Organizational Behavior--Corporate Culture defined.

Essay by slevinUniversity, Master'sA+, October 2003

download word file, 6 pages 4.9

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:

THE EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR

Introduction

I have chosen organizational culture for the topic of my first paper because I believe that it is the most important aspect of an organization's ability to succeed and for the employees of that organization to grow. The material in this paper is based on my personal experience and observations. Being in the professional work force for twenty years, I have been fortunate enough to work for three companies that have helped to expand my knowledge and experience. Though each organization has their own culture, I hope to be able to identify their common characteristics and the reasons why one organization's culture succeeds in fulfilling both corporate and employees' goals, while the other two fall a bit short of that accomplishment.

Organizational Culture: What is it?

Robbins explains organizational culture as "Organizational culture is a shared understanding by all members of an organization that distinguishes that organization from others."

There are seven characteristics of organizational culture. These seven characteristics explain an organization's culture and explain how things are done in the organization and how employees are to behave. It is not whether the employees agree with an organization's culture but how they perceive it. The seven characteristics of organizational culture are as follows:

1.Innovation and risk taking of employees. Are employees motivated to be innovated and take risks in their jobs?

2.Attention to detail. What level of detail is expected of employees?

3.Outcome orientation. How much attention is spent by management of the organization on processes and techniques rather than the outcome of a situation?

4.People orientation. Does management look at the effects their decisions have on the people in the organization?

5. Team orientation. What degree of the work in the organization is organized by teams...