The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate my understanding of departmental culture by providing an analysis of its applied concepts through the lens of personal experience as an employee of the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE). ACOE is a government agency responsible for providing three distinct services to the 18 school districts in Alameda County: 1) to design and deliver professional development and business-related services based on the individual needs of each district, 2) operates as a school district for the juvenile court school system, providing direct services to the county’s most vulnerable and at-risk youth and 3) provides oversight to the 18 school districts as outlined in the Education Code mandated by the …show more content…
My current job title is classified as a program specialist with a focus on communication systems strategies. I am responsible for directly supporting the Department of Integrated Learning’s communication efforts which entail leading social media planning and implementation work and furthermore, the visualization of data collected from individual participants who attended one or more of our professional learning services offered. In the ten years, I have been with ACOE, I have experienced the leadership of two Superintendents of school and a gradual organizational and departmental culture shift as we adapt to the vision brought with new leadership in addition to responding to the needs of our constituencies.
Regional Cultures According to Barsoux, Schneider, & Stahl, regional cultures develop when differences within localities both on regional and national level evolve due to geography, history, politics, economics, languages and religion among other factors (pg. 65). “Within countries, it is sometimes the east-west divide that is important, leading to cultural difference between, for example, New York and California” (pg. 65). In looking at the concept of regional cultures through the lens of departmental culture, it is evident that regional cultural within ACOE exists between its four main divisions and departments within each division. For example: The Learning and Accountability Division has multiple departments underneath is organizational structure,
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.
Prepare a 10-minute presentation (10-15 slides, not including title or reference slide) on organizational culture and values.
Various television shows have pushed boundaries to create positive differences in social perception of minorities, but only few have had the power and influence to make a noteworthy impact on American culture. Television Comedy has been able to cleverly impact acceptance of American Culture boundaries for years on end. From the show “Good Times” all the way to “The Office”, comedy has been an effective way of creating positive perceptions and acceptance of all different kinds of views on our society. An easily countable number of academic texts give evidence to Black-watched, Black-targeted television narratives. (Marc, 1997). Racially directed comedy television shows have, in my opinion, have been one of the most prevalent types of television
Prepare a 10-minute presentation (10-15 slides, not including title or reference slide) on organizational culture and values.
Organizational, occupational and social cultures shape people’s values and affect their communications (Lindsay, Robins, & Terrell, 2003). It appears the overlay of school climate, school or student cultures, and professional cultures provide a unique mix that will affect each of the groups at the school in a different way. According to a 2004 Best Practice Briefs publication by the Michigan State University, campus or school culture can be defined as “shared ideas, assumptions, values, and beliefs that give an organization its identity and standard for expected behaviors” (Tableman & Herron, p. 1). Campus culture is different from campus climate in that campus culture is based on past experience which provides a template for future action on “how we do things in this organization” (p. 1). The Campus Climate Network Group (2002) reported that campus or school climate can be defined..." as the atmosphere or ambience of an organization as perceived by its members" (p. 1).
My experience at the Haskayne Career Centre has been one of a kind and is something I would never change as it has changed me as an individual as created the professional within me. The Haskayne Career Centre is a subset of the larger Haskayne and University of Calgary organizations that is focused toward Haskayne students, alumni and employers. The centre works with students to find employment and volunteer opportunities, create eye catching resumes and help guide students towards their own career goals. Additionally the Career Centre offers employers support for their recruiting initiatives, resume books, interview coordination on campus, career fairs and a central job posting board. My role as Communication and Engagement Coordinator at the Career Centre plays and important part in ensuring that the daily activities of the centre continue and we are able to serve the students to the best of our abilities. Currently I worked on a project with/for each member of the Career Centre as my role is for promotion, student engagement and a catch all for work. My main goals are to engage as many students as possible through our social media channels increasing followers, likes and comments while informing the students of what is going on around the centre and Haskayne.
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
The formal reporting lines refers to the communication between directors, managers, and those employees under them in the organizational structure while the informal reporting line refers to the communication that occurs between health care professionals in the course of the decision-making process, i.e. nurse to physician discussing a patient. Informal communication also can be peer to peer regarding conflict, policy, or safety issues. If a decision is made between the peers, the formal reporting line can be entered in with the peers taking the information up the chain to the managers and directors. Often informal reporting becomes formal reporting. In my organization our formal reporting line starts with the unit charge nurse, proceeding to the team coordinator, the director
Thank you! The insights that are gleaned from qualitative research are valuable. Absolutely, those that are charged with the care and safety of others need to speak up when their safety is at risk. I agree that having the courage to speak up does come with more experience, but the administrative environment or culture is also a factor. One administrative framework that is used at the hospital that I work at is Just Culture, which seeks to foster a blame-free environment in order for staff to come forward. The aim of Just Culture is to attribute error to the system and not the individual (Decker & Breakey, 2016).
Establishing a culture of where individuals think deeply about their work is a hallmark of a 21st Century school district. A crucial role the Director of Curriculum and Instruction is fostering an organizational climate where stakeholders are imbued with a sense of agency. The Director of Curriculum and Instruction needs to interact with educators, students and parents on a personal level to engage individuals in reflective conversation about current practice and to brainstorm
Organizational culture at our place of employment can promote improved patient outcomes. How we feel about ourselves, our personal investment and our relationship to our work environment are additional factors that contribute to patient satisfaction and our sense of professionalism and accomplishment (Manojlovich & Ketefian, 2002). We will look at the role of our organizational structure and its impact and contribution to the issues involving Nurse A.
However, not everyone agrees that the organizational climate culture is the keys to school districts improvements. The as our principal works closely with our teachers on the posed improvement, they immediately put them in action, which I believe won’t work in most cases. It should be put into a trial run.
To begin the discussion of organizational culture it is critical that we first define what it is that we will seek to examine. As noted in the readings, many definitions exist, however for the scope of this paper I will take the lead of Kuh and Whitt. Defining organizational culture as the “collective, mutually shaping patterns of norms, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that guide the behavior of individuals and groups in an institute of higher education and provide a frame of reference within which to interpret the meaning of events and actions on and off campus (Kuh and Whitt, 1998). Symbols and rituals are the more visual elements that are observed concerning organizational culture. Many of these can be viewed both
In this article Hickok argues that, ultimately, the most prominent effects of downsizing will be in relation to culture change, not in relation to saved costs or short-term productivity gains. In particular, the author notes three observations in relation to the impact of downsizing on organizational culture. First, it clearly appears that power has shifted away from rank-and-file employees in the direction of top management/ownership. Accompanying this change is a shift in emphasis away from the well-being of individuals in the direction of the pre-eminence and predominance of the
Fard, Rostamy and Taghiloo (2009) states that organisation culture is assumed worldwide as a gadget that is utilized by management to frame and deal with the beliefs, prespective and behaviour of people and taking into account that the organisation can attain to their vision and their mission.