...“Term Paper on Organizational Culture” Submitted to: Mr. Madan Lal Pradhan Course Instructor Organization Behavior Submitted by: Pratik Shrestha 4th Trimester, Section B Email Address: pratik.sth@gmail.com Date: September 5th, 2014 Organizational culture is a widely used term but one that seems to give rise to a degree of ambiguity. Watson (2006) emphasizes that the concept of culture originally derived from a metaphor of the organization as ‘something cultivated’. For the past number of decades, most academics and practitioners studying organizations suggest the concept of culture is the climate and practices that organizations develop around their handling of people, or to the promoted values and statement of beliefs of an organization (Schein, 2004). Culture gives organizations a sense of identity and determines, through the organization’s legends, rituals, beliefs, meanings, values, norms and language, the way in which ‘things are done around here’. An organizations’ culture encapsulates what it has been good at and what has worked in the past. These practices can often be accepted without question by long-serving members of an organization. One of the first things a new employee learns is some of the organization’s legends. Legends can stay with an organization and become part of the established way of doing things. Over time the organization will develop ‘norms’ i.e. established (normal) expected behavior patterns within the organization. A norm is...
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...Organizational Culture of Ann, Inc. An Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) can be used as a tool to measure the culture of an organization through seven distinct values. Those values include detail-oriented, team-oriented, people-oriented, outcome-oriented, stable, aggressive and innovative. The sum of these values characterizes an organization’s culture. By identifying values that make up a company’s culture, managers can steer the principles, values and beliefs of the company more effectively. At Ann, Inc., the parent corporation of Ann Taylor and Loft stores, the culture of the corporation is described as follows, “our high-performance culture offers rewarding possibilities that fit perfectly into your own version of success.” (Ann, Inc., 2013). More specifically, the culture of Ann, Inc. can be discovered by delving into some of the specific dimensional values of the OCP framework. According to Carpenter, Bauer and Erdogan (2013, p. 210), “companies that have innovative cultures are flexible, adaptable and experiment with new ideas.” Customers that shop at Ann Taylor and Loft stores on a frequent basis notice that new clothing is introduced when the seasons change and when trends change. As further evidence of this cultural value, Ann Inc.’s website mentions “innovation is constant” (Ann, Inc., 2013). In fact, in 2010, Ann, Inc. launched a move to replace its outdated large Ann Taylor stores with smaller stores that make women feel like they are at home, walking...
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...Grade Received, "A" Beliefs and values, norms, folkways, and mores, and subcultures are the basic elements of an organizational culture (Fottler, Ford, & Heaton, 2010). I feel that an employee should be fired if they do not meet the organization’s organizational culture. We all know that every individual has his/her own beliefs; however, if the person does not match the beliefs and values of the organization, problems can arise. If an organization says that they are focused on their consumers and when the employees interact with consumers they are rude and inconsiderate, the consumer may not return. I worked in a nursing home as a CNA for almost two years. Our patients all were elderly and had Down’s syndrome. Our organizational culture was to treat each patient with dignity and respect, as well as giving each patient their right to privacy. We were all trained on these beliefs, as well as all of the HIPAA rules. Our facility hired a young girl to work the floor as a CNA as well. I caught her making fun of one of our consumers with one of her friends. I turned her in, and she was fired on the spot, no questions asked. Like I stated before, I do believe that an employee should be terminated if they do not meet the organization’s culture. I also believe, however, that if the employee is trained properly, they should have a chance to get their attitudes in check. Once given that second chance, if they still do not meet the organization’s culture, then they should...
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...CONTENT Abstract 2 Introduction 2 Mechanistic Role Formalization & Functional Specialization Increases Performance 3 Excess control often stifles innovation. 4 Employee motivation: The crisis of bureaucratic control 5 Summary 8 Reference 10 Abstract In this paper I will critically evaluate the statement “Organizations seek to control” from both mechanistic and culture perspective, using my own placement experience in Great Eastern Life Assurance (Singapore) as an example to examine the extent of compatibility and conflict between these two perspectives in the sense of control. Introduction Control is a set of activities to determine an actual state of affairs, compare it to appropriate models, and then formulate conclusions which should contribute to assure efficient and effective functioning of an organization. A mechanistic view of organizations assumes that organizations operate in a consistent machine-like manner. Control in mechanisms perspective, primarily aimed at detecting irregularities. A culture view of organizations treats organizations as mini societies which have a system of strongly-held shared value among members. Control by corporate culture views people as emotional, symbol-loving, and needing to...
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...other people in the organization and to get them to do what they otherwise would not have done. Although the terms power, authority and influence are often used synonymously, there is a difference between them. Power is the ability to effect a change in an individual or a group in some way. Power may or may not be legitimate. That is, power need not correspond with a person's organizational position. Authority, on the other hand, is legitimate. It is the power which is sanctioned by the organization and is often the 'source' of power. Influence is a much broader concept than both power and authority. French and Raven, social psychologists, identified five sources of power - coercive, reward, legitimate, expert and referent. Coercive power is based on fear and is the ability to influence another person through threats or fear of punishment. Reward power is a positive power which refers to the ability to get things done through others on the basis of one's power to grant rewards. Legitimate power depends on organizational position and authority. It refers to the power conferred by a person's organizational position. Expert power is derived from a person's expertise or specialized knowledge of a certain subject that is perceived as important to the organization. And referent power is based on people's identification with a certain individual and their attempt to emulate his behavior. The person who acts as a model for reference has power over the person who emulates his...
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...Creating a Plan for Positive Influence Daniel E Fulgencio Mota University of Phoenix LDR/531 Organizational Leadership March 28, 2013 Prof. Miguel A Rodriguez, PhD Creating a Plan for Positive Influence Business model has change dramatically lately. These days are more common for the organizations to use team work or small subunits, also known as department or section formed specifically to perform specific task for achieving different goals in the company. This document proposes will cover several topics concerning to the design of an effective plan to increase team motivation, satisfaction and performance. How the different attitudes, emotions and, personalities may affect the good performance of group and the tools managers can use to alleviate this situations. Designing and effective Team Before defining a strategy to form and effective team it is important to know fundamentals aspects about team or groups. There are two types of groups formal and informal. This document focused on formal groups. Formal groups are those defined by organizations with the purpose of assigning task to the members of the team for achieving specifics goals. Other important aspect on forming and managing effective teams is the role a leader has for ensuring success of the team. Leaders may improve team performance by influencing and motivating each member of the group. Team performance is strongly related to the level of commitment and motivation members have to achieve...
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...Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts MGT-307 September 12, 2011 Farid Dalili Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts I will be discussing in this paper how the organizational culture, organizational behavior, diversity and communication is analyzed at Kaiser Permanente. I will define and explain how Kaiser Permanente uses the terminology and concepts in our hospital. Organizational Culture Organizational culture is the shared beliefs and values that make a difference in the behavior of organizational members. Culture plays an important role in stability and safety in an organization. Organization culture defines an organization's leadership and in order to understand its leadership, it is a must to first understand its culture. “Although it is relatively easy to conclude that what works well in one culture may not work as well in another, it is far harder to specify exactly how cultural differences affect things like motivation, job satisfaction, and ethical behavior.” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2008). The organizational culture at Kaiser Permanente has started a program called “Live Well Be Well” for their employees. This program has really made a big difference at our facility. The employees have better understanding of their health, motivated to come to work everyday and work ethics have improved as well. . Employees rely on culture for the ability to respond to any circumstances, culture becomes hard core in many organizations...
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...Organizational Psychology Fred Sanford PSY428 July 13, 2011 Dr. Love Less Organizational Psychology Modern businesses must stay on the cutting edge in order to ensure success in the ever changing and highly competitive corporate environment. Paramount to this success is the application of organizational psychology which focuses on the human factor of business. Close examination of the root definition, roles of research and statistics, and utilization of organizational psychology within organizations will provide insight into just how the human factor contributes to the failure or success of an organization. The finely tuned sports team, that just achieved greatness, or the corporation that collapsed due to corruption contained one thing, people who had either a positive or negative impact on an organization. “Organizational psychology is field that utilizes scientific methodology to better understand the behavior of individuals working in organizational settings” (Jex & Britt, 2008, p.1). The simple explanation is to understand what makes people tick in an organizational environment such as a business. Once understood, the challenge to organizational psychology is to capitalize on dynamics of individual behaviors and build upon the success of the organization. The role of research and statistics in organizational psychology is crucial to understanding how an organization functions. Research is accomplished in numerous ways; archival data studies, survey studies...
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...Discuss the conflict that is occurring at General Hospital. A conflict is to come into a collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition or to clash. Conflicts can be good as well as bad. A conflict not only depends upon perspectives but also upon how concerned parties react to certain situations. There are four primary levels of conflict: intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011, p. 385). The conflict that is occurring throughout General Hospital pertains to finances. General Hospital is having problems in revenue and a decline in patients with better health care plans that generate better revenue. Mike Hammer, Hospital CEO, is now dealing with the problem of cutting cost to prevent the hospital from going into a financial dilemma. Hammer also faces the problem of facilitating staff that agree with his previous decisions and perception on how to solve the problem. Physicians are focusing on personal benefits from representatives of pharmaceutical companies that distributes to the hospital. Each physician and clinician employed are paid a very high salary and the pharmaceutical companies are aware that the physicians are interested in favors if they use products at the hospital. This makes representatives of pharmaceutical companies to easily get their products in the General Hospital. This practice has started a serious problem. Some pharmaceutical companies increased the prices of their products...
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...Effective Communications Paper Your Name Course # Date Instructor: Today’s growing businesses are often requiring employees to work in teams to meet project deadlines. Working in teams comes with many benefits, such as building employee relationships and knowledge sharing. Unfortunately, teamwork has its negative aspects, such as tension or anxiety, which almost always derives from poor communication. Effective communication within an organization often determines an organizations fate. This article gives an overview of effective communication through knowledge sharing, effective and ineffective techniques, using effective techniques in a health care environment, and technological impacts. Effective Knowledge Sharing Techniques Knowledge is often seen as a rich form of information. This differentiation, however, is not terribly helpful. A more useful definition of knowledge is that it is about know-how and know-why. A metaphor is that of a cake. An analysis of its molecular constituents is data – for most purposes not very useful – one may not even be able to tell it were a cake. A list of ingredients is information – more useful – an experienced cook could probably make the cake – the data has been given context. The recipe though would be knowledge – written knowledge - explicit knowledge – it tells how to make the cake. An inexperienced cook however, even with the recipe might not make a good cake. A person, though, with relevant knowledge, experience...
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...Sensitive Project (Problem Resolution Process for AfriOne Limited) Executive Summary Established in 1994, AfriOne Limited is headquartered in Jos, Nigeria. The company is mainly engaged in R&D, marketing of telecommunications equipment, providing Internet Protocol (IP) domain related services spanning through IT consultancy, wireless internet delivery, and Voice over IP range of services. AfriOne is now a renowned company in Nigeria’s telecommunication market and is quickly evolving into a key participant in the West African market. AfriOne has 385 employees located at 36 branch offices and six regional offices. Already one of the most successful private companies in Nigeria, AfriOne has a vision of becoming a globally competitive enterprise. To enable expansion and support its fast-growing business so that issues could be escalated, assigned, tracked and resolved in a timely manner, AfriOne decided to implement a “Problem Resolution Process (PRP)” in line with the Lean Enterprise - A business system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, and customer relations. Problem Resolution Process (PRP) – a process with the intent of providing a mechanism for organising, maintaining, and tracking the resolution of problems that cannot be resolved at the “individual” level in an organisation is being considered as the sensitive project discussed in this report. It is supposed that the project manager inherited the existing PRP project...
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...Assignment #5 – “ROWE Program at Best Buy” BUS – 520 – Organizational Behavior Name – Vyas Ankit Instructor’s name – Dr. Yin Date – 06/12/2011 Question – 1 Describe the culture of Best Buy Answer – 1 Best Buy culture has changed tremendously. The company’s culture was once to embrace long hours and sacrifice, now the culture is more relaxed. The employees are now really able to run their own schedule as well as their own work progress. Before the ROWE program was introduces to the Best Buy employees would have to work until they found a solution. That means staying at work all night and day if the job or situation requires it. For example the book talks about one employee that was given a plaque for staying up and at work for three days to right a report that was due. He made a sacrifice for his job that made him end up in the hospital. The ROWE program which stands for Results-Only Work Environment program is a way that employees can still work whether in the office, at home, or coffee shop as long as they finish the job. This program has changed the culture of Best Buy as well as the performance. Question – 2 discuss the approach to Organizational change that the ROWE program illustrate Answer – 2 Instead of launching a work-life balance program, Best Buy rethought the very concept of work. Under the Results-Only Work Environment program or ROWE, employees can work when and where they like, as long as they get the job done. The ROWE program is based on...
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...Discuss organizational culture and its implications for performance Organizational culture is defined by the value systems, behaviors and policies of an organization. It in turn defines the corporate identity, distinguishes the exclusive services/products and is the positive force within the organization that drives successful results. For a company to be successful it needs a strong organization culture and leadership. Well defined internal process and strong organization culture provide a strong organization structure. Companies who are not able to develop and maintain strong cultures that align with the mission see little or no success in the long term. A few companies in the United States known for their strong corporate culture include Microsoft, GE, IBM, General Motors, and Boeing. Strong corporate cultures drive commitment, job satisfaction and a sense of belonging. These organizations have over the years developed repeatable processes and well defined training systems to help employees assimilate into their organizational culture and become informed of the value system quickly and easily in order to become fully committed and performing team members within defined timeframes. To ensure employees are reminded consistently of their corporate responsibilities some companies have defined mandatory certifications to be completed by employees as part of the performance review process. Studies show that organizational cultures have a definite and measurable effect...
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...Introduction Modernists perceive organisations as tangibly factual bodies operating in the reality. When the organisation has been well designed and managed, the systems of actions and decisions made will be driven by the norms of rationality, efficiency and effectiveness to realize the organisation goals such as mission and vision. (Hatch, 1997) Critical Theorists view organisation as places where inequalities in power relations will dominate, resulting in the exploitation and estrangement of proletariat. Elements of authority and power of the dominant ideology will initiate decisions, laying constraints and oppression on the exploited parties. (Comstock, 1982) Apple Inc. is one of the most successful multinational organisations in creating consumer electronics, computer software and commercial servers, which started out as the minority player in the industry. With the Macintosh, Apple slowly built upon its successes from the iMac to the iPod and to the iPhone, which eventually turns the industry to its ear. (O’Grady, 2009) While Apple concentrates their headquarters’ activities on their core functions such as designing and developing of their products, as well as defining strategic direction and processes, outsourcing to regions will enable Apple to operate with greater cost-efficiently. (Schneiders, 2010) By engaging in global outsourcing, Apple was able to get cheaper overseas labour that were employed by third-party firms to lighten the labour load of their direct employees...
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...Organizational Structure and Culture Jessica C. Johnson NUR 492 05/20/2013 Sylvia Ellington Organizational structure is the framework around which a facility is organized; it functions by telling its employees how the organization is put together, how it works, how leadership is chosen and how decisions are made ("Businessdictionary.com", n.d.). Organizational structure determines how roles, responsibility and power are assigned and how information is shared between different departments as well as management. According to Sullivan, 2013, various structures have been utilized over time and include: functional structures, hybrid structures, matrix structures, and parallel structures; based on the reading I feel the agency I work for functions through a functional organizational structure. * Some argue that functional departmentalization allows for greater operational efficiencies in that employees with shared skills and knowledge are grouped together by functions performed. * Some argue that functional departmentalization allows for greater operational efficiencies in that employees with shared skills and knowledge are grouped together by functions performed. * Some argue that functional departmentalization allows for greater operational efficiencies in that employees with shared skills and knowledge are grouped together by functions performed. * Some argue that functional departmentalization allows for greater operational efficiencies in that employees...
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