A successful organization must have a culture that is founded on a set of deeply held and broadly shared ideas that are backed up by strategy and structure. Three things happen when an organization's culture is strong: Employees are aware of how top management expects them to respond in each situation, they feel that the expected response is the appropriate one, and they are aware that embodying the organization's values will be rewarded.
Employers play a critical role in upholding a strong culture, beginning with recruiting and selecting applicants who resonate with the organization's beliefs and thrive in that culture. Businesses should develop orientation, training, and performance management programs that outline and reinforce the organization's core values, ensuring that employees who truly exemplify the culture receive appropriate rewards and recognition.
Role of Leaders in Building Organizational Culture
Business leaders play a critical role in establishing and communicating their company's culture. The relationship between leadership and culture, on the other hand, is not one-sided. While leaders are the primary architects of culture, the type of leadership that is conceivable is influenced by the existing culture.
Leaders must recognize their role in preserving or evolving a company's culture. A deeply ingrained and well-established culture demonstrates how individuals should act, which can assist employees in achieving their objectives. When an employee believes a leader is assisting him or her in achieving a goal, this behavioural framework provides increased job satisfaction. The modern performance management system enables leaders to create a structured framework that in turn, help employees to track their performance, thereby promoting self-accountability. Organizational culture, leadership, and job satisfaction are all intricately intertwined from this perspective. Many diverse workplace cultures can be developed by leaders, and they can also be impacted by them. These distinctions can appear in a variety of ways including:
- Adaptive and Adhocracy Culture
Adaptive and adhocracy cultures are defined by the degree to which individuals are free to make decisions, generate new ideas, and express themselves. Adaptive cultures respect to change and are action-oriented, which increases the chance of long-term survival. Adhocracy cultures are fast-paced and entrepreneurial, with a focus on taking risks, innovating, and being first at experimenting.
- Task and Clan Culture
Task cultures and clan cultures both play a role in how devoted employees are to the company's goals. In a task culture, teams of experts are established to address specific challenges. Due to the significance of the tasks and the large number of small teams involved, a matrix structure is popular in this sort of culture. Clan cultures are similar to family cultures, with a focus on mentoring, caring, and doing things as a group.
- Power Culture, Role Culture, and Hierarchy Culture
Power cultures, role cultures, and hierarchy cultures are all characteristics of how power and information flow through an organization's structure and system. One leader controls the strategy and makes quick choices in a power culture. This type of culture necessitates a high level of reverence for the leader. Role cultures are places where functional structures are established, where people know their jobs, report to their superiors, and place a premium on productivity and accuracy. In that they are highly structured, hierarchy cultures are comparable to role cultures. They prioritize efficiency, consistency, and doing things the right way.
- Person and Market Culture
Some significant aspects of personal culture and market culture are how the members of an organization conduct business, treat employees, customers, and the wider community. Person culture is one in which horizontal structures are most beneficial. Each individual is valued more than the corporation as a whole. This can be tough to sustain since the company may suffer as a result of conflicting people and priorities. Market cultures focus more on competition, performance, and "getting the job done."
The Culture is Ever Evolving!
The culture of an organization never remains static. As members of an organization interact over time and learn what works and what doesn't, they form a shared understanding about "what right looks like." When certain ideas and assumptions lead to less-than-satisfactory outcomes, the organization's culture must develop in order to remain relevant in a changing environment.
Changing an organization's culture is a whole different ball game. Employees are sometimes resistant to change and can form a unified front against a new culture. As a result, it is the responsibility of leaders to persuade their workforce of the benefits of change and to demonstrate that the new culture is the best way to function in order to achieve success through collective experience with behavioural changes.
