, guidelines for culture change: Display top management commitment – The top of the organization must favour the culture change in order to actually implement the change in the rest of the organization. Model culture change at the highest 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. Change agents are keys to the success of this cultural change process and important communicators of new values. Modify the organization to support organizational change – This includes identifying what current systems, policies, procedures and rules need to be changed so alignment with the new values and desired culture can be achieved. Select and socialize newcomers and terminate deviants – Encouraging employee motivation and loyalty to the company will create a healthy culture. Training should be provided to all employees to help them understand the new processes, expectations, and systems. Develop ethical and legal sensitivity – This step can identify obstacles of change and resistant employees, and acknowledge and reward employee improvement, encouraging continued change and involvement. Metrics – Cultural assessments, and other activities such as cultural audits and 360-degree feedback, may also help uncover cultural inconsistencies. Then leaders and HR professionals can eliminate the inconsistencies. Global Issues – Authority must be able to respond to nuances in communication styles, as well as deal with different expectations that employees have of their leaders across national cultures. Not meeting those expectations may doom the global organisation’s chance for success in particular countries. These issues become even more complex in global business mergers. Success in international mergers depends on the merged organisation’s willingness to enable people with different cultural perspectives to engage in meaningful and valuable discussions about the new business.
Last but not least, culture dictates the freedom of participation in the managerial decision-making. A strong culture has a strong influence on organizational members and creates committed employees by instilling clear cultural values and beliefs. A weak culture can breed apathy, resentment, and unproductive workers. Likewise, it highlights the idea that a stable destination may never indeed should never be reached. The culture of the organization should always be learning, training and developing.
(Taslim Ahammad is Assistant Professor, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh).