Organizational Culture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Organizational Culture - Assignment Example Center of discussion in this paper is organizational culture as a â€Å"set of shared beliefs and experiences that essentially defines the identity of an organization and ultimately guides its behavior†. Today, most organizations are reconsidering and reconstructing their organizational culture for it is perceived as one of the important determinants of success in terms of influencing individual behavior. Furthermore, the culture’s role in the organization is indispensable because it is a lifetime result of weaknesses, strengths, failures, and experiences of people. In fact, it is frequently cited in the different versions of cultural studies that if an organization is planning to implement a change process, it must first understand its organizational culture because failure to do so will make the process unsuccessful. This idea was seconded by the study of Kotter and Heskett when they presented that organizational culture is one of the barriers in implementing a succes sful organizational change effort because culture or experiences are learnt over many years. In addition, a company’s invention or development of systems or procedures will too often fail because â€Å"cultures do not support the newly learned concepts, values, or assumptions†. â€Å"Generally, culture studies are conducted at different levels of analyses (for instance, organizational versus societal) using different methodological approaches (conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative) and a variety of associated constructs†.... Moreover, the positive relationship between culture and performance is supported by several research studies (Peters & Waterman, 1982; Denison, 1996; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993). Culture is also considered as a strong competitive advantage; thus, beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors of people in an organization are highly regarded (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2008, p.3). For example, if business practices are not aligned with the corporate culture, profits will fall, wider range of facilities will not be fully utilized, and there will be no unity and cooperation in the organization. Theories and Conceptual Models in Defining the Style of Management Organizations are expected to be proactive with their actions or strategies and update them based on current market trends. However, changing an organizational culture is a complicated process because of the concept’s nature wherein â€Å"the stronger the culture, the more resistant it is to any form of change† (Kaliprasad, 20 06, p.29; Thompson & Luthans, 1990). Therefore, the organization’s greatest challenge is to create a strong and powerful culture, which is at the same time susceptible to environmental disturbances (Schein, 1992). Thus, several culture theories and models are proposed to have a good or in-depth understanding of the increasing perception that organizational culture and success/effectiveness have a positive linkage. These associated models and cultures are also created to determine the different aspects of culture in different analyses, approaches, forms, and dimensions, particularly in organizational behaviors. Edgar Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture and Leadership (1980s). Having a powerful and flexible organizational culture is considered