Impact of organizational culture in contemporary context

Impact of organizational culture in contemporary context

The relationship between organizational culture and performance has been a clear link, which identified by certain researches. Organizational development has certain factors that improve sustainability on basis of effectiveness. The improvement in productivity leads to employee commitment as norms, values and objectives helps in improving culture of an organization. The system of organization was based upon effective establishment of culture that keep learning environment strong. The performance of employees improves by establishment of strong culture of an organization.

The different attributes of cultures have been arranged on basis of norms and attitudes, which help in differentiating one firm from another. (Forehand and von Gilmer, 1964) The process of thinking helps in establishing one member from another on basis of cognitive thinking (Hofstede, 1980). The success guidance based upon different values and norm that makes culture effective (Schein, 1990). The set of beliefs, behaviours, norms and values helps in making culture most effective. The knowledge of culture has been gained through understanding and beliefs on basis of large groups.

Kotter and Heskett, (1992).

• Strong Culture

The same type of values and beliefs which an employee holds in culture must be considered strong. The beliefs and values of organization were considered strong when employee embraces greater part of culture. (Deal and Kennedy, 1982) The reduction in gaps on employee relationship has been agreed with managers so far. The rules in organization must be considered important for employees. The policies, procedures and objectives designed by top managers must influence upon behavior of employees so that competitive advantage have been gained.

• Sub Culture

Subcultures have been defined as organization segments with different sets of norms, values and beliefs on basis of geographical areas, job requirements and department goals. (Schein, 1995). The commitment of employees towards organization basis upon employee perception that affects upon culture. The social interaction of workplace outside organization considers well for some groups.

Westwood and Crawford, (2005).

Google has grown and the organization has expanded and spread out, keeping a uniform culture has proven difficult between headquarters and satellite offices, as well as among the different departments within the company. The larger a company becomes, the more that culture has to reinvent itself to accommodate more employees and the need for management.

 Even the best culture needs to revisit itself to meet a growing company’s team. The most successful company culture leads to successful business, and that requires an evolving culture which can grow with it.

References

A.M. Awadh, M.S Alyahya, (2013). International Review of Management,

Alharbi Mohammod, Impact of Organizational Culture on Employee Performance

University Technology Malaysia International Business School, Malaysia alharbimohamd@gmail.com

Brooks, I. (2006). Organizational Behavior: Individuals, Groups and Organization, Pearson Education Limited.

 Burns, W.J. and McKinnon, S.M. (1993). Information and Managers: A Field Study. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 5, 84-123.

Cascio, W. F. (2006). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Life, Profits. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Critical Analysis of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Critical Analysis of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Introduction 

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (HON) is popular concept despite the various criticisms it’s used by manager even today, it’s thought in business school too.   It espouses the view that individuals move through needs of hierarchical motivations and it’s consider linear when one need is satisfied individuals move to the next compartment in the order of importance as follows: Physiological, safety, belonging, love, self-esteem, self-actualization (Maslow, 1943). Illustrated in the literature in the form of a pyramid. Although it’s a psychological theory has been adopted in learning theory (Mittleman, 1991) on the basis of relevance to education which facilitates learning and makes the process meaningful to an individual affecting their life and being useful to life. This is considered necessary for retention of information to be reinforced.    

Criticism of HON

Other academics such Cianci and Gambrel (2003) have criticized the theory as being  easy and it doesn’t take societal needs into account at a given time in that it doesn’t consider recession and war. On the other hand, Tay and Diener (2011) makes an interesting point that needs differ with age and is not seem same across all ages. Other criticisms of the theory are that unrepresentative as he used a sample of top 1% achievers of university population thus making it impossible to generalize to wider population. Further others are of the view that different situations will lead to different needs therefore based on individual needs one would go for the satisfaction for a specific need (King-Hill, 2015). A person doesn’t need a Zippo lighter what he needs is fire to light a cigarette but nevertheless some may by a Zippo just to belong that class of people who uses Zippo lighters. In this context the HON’s is not valid. Another criticism is that creative people such as artists and authors e.g. Rembrandt and Van Gough lived in poverty throughout their entire lives and yet if can be argued that such people achieved Self-Actualization

Other experiments conducted by academics such as Tay and Diener (2011) using a sample of some 65,000 respondents based on HON’s suggest that despite cultural differences the needs are universal. But however, the order of needs within the hierarchy is different.

Application at work

In the plantation sector it has been observed that Tea estate workers will spend their money on liquor instead of basic needs such as buying food or milk for their baby’s unfortunately the men and women both behave the same way. Therefore, application of the needs theory doesn’t seem practical.

Reference

Cianci, R. and Gambrel, P. (2003). Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Does it apply in a collectivist culture. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 8(2), pp. 143–161.

Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4); pp. 370–96.

KING-HILL, S., (2015) Critical Analysis of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The Step Journal Student Teacher Perspectives Copyright © 2015 University of Cumbria Vol 2 (4) pages 54-57.

Tay, L., & Diener, E. (2011). Needs and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 354.