SYMBIOSIS INSTITUE OF MANGEMENT STUDIES

ASSIGNMENT-2 ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR

RESEARCH PAPER-ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

FACULTY: MR. S.X. DSOUZA

SUBMITTED BY: SUSHIL BISHNOID-61

Organizational culture can be defined as a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioural norms, and expectations shared by the organizational members (Shein in Baron & Greenberg, 1999). At the root of any organizational culture is a set of core characteristics that are collectively valued by the members. Characteristics that are considered to be particularly important are sensitivity to the needs of customers and employees, freedom to initiate new ideas, willingness to tolerate taking risks and openness to communication options (Martin in Baron & Greenberg, 1999). While most organisations typically have a dominant culture, this culture is normally made up of a number of subcultures, depending on the size of the organization. A dominant culture reflects the organisations core values and the dominant perceptions that are generally shared throughout the organisation. An organisations culture provides a sense of identity for the members and the more clearly an organisations shared perceptions and values are defined, the more strongly people can associate themselves with the organisations mission and can feel that they are a vital part of it. A second important function of culture is generating commitment to the organisations mission. When there is a strong, overarching culture, people feel they are part of a larger, well-defined whole and are involved in the entire organisations work. Bigger than any one individuals interests, culture reminds people what their organisation is all about. A third important function of culture is to clarify and to reinforce standards of behaviour, which is essential for newcomers, but is also beneficial for seasoned veterans. In essence, culture guides the employees words and deeds, thus making it clear what they might do or say in any given situation. In this sense, it provides stability to behaviour, both what an individual might do at different times and what different individuals might do at the same time. One system for categorizing varieties of organizational culture is known as the double S cube, which characterizes culture along two independent dimensions, both of which begin with the letter S, sociability and solidarity. The sociability dimension is a measure of the friendliness of an organisations members. Among the first things a new employee notices about a company is its degree of sociability. Some companies are very friendly and have people who always socialize and go out together (i.e. high sociability). Others are composed of people who largely refrain from socializing and who stick to themselves (i.e. low sociability). Sociability has both a positive side and a negative side. On the positive side, sociability helps to promote creativity, because it encourages people to work together in teams and to share information, thereby making them open to new ideas (Amabile in Baron & Greenberg, 1999). On the other side, sociability may cause workers to form informal cliques that can become so influential they actually subvert the decision-making process. In keeping with this idea, members of highly sociable groups may be reluctant to disagree or to criticize each other, thus possibly leading to groupthink. Solidarity is the extent to which people share a common understanding of the organisations tasks and goals. In organisations with a high degree of solidarity, employees tend to stick together in a highly focused way to accomplish an agreed-on goal. By combining high and low levels of both sociability and solidarity, four basic types of organizational culture can be identified. Networked cultures are characterized by high sociability and low solidarity. They are extremely friendly and light-hearted in style. People tend to keep their doors open and they tend to talk about business in a casual, informal manner. They tend to socialize regularly and get to know each other quickly, feeling part of the group. The mercenary culture is characterized by low sociability and high solidarity. People are highly focused on pulling together to get the job done. Communication tends to be swift, direct and handled in a no-nonsense way. A business-like manner predominates and chatting is not encouraged, because it is considered to be a waste of

time.Winning is considered everything and people are considered to put in whatever time is necessary to make that happen. The fragmented culture is characterized by low sociability and low solidarity. People are likely to have little contact with their associates and only talk to each other when it is necessary, but generally leave each other alone. Members of a fragmented culture do not identify with the organisation in which they work, but rather identify with their profession. The communal culture is characterized by high sociability and high solidarity. People are very friendly and get along both personally and professionally. Communal cultures wisely exist among many computer-related companies. Since individuals in such organisations tend to share so many things, communication flows easily across people at all levels of the organisation and in all formats. Employees strongly identify with communal organisations and wear the company logo and support the organisation when talking with outsiders. Companies encourage creativity and innovation. Creativity in individuals and teams involves three skills, domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant skills, and intrinsic task motivation. Domain-relevant skills refer to those skills and abilities an employee already have. There must be the capacity to perform a certain task at even a basic level for creativity to be present. Creativity also involves special abilities that help people approach what they do in novel ways. Creativity is enhanced when people do not limit themselves to the old way of doing things they think outside the box, break mental sets and take new perspectives. Considering complex ways in which ideas interrelate and understanding these relationships also leads to creativity. Creative people consider all options and avoid premature judgments. Productive forgetting, which is the ability to abandon unproductive ideas and set aside stubborn problems, is also a skill which leads to creativity. People also sometimes follow certain strategies known as creativity heuristics to help them come up with new and creative ideas. These are rules people follow to help them approach tasks in novel ways. For creativity to be present, people must not only have the creative skills, but must also be willing to perform the task in question, which is referred to as intrinsic task motivation. When a person has a personal interest in the task, intrinsic motivation is said to be high as the person will be motivated to perform the task and do it creatively. Task motivation is also high when the person perceives that he or she has internal reasons to perform the task. People who come to believe they are performing a task for some external reason, such as high pay or pressure from a boss, are unlikely to find the work inherently interesting and are unlikely to show creativity when performing it. Innovation may be defined as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organisation. Organizational innovation requires that organizations have the kind of cultures that encourage innovation and this normally starts with management. Innovation also requires that an organisation has the resources to be innovative. Unless an organisation has the necessary skilled people and finances available with which to innovate, stagnation is likely to result. An organisation must also have the skills in innovation management, most importantly, balance. Specifically, managers promote innovation when they show balance with respect to three key matters: goals, reward systems and time pressure. Goals should be linked to the company mission but not too specific and reward systems should generously and fairly recognize ones contributions, but should not be so specific that they connect every move to a bonus or monetary reward. Innovation also requires carefully balancing the time pressures under which employees are placed. If such pressures are too great, people maybe unimaginative and offer routine solutions and if they are too weak, employees may have no sense of urgency or believe that the project is not important enough to warrant any creative attention on their part.