ORGANIZATIONS: NATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

National Culture: The union of shared values, understandings, assumptions and goals that are learned from earlier generations and that are imposed by present members of a community.

Organizational Culture: The author Charles Hill says that the organizational culture is composed by all the values and normas that are shared by people and groups in the same organization.

NATIONAL CULTURE vs. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

The organizational culture has a stronger influence in the members of a company or organization. The headquarters take advantage of this situation because it's easier for them to manage all the people of the organization that can belong to cultures different from their partners culture. Also these values can make people feel identified with their work and company and have better results in their objectives.

In the other hand, sometimes national culture can have a strong influence too, normally in people whose cultures are based on a religion or rigid behaviors.

• FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE IN AN ORGANIZATION:

1. Culture is a senses making device.
2. Culture provides sense of identity.
3. Culture reinforce values.
4. Culture helps to control members of an organization.

The following are some solutions that the class suggested for organizational culture problems in a company:

• Creation of a common organizational culture: Taking the best and mixable of each culture!!!
• Break in the meeting for suggestions and conclusions.
• Make different activities (social gatherings!!!)
• Conform an identity: suggestion objectives.
• Take time to know others culture.
• Team building activities.
• Use incentives.
• Give job and assignments based on the culture of each member.
• Awareness of the culture.
• Hire a consultant.

Source: Class Presentation

COMPONENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Taken from: http://www.adb.org/documents/studies/auditing-lessons-architecture/img/fig5.jpg

QUESTION:

Why is it important to have a "cultural fit" in the organization or company where you work at?

Because, Culture is the environment that surrounds you at work all of the time. Culture is a powerful element that shapes your work enjoyment, your work relationships, and your work processes. But, culture is something that you cannot actually see, except through its physical manifestations in your work place.

In many ways, culture is like personality. In a person, the personality is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, interests, experiences, upbringing, and habits that create a person’s behavior.

Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results when a group arrives at a set of - generally unspoken and unwritten - rules for working together.

An organization’s culture is made up of all of the life experiences each employee brings to the organization. Culture is especially influenced by the organization’s founder, executives, and other managerial staff because of their role in decision making and strategic direction.

Taken from:

http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/culture.htm