Corporate Culture
L 2.
Ing. Jiří Šnajdar
2015
L 2. Corporate Culture
An organization´s climate and its culture
affect quality of communication in an
organization. At the same time, routine daily
communication behavior affects the nature of
the evolving organizational climate and
culture.
Employee reading, writing, and listening skills are
imperatives for effective communication in
organizations. However, will employees exercise
the skills they have if they are led by
condescending supervisors.
Horizontal networks are essential for
interdepartmental interaction, but will employees
use this networks if an organization´s rituals and
reward system encourage fierce interdepartmental
rivalry.
Ethical discussions are crucial for effective
organizational communication.
“Taken together climate and culture have
everything to do with what it is like within an
organization“ Julie Hay.
The climate of the organization is more crucial
than are communication skills or techniques in
creating an effective organization.
More important than individual
employees´communication skills is the
environment within which individual employees
interact.
If an organization and all of these employees have
excellent communication skills, they can speak,
write and listen well, it will matter little if the
workplace has an unpleasent atmosphere that
discourages interaction.
As significantly, no workshops devoted to
improving the communication climate will be
meaningful unless the organization´s actual
routine communication behavior serves to foster a
supportive climate.
What is organizational climate?
Kreps writes that the climate is the internal
emotional tone of the organization based on how
comfortable organizational members feel with one
other and with the organization.
Taguiri defines climate as the relatively enduring
quality of the internal enviroment of the
organization that is experienced by its members,
influences their behaviour, and can be described in
terms of the values of a particular set of
characteristics of the environment.
The ideal Supportive Climate. ( SCOPE)
Supportiveness – Credibility – Openness –
Participatory Decision Making – Emphasis on High
Perfomance Goles
Supportiveness.
The ideal supportive climate is characterized by
respect and constructive evaluation. It means that
managers must acknowledge the human needs of
employees and, without artifice, communicate
messages that reflect this awereness.
Credibility, Confidence, and Trust.
Employees need to have cofidence and trust in
their superiors so that they may approach these
managers in order to explain problems, concernes,
or make suggestions. Credibility is a significant
feature of the supportive climate.
Openness.
Openness in this context means both relaying
information openly and being open to approach
from emplyees.
Participatory Decision Making.
Employees are able meaningfully to contribute to
the decision-making proces, the climate tends to
be more supportive.This does not mean that
management must relinquish decision-making
powers.
The idea is to, legitimately, include employees
and, genuinely, consider their contributions.
Emphasis on High Performance Goals.
Therefore, an attitude of we will accept nothing but
excellence will resonate with workers assuming all
other factors for a supportive climate are in place.
Relaxed environments may work, but an
organization must emphasize that the company
exists in order to achieve and excel.
A genuinely supportive climate can facilitate
effective communication in organization.
Organizational Culture
We can say that organizational culture is
concerned with the belief and value system of that
organization.
This value system is passed along to the
employees when they begin work and continue to
be socialized at work.
Employees learn the culture by becoming
aquainted with organizational heroes, rites, rituals,
and slogans, as they meet with company
storytellers who spread the mythology of the
organization.
The mythology of the organization describes the
attitudes, manners, goals, and credos that serve
as foundational points supporting how and why a
company operates as it does.
Distinction Between Climate and Culture.
The organizational contains the roote value
system that create the organizational climate.
Culture relates to underlying values and
assumptions, where as climate reflects
manifestation of those undrelying values and
assumptions.
Therefore the culture affects the climate. Since
participatory decision making is a criterion for ideal
supportive climates, the cultural credo that „the
boss is always right“ is likely to negatively affect
climate conditions.
Assimilation, Socialization, and Identification.
Jablin describes organizational assimilation as the
processes by which individuals join, become
integrated into, and exit the organization.
The terms of assimilation, socialization, and
identification all relate to organizational culture and
communication. Organizational assimilation
requires socialization and will affect levels of
organizational identification.
Organizational socialization is a very similar
concept.
It has been defined as the processes by which
people learn values, norms, and required
behaviors which permit to participate as members
of the organization.
If an organization can be viewed as a mini society
then organizational socialization refers to the
proceses by which members of that organization
learn about culture of that society.
Organizational Identification refers to the extent to
which individuals identify with the organization in
terms of its values and goels.
It is perhaps to note that persons who have low
levels of organizational identification would seek to
work in another organization or at least work less
passionately than who respond positively to the
organization´s culture and identify with it.
Embeding and Transmitting Culture.
Edgar Schein has written books about
communicative mechanisms that serve to embed
cultural values and assumtions.
Organizational Culture and Leadership,
Organizational Dynamics. Schein specify several
of these mechanisms.
• Formal statements of organizational philosophy.
This includes mission statements, codes of
ethics, position papers, advertising policy, hiring
policy, and reports are generated by the
organization.
• Deliberate coaching and modeling by leaders.
• Promotion and salary inkrement criteria.
Communications that explain the rules that
govern advancement in the organization.
• Responses to crises.
• Organizational structure.
• Design of physical spaces. This referes to the
look of work place, how it is furneshed, where is
located…etc.
• Focus of attention.
• Storytelling and legends.
Manufacturing Culture.
Any attempt to cultivate supportive climates must
be funded on the implicit recognition that the
elements needed for supportive climates are
mulifaceted, variable and even capricious.
Constitutive Communication and Emergent
Culture.
„Communication and Organizational Cultures“ ,
culture is the residual of communication proceses
within the company. Communication behavior by
all members of the organization, on formal and
informal networks, ralated to task-specific activities
or social activities, by executives and relative
peons - actually constitutes what becomes the
culture.
These constituting communicative behaviors are
affected by the culture, but the evolution of what
becomes the culture is not independent of
communication behavior, it is the residual
amalgam of routine daily communication.
Foundamental points: Credibility, Leadership, and
Perspective.
Organizational credibility is essential. The absence
of credibility has a corrosive effect on the evolving
organization culture.
In essence, the best and only advice to those who
wish to earn a reputation for credibility is simple.
Be credible.
As Mark Twain rmarked: „When in doubt, tell the
truth. You all amaze some and astonish the rest.“
The Importance of Leadership.
In every unit in every organization, the leaders are
in a position to support or retard the flow of
information.
The individual departmental climates that effect
communication within each unit will also influence
interaction between departments, and
consequently will affect the overal quality of
communication in the organization.