Understanding Organizational Culture

Subject: Organizational Management
Pages: 3
Words: 627
Reading time:
3 min
Study level: College

Introduction

Culture encloses the complex whole consisting of everything that people think, do, and have as members of the community. It might be envisaged as a form of a channel that flows down the centuries from one generation to another. Though cultural aspects are intangible and abstract, their influence is beyond superficial. Cultural forces control involuntary physiological reactions to embarrassment such as blushing and stuttering (Wilson, 2017). Occurrences for embarrassment are culturally established. Therefore, cultural factors place constraints on human conduct, thought processes, and relations. Cultural constraints prescribe, suggest that people show a given behavior, or proscribe and warn against doing certain things.

Cultural Forces

Culture enhances and is a vital aspect for, interconnected human life, and organizational practices. Culture offers crucial positive meanings. For example, it provides members of an organization with a joint understanding, sentiments of clarity, guidance, meaning, and reason. However, there is also a negative side of culture. Cultural connotations engineered by influential and skilled actors frustrate inquiry and independent judgment (Alvesson, 2012). The authority of culturally dominating notions concerning what is correct, natural, good, and potential should be treated cautiously. If organizations and work groups appear to share some concepts, convictions, and principles, this should not be taken to be an expression of agreement or harmony.

Cultural Forces

Culture does not act as a foundation of authority solely through the behavior of administrators and organizational structures. It could also be identified by holding ideas and practices that everyone assumes. Cultural suppositions, for instance, concerning careerism, sex, affluent utilization, and technocracy, might fix the beliefs of superior organizational members (Wilson, 2017). Just like every other cultural foundation, the assumptions are a mix of societal, group, industrial, and organizational state phenomena of influential actors controlling convictions, meanings, and aspirations. Societal norms, similar to organizational basic practices, are created through shared forces and established cultural orientations.

Cultural Constraints

A critical exploration of cultural insinuations is valuable not just for emancipation but also contributing to organizational and societal changes aimed at realizing decorum. Culture constraints encompass laws, taboos, and sanctions. Sanctions back norms where punishment is given to the people who fail to abide by the set guidelines while rewarding the ones who do (Savolainen, 2016). As part of the existing culture, laws operate as legal constraints or negative sanctions employed against violators of rules. Legal constraints are apparent, familiar, and grounded in the existing laws. They encompass incarceration, fine, expatriation, and, in some jurisdictions, death.

Taboos signify forbiddance of a given behavior, object, or individual. In spiritual taboos, the prohibited object is deemed unclean and secular, and the ban seeks to restrain the item’s attractiveness. Warning against incest or intermarriages could be instances of set taboos (Akintan et al., 2018). The most widespread behavioral taboo is the forbiddance of mating amid such as brother and sister. Other forms of taboos are interested in social affiliations such as observance of social class or caste regulations or use of polite language when talking to the elders. The management of culture in an organization, for example, establishing habits, ceremonies, slogans, and particular expressions, has the ability to facilitate a scope of positive effects, valuable to workers, in addition to shareholders.

Conclusion

Culture surrounds the complex whole consisting of everything that human beings think, perform, and have as members of the public. Cultural aspects place constraints on human conduct, thought progressions, and relationships. Culture offers members of an organization a joint comprehension, sentiments of precision, guidance, significance, and motive. Similar to organizational essential practices, societal norms, are created through collective forces and reputable cultural orientations. Culture constraints include rules, taboos, and sanctions. Management of culture in an organization, for instance, establishing habits, has the capacity to facilitate a scope of constructive effects for the benefit of workers and investors.

References

Akintan, O., Jewitt, S., & Clifford, M. (2018). Culture, tradition, and taboo: Understanding the social shaping of fuel choices and cooking practices in Nigeria. Energy Research & Social Science, 40, 14-22.

Alvesson, M. (2012). Understanding organizational culture (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Savolainen, R. (2016). Approaches to socio-cultural barriers to information seeking. Library & Information Science Research, 38(1), 52-59.

Wilson, F. M. (2017). Organizational behavior and gender. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.