Understanding Organizational Culture

This assignment explores the concept of organizational culture, defining it as a framework of shared values, beliefs, and practices that shape employee behavior. It highlights key characteristics such as innovation, attention to detail, outcome orientation, and teamwork, illustrating how these elements influence organizational performance. The text emphasizes the importance of aligning employees with a defined culture for successful organizational outcomes.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 1
Organizational Culture
Name
Institution

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 2
Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture has been a major topic of study among researchers. The
cultural dimension is vital in all aspects of organizational life (Alvesson, 2012). In any
organization, people's thinking, values, and actions are guided by ideas and beliefs of a
cultural nature (Alvesson, 2012). Corporate culture receives significant attention as it helps in
fostering strategic initiatives. Every company nowadays has a particular personality. The
unique personality that identifies an organization is its culture (Watkins, 2013).
Organizational culture can be defined as a framework of common presumptions,
morals, and ideologies which guides employees’ behaviour in an organization (Watkins,
2013). The values that people share in an organization have an impact on employees and
dictate how the people act, dress and perform their work. In any organization, the
management develops and maintain a distinctive culture which provides directions and scope
for the employees’ behaviour within the organization (Watkins, 2013). Various elements
make up an organization's culture.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 3
Characteristics of Organizational Culture
Innovation is one of the characteristics. This means that companies usually encourage
their workforce to be creative and innovate new ways of handling processes in their jobs.
Attention to detail is another element which dictates the extent to which workers are expected
to be accurate in their jobs (Chatman & Jehn, 1994). Organizations are also expected to focus
on the outcome. Emphasis on people is another element which requires companies to place
importance on the impact of their decisions on employees (Chatman & Jehn, 1994).
Outcome-oriented organizations also encourage aggressiveness so that people can compete
within the workplace (Chatman & Jehn, 1994). Teamwork and stability are also critical
elements of organizational culture.
Organizational culture is a vital aspect of management. Every organization must
ensure that its employees identify themselves with a particular culture. How employees
respect the culture will determine the organization performance.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 4
References
Alvesson, M. (2012). Understanding organizational culture. Sage.
Chatman, J. A., & Jehn, K. A. (1994). Assessing the relationship between industry
characteristics and organizational culture: how different can you be?. Academy of
management journal, 37(3), 522-553.
Watkins, M. (2013). What is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?. Harvard
Business Review.