The Six Key Dimensions in Organizational Culture

If invested in and developed, employees are more likely to feel their social needs are met by being part of a team are well regarded and appreciated for their skill set and therefore motivated to work harder to reciprocate which leads to higher production and efficiency. People are able to realise their abilities and potential, take on more responsibility or variety of tasks which improves versatility and prevents boredom leading to demotivation. Staff feel happier if they feel valued and are likely to stay within the organisation.

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.

Values and ethics are essential in the workplace. It establishes how a company is run and remains profitable. Leaders are the key to demonstrating and creating the organization’s culture, ethics and values. It has to start at the top of the organization including the Chief Executive officer, board and owners. Leaders’ internalization and manifestation of the values in how they operate have a great influence on the employees. Every organization must start with a foundation, a code of conduct, code of ethics and a statement of values ( Ferrell, O.C., John Fraedrich, and Linda Ferrell).

For instance, having an employee’s feedback box will provide all employees’ access to address different issue without the feeling of intimidation. The employees are aware that these issues can be very damaging to the company, if not addressed in the proper manner. I just think that the employees are more in tuned with the issues that are more pertinent. The area of Pay and Benefits is also an important factor.

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,

The values of the organization express its culture and act as guiding tenets for influencing thoughts and behaviors. Values define the character of the team. In crafting a values statement for my organization, I must consider the following: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, personal courage ethical behavior, relationships, success, and

Values are significant because they subconsciously shape our behavior on a day to day basis. A good leader value his family as much as his organization. I care about all the people in my organization peers and subordinates alike. The atmosphere in my work environment should feel like a family. It is vital to laugh and have fun while you doing your job. This is how you boost your Soldiers moral and motivation in your organization. As longest I have this value in my life I know I can better serve my organization.

In-job standards and practices can drive motivation, authority, and influence. However, it is rewards that can serve as the primary motivation lever. The profit centers established to accomplish this must be mutually reinforcing, or frustration and undermining of the culture will occur.

I believe that it is also important to support an organization culture including some key values including the following: integrity, great customer service, unity, respect and compassion and excellence. (Newstrom, 2014, p. 100).

Values define what the organization does, what it aspires to be, how it will grow, and what it considers important

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.

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.

A strong organizational culture provides both the company and its employees with direction and stability. The culture within an organization can be powerful enough to effect employee attitude and behavior as well as performance and turnover ratio. According to many scientific studies, there are seven primary characteristics used to define the culture of an organization: innovation and risk taking, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness and stability.

The employees feel that they have greater responsibility and trust put on them, this can generate greater participation, commitment, and a better job performance.

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.