Define Organizational Culture and Characteristics

Introduction

Every company has its own unique personality just like people do. The unique personality of an organization is referred to as its culture. It is a system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organization. These shared values have a very strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act and perform their jobs.

Every organization develops and maintains a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behaviour of the members of the origination.

Organizational Culture Definition

According to Turn Stall, “Organizational culture is a general constellation of beliefs, morals, value systems, behavioural norms, and ways of doing business that is unique to each corporation”.

According to Ravasi and Schultz (2006), states that organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behaviour for various situations. At the same time although a company may have their “own unique culture”, in larger organizations, there is a diverse and sometimes conflicting cultures that co-exist due to different characteristics of the management team. The organizational culture may also have negative and positive aspects.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

There are four major characteristics of Organizational Culture:

Innovation (Risk Orientation): Companies with cultures that place a high value on innovation encourage their employees to take risks and innovate in the performance of their jobs. Companies with cultures that place a low value on innovation expect their employees to do their jobs the same way that they have been trained to do them, without looking for ways to improve their performance.
Attention to Detail : It dictates the degree to which employees are expected to be accurate in their work. Employees are expected to perform their work with precision.
Emphasis on Outcomes, People, Team Orientation : Companies that focus on results, but not on how the results are achieved, this place a high emphasis on their value of organizational culture. They emphasis as treatment of their employees with respect and dignity. Working in team instead of individuals place a high value on this characteristic of organizational culture. People working in such organization will tend to have a positive relationship with their co-workers and managers.
Aggressiveness : This characteristic of organizational culture dictates whether group members are expected to be assertive or easy going when dealing with companies they compete with in the marketplace, company with an aggressive culture place a high value or competitiveness and outperforming the competition at all costs.
Stability : They are rule oriented; predictable and bureaucratic in nature. These type of companies typically provide consistent and predictable levels of output and operate best in non-changing market condition.