What Is an Organizations Culture?

Table of Contents

Main Content
Conclusion
Lessons Learned
Reference

In his lecture What is an Organizations Culture, professor Christensen presented the views of a number of prominent researchers in organizational culture (Edgar Schein, Modesto Maidique) on the definition, genesis, and development of this concept. Based on Edgar Scheins works, the lecturer defined organizational culture as a social unit whose members share a significant number of common experiences in successfully addressing external and internal problems (Christensen, 2006, p. 1). Although corporate philosophy is shaped primarily by challenges and responses and changes through the adaptation, managers can learn to shape culture development themselves. Successful patterns and decisions always become the patterns of the firm customs because they have shown their effectiveness in overcoming difficulties; that is why it is essential to be able to manage organizational culture consciously. If the formation of corporate values is left to chance, then the company will get stuck in the same framework, make similar decisions in new situations, and become ineffective.

Main Content

A manager has to understand the organizational culture from the beginning of the work to the moments when it is necessary to respond to challenges, reform the culture, or develop a new management strategy. In order not to encounter a change or perish choice that forces rapid cultural adaptation, the manager must control the development of culture and give new types of tasks to employees (Christensen, 2006, p. 7). When starting to work in a company, a manager must research how different employees react to situations, highlight the main behavior patterns, and understand what problems led to their occurrence. When merging companies, the manager must closely study the other companys culture and prevent a clash of cultures. Within the same organization, there can be many cultures because different departments face different problems; however, groups must develop their own rules for dialog and achieve cross-cultural understanding.

Conclusion

A well-developed organizational culture is a powerful tool that allows a company to be more sustainable, employees to work more efficiently, and a manager to freely plan strategic growth. Paying attention to the culture of the company allows managers to achieve synergy between its elements when the sum of the many autonomous decisions must have the cumulative effect (Christensen, 2006, p. 4). Edgar Scheins model of culture allows many managers to find an approach to understanding culture as a historical pattern of challenges and responses. This will enable managers to learn how to generate new challenges and control the reactions that employees generate. With this approach, the manager can learn to intervene in the development of organizational culture, keep functional elements and get rid of harmful or obsolete components.

Lessons Learned

Based on the information presented in the lecture What is an Organizations Culture by professor Christensen, every manager needs to learn how to work with the companys culture. Firstly, it is necessary to become observant and attentive to see what cultures are present in the company, how they interact, and why they have been formed during the firm history. Secondly, a manager should help all cultures in the company learn how to interact without conflict, understand each others needs and goals, and feel unity. Thirdly, a manager needs to know that no company can exist in todays market conditions using the same old patterns for a long time. The manager must learn long-term strategic planning and include planning for the development of organizational culture in it.