Essay On Organizational Culture And Its Conceptualization

Introduction

Why some companies in practice are achieve a high level of organization (success), while others do not? Thus, the company «Apple» was started with two people, on the other hand, personal computers of a large in the past company RCA are now unknown. One reason for this is a different culture of these organizations.
In practice, organizational culture is a set of traditions, values, symbols, common approaches, ideology members, which have stood the test of time. It is a kind of expression of individuality of the company, the manifestation of its differences from the other.

Body

According to L.Bolman and T.Deal, people are looking for meaning in life. Because life is incomprehensible, we create characters to maintain hope and faith. The symbolic frame interprets and highlights the major problems of meaning and faith, makes the characters so powerful. He portrays a world in many ways other than the traditional canons require rationality, certainty and linearity. The symbolic frame transforms ideas from various sources in five assumptions:

The most important thing is not what is happening and what it means.

Activities and meaning loosely coupled; events have many interpretations, because people see life differently.
In the face of uncertainty and ambiguity people create symbols to navigate the maze, find direction and gain support for the hope and faith.
Events and processes are often more important that they express, rather than the fact that they generate. Their symbolic form woven from secular myths, heroes and heroines, rituals, ceremonies and stories that help people find purpose and passion.

Culture is the link, fastening the organization and connects people and helps companies to succeed.

Organizations characters take many forms. Myths, vision and values of the organization is filled with goals and determination. Heroes and heroines words and deeds are living symbols. Tales and stories give an explanation, eliminate contradictions and resolve the dilemma. Rituals and ceremonies offer direction, faith and hope. Metaphor, humor and relax tense game.
Bolman offers a formal definition: culture is a system of shared basic assumptions that the group learned in the process of adaptation to the environment and integration that works so well that it is considered wealthy and transmitted to new members as the correct approach to perception, thinking and feeling. Deal defines the culture more succinctly: "the way we do everything." Culture - this product and the process. As a product it represents the accumulated wisdom. As a process it is constantly updated and recreated on as novices are taught the old ways and eventually themselves become teachers.

Important principles of symbolic frame, which are widely applicable to groups and teams:

how someone becomes a member of the team is important;
support a variety of competitive advantage commands;
team holds together an example, and not an order;
special language provides cohesion and loyalty;
stories tell of the history and values and strengthen the individual groups;
humor and the game reduces stress and encourage creativity;
ritual and ceremony to elevate mood and enhance value;
informal cultural players contribute, incomparable with their formal roles;
soul is the secret of success.
Symbolic view calls into question the traditional view, suggesting that team building is the selection of the right people and the creation of an appropriate structure. Success is a derivative of the spirit of the organization. If you had to drive the game, ritual, ceremony and myth would have been destroyed teamwork. Many signs point to the fact that modern organizations have come to the critical point of the crisis of meaning and faith. Leaders are wondering how to create a team spirit, when turnover is high, resources are scarce and people are worried they will not lose a job. These questions are important, but by themselves they limit the imagination of managers and distract attention from the deeper issues of faith and purpose. Managers can not escape responsibility for the budget and financial results; they need to respond to individual needs, the requirements of law and economic pressure. However, they may play a more profound and subtle role, if aware that central to the creation of teams is spiritual. This is both a spiritual quest, and creates a community of supporters, united by a common faith and culture. The highest achievements arise when the team opens its soul.
Organizational life is largely determined by carefully crafted script, we get on stage in costume, some organizational dress code, and the game in accordance with acceptable forms of behavior. "Creating a rational plan is a dramatic alternative to real change. Plans are seen as an end in itself, as evidence that we - the humane and educated people, who have put another problem under rational control. Organization in certain contexts is more worried about how innovation look than what they give to improve efficiency. Stowe and Epstein cites facts that the adoption of modern management emphasizes the legitimacy of the company and the CEO pay increases, even if these methods are implemented not fully. Economic results do not improve, but the feeling of innovation and quality management increases.
Institutional theory has its critics. However, her ideas constitute a kind of counterbalance to the traditional view of the organization as a closed rational system. With such views, functional requirements form the social architecture. The environment is a source of raw materials and markets for finished products. The main concern is effective internal control over the means of production and economic results. External fluctuations and manufacturing uncertainties are mitigated by rational means such as forecasting, stockpiling, smoothing bursts and downs of supply and demand, as well as growth (in order to get more leverage on the environment).
Institutionalists seem less rational way. Organizations, especially those with vague goals and weak technology cannot isolate itself from external events and pressure. They are constantly exposed more significant social, political and economic trends. The problem is the preservation of isomorphism, ie, schools should look like a school, and the church - the church as for the legitimacy of origin of support, faith and hope the audience. Structure and processes should reflect the common myths and expectations. When the results of operations are difficult to measure the correct appearance and presentation are the predominant measure of efficiency.

Conclusion

The purpose of the organizational culture is to help people be more productive, get satisfaction from work. If the person is an alien to him organizational culture and its activities is constrained, limited. Conversely, according to the organizational culture and values of the company employee activity of the latter is activated, respectively, increases efficiency. Thus, is possible to obtain a synergistic effect.
The value of organizational culture lies in the fact that it is a motivating factor for employees. Motivation is the position that predisposes a person to act a specific, targeted manner. If we consider the hierarchy of needs Maslow, the organizational culture will satisfy the human need for social status and ownership, for example, to the affairs of the company and contribute to its self-expression that is at the highest level of the pyramid of needs.

References

Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal, (2008). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership. Fourth Edition, ISBN-13: 978-0787987992