ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE, THE CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT

PRESENTED FOR ANJAN MAJUNDAR

PREPARED BY NAKITA CHERYL FERNANDES

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:Culture is a set of values, norms, guiding beliefs and understanding that is shared by members of an organization and the same is inculcated to the new employees of the organization. Every individual participates in culture, but culture generally goes unnoticed. It is only when organizations try to implement new strategies or programs that go against basic cultural norms and values that they come face to face with the power of culture. Organizational culture exists at two levels, on the surface level are the artifacts and observable behaviors i.e. the way people dress and act and the symbols, stories and ceremonies organization members share. The next level is reflected by the first level, which reflects the deeper values in the minds of the organizations members. These are the underlying values, assumptions, beliefs and thought processes which are the true culture. Culture provides members with a sense of organizational identity and generates in them a commitment to beliefs and values that are larger than themselves. An organizations culture generally begins from the founders who articulate and implement the ideas and values which are specific as a vision or business strategy. When these ideas and values lead to success, they become institutionalized and an organizational culture emerges that reflects the vision and strategy.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ORGANISATIONL CULTURE:The culture in an organization is held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. The following are the primary characteristics that capture the actual essence of an organizations culture: The way employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks  The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis and attention to detail  The manner in which management focuses on results rather than the techniques and processes used to achieve them.  The way management decision takes into consideration the outcomes on the employees of the organization.  The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals.  The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing.  The manner to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

ROLE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:The role of culture in an organization is: Specify the goals and objectives of the organization.  Specify the relations that exist within the organisation.  Specify what qualities are valued within organizations such as loyalty, confidentiality, dynamism, hard work etc.  Specify the wider context within which the organisation operates. The success of any organisation is linked to an organisation culture in which people are encouraged to work together and share resources as needed. Organisation culture exerts many effect on individuals and organizational processes - some dramatic and others more subtle. If the organisation culture stresses the importance of product quality and excellent service, its customers will generally find their complaints handled politely and efficiently.

CULTURAL FUNCTIONS OF THE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:The two critical functions of organizational culture are:a) To integrate members so that they can know how to relate to one another i.e. internal integration. It means that member develop a collective identity and know how to work effectively. It is the culture that guides day to day working relationships and determines how people communicate within the organisation, what behavior is acceptable or not and how the status and power is allocated among the employees. b) To help the organisation adapt to the external environment i.e. external integration i.e. refers to how the organisation meets its goals and deals with outsiders. Culture helps guide the daily activities of workers to meet certain goals. It also helps the organisation respond rapidly to customer needs. Culture plays a key role in transforming an organizations performance from average to the highest level. The organizations culture guides the employee decision making in the absence of rules or policies. Both these functions of cultures are related to building the organizations social by having the positive or negative relationships both within the organizations and with outsiders.

ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE:Culture creates Organizational climate, refers to the shared perceptions organizational members have about their organisation and work environment. This aspect of culture is like team spirit at the organizational level. When everyone has the same general feelings about whats important or how well things are working, the effect of these attitudes will be more than the sum of the individuals parts. A positive overall workplace climate has been linked to higher customer satisfaction and financial performance beneficial to the organisation.

An individual who encounters a positive climate for performance will think about doing a good job more often and will in his or her success. An individual who encounters a positive climate for diversity will feel very comfortable collaborating with workers regardless of their demographic background. In an organisation, the existing climate also influences the habits of people that they adopt. If the climate for safety is positive, will feel very secure to work in the organisation and put in extra efforts and rarely think about being safe in all regards.

CREATING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:An organisation current working style largely depends on what it has done before and how successful it was doing. The ultimate source of an organizations culture is its founders who have a major impact on an organizations early culture, they have a vision of what the organization should be, and this is shared with the members. Culture creation occurs in 3 ways:1) Founders hire and keep only employees who think and feel the same way they do. 2) Secondly, they socialize these employees to their way of thinking and feeling. 3) Thirdly, the founders own behavior they encourage employees to identify with them and internalize their beliefs, values and assumptions.

SUSTANING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:Once culture is created in an organisation you need to sustain it for through which is maintained by giving employees a set of similar experiences. Three forces particularly play an important part in sustaining a culture:a) Selection Practices b) The actions of the top management c) Socialization Method Selection Practices: - The explicit goal of the selection process is to identify and hire individual with the knowledge, skills and abilities and to perform successfully. The final decision is influenced by the decision makers judgment of how well the candidates will fit into the organisation; identify people whose values are less consistent. Selection is a two way street, allowing employer or applicant to avoid a mismatch and sustaining an organizations culture by selecting out those who might undermine its core values. Top Management:- The actions of the top management also have a major impact on the organizations culture. Through words and behavior, senior executives establish norms that filter through the organization for instance, whether risk taking is desirable, how much freedom managers should give employees, what appropriate dress is and what actions pay off in terms of

pay raises, promotions and other rewards. E.g. Rajshri Productions values participation of all its crew members in the making of a movie. At Rajshri, we believe that it is vital to everyones opinion, be it an assistant or a technician. As a producer, I should if the film has touched peoples soul or not. Socialization:- No matter how good a job the organisation does in recruiting and selection, new employees are not fully indoctrinated in the organizations culture and can disrupt beliefs and customs already in place. The process that helps new employees adapt to the prevailing culture is socialization. The socialization model given below is a process with three stages 1) The prearrival stage 2) The encounter stage 3) The metamorphosis stage OUTCOMES
PRODUCTIVITY

PREARRIVAL STAGE

ENCOUNTER

METAMORPHOSIS

COMMITMENT

TURNOVER

SOCIALISATION PROCESS

This process has an impact on the new employees work productivity, commitment to the organizations objectives and eventual decision to stay with the organisation. 1) The prearrival stage: This stage recognizes that each individual arrives with a set of values, attitudes and expectations about both the work to be done and the organisation. E.g. Business school is to socialize business students to the attitudes and behaviors business firms wants. Newcomers to high profile organizations with a strong market position will make their own assumptions about what it must be like to work there. No matter how well managers think they can socialize newcomers, however, the most important predictor of future behavior is past behavior. What people know before they join the organisation, and how proactive their personality is are critical predictors of how well they adjust to a new culture. At the selection process you need to inform the employee about the organisation as a whole. Success depends on the degree to which the aspiring member has correctly anticipated the expectations and desires of those in the organisation in charge of selection.

2) The encounter stage: The new members enter the encounter stage and confront the possibility that the expectations about the job, co-workers, the boss and the organisation in general may differ from reality. If expectations were fairly accurate, the encounter stage merely cements earlier perceptions. At the extreme stage, a new member may become disillusioned enough with reality to redesign. 3) The metamorphosis stage: - Finally to work out the problems discovered during the encounter stage, the new member changes or goes through the metamorphosis stage. Various options are taken into account to bring about the desired metamorphosis. It is the stage in the socialization process in which a new employee changes and adjusts to the job, work group and the organisation as a whole. Creative fields, such as research and development, advertising and filmmaking rely on these individual practices. Most research suggests high levels of institutional practices encourage person-organisation fit and high levels of commitment, whereas individual practices produce more role innovation. The three part entry socialization process is complete when new members have become comfortable with the organisation and their job. They have now accepted the norms of the organisation and the work group is confident in their competence and feels trusted and valued by their peers. They understand the system not only their tasks but the rules and procedures as well. Finally they understand what is expected from them and what criteria will be used to measure and evaluate their work.

HOW CULTURES FORM:

TOP MANAGEMENT

PHILOSOPHY OF ORGANISATION S FOUNDER

SELECTION CRITERIA

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

SOCIALIZATION PROCESS

The original culture derives from the founders philosophy and strongly influences hiring criteria as the firms grow. Top Managements actins set the general climate, including what is acceptable behavior and what is not. The way employees are socialized will depend both on the degree of

success achieved in matching new employees values to those of the organisation in the selection process and on top management preference for socialization methods.

HOW CULTURE IS TRANSMITTED TO EMPLOYEES:To identify and interpret culture requires that people make inferences based on observable artifacts. Artifacts can be studied but are very difficult to decipher accurately. For E.g. an award ceremony in one company may have a different meaning than in another company. To decipher what is really going on in an organisation requires detective work and probably some experience as an insider. Culture is transmitted to employees in a number of forms; the most are through stories, rituals, material symbols and language. Stories:-They are narratives based on true events that are frequently shared among organizational employees and told to new employees to inform them about an organization. Many stories are about companys heroes who serve as models or ideals for serving cultural norms and values. Some stories are considered legends because the events are historic and may have been embellished with fictional details. Stories keep alive the primary values of the organisation and provide a shared understanding among all employees. Rituals: - They are repetitive sequence of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organisation, what goals are important, which people are important and which people are expendable. It is a ritual that bonds people and makes them take a short break for reflection. Material Symbols: - E.g. Alcoa headquarters doesnt look like your typical head-office operation. There are few individual offices, even for senior executives. The space is essentially made up of cubicles, common areas and meetings rooms. This informality conveys to employees that Alcoa values openness, equality, creativity and flexibility. The layout of corporate headquarters, the type of automobiles top executives are given and the presence or absence of corporate aircraft are a few e.g. of material symbols. Language: - Many organizations and sub units within them use language to help members identify with the culture, attest to their acceptance of it, and help preserve it. Unique terms describe equipment, officers, key individuals, suppliers, customs or products that relate to the business.

CREATING AND ETHICAL ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:An organizational culture is aiming more to shape high ethical standards among its members and is one thats high in risk tolerance, low to moderate in aggressiveness and focused on means as well as outcomes. This type culture also takes a long term perspective. Managers are supported

for taking risks and innovating, discouraged from engaging in unbridled competition and guided to pay attention not just to what goals are achieved but also to how to achieve them. If the culture is strong and supports high ethical standards, it should have a very powerful positive influence on employee behavior. E.g. Johnson and Johnson have a strong culture. When poisoned bottles of Tylenol, (a Johnson & Johnson) were found in stores some years ago, company employees independently pulled the product from shelves across United States before management had even issued a statement about tampering. No one had told these individuals what was morally right; they knew what their company wanted them to do. On the other hand, a strong culture that encourages pushing the limits can be a powerful force in shaping unethical behavior. The organisation in order to create a more ethical culture among the employees following principles can be followed: Be a visible role model: - Employees will look up to the actions of the organisation to act as per their behavior. The senior managers taking the ethical way to send positive message to all employees.  Communicate ethical expectations: - Creating organizational code of conduct. The code should state the primary values and the ethical rules employees are expected to follow.  Provide ethical training:- Use ethical training programs like seminars, workshops and similar ethical training programs to reinforce the organizations standards of conduct, clarify what practices are and are not permissible and address potential ethical dilemmas  Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones: - Review the means taken to achieve the goals as well as the ends themselves. Visibly reward those who act ethically.  Provide protective mechanisms: Provide formal mechanisms so employees discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical behavior without fear of reprimand. Setting a positive ethical climate has to start at the top of the organisation. It is known that when top management emphasizes strong ethical values, supervisors are more likely to practice ethical leadership. This positive ethical attitude transfers down to line employees who show lower levels of deviant behavior and higher levels of cooperation and assistance.

CREATING A POSITIVE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:A positive organizational culture is a culture that emphasizes building on employee strengths, rewards more than punishes and emphasizes individual vitality and growth. Creating a positive culture may sound native but the one thing that makes us believe this trend is that, there are signs that management practice and converging into a better culture oriented organisation. The some areas taken into account:Building on Employee Strengths: - Although a positive organizational culture does not ignore problems, it does emphasize showing workers how they can capitalize on their strengths. The

management instead of laying off employees and saving its skin, they adopt HR practices like people are deployed to departments according to their competences and strengths. They are reorganized on the basis of their technical expertise, industry expertise and marketing expertise. This helped in optimally utilization of its people and their competences and led to resurgence of the organisation. Rewarding more than Punishing:- Although most organizations are sufficiently focused on the extrinsic rewards such as pay and promotions, they often forget about the smaller ways of encouraging the employees in terms of rewards such as praise for doing their tasks. It is important to catch an individual something right, another part is articulating praise. Many managers with hold praise for the simple reason that they are afraid employees will think that praise is not valued. Managers dont realize the loss they cost for failing to do it. Emphasizing Vitality and Growth:- A positive organizational culture emphasizes not only organizational effectiveness but also individuals growth. No organisation will be able to furnish the best from employees if they are treated as tools to the organisation. The culture recognizes the difference between the employees job and career and supports not only what he does towards to the organisation but also what the organisation can do to make the employee more effective i.e. personally ad professionally.

IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AND SATISFACTION:STRENGTH

OBJECTIVE FACTORS:Innovation & Risk taking Attention to detail Outcome Orientation People s Orientation Team Orientation Aggressiveness Stability Low SATISFACTION ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE High PERFORMANCE

The model above depicts organizational culture as an intervening variable. Employee form an overall subjective perception of the organization based on factors such as degree of risk tolerance, team emphasis, and support of people. This overall perception becomes in effect, the

organizations culture or personality and affects employee performance and satisfaction with stronger cultures having greater impact. Changing an organizations culture is a long and difficult process. Thus, at least in the short term, managers should treat their organizations culture as relatively fixed. An employees performance also depends to a considerable degree to a considerable degree on knowing what should be done and not. Understanding the right way to do a job indicates proper socialization. A manager is responsible to shape the culture of the work environment. All managers can especially do their part to create an ethical culture and its role is creating a positive culture. Often you can do as much to shape your organizational culture as the culture of the organisation shapes you.

Organizational Culture at NIIT NIIT was founded in 1981 by two IIT, Delhi graduates, Rajendra S Pawar and Vijay K Thadani with a vision of meeting basic requirements for IT talent in a world moving into information based economy. They had anticipations about the unpreparedness of Indian society to cope with the forthcoming information age and adopted the mission bringing people and computers together, successfully. Initially, NIIT delivered IT training to a broad spectrum of people from students seeking a career in computers to IT professionals requiring advanced skills; from managers giving their careers an edge, to school children using computers as a learning too. NIITs innovative offerings demonstrated the companys ability to constantly renew itself to anticipate future technology trends. From a computer training institute, NIIT has emerged as a global IT solutions corporation offering knowledge solutions along with developing software solutions along with developing software solutions. Headquarters in New Delhi, India. NIIT operated through 100% subsidiaries in the US, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Japan and has operations in about 40 countries. Its mission keeps pace with the developments in the field of IT is evolved through organisation wide discussions which helps develop commitment among employees. The organisation operates with the help of task teams designed for specific customer requirements for a specific period to carry out the work. Team culture and openness are emphasized a great deal. NIIT, s corporate culture focuses on values such as quality, creativity, and customer satisfaction. The quality culture of NIIT has been the result of the sustained efforts of its management perpetuated through induction, socialization, reinforcement, innovation, and concern for internal and external customers. The quality culture is ingrained at NIIT in such a way that the priority is to prevent mistakes rather than rectify them. Also, quality efforts are backed by results, which are rewarded. Employees are treated as intellectual capital and are looked after well. The happy and committed employees ensure customer satisfaction and this has got them wide acceptance across the globe. It has got well designed mechanisms for monitoring the quality for its products, services and or software processes. Most of NIITs businesses have ISO 9000 certification. The work culture at NIIT has gone through all the stages of culture development like symbols, behavior, organizational values, attitudes, and shared assumptions, and probably this is the reason it has been able to sustain it.