Culture of Work Organizations

Q1. From case study one, organizational culture is simple to identify through artifacts and behavioral norms. For instance, DEC offices were fairly disorganized and had increased openness (Schein & Schein, 2017). Also, communication is paramount in an organization’s success to fosters respect and collaboration and mitigates misunderstanding. Nevertheless, DEC employees were overly emotional and interrupted one another, making communication and organization processes dysfunctional (Schein & Schein, 2017). Besides, Unlike Ciba-Geigy in case study two, where employees address each other with formality and respect, DEC’s failure may be due to a culture of stubbornness, such that when bosses gave instructions which were deemed as stupid, juniors pushed back. Lastly, as illustrated in case study three, organizational culture is influenced by employees’ individual values and paradigms. Singaporeans value meritocracy, as the author found that Singapore’s Economic Development Board was reluctant to fire “good people” (Schein & Schein, 2017). I think Singapore’s Economic Development Board is like Zappos, as they have remarkable organization cultures that value stakeholders and aim for cultural competence.

Q2. Culture is an accumulation of values over a long time, which manifests in organization artifacts, role-playing, and interpersonal relationships within the organization. This definition entails organizational culture elements, which include symbols, roles, interactions, and context (Driskill & Brenton, 2011). In this case, I wish to evaluate interactive elements. I think they are critical since an organization’s culture is built over time and passed on through teams and future organizations’ generation through interactions. Driskill & Brenton (2011) suggest that interactions entail rituals (activities in the organization), predominantly defined roles and rules, and organizations’ communication styles. That way, employees influence one another through how they communicate, how they assume duties, and what they use, which is essentially an organization culture.

References

Driskill, G., & Brenton, A. (2011). Organizational culture in action. London: SAGE.

Schein, E., & Schein, P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.