Organizational Culture

CASE About TCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the worlds leading information technology companies. Through its Global Network Delivery Model, Innovation Network, and Solution Accelerators, TCS focuses on helping global organizations address their business challenges effectively.

TCS continues to invest in new technologies, processes, and people which can help its customers succeed. From generating novel concepts through TCS Innovation Labs and academic alliances, to drawing on the expertise of key partners, it keeps clients operating at the very edge of technological possibility.
Whether TCS is envisioning a business advantage, engineering an IT solution, or executing an outsourcing strategy, it helps its customers experience certainty in their every day business.

TCS reported 2006-07 global revenues of USD 4.3 billion.

People, processes, solution delivery capabilities and infrastructure are critical for a company to succeed in this competitive marketplace. TCS key business assets people, industry and service practices, centers of excellence, network delivery model, alliances and quality frameworks, collaborate to create innovative solutions that bring certainty in a customers business.

TCS global workforce has been at the core of its innovation and works with customers to deliver real business results. TCS is committed to creating an environment that enables it to attract, develop and retain talent. TCS people-focussed way of doing business has won it many recognitions such as the Investor in People recognition for setting standards of good working practices in the UK, TCS Hungary being among the top 20 in the Large Company Category in the Hewitt Best Employers Survey 2005, and the Dataquest-IDC Best Employer in IT Services in 2005.

What is culture?
It

is the shared norms, beliefs and values that shape employees' thinking and behaviors or more colloquially, "the way we do things around here.

Organizational Culture

The pattern of shared values, beliefs and assumptions considered to be the appropriate way to think and act within an organization.

Culture is shared Culture helps members solve problems Culture is taught to newcomers Culture strongly influences behaviour

It has to be invented and later developed over a period of time Environment plays a dominant role in developing the culture National culture has a greater impact on employees than does their organizations culture

How are these culture formed and later learned?

Organizational culture originates from the founders of the organization It is later passed on, down the line It is also a function of the nature of work and goals of the organization It is visible from the organization structure The usage of language Stories

Sources organizational culture

A number of factors contribute to the emergence of an organizational culture.
Some of the factors are: 1. Company founders 2. Organizational experience 3. Internal Interaction

The company founders

The founders of an organization have a major impact on the organizations early culture.
The founders usually possess dynamic personalities , strong values and have vision of what the organization should be The founders play a key role in hiring their initial employees and transmit their attitudes and value to them

Organizational Experience

An organizations experience with the external environment plays a vital role in shaping its culture.

The organization embraces these values and practices even more deeply thus becoming a part of its culture.

Internal Interaction

Interaction between groups of individuals within an organization is an important factor in the development of organizational culture.
Research has found that people who interact with each other on a regular basis view and interpret events in a similar manner. These interactions also play in the development of subcultures

Importance of Organizational Culture

It focuses attention on the human side of organizational life, and finds significance and learning in even its most ordinary aspects. It clarifies the importance of creating appropriate systems of shared meaning to help people work together toward desired outcomes.

It requires members especially leaders, to acknowledge the impact of their behavior on the organization's culture.

It encourages the view that the perceived relationship between an organization and its environment is also affected by the organization's basic assumptions.

Organizational culture is possibly the most critical factor determining an organization's capacity, effectiveness, and longevity. It also contributes significantly to the organization's brand image and brand promise. Organizational Culture creates energy and momentum. The energy will permeate the organization and create a new momentum for success.

Types of Organizational Culture

The presence of organizational culture is usually uniform across the organization. Most organizations have a dominant culture and several subcultures operating within them

Dominant cultures: refers to the core values that are shared by majority of the organizations members. Subcultures: are minicultures within an organization. The minicultures operate within the larger dominant culture.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

Innovation and risk-taking The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks. Attention to detail The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail. Outcome orientation The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on technique and process. People orientation The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the organization.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

Team orientation The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals. Aggressiveness The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing. Stability The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

Functions of Organizational Culture.

Culture plays several important functions in organizations.

1.

Sense of identity: Organizational culture creates a sense of identity among the employees. Employees develop of being a part of something special.

2.

3.

Commitment to the organizations mission: A strong organizational culture motivates employees to think beyond their narrow personal interests. Culture reminds people what their organization is all about and encourages greater commitment to the organization goals and mission . Appropriate standards of behavior: Organizational culture guides the words and deeds of the employees. It conveys to the employees what kind of behavior is acceptable or unacceptable in the organization.

Maintaining Organizational Culture

There are three major forces that play an important role in maintaining organizational culture. Selection Practices Actions of top management Socialization

1.

2.
3.

1.

Selection Practices: The main goal of the selection process is to hire individuals who have the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the job Actions of Top Management: What the top management of the organization says and does has a tremendous impact on the organizations culture. The actions of the top management send strong signals to other employees regarding how much business risk is to be taken, how much freedom should be given, what is the appropriate dress code and what behavior will be rewarded

2.

3.

Socialization: Socialization is the key process in adapting employees to the organizations culture.

Effects of organizational culture

Organizational culture strongly affects individuals and organization process. It pressurizes people to think and act in ways that are consistent with its culture.

Organizational performance: Some studies have found that a strong organizational culture leads to strong organizational performance. On the other hand some studies have found that organizational culture is one of the many of the many other factors( status of economy, competition etc) that affects organizational performance

Length of employment: The nature of the organizations culture is one of the most important factors that determine whether an employee will stay in that job or not.

Person organization fit: Research has found that when the values of the individual and those of the organization match each other then the employee will be more satisfied and is less likely to leave the organization.

Changing Organizational Culture

Change in the external world often compel organizations to either change or modify their culture. Changes in the government policy, market conditions , new technology are some of the factors that could upset the stable nature of organizational culture.

Changes in the composition of workforce: As people with different backgrounds and values enter the workforce, changes in the organizational culture follows. This is because the new employees may hold different views about various aspects of behaviour at work Mergers and acquisitions: Dramatic changes can occur in organizational culture when one organization is purchased and absorbed by another. This can also result in culture clashes

Planned organizational change: Organizations sometimes make conscious and deliberate decisions to change their structure and ways of working.

Transmitting Organizational Culture

Organizations transit their culture to their employees through different mechanisms. Employees learn about their organizations culture through different forms. Some of the powerful means of transmitting organizational culture are:
Stories Symbols Jargon Ceremonies and Rituals Statements of Principles and Values

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1.

Stories: Stories that highlight an organizational cultures and introduce or reaffirm the organizations values is a popular way of transmitting organizations culture. Symbols: Symbols are an important tool of communicating organizational culture. These symbols are often material objects but they convey meanings that go beyond its face value. Jargon: As organizations grow bigger and older they develop a unique language to describe their work

2.

3.

Ceremonies and Rituals: Ceremonies and rituals are celebrations of an organizations basic value and assumption. Statements of Principles and Values: A very direct way of communicating organizational culture is through statements of principles and values

Google's Organizational Culture

Google had an informal work culture at Googolplex (its headquarters). Both Larry and Sergey wanted to make Google a fun place to work. Googlers were allowed to bring their pets in to the workplace, and were themselves provided with free snacks, lunch and dinner prepared by a celebrity chef Charlie Ayers. The Googolplex had snack rooms offering Googlers cereals, gummi bears, cashew nuts and other snacks along with fruit juices, soda and cappuccino

Recruitment Sergey and Larry also focused on recruiting people with the right frame of mind. They were themselves personally involved in the recruitment process. In order to attract high performing candidates, Google posted top ten reasons to work for Google on its website Google recruited people with diverse skills and qualities. While recruiting, Google attached a lot of importance to academic excellence as revealed in grade scores in SAT and other graduate exams. To get an interview call from Google, a person had to be from a top-ranking university.

Innovations at Google Google management also focused on encouraging innovation and creativity at the workplace. It realized that to maintain its growth, the company had to come out with new products/features. However, the company faced problems on how to tap ideas that could be turned into successful products. Said Silverstein, "We always had great ideas, but we didn't have a good way of expressing them or capturing them." To overcome the problem, Google set up an internal web page for tracking new ideas.

Key Aspects of Nokia's Culture

Nokia's culture was rooted in the Finnish national character-frugal, honest, very direct, serious, with little tolerance for "fooling around"-mixed with a good dose of engineering culture-"can do," pragmatic, and hands-on. The difficulties that Nokia had faced before Ollila became CEO also played their part in shaping the culture...

Fluid Structure The most distinctive characteristics of Nokia's organization did not show up on any organization chart. When asked to describe the company's organization structure, Nokia's managers talked about its flexibility, freedom, and the importance of networks, rather than its formal architecture. Building Talent While Nokia was not known to pay high compensation, it had been successful in attracting, motivating and retaining quality people.

CLASS ASSIGNMENT
Identify

a set of characteristics that describe your Colleges culture