Organizational Culture Of Telenor Pakistan

The corporate and organizational culture of Pakistan has shown several diversions and
differences. These are mainly on the basis of the norms and the values of the
organizations which are different of each of them from the others. The organizational
culture of any firm and organization has a huge impact on the employees of the
organization, as the positive culture of an organization will inculcate positive impacts
on the employees performance and the negative culture will surely deduce the
performance of the employees.
Telenor is a well established organization which started its operations in April
2004. The culture at Telenor is top down, the top employees establishes the tone of the
organization. The top level employees take good care while performing any task or
action, because it will have to be followed by the subordinates. Things are
properly informed. There is no means of getting misinformation. The employees are provided
with the recreational activities, by sending to hilly areas to get fresh and also perform
certain work tasks which are to be completed in normal routine. They get motivated
well by having recreational activities. T h e e m p l o y e e s a r e p r o v i d e d b y
complete resources that if they move from one place, they move as an office, they are
provided with laptops as well.
Telenor Pakistan cons is ts of energetic, youthful, and
d e d i c a t e d employees. An appropriate match is required between the culture and
employees at recruitment and hiring. If people excellence (human
resource department of Telenor) feels that a person will not be unable t o a d j u s t
into the organizations environment, even if he/she i s
performing functionally well, the person is rejected.
The dynamic group of people sharing similar mindsets, love being with each other an
d meet on other occasions if unable to meet during work hours. They employees can be
seen roaming around till 9 at night.
Primarily culture comes from the top management. CEO of Telenor
Pakistan is humble and cooperative. The employees get the message that if the top
management is accommodating then the employees should behave similarly. The
values of humbleness and free interaction i n p u t t i n g f o r t h i d e a s t o a
h a r m o n i o u s c u l t u r e a n d e f f i c i e n t communication. The
m a n a g e m e n t i s e a s i l y a c c e s s i b l e t o d i s c u s s various issues. It is difficult
to distinguish between them as the culture is so homogeneous that it keeps everyone at par
with others.
The Human Resource at Telenor Pakistan is their core competency. The reason is that the employees
create a culture and all the achievements o f Tel e n o r a r e a t t r i b u t e d t o i t s f l e x i b l e
c u l t u r e . I t i s n e c e s s a r y t o motivate and retain this asset of the
organization. For this purpose,training and compensation is provided to
employees along with other motivational techniques.

Formal:
The culture at Telenor is quite flexible, which is most suitable for the
employees on the other hand ensuring all the targets
i s m e t . Employees are not bound to follow a dress code unless they are
to attend a formal meeting. This culture has been set by the CEO himself a n d t h e
new employees coming into the organization have no
difficulties in adjusting into it.
Official Rules:
At Telenor Pakistan, the level of standardization and
m u t u a l adjustment varies across functions. Generally strict obedience to rules is
not required as long as results are not affected. As long as individual responsibilities and
deadlines are met, there are flexible hours of work.Work is important instead of the number of
hours worked. Employees c a n s e l e c t t h e i r w o r k t i m i n g s w h i c h c a n e v e n
be from afternoon to e v e n i n g . I n s t e a d o f b e i n g b o u n d
b y o f f i c e h o u r s , a s e n s e o f responsibility is inculcated in them to
achieve self assigned goals. This brings a sense of comfort in working in such organizational
structure.Rules and procedures are present to control the behavior of employees a n d t o
facilitate smooth working of the organization. A level
o f standardization is required to be maintained in certain vital functions s u c h a s
B u d g e t C o n t r o l . S O P s a r e d o c u m e n t e d i n t h e c a s e o f t h e financial
control or HR related policies.
Communal Culture:
The culture at Telenor is communal. Everyone is integrated in decision making.
Employees are empowered. The employees are friendly to one another. Employees are
being empowered to carry out the task the way they like to. The only concern is
the accomplishment of required goals. Being empowered, employees feel part
of Telenor. As a result they work hard since they consider organizations success
to be their success. Whenever an employee has a new idea, he/she is encouraged to
approach the management and share it with them. Idea drop boxes a r e a l s o p l a c e d
a t v a r i o u s l o c a t i o n s w h e r e e m p l o y e e s l e a v e t h e i r suggestions.
Customer Service Culture:
Tel e n o r b e l i e v e s t h a t i t s s u c c e s s m a i n l y d e p e n d s o n t h e l e v e l
o f satisfaction of customers. The more the customers are satisfied, the
more customers they will be able to attract and retain. As a result, their profits
and market share will increase. Telenors aim is to keep the customers satisfied as much as
it can. For t h i s r e a s o n t h e y h a v e C u s t o m e r R e l a t i o n D e p a r t m e n t o r
Customer Service Center the different customer queries and
complaints are r a i s e d d a i l y b y n u m b e r o f c u s t o m e r s
w h i c h a r e d e a l t b y t h i s department. Sometimes, the employees
frustration increases as the workload or customer queries increases. This issue is dealt with care
at Tel e n o r. S i n c e t h e m a n a g e m e n t b e l i e v e s t h a t i n s e r v i c e
i n d u s t r y, customer delight can only be achieved if the employees are satisfied.Only a
satisfied employee can handle the customer with care.

Diversity Culture:
Telenor Pakistan is keen to promote diversity and has achieved good results in this area.
Telenor has developed requirements for diversity in both recruitment and management development
programs. There is an appropriate blend of less seasoned and experienced
employees. No quota has been assigned; the best-fit candidate (according to the job
requirements) is employed. At the office level or call centers, even f r e s h
g r a d u a t e s a r e a p t b u t t h e d i r e c t o r l e v e l r e q u i r e s a m a s t e r s degree
and preferably some work experience. Telenor Pakistan has a large proportion of
females who are recruited for internal leadership development programs
and executive positions on the basis of past performance. The organization is
working on Day Care Centers to help female employees manage their
responsibilities after settling down.R e l o c a t i o n i s s u e s a r e d e a l t
c o o p e r a t i v e l y w h e n f e m a l e i n d i v i d u a l s move out of the city after marriage and
wish to continue working. They are relocated and facilitated in the new city. There is an effective
hiring process. Only those people are hired which the HR department would believe
can easily blend into the culture of t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n . T h i s e n s u r e s h a r m o n y
w i t h i n t h e w h o l e c u l t u r e effectively manages diversity.
Creative Culture:
Innovation and novelty, mainly in the areas of business
processes,c u s t o m e r s a t i s f a c t i o n a n d g o a l s e t t i n g , i s h i g h l y
e n c o u r a g e d a t Telenor. Employees are also motivated to come up with
innovative ideas and to convey them to the upper management. If the ideas are
feasible enough to be implemented then they are applied to respective areas and the employees
are duly rewarded for their contributions. For example the sales personnel have a greater
interaction with customers and knowledge of their needs. They can convey this
information to the management who can use it to design better consumer packages.Efficiency
is achieved through maximum utilization of resources and also through
adherence to goals set by the top management. Telenor introduced the Six Sigma
program for the improvement of its business operations in the very first year of its
operations in Pakistan. This has helped the organization in maintaining its quality
standards and also in the up gradation of its business processes. Telenor Pakistan is a young
and progressive organization which has a multitude of strengths in its existing
organizational design. There are still a few weaknesses which can affect the
organization in the long-r u n . B e g i n n i n g w i t h t h e s t r e n g t h s , t h e r e
a r e n o c o m m u n i c a t i o n barriers. There are seven layers in the
o r g a n i z a t i o n s o o n e w o u l d believe that there would be a lot of communication
barriers between the employees and their superiors but that is not the case. The policies adopted
ensure that there are no communication barriers present. They include an
open door policy and open work environment where the managers sit with their
sub-ordinates and do not have separate offices. Also employees of the same
level have no cubicles so it helps i n e n h a n c i n g t h e c o m m u n i c a t i o n
among them. Employees are e n c o u r a g e d t o t a k e
i n i t i a t i v e s a n d c o m e u p w i t h n e w i d e a s . Empowerment
exists. Also these ideas can easily be communicated to their superiors. Employees are free
to express themselves. The span of c o n t r o l a l s o s u g g e s t s t h a t n o t a l l p o w e r s
r e s t w i t h a n y p a r t i c u l a r individual. In projects people are encouraged to come
up with the best possible solutions and the manager just oversees the performance
of employees. The SOPs and guidelines have to be followed in order to
ensure smooth functioning of all departments.