Organisational Culture Essay

People form the backbone of an organisation. To drive people towards a common goal, culture plays an important role. Culture is the informal set of rules specific to an organisation that guides its employees on its way of working. But, culture in an organisation is not constant. There are a variety of internal and external factors that affect organisational culture. The objective of this paper is to understand the most influential external factor affecting organisational culture. The paper also discusses the impact of globalisation on organisational culture.
According to Gupta (2009), the external environment encompasses of all entities that rest outside the confines of an organisation and that affects its being. The most influential external factor affecting an organisational culture is competition. Competition constitutes entities involved in production and distribution of related products targeting common market. To survive in a competitive environment, it is important for organisations to align themselves to the dynamic changes in the market trends and competition activities. They experience change in their goals and strategies. This alignment has a direct impact on culture of the organisation, which undergoes subsequent changes on a continuous basis.
Globalisation has a significant impact on organisational culture in more than one ways. First, globalisation results in influx of employees with foreign nationality (Kurosaki, 2008). Hence, organisational culture will need to be changed keeping in mind the diversity of employee base. Second, globalisation gives an opportunity to target customers from world over. This also requires adjusting culture to better understand and serve global customers. Third, globalisation has increased competition, which makes it necessary for the managers to align organisational culture to adapt better to changing environment.
Thus, competition and globalisation are key external factors affecting organisational culture. While it poses challenges to managers, it also provides them with opportunity to be more flexible and perform better than their peers.

References

Gupta, Ashim (2009). Organisation’s External Environment. Retrieved from http://practical-management.com/Organization-Development/Organization-s-External-Environment.html
Kurosaki (2008). With Increasing Globalisation, Organisational Culture will be More Important than National Culture. Retrieved from http://www.studymode.com/essays/With-Increasing-Globalization-Organizational-Culture-Will-168830.html