What is Organizational Culture? An organization is a social unit of people that is thoroughly structured and appropriately managed to meet the cooperative goals. The systematic structure determines the relationships between different members of the organization and also in different activities of the same or different departments and culture includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and characteristics of a particular group of people, which are acquired by man as a member of society from a particular area, religion, language, music, etc. Culture is the full range of learned human behavior pattern. It is a powerful tool for human survival. Organizational culture is a systematic structure of assumptions, values and beliefs which stimulate the people to behave in organizations. These values have a strong impact on the employees in performing their jobs in the organization.
Culture of any organization mainly depends upon the background, culture norms and values of the founder members of the organization and their vision for the future of the organization. Every organization develops a unique culture, which provides norms, guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the members of the organization. On the basis of organizational culture, the members of the organization can judge that what is right or what is wrong. Strong cultures will have great influence on the behavior of its members and it increases cohesiveness and it will also help in reduction in employee turnover. To make an organization successful, it is necessary to create and maintain a strong organization culture. There are many different ways to create an organizational culture like stories, rituals, reactions to past mistakes, past experiences, etc. Whenever possible, corporate senior executives explain the stories that celebrate people getting things done. Corporate rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the values of the organization, standing which goals are most important and which people are important. For example, awards given to employees on the Founder’s day, Gold medals given to students on graduation day are reflections of the culture of that institution and role model of the top management and prominent leaders of the organization. Their behavior and example become a reflection of the organization’s philosophy and helps to mould the behavior of organizational members. Language of employees is also a way to identify the members of a culture. By learning this language, members attest to their acceptance of the culture of that organization. For example, employees of Microsoft Company have their own unique vocabulary.
Organizational culture also depends on what type of employees are hired by an organization and what type of employees are left out from the organization. Every company tries to adjust to its new employees in the organizational culture and teaches them the way things are done in the organization. This type of process are called attraction-selection-attrition (ASA process) and on boarding process. Because of the ASA process, the company attracts, selects and retains employees who share their core values, whereas those employees who are different in core values will be excluded (rejected) from the organization, either during the selection process or later on through turnover. The role of leaders and reward systems of organization also helps in shaping and maintaining the organization’s culture.
