The Cultural Values Of An Organization

meaning and provide them with rules for behavior in their organization, however culture does not necessarily imply uniformity of values. Often different values can be displayed by people of the same culture.

The term "culture" has been used more and more recently but what exactly does it mean? Some have even regarded culture as "the most central problem of all social science" (Malinowski, 1939). According to Merriam Webster (2016), culture is defined as the arts and other manifestations of human achievements. If culture was as simple as Merriam-Webster defines it then the lives of anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists would be much easier. As we know, culture varies greatly across religion, countries, and some cases in just states; the difference between the north and the south. We can conclude that culture is a set of shared thoughts, values, and cognitions (Geertz, 1973). With culture in itself varying tremendously based on values and location, then surely organizational culture is no simple concept either. The term "organizational culture" has just recently become to be used more (Barley, 1988). Though there may be disagreements on defining culture universally, researchers tend to agree that culture is of vital importance in an organizational context, whether that organization is a company or a government (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa, 1986).

Organizational or corporate culture is the widely shared values within an organization that foster unity and cooperation to achieve common goals. The key to a productive culture is mutual trust. Organizations receive trust by giving it. Top companies stress high moral and ethical values such as honesty, reliability, fairness, environmental protection and social involvement.

Culture is the collective attitude, intellect, and atmosphere that a community creates for itself. This includes values, traditions, and social norms. Specifically, organizational culture is within a community, group, or business that shares values, follows a code of conduct and standards, and holds its members accountable for their contributions. Organizational culture arises from the goals and mission set out by the company. A negligent culture can provoke and encourage inappropriate behavior between employees. As shown with Uber, organizational culture can become dangerous and harmful to its members if proper standards are not established.

“Culture consists of the symbols, rituals, language, and social dramas that highlight organizational life, including myths, stories, and jargon. It includes the shared meanings associated with the symbols, rituals, and language. Culture combines the philosophy of the firm with beliefs, expectations, and values shared by members. It contains the stories and myths about the company's founder and its current leading figures. Organizational culture consists of a set of shared meanings and values held by a set of members in an organization that distinguish the organization from other organizations. An organization's culture determines how it perceives and reacts to the larger environment (Becker, 1982; Schein, 1996). Culture determines the nature

Culture can be defined as a set of shared values, shared beliefs and customary ways of thinking doing things, which shape and guides the ways of organisational members. Culture is therefore very crucial as it has the ability to influence the processes or the activities of employees and the functioning of the organisation without necessarily imposing measures and control.

The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,

Organizational or corporate culture is the widely shared values within an organization that foster unity and cooperation to achieve common goals. The key to a productive culture is mutual trust. Organizations receive trust by giving it. Top companies stress high moral and ethical values such as honesty, reliability, fairness, environmental protection and social involvement.

The Hofstede Centre (n.d.) defines culture as the “collective mental programming of the human mind which distinguishes one group of people from another.” Chipulu, Ojiako, Gardiner, Williams, Mota, Maguire, Shou, Stamai, and Marshall (2014), note that “culture can be at once tangible and observable; latent and unobservable; or even an abstraction altogether” (p. 367). Culture therefore has many dimensions. Some aspects of culture can be observed by analyzing symbols, ceremonies, dress, and other aspects. On the other hand, some aspects are not observable from the outside, but have to be experienced. Looking only from the outside gives us only a glimpse into the culture values. A large part of culture is the unwritten rules of how things are done. This part of culture is not necessarily observable to an outsider. To fully understand the cultural values of an organization, you need to be inside the organization with access to those with years of work experiences.

Outsiders can discern certain cultural values of an organization by analyzing symbols, ceremonies, dress, and other observable aspects of the organization’s culture. However, symbols, ceremonies, dress, and appearances are only a small snapshot of an organization’s overall values. Observable aspects of an organization’s culture can show an outsider about 75% of the organizations underlying cultural values. An insider with several years of work experience will have a more intimate understanding of the underlying aspects of the organization’s culture and an insider will have a better understanding of individual employees’ attitudes and values within the organization. Attitudes and beliefs whether conscious or unconscious, typically act as the defining elements around which norms, symbols, rituals, and other cultural activities revolve (O’Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991). The organization insider with several years of work experience will understand the unwritten, feeling part of the organization (Daft, 2013).

Thus, the true culture of the organization cannot be understood by solely looking at the artifacts. To understand more, it is necessary to look at the next level. Espoused beliefs and values are goals, values, aspirations and ideologies shared by everyone in an organization. Normally, these values are laid down by the leaders or founders of the organization (Schein, 2010, p.25). However, espoused beliefs and values can sometimes be mutually contradictory (Schein, 2010, p.27). Thus, the organization’s culture is only understood just on the surface level. Basic underlying assumptions, which are unconscious and taken-for-granted beliefs and values provides for a deeper understanding of an organization’s culture. Schein concluded that the essence of a culture lies in the pattern of basic underlying assumptions (Schein, 2010, p.32). If the basic underlying assumptions are not deciphered, it will be hard to understand the artifacts and espoused beliefs and values correctly.

It is very important in any professional organization that the values of workers are aligned with that of the organization. In this reference the values of nurses hold a specific importance since it serves humanity and therefore its alignment with its organization is crucial for patient outcomes. Usually the values of any firm depends on things such as networking, educational opportunities provided to its employees, professional and personal growth and so on. Similarly, the values of nursing depend on things such as its technical skills, scientific knowledge and specific human values.

Each person develops in some type of culture. It is the environment that we live in that determines what we learn, how we learn it, and the rules for living with others. My family and I are Peruvian. That would make me Hispanic in the United States. My origins are straight from Peru. I came to the United States when I was 12 years old, so my beliefs and traditions haven’t changed from when I was still in Peru. There are rules that are transmitted from one generation to the next and are often adapted to the times and locations, and these rules are absorbed by children as we develop and learn about home country traditions, customs and beliefs. These customs will still follow us throughout your life. Although a person can be broken down into

A company 's values are the beliefs, traits, and behavioral norms that company personnel are expected to display in conducting the company 's business and pursuing its strategic vision and strategy.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, or CORPORATE CULTURE, comprises the attitudes, experiences, beliefs and 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.