Organizational culture concepts and implementation

Organizational Culture

In order to analyze and look at the company focus regarding its organizational culture, we must first understand what is meant by organizational culture. Schein (1985)

describes organizational culture as "a pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems."

In a simpler description, organizational culture is the personality that is exhibited by an organization through its employees. Members of the organization slowly come to sense this culture and try their best to express it in their actions in various situations Grant, 1996()

There are several effects of an organization's culture. These include the technologies, image, strategies, service and products of the company and much more. When trying to change the outlook or image of the organization, it is important to do this by changing the organization culture Elsbach & Bhattacharya, 2001()

Focusing on performance and the organizational culture for any organization or company simply means that the company is trying to use the means which gives the best results using the least effort possible. The organizational culture has been known to be the secret ingredient to the success of an organization and it is one of the most efficient and effective tools for driving high performance in a company or organization. If the company has a high performance culture, it is likely to have a strong competitive advantage to survive in any market situation. This is because the management needs to do very little in order to reach the desired performance and growth level Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003()

Case of the Navy

The organization that I work for is the Navy. The Navy falls under the 4th quadrant firstly because its mission is to protect the nation. From this mission, we can see that the Navy focusses on the results that are at the bottom line and this forms a basis for inspiring the members of rhe organization into the achievement of a sustainable success which is described by the mission. This sustainable success is that of protecting the nation Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003()

The Navy falls in the 4th quadrant because it influences the long-term success and viability. The organization has a very strong work environment and the culture of the organization too is strong. This drives a high performance in the organization itself and aligns the members of the organization towards the achievement of this goal or objective of the organization.

Shaping of a high performance culture

There are five key steps which must be undertaken in the shaping of a high performance culture in an organization. Since the Navy already has a high performance culture, this section looks at the steps that were undertaken by the Navy in the shaping of their high performance culture.

The first step is the clarification of the organization's missions and core values. This is the starting point. Here, the organization's mission and core values are developed to make sure they address all important issues of the organization Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003()

The second step was communication whereby the Navy made sure all members of the organization were well aware of the mission and core values by hanging them in every corner of the organization. This made sure that nobody in the organization was left out of understanding the new mission and values of the Navy. Two-way dialogue was also encouraged whereby any members who felt they needed to add more information or get clarification were allowed to do so with the management Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003()

The third step is that of modeling the change itself. Here, it includes the activities of demonstrating that the new mission and values of the organization need to be upheld and followed. This step begins from the top where the management needs to lead by example. For the Navy, this is what happened. The management was instrumental in leading the changes into adopting the new mission and values. This made it extremely easy for the other members of the organization to follow suit Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003()

The fourth step is the alignment of the practices of the organization to the new mission and values. Here, the management needs to evaluate any areas which affect the high performance culture of the organization. In the Navy, it was discovered that two areas were most significant. The first one was management of performance. Here, the appropriate measures for evaluation and accountability were devised. The second area was the decision making process which was also aligned in order to drive the organization into the achievement of better results and inspiring commitment of the employees and to reinforce what the Navy stands for as an organization Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003()