Characteristics Of The Organisational Culture

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

Culture within an organisation is a system of shared values, beliefs and norms of individuals in the organisation and how the value consensus creates a way in which people behave. The shared values have a strong influence on the individuals in the organisation and dictates how a person acts, dresses and performs in their job. A unique culture is developed and maintained by an organisation which provides guidelines and boundaries, through informal means, for the behaviour of the people within the organisation.

According to Mclean and Marshall (1993) organisational culture is defined as the collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that contribute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation. (ie) this means that these factors actually determine how we think as well as act and react not only to people from within the same organisation but also to anybody on the outside who has some sort of interaction with the organisation. As can be seen with the part-structure in Figure 1, this organisation (WHD) has various levels of management. There is quite

There are many definitions of organisational culture available in the literature, many of which are based on the fact that culture consists of values, beliefs, and assumptions shared by the majority of members of an organisation. These characteristics and shared views are then translated into common and repeated patterns of behaviour. Although it is difficult to come up with a single definition that would cover

Organizational culture influences many aspects of work life. Workplace cultures that are grounded in strong and formally articulated values and modes of behavior define an organization. Well-communicated values influence employee behavior and drive how employees relate with all stakeholders within the organization—from co-workers, management and members of the board to clients, shareholders and the community at large. When organizations seek to change their culture, HR—as change agent and educator of the change process—plays a significant role in this endeavor. In addition, HR's role is both up front and in the background, by leading, supporting, coaching, encouraging, measuring and evaluating the change during the process and over time.

Business dictionary defines Organizational Culture as the ‘values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization’. It can also be seen as the values that show people what is appropriate and what is not (Becker, 2006).

In accordance with the Business Dictionary, organizational culture (similarly entitled Corporate Culture) is the standards and conducts which subsidize to the distinctive communal and the psychosomatic atmosphere of an establishment. Organizational culture incorporates an establishment 's expectancies, knowledges, perspective, and principles which sustain it, collectively, and is articulated in its individual-representation, internal workings, collaborations with the external domain, and impending expectancies. (Business Dictionary, 2016)

To greet each other in Tibet, you stick out your tongue and put your hands together in front of your chest. In Japan, it is only polite if you bow to each other when greeting. There are hundreds of different ethnic groups in the world and they all have their own customs and traditions that stemmed out from their underlying culture. Similar to these ethnic groups, each organization also have their own unique culture that guides how people behave and what people believe in within the organization.

Every business has its own organisational culture. It is very significant to the organisation because well-developed culture will guide the successful business model. According to Tharp (2009, p.2) claims that “for some, culture is considered the “glue” that holds an organisation together and for others, the “compass” that provides directions”. The organisational culture is the system of shared actions, values, beliefs, norms, working language, systems, symbols and habits that develops and guides human behaviour in the organisation (Shermerhorn et al., 2012). According to Mullins (2010) states, that organisational culture is developing through long-term

Organizational culture refers to how the various types of things are performed in the organisation. In other words it can be said that how the work is executed, and whether that work is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.” Organisation culture includes different types of values, beliefs, opinions, traditions, rituals, Policies, beliefs, notion”

This is reinforced by Keyton (2005), who describes organisational culture as a set of artifacts, values and assumptions that emerge from the interaction of organisation members. This could be expressed as the collective way which the organisation does things, which could develop from a shared system of perceptions, beliefs and the way the members have perceived events (Mullins, 2010).

According to Edgar Schein (2006) “organizational culture is a structure of common assumptions that are distributed among all members of the group to solve internal and external problems of an organization and to share their knowledge with new members.”

Whilst there are many definitions of organisational culture, within this context, culture generally refers to the organisational values communicated through norms, artifacts, and observed behavioural patterns (Schein, 1992). It is the interplay between ** that , such as the *** Seel (2000, p.3) defined organisational culture “as the emergent results of the continuing negotiations about values, meanings and properties between the members of that organisation and its environment”.

Organisational culture can be defined as an influential and coherent collection of values and norms. It is often communicated through narratives, ancient legends and fictitious stories, the way things get accomplished in a specific organisation and the principles affecting an organisations procedures and practices towards members and consumers (Dwivedi, 2001). A ‘strong’ organisational culture differentiates itself from other types of cultures by, the majority of members holding the same fundamental beliefs and values as applies to the organisation. This essay seeks to critically analyse the statement- a strong organisational culture leads to higher organisational performance. It will draw on both the weaknesses and strengths of three

Organizational culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization."[1] Ravasi and Schultz (2006) state that organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behavior for various situations. Although it’s difficult to get consensus about the