I do agree with the statement that organizational culture is a mechanism of controlling employee behavior. Being an important area of management and organizational studies, organizational behavior depicts the beliefs, attitudes, culture, and experiences that are emulated within an organization. In addition, organization culture is a collection of the norms that are adopted by the employees as well as the managers and which play a vital role during their interaction with the stakeholders outside the organization.
There are two aspects of culture. These include strong culture and weak culture. A strong culture is clearly depicted when employees respond to an incident due to their firm linkage with the organizational values. This kind of culture makes the organizations maintain strong and motivated team members. A weak culture exists where the employees are scarcely aligned with the organizational values. In such firms, bureaucracy and strict procedures of doing things are evidence.
One of the major ways in which organizational culture controls the workers is by the way top-level managers react to critical organizational crises and vital incidents. It is imperative to note that the way managers react to any form of catastrophe depicts a lot about organizational values. Within my organization, reactions to incidents by managers are usually high. As employees, it is our role to ensure that we maintain positive linkage with our clients.
In case of any incident such as failure to assist the customers or unethical behavior which may lead to the failure of an organization, managers take immediate action to solve the problem. This can involve giving the affected member of staff a compulsory leave or a demotion. This depicts how employees are under obligation to follow the culture of an organization.
The second implication of organizational culture on the employees’ behavior is based on the allocation of rewards and training. In order to ensure that employees are motivated during the performance of their duties, a rewarding system has been introduced in my organization. Through the recognization of hardworking employees, the level of productivity of the entire firm has increased. This is as a result of putting more effort by the employees in their tasks as they seek rewards.
In the same way, lazy employees are cautioned by the management team since the culture of the firm is to maintain hard work and self-discipline. Training programs have also been established as a way of making the employees develop their careers. In this way, the workers feel part and parcel of the company which enhances their loyalty towards the organization. Holidays have also been established within the organization so as to allow employees to intermingle with their family members thus enhancing their social life.
The other aspects of organizational culture that control the employees’ behavior are recruitment, promotion, and selection. The interaction that exists between the employees and the managers may be affected by the people who are hired or promoted by the organization. My senior managers and junior employees have always maintained a strong positive relationship that has resulted in a great level of motivation in the working place. This has been possible through the managers’ initiatives to hire individuals with the values they desire while those with unbecoming values are eliminated. In this regard, the majority of the employees have streamlined their ways of behaving during their duties to avoid being sacked or demoted.