People and Organizations: Principles and Practice in Global Contexts

The importance of organizational culture for organizational performance:

Organizational culture is the most important variable that influences the organizational performance (Ahmed & Shafiq, 2014). The culture is created & managed by the real leaders. “If you do not manage culture, it manages you & you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening” (Schein, 1990). Further to this the enhancement in performance helps to the employee commitment& norms, values & objectives of organization attributes to the enhancement of the culture of its organization (Awadh & Saadi, 2013).

As per Kotter & Heskett (1992) the culture is a variety of beliefs, behaviors, & values, which included in the society. According to Pettigrew (1979) cultures of an organization is based on the systems, which may cause to explain how the staffs take decisions & think on the day today official matters.

Brown (1998) has identified the following methods of leaning the organization’s culture.

1. Evidence: Physically developed environment of an organization
2. Language: Some organization has very formal & polite language & some organization has informal & social language to among the staff members.
3. Behavior patterns: Organizational ceremonies, functions & other characteristics of organization.
4. Symbols: Corporate logo, icons & products
5. Believes, values & attributes

Organizational culture has influenced increasing of job satisfaction, awareness of problem solving & finally the organization performance towards achieving its goals (Kotter, 2012). If the organizational culture becomes unstable, the organization’s performance will be decreased (Ernst, 2001).

Organizational culture & its performance are clearly linked according to the Kopelman, Brief & Guzzo (1990). Strong & established cultures have been revealed as having a direct relationship with enhanced organizational performance (Saffold, 1998).

In practical scenarios, most the companies with well established & strong cultures have been performing well in performance regularly. Its cultures have enhanced its employee’s satisfaction, innovation, motivation towards the performance. Some organization cultures decreased its job satisfaction & demotivated its staff & it’s caused for lower performance. Most of government organizations in Sri Lanka are the real examples for these kinds of cultures. Implementation of a new culture to the organization & change of existing culture of the organization is quite difficult & takes much time to establish the same. Some companies have changed its culture very successfully, which several companies have failed with implementing new cultures to the organization.     

The one of main reason for lower performance & less development of most government institutions in Sri Lanka is their organizational cultures. Its cultures create staff de-motivation, job dissatisfaction, lower customer service & less employee engagement towards achievement of goals. It is very difficult to change these cultures & staff has been adapted to these cultures. There are not empowered by the cultures. But some organizations have changed these types of cultures gradually. They have developed its environments. Behavior pattern has been developed. Belief, values & attitude has also been developed. If employee contributes to their organization’s culture much, the overall organizational performance will be increased subsequently.   

References:

Ahmed, M & Shafiq, S (2014). The impact of organizational culture on organizational performance. Global Journal of Management & Business Research: Administration & Management. Volume 14 Issue 3 Version 1.0.

Schein, E (1990). Organizational Culture, Frankfurt Campus Verlug.

Awadh, A M & Saad A M (2013). Impact of Organizational Culture on Employee Performance. International Review of Management & Business Research.

Kotter, J P & Heskett, J L (1992). Corporate Culture & Performance. New York: Free press.

Pettigrew, A (1979). Studying Organizational Culture. Administrative Science Quarterly.

Brown, A (1998). Organizational Culture. Prentice Hall

Kotter, J (2012). Corporate Culture & Performance. New York: Free press.

Ernst, H (2001). Corporate culture & innovative performance of a frim, Management of Engineering & technology.

Saffold, G S (1998). Culture Traits, Strength & Organizational Performance: Moving beyond “Strong” Culture. The Academy of Management, 13 (4).

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