A Comprehensive Report on Organisational Culture and its Dimensions

This report delves into the significance of organisational culture, highlighting its impact on employee performance and overall business success. It explores the interplay of values, norms, and behaviours within an organisation, emphasizing the importance of a well-defined culture for achieving competitive advantage. The report critically evaluates cultural theories, particularly Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and their relevance to international business. It provides practical suggestions for aligning organisational culture with external environments, fostering employee motivation, and increasing diversity to enhance company productivity. The analysis underscores the importance of adapting cultural strategies to specific contexts, such as understanding power distance in different countries, to ensure smooth business operations. Ultimately, the report concludes that a dynamic and adaptable organisational culture is crucial for sustained success in the modern business landscape.

Study Skills For Higher
Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Organisation culture refers to combination of different values, norms, beliefs,
assumptions which are possessed by the employees working there (Assiter, 2017). Culture is
essential for company as it navigates employees performance accordingly. For this report, article
on culture is taken for consideration which consist of culture theory given by Geert Hofstede.
Suggestion made in the article will be critically evaluated and then suggestions will be made by
considering every aspect of it.
MAIN BODY
Culture is an important factor which should be given extra focus as it directly impact the
working of organisation in a positive or negative way. Organisation culture mainly made up of
three factors i.e., values, norms and behaviour so if company have to bring any changes in their
working operations then they have to modify these factors accordingly. Values refers to
philosophies which company follows. For instance, if employees are busy towards achieving
their assigned goals then it would help them to achieve their target but overall target of company
wont be attained through this. But on the other side, collectivism says that all the employees
should work together as then only purpose of company would be achieved. Individualism
scenario is made when there is no pre set value in the company due to which employees becomes
envious from each other resulting in reduction in overall efficiency of company.
Norms refers to rules and regulations under which employees have to perform their
functions (Boud and et. al., 2014). It is helpful for company as they does not have provide
regular information regarding the work. Along with this, it is helpful for employees as well as all
the confusion regarding job in the mind of individual is eradicated which will leads to higher
efficiency and productivity while working. But on the other side, it makes the company's
performance low as they wont be able to survive in the situation which is never faced by the
organisation. For instance, there is a specific procedure of conducting a work in the organisation
but due to environmental changes it could not be possible to opt that procedure. Then it would
become hard for company as they are not used to different kind of circumstances while working.
At last there is behaviour which refers to different ways through which individual acts in
different types of situations. For instance, individual from Australia does not prefer to talk other
than their work in the meeting but on the other hand, people from Brazil loves to chit chat with

the other person and chances of getting away from the agenda is common. In other example, due
to increase in social media usage, company are focusing on meeting the clients virtually instead
of meeting them face to face. It saves time for company but on the other side, company has
limited amount of time due to which chances of not impressing their clients becomes high. So it
can be said that every point mentioned above has different viewpoints which should be set
according to the circumstances company is facing (Edwards and et. al., 2014).
In the context of values, it is important for company to have their specific value as it
assist them to grow and develop in the market so that aim of attaining competitive advantage
would be achieved in a shorter period of time. Apart from this, it also helps them to take their
business decision in a more rapid and accurate manner. For instance, if company one of the
values is to to provide high quality of product to customers, so product which are not reaching its
quality standard would be automatically eliminated. So it can be said that company have to first
make their values and then start their operations as it would assist them to reach their goals
within deadline.
In the context of norms, it is crucial for company to have rules and regulation as it limits
the excess work which does not create any value for final customers. This persuades to better
utilisation of resources but it only work if the situations are identical in nature. Norms is consist
of various factors like social norms, economic norms, gender norms etc. For instance, before
social media or internet, company communicate with their employees through letter and specific
hierarchy should be followed by employees to contact with the management level employees but
after the emergence of internet, it is easier for them to communicate without considering the
hierarchy level. So it can be said that norms should be there is companies but it should be
dynamic in nature so that it would be fit in every circumstances resulting in attaining sustainable
business performance.
At last there is behaviour, it is essential for company to have proper behaviour and
etiquettes while doing their work as it reflects the values and norms which individual follows
(Terry, 2015). For instance, employees should have behaviour of learning on regular basis it
assist them to develop them professional which also have a positive impact on company through
enhancement in knowledgable workforce.
So after analysing three basis on which culture is dependant on, it could be recommended
that company should try to make a favourable environment by providing proper training

regarding the values, norms and behaviours they expects from the employees as it would be
helpful for them to align their working activities with the mission of the company (Wernersbach
and et. al., 2014). Moreover, company have to modify their culture according to the external
environment as then only they can perform with their full potential resulting in better overall
productivity of company.
Significance of Hofstede's cultural dimensions
Main aim of this theory is to identify reason behind why people people behave the way
they do. It also assist in finding the impact of different cultures on the local economy as well as
in company's performance. Moreover, it states the consequences of many factors like power,
masculinity etc which could help company to modify their employees performance according to
the circumstances.
Importance of Hofstede's cultural dimensions on international business
Culture plays an important role in the success of organisation as it consist of beliefs,
values, norms etc of employees working there. For instance, countries like Arab, African, Asian
has higher score in power distance which reflects that people living there prefers autocracy while
leading the team so if company is planning to launch their business in those countries then they
have to plan it accordingly. Apart from this, Ireland has 70 score in individualism which reflects
that employees does not want any intervention while working. So company have to plan their
strategies for working their accordingly. So after mentioning all the above information it can be
said that while conducting business with the international countries, company have to understand
their culture. As it would help them to run their business smoothly (The Importance of
Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture, 2019)
Suggestions for cultural dimensions
It should be essential for every company to motivate their employees as it is directly
linked with the performance. So by using their culture company should motivate them so that
higher productivity would be obtained. For instance, employees of Ireland prefers individualism
rather than collectivism so company have to provide full power to the employees while working
their specific work. It would enhanced the level of ownership in the mind of employees resulting
in better efficiency.

CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned information, it can be concluded that culture plays an
important part in the success of an organisation. As organisational culture is directly linked with
the motivation level of employees which is connected to performance of company in different
scenarios. Apart from this, company should increase diversity at work as it makes the culture
dynamic resulting in higher performance of company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Boud and et. al., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other.
Routledge.
Edwards and et. al., 2014. Learning and study strategies: Issues in assessment, instruction, and
evaluation. Elsevier.
Terry, C., 2015, March. Media multitasking, technological dependency, & metacognitive
awareness: A correlational study focused on pedagogical implications. In Society for
Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1304-
1311). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Wernersbach and et. al., 2014. Study Skills Course Impact on Academic Self-Efficacy. Journal
of Developmental Education.37(2). p.14.
The Importance of Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture, 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://sites.psu.edu/global/2015/04/25/the-importance-of-hofstedes-dimensions-of-
culture/>