Organizational Culture: Types, Theories, and Impact on Performance and Motivation

This research essay discusses the concept of organizational culture, its types, theories, and impact on performance and motivation. It also provides practical examples and ways to develop a good organizational culture.

Running head: RESEARCH ESSAY
RESEARCH ESSAY
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Introduction
Organizational culture can be rightfully described as a set of values, beliefs
and principles which the different members in an organization possesses. The
culture of an organization is not born overnight, but is developed through related
factors like product, history of the firm, technology used, strategies applied, and the
kind of employees working in the organization and the values and norms which are
generally applied by the management. It is largely based on the beliefs and habits of
the organizational members. Azanza, Moriano and Molero (2013) describes
organizational culture as the corporate personality, and consists of norms which will
have an impact on the manner the employees behave and how it in turn has an
impact on the productivity.
The primary aim of the research essay is to, analyze the concept of
Organizational behavior and apply this understanding with the several practical
examples in order to understand the extent to which the culture of an organization.
The essay will be following a structured format whereby the concept of
organizational culture will be discussed in detail and the types of organizational
culture will also be analyzed. In addition to this the different theories and models
related to Organizational culture will also be discussed which will then be followed by
the impact of organizational on the performance in a firm. Various practical examples
shall be used to understand the same and the manner in which organizational
culture needs to be fostered shall also be examined.
Discussion
The concept of Organizational culture
According to Büschgens, Bausch and Balkin (2013), organizational culture is
an emergence which is often also known as the business culture and is a mixture of
three ingredients which are commonly the employees, the work and the customer
base. It is primarily the shared assumptions which belong to the different members
of the organization and guides the behavior of the employees. This is the reason why
the organizational behavior impacts the behavior of all the employees. Moreover, it
needs to be understood that the culture of every organization is different and that

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each employee is affected by it in a different manner. The different experiences,
philosophy as well as the values guide the behavior of the member and moreover, in
simple terms Organizational culture discusses the different details about how things
work in a specific firm. According to…. It is suggested that the Organizational culture
of a firm should be positive in nature so as to ensure that the firm is able to achieve
its long term goals.
Types of Organizational culture
The competing Values Framework assisted in the emergence of four different
types of cultures which can be essentially described as Clan culture, Adhocracy
culture Hierarchy culture and the Market culture. The Clan culture is characterized by
the fact that the work environment is friendly and the members are typically
homogenous in nature (Tsai, 2011). Moreover, loyalty and traditional are highly
popular in this type of an organizational culture. The engagement of the different
employees is very high and they care about one another. The leader in this type acts
as a mentor and facilitates development of the members. The second culture is the
Adhocracy Culture. The Adhocracy culture can be described as a creative culture
where the different employees are exposed to risk taking. The leaders in this type of
organizational culture act as risk takers and prominence is appreciated. Moreover, in
this kind of an organization, the use of resources and a profound vision is advised.
The third most commonly used culture is the Market culture where the tasks
and the general environment of the organization is based on results. The people are
highly competitive in nature and tend to focus on their goals in the long run. The
different organizational leaders tend to exert huge pressure on the employees and
the winning and goal achievements are considered to be the primary goal. The
different drivers are market share, achievement of goals, profitability and
competition. Competition and monetary gains motivate the members present. The
last kind of culture is the Hierarchy Culture where the work environment is highly
structured and formalized. The different procedures guide the different organizational
members and policy runs the work in future (Tsai, 2011). The members are trustful
in nature, assist in smooth planning and low cost is considered to be the key to
success. Hence, the value drivers can be stated to be consistency and uniformity.

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Theories related to Organizational culture
Having discussed the different types of Organizational cultures, the given
section of the essay will be discussing the different theories related to organizational
culture and how they have shaped the concept in an overall perception.
The first theory which will be examined is the Hofstede Theory. The Hofstede
theory was formed by Gerard Hofstede and was formed after examining the different
aspects of culture and how they tend to have an impact on the business behavior.
According to his theory, there exists various culture differences between different
nations and regions and hence, an awareness about these differences can assist the
organizations in understand the aspect of the country which will help in the
understanding of the guiding force (O’Reilly III et al., 2014). Hofstede identified
various dimensions of culture in his study and these are Power distance, Uncertainty
avoidance, Individualism and collectivism, Masculinity vs femininity and Long term
versus short term orientation. These different aspects of national culture have an
impact on management and how to alter the company policies, in order to meet up
with the daily needs.
The next theory which will be analyzed, is the theory related to the
organizational theory of Daniel Denison. The theory of Daniel Denison are identified
by four different dimensions named Mission, Involvement, Adaptability and
Consistency. Each of them focus externally as well as internally and allow flexibility
in the organization. Moreover, cultural problems can be easily diagnosed using this
theory.
O'Reilly, Chatman & Caldwell formulated different models which were based
on the belief that the different cultures can be easily differentiated with the help of
values and how they are implemented in an organization. They developed the
Organizational Profile which makes distinctions based on eight different dimensions
which are Stability, Supportiveness, Outcome Orientation, and Attention to Detail,
Team Orientation, Respect, Aggressiveness and Innovation. Moreover using this
model, the impact of organizational culture on the performance can be easily
identified.
According to the Robert Cooke, culture can be popularly defined as the
behavior that the different employees are required to portray in an organization and

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analysis the different behavioral norms which can be grouped commonly into three
different types of cultures. These are the constructive cultures, passive and
defensive cultures and the aggressive culture (Schneider, Ehrhart and Macey, 2013).
The Passive and aggressive culture rightly define the way in which the different
organizational members are required to act in order to ensure that it does not
threaten their own security. Moreover, according to the aggressive culture, the
members of an organization are required to approach the task in a manner such that
their own status is protected. The different organizations with aggressive culture
requires the different employees to be superior and those who require assistance are
considered to be weak.
The last theory to be discussed in the essay is the theory by Eric Flamholtz.
The theory by the author is validated of those components of the organizational
culture which tend to drive the different financial results which are present. It
identifies five aspects of the theory which are the treatment of people, treatment of
the customers, accountability, innovation and process orientation.
Impact of a good organizational culture on performance
As stated in the previous sections of the essay that Organizational cultures
provide a framework of behavior of the different employees in the organization. The
development of the particular culture can have a negative as well as a positive
impact on the different employees in a firm. According to Hogan and Coote (2014), in
an organization where the different employees are considered to be an integral part
of an organization generally develops employee commitment towards the growth.
The employees feel form an integral part of the organization and they tend to align
their goals with that of the firm and carry out their duty accordingly. On the other
side, even the different organizational managers, tend to provide full support to the
different members of the firm and this helps the members in achieving satisfaction.
Hence, this kind of a culture fosters a positive workplace culture. Alternately, those
organizations who are not facilitators but task masters and the employees are
generally under fear tends to foster a negative workplace culture and the
performance suffers. This firm has no cooperation between the different departments
and the overall health of the firm is detrimental. Hence, after analyzing these
concepts, it can be stated that the performance of the employees as a result of the

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organizational culture and if a manager is able to ensure that these negative factors
are removed, he will be able to foster a positive work environment.
Impact of organizational culture on motivation
As state in the previous sections that a positive organizational culture has a
positive impact on the performance of the different employees, it can also be
effectively stated that a positive culture motivates the different employees to work
harder in order to achieve their objectives (Hartnell, Ou and Kinicki, 2011). This
means that if the culture of an organization is engaging in nature then the different
employees would feel valued and in turn become more motivated to work harder and
to perform in a better manner. In the same manner, if the culture of an organization
is not engaging in nature, then the employee may not feel motivated and thereby not
perform well.
Examples of companies with good organizational culture
There are various companies present in the global competitive environment
who make extensive use of a good organizational culture in order to ensure that they
create a good ambience for their employees to work in and secondly, they are able
to motivate the employees effectively in order to be able to motivate them to perform
better. Some of these organizations, who tend to maintain an engaging
organizational culture are Solar City, Warby Parker, Meltwater, Netflix and the Great
little box company. These companies take organization culture quite seriously and
then dedicate an entire team for the achievement of the mission in order to ensure
that they are successfully able to foster an environment which inculcates a positive
work culture and helps the employees to enjoy their work environment.
How to develop a good organizational culture
Although an organization may previously be having a poor organizational
culture, there are always a certain number of ways in which the culture of an
organization can be improved. The fist key step towards such a creation is
encouragement (Dauber, Fink and Yolles, 2012). All the employees of an
organization need to be encouraged adequately and a respectful workforce needs to
be created. Moreover, the work culture of an organization also needs inclusive in
nature which will then easily encourage positivity in the workplace. Moreover, when

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there is establishment of trust in the firm the organizational culture already becomes
positive in nature. Lastly, in order to promote a positive organizational culture, an
organization must also share a similar vision.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that organizational culture
forms an important aspect of any organization. It needs to be passed on by the
senior executives and needs to be developed upon by the managers in a firm. It can
also be understand that a positive work culture contributes to a higher performance.
The essay outlined the concept of an Organizational culture and stated its
importance. In addition to this, the different types of organizational culture along with
the theories related to it were discussed. The latter half of the essay examined the
impact of a good organizational culture on employee motivation and performance
along with suggesting some ways to improve and build upon organizational
performance.

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References
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Dauber, D., Fink, G. and Yolles, M., 2012. A configuration model of organizational
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Hartnell, C.A., Ou, A.Y. and Kinicki, A., 2011. Organizational culture and
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