Organizational Culture and Leadership in Forest International

This article discusses the organizational culture and leadership style of Forest International, including its team-based culture, democratic management style, and reward system. It also suggests ways to improve the company's culture and leadership.

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The term company culture refers to the personality of the company and defines the
environment in which the employees would work. This includes multiple elements that
comprises of the work environment, value, ethics, company vision, goals and expectations.
Forest International consists of a team-based culture where there is encouragement of the
participation of the employees at all the levels (Schein 2010). This is in juxtaposition to the other
companies that have a more formal and traditional culture of management style. This company is
known for its clear-cut policies about the company culture. Company culture holds meanings for
the employees as the workers would be more likely to enjoy their workplace when they can fit in
the company. It has been found that employees would prefer to work in a workplace that
provides a compatible environment for the employees to work. The internal integration of Forest
International is consistency and involvement. The managerial style of Forest International is
quite flexible and is in consonance with the interests of the employees. Instead of adhering to an
autocratic top-down approach, the company is known for following the bottom-up approach.
Forest International follows a democratic management style where the opinions of all the
employees are taken into account and employee involvement is considered to be an important
aspect of this style of leadership. This is a collaborative process where the management and the
employees would work together and strive towards a common vision. The company also
emphasizes on consistency in the recruitment of the employees (Gregory, Harris, Armenakis and
Shook 2009). The external adaptation of the employees is division of labour, reward system and
the organizational structure. Reward system has been considered an important tool that can be
used by the management to boost the motivation of the employees and for performing high level.
The reward system in Forest International comprises of the decision-making activities, people
process rules and benefits for the employees for their contribution towards the organization.

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Forest International expects its employees to perform with integrity and show their loyalty
towards the company. Forest International expects the employees to follow the rules and
regulations and adhere to the established norms of the organization. It has understood that to
achieve these objectives, Forest International has to motivate the employees to achieve the
maximum performance from the employees. This has been done through the reward system by
bestowing R-and-R to the employee who has given the maximum production. This is done on a
monthly basis. Secondly, every month the most promising employee is announced to recognize
the upcoming talent in the company and motivate them to give their best performance. Forest
International has a highly innovative and contended organizational culture and the
transformational leaders of the company has made a unique contribution. The company has
created a culture where the leaders articulate the employees in the organization to follow that
footstep. The organizational culture is aligned with the vision of the company and empowers the
members in the organization for taking greater responsibility. It is a culture that fosters creative
change and growth and encourages the employees to share their opinion. There is a constant
interplay between leadership and culture. The employer in Forest International would create
mechanisms for the cultural development and reinforcement of the behaviour and the norms of
the employees. The company does not tolerate any deviation from the standard operating system.
There needs to be a change in the organizational culture of Forest International and this can be
done through focusing on the changing the environment of the company, upgrading the security
of the employees, boosting productivity by encouraging employees to deliver their best
performance and through the sharing of responsibilities (Zheng, Yang and McLean 2010). It has
been found that culture influences leadership as much as leadership influences the culture. It has
been found that strong organizational culture with it internal values intact would allow greater

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autonomy to the employees and encourage them to perform better. The culture can affect the
decisions with respect for recruitment, selection, placement in the organization. There are
situations when the employees in the organization feel overburdened with responsibilities and
therefore, the distribution of power and responsibilities among employees would lead to an
environment of checks and balances. The CEO of Forest International needs to focus on the
people orientation, team orientation, stability and structure. Incorporation of the people-oriented
policies would mean treating the employees of forest International as value partners whatever
may be the contribution and tenure of the employees. The leadership needs to pay attention to the
employees and act on their feedback. There needs to be inclusive brainstorming sessions and
one-to-one conversations with the employees. There should be profit-sharing options that would
provide opportunities to the employees to invest in the success of Forest International. The
company needs to recognize that there may be multiple areas where an employee can be an
expert, therefore the company needs to recognize those experts and cultivate their knowledge
(Hartnell, Ou and Kinicki 2011). There needs to be an emphasis on the soft skills that would
teach professionalism to the employees. The work environment should be such that would
encourage the employees to be proactive, resolve their problems and act like a community rather
simply a group of colleagues. The employees should be encouraged so that they can take
initiative in making the environment around them better. Since the employees would be dealing
with customers they need to develop good listening skills. Product and people are of equal
importance and that organizations must plan and operate with both in mind.

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References
Gregory, B.T., Harris, S.G., Armenakis, A.A. and Shook, C.L., 2009. Organizational culture and
effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and organizational outcomes. Journal of Business
Research, 62(7), pp.673-679.
Hartnell, C.A., Ou, A.Y. and Kinicki, A., 2011. Organizational culture and organizational
effectiveness: a meta-analytic investigation of the competing values framework's theoretical
suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), p.677.
Schein, E.H., 2010. Organizational culture and leadership(Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
Tohidi, H. and Jabbari, M.M., 2012. Organizational culture and leadership. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 31, pp.856-860.
Zheng, W., Yang, B. and McLean, G.N., 2010. Linking organizational culture, structure,
strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management. Journal of
Business research, 63(7), pp.763-771.