Employee Contact and Organizational Culture
Employee contact, which occurs after a period of time working together, determines organizational culture. It comprises of how employees engage with one another both inside and externally. As a result, corporate culture has a wide range of positive benefits on employee performance. First, it inspires motivation. Humans are sociable beings that feel better when they interact with others. A positive workplace culture strengthens the relationship, resulting in motivation and improved performance. Second, it encourages healthy competition among staff. Competition grows through interactions and the reward of high-performing personnel, which promotes production. Third, company culture promotes workplace equality. Employees should be treated equally, and no one should be favored at the expense of others, which will evoke a sense of belonging, hence delivering their level best. Fourthly, it unites employees who come from different backgrounds and beliefs. This will make it easy for them to work together, realizing synergy in this way. Lastly, organizational culture extracts the best out of every employee. Adopted reporting and reward systems make employees more disciplined, delivering their best (McShane and Von Glinow 2013).
Elements of Organizational Culture
Values
These are the philosophies and views that the organization holds. For instance, the mission statement is a common view of what the organization is all about, in which all employees believe in.
Rites and Rituals
These entail the celebrations and activities that increase teamwork and make the employees feel part of the organizations. These may include regular meeting, parties, and retreats.
Communication Networks
These are the formal and informal channels of communication that employees use. The channels not only provide social interactions, but also help in transferring information on how the job should be done. This is also the platform that helps in welcoming new members into the organizational culture.
Norms
These entail how things are done in the organizations, including the rules and standards of the operations.
Importance of Organizational Subcultures
Organizational subcultures allow the organizational culture to be agile. The fact that the culture can accommodate subcultures makes it more flexible, hence enabling it to adapt and change with ease. Some subcultures do not agree with the organizational culture, hence giving rise to alternative ways of achieving the goals. Employees who are part of such subcultures are important sources of surveillance of the organizational culture. Subcultures are a source of ideas on how well the organization can meet employees' needs. The subcultures meet some of the requirements that are not fulfilled by the dominant culture. The management can learn some of the needs that employees have through an evaluation of the subcultures, (Mcsahance and Von Glinow 2013).
Strategies for Emerging Organizational Culture
Organizational culture can be merged through assimilation, deculturation, integration or separation. Assimilation takes place when the employees of the acquired company embrace the culture of the company acquiring it. Fewer clashes are likely to be experienced in this strategy, while adoption may take time. Deculturation occurs in cases where employees are not ready to adopt the acquiring firm's culture since it is hard for them to put away the values and norms they have been working with. The acquiring firm retains those who are ready to put away their former culture, and those who cannot are terminated. This strategy may delay the merger process since human beings are resistant to change. Integration is one of the best strategies since it combines both cultures and only preserves the best characteristics of the initial cultures. However, the process is slow and risky since the culture which worked before might not be the best for the new firm after the merger. On the other hand, separation allows the merging firms to remain distinct by maintaining their cultures, but working towards the same goal. Therefore, this strategy works well if the merging firms are from different industries. It is also hard to carry out since the management may have difficulties in managing the new culture (McShane, and Von Glinow, M. A. 2015).
Strategies for Minimizing Resistance to Change
There are well-tried ways of minimizing such resistance. Firstly, the firm should make the employees own the change. This can be done through maximum involvement in the decision-making process. Secondly, unbiased support by the management is another key strategy in reducing employee resistance. This makes the employees more loyal to the company success, facilitating the willing to do what it takes to ensure success. The third way is communication of the change. Then, it should be made clear to the employees that they are the ones who are supposed to implement the change, and also make the responsibilities of each employee clear. Also, employees should be empowered to contribute to the change. Giving them control over the change ensures that they get more committed, unlike when there is maximum supervision. Lastly, the control also increases creativity and innovation.
Ways of Creating a Sense of Urgency for Change
A necessity for change can be created through making the previous failure visible to the employees. Once it is made clear that the failure was caused by some practices and there is a need for change, then the employees will embrace the change as a way of avoiding failure in the future. Another option is allowing employees to take part in talking to dissatisfied customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. This makes employees understand the need for the change, making them more ready to embrace it. Finally, showing the employees the opportunities that the change will bring about ensures that they are more willing to embrace the change, which will make the transformation process faster.
References
McShane S.L., & Von Glinow M.A. (2013). Organizational behavior: Emerging knowledge
global reality (6th ed). New York. NY: Mcgraw-hill/Irwin.
McShane, S. L., & Von Glinow, M. A. (2015). Organizational Behavior 7/e. McGraw Hill Education.
