Organizational Culture for Performance

 

8. Organizational Culture for Performance

“culture consists of some combination of artifacts (also called practices, expressive symbols, or forms), values and beliefs, and underlying assumptions that organizational members share about appropriate behavior” (Detert et al., 2000, p. 851). Organizational Culture affects every aspect within an organization from behavior of employees to the ways it faces external environmental forces).Culture will remain linked with superior performance only if the culture is able to adapt to changes in environmental conditions. Furthermore, the culture must not only be strong (widely shared), but it must also have unique qualities which cannot be imitated.

8.1. Aligned with strategic direction

For an organization to be successful it is important for its culture to align with the strategic direction of the organization. For example if an organization has an strategic direction to strive through innovation the organization should have an innovative culture which encourages unorthodox thinking and value creation (Prajogo and McDermott, 2011)

8.2. Prevents unexpected consequences

A strong and common culture among employees enables managers predict the response of the employees to different strategic decisions they take. Then they could be prepared for the results of such decisions so that unexpected results would not occur that will hinder organizational performance. (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000)

8.3. Creates sustainable competitive advantage

A culture which creates superior organizational competencies which are unique and not easily imitable to the competitors will create a sustainable competitive advantage which will in turn lead to better performance of the organization. (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000)

8.4. Helps attract and retain talented employees

A strong culture acts as a glue for attracting talented employees to the organization and to retain them in the long run. This is because employees feel secured and bonded for the culture which makes them attached to the organization.

8.5. Influences quality of service

The culture also affects the quality of the product or service provided by the organization. For example the service quality provided by HSBC Sri Lanka is different to the service provided by Bank of Ceylon. It will be different from the things such as the way of greeting a customer upon arrival, language used and dress code of employees. This is because the target market of HSBC is mostly the urban upper middle to high class individuals whereas Bank of Ceylon caters to a wider market from poor farmer to rich businessmen.

Conclusion

In conclusion it is evident that the culture of the organization influences its performance. Hence it is important for any organization to build and maintain a corporate culture which is aligned to its goals.

 References

Detert, J.R., Schroeder, R.G. and Mauriel, J.J., 2000. A framework for linking culture and improvement initiatives in organizations. Academy of management Review, 25(4), pp.850-863.

Ogbonna, E. and Harris, L.C., 2000. Leadership style, organizational culture and performance: empirical evidence from UK companies. international Journal of human resource management, 11(4), pp.766-788. Available From doi:10.1080/09585190050075114 [Accessed 05 May 2022]

Prajogo, D.I. and McDermott, C.M., 2011. The relationship between multidimensional organizational culture and performance. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Available From doi:10.1108/01443571111144823 [Accessed 05 May 2022]