Dear Friends,

Please share me with your opinions:  as we know  cultures begin with the thoughts and values of the founders. The founders hire and keep only the employees who think and feel the same way they do. The founders indoctrinate and socialize these employees to their way of thinking and feeling. Finally the founders’ own behavior acts as a role model that encourages employees to identify with them and thereby internalize their beliefs, values, and assumptions.

Can we say that factors that sustain an organizational culture or keep it alive are:

1. Selection: concerned with how well the candidates will fit into the organization and provides information to candidates about the organization.

2.. Top Management: senior executives help establish behavioral norms that are adopted by the organization.

3.. Socialization: the process that helps new employees adapt to the organization’s culture

Regards

if we accepted that  the culture can be creation identify of person and we knew that  every somebody have many difference personalty 

that we can be help us accept individual 

Organizational structure is a foundation of any business empire & it should be prepared under a systematic planned approach to have the permanent  for carrying out the planned program .

With this it is also necessary to have the flexibility so that in the line with competition or the modern scientific train & in certain cases a line of any innovation also may help in the planned program .

The success of any organizational depend on successful manpower with broad line outlook & for the organization it must have a systematic train center for the employees so as to have proper equipment for the change & timely information .Besides the organization  have to see that their employees may have the necessary satisfaction & so feel that they are part & parcel of the organization .

This is my personal opinion 

Haitham,

I agree with you. The three aspects you address are very important levers.

I would like to add:

• Communication of values: internal communication of culture related aspects using intranet, employee magazines, etc. Must be consistent with external communication
• Live and breath the values: all management levels are important, as they are/ should be role models through their personal interaction especially with their direct reports, but also with others.
• Make values/ cultural aspects integral part of performance management including goal setting, feed back, recognition.

thanks Rohit, Mossayyeb , and Elisabeth

Organizational culture is created and maintained by the beliefs values and behaviors of higher management.

Good day Haithan,

That’s a very good analysis of the development of organizational culture and when you layer the theory over it, it does make sense.

Culture begins with the thoughts and values of the founders. Edgar Shine, the father of organizational culture, would support that thesis.

In the early stages of the organization’s founding, the founders hire and keep only the employees who think and feel the same way they do. The founders indoctrinate and socialize these employees to their way of thinking and feeling. Finally the founders’ own behavior acts as a role model that encourages employees to identify with them and thereby internalize their beliefs, values, and assumptions.

But, this only really works in the early stages of organization’s growth. If you apply Mintzberg’s five organizational design stages, by the time the organization reached a bureaucracy the founders are disenchanted with it. It has become so large that they lose touch with it. It’s not their baby any more.

Then the new owners come in and start the entire process again. Some may say the new owners have an advantage as they can free up the futures of the existing employees and being in one’s that model their values. The bottom line is, and the experts agree on it, is that values and behaviour must be modeled. You can’t lead an organization from the executive suite. All managers must mirror the values of the owners.

Can organizational culture be sustained? Yes through the behaviours of its management team. And, that includes manager.

Regards,

Caterina Valentino

I recommend reading the works of Bolman and Deal on organizational culture, especially organizational culture roles. I also recommend reading various works on the role of trust in developing and sustaining organizational culture.

Caterina Valentino sketches the good journey of laying a good foundation through organisational well being (fruits of the good foundation) and finally growth deploying Mintzberg’s five organizational design stages.

Culture, though is an integration of desire and habits, is considered as a dichotomous attribute - in terms of flexibility and rigidity. [That is why, as Haitham proposes goes the importance of "Selection: concerned with how well the candidates will fit into the organization"]

Caterina suggested "The bottom line is, and the experts agree on it, is that values and behaviour must be modeled". To sustain the values it is usually Religion which is used to primarily focus one's energies to the eternal sole power. Like an Umbrella, with various spokes, the ultimate objective remains similar. At the earthly level of processes it is in inculcating a good (productive and ecofriendly) society. At the organisational level it must maintain the harmony with consistency. W E Deming termed "constancy of purpose". 

You have all run through some fairly traditional unitarist views of culture, if we assume culture is a shared and consensual matter. But we know that work organizations - particularly large ones - are complex, messy and riven with conflicts. So perhaps you should be asking 'how do organizations produce cultures'?

There are many different cultural systems that impact the workplace and exist in parallel. The national culture in which the organisation is embedded (and there may be sub- regional variations); the culture, beliefs and values of the founders and how they envision the organisation; the values, attitudes and ethics of the employees. 

Frost (2000), asserted that the  culture of an organisation is influenced by four other dimensions, (1) the national culture in which it operates or from which it draws its employees; (2) functional or professional culture , based on the professional, technical and vocational groups  which make up the workforce in the organisation; (3) ethnic culture comprising the norms drawn from the mix of the ethnicity of the employees; and (4) industrial culture , based on the general cultural influences prevailing in a particular industry.  

The concept of culture has been variously defined by several researchers and writers. Kroeber and Kluckhorn (1952), opines that culture comprises an entire set of social norms and responses that condition people’s behaviour. Rodriques (1996), states that culture enables people to make sense of their world, and that it is foreign only to those outside and finally Hofstede (1980) defined national culture as “collective mental programming"

The concept of "business culture" is often distinguished from organisation culture and positioned as a sub-set of the organisations culture. . Morden (1995), defines the elements of "business culture" as “the way we do things around here” and is impacted by societal, task and organizational culture.

Organisations can therefore be thought of as “bubbles” or “islands” within the larger society. These bubbles can mirror the national culture, can nudge the national culture in particular directions or can redefine that culture.

Dear @Haitham, let me bring some good articles on this issue of organizational culture, how to make it sustainable! Good tips and advices follow!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckcohn/2014/10/17/how-to-create-and-maintain-a-workplace-culture-that-will-make-your-company-thrive/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141024031155-28007127-7-steps-to-retaining-organizational-culture

http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-behavior-v1.1/s19-04-creating-and-maintaining-organ.html

http://www.simmalieberman.com/articles/howtocreatemaintain.htm

http://www.wespire.com/employee-engagement-corporate-culture/

Culture is an enacted system of beliefs, symbols and behaviors which binds individuals in groups. It is a mechanism for collective sense making. Culture is collective programming of the mind which distinguishes one group or category of people from another (Hofstede,1991). it is common to see people from different organizations or nationalities to behave in a certain way. This programming includes the learning of ideas, habits, attitudes, customs and traditions (Harris & Moran, 1991). Organizational culture is viewed by Sin and Tse (2000) as patterns of shared values and beliefs developed over time, producing behavioural norms that are adopted in solving problems.

A company’s culture, particularly during its early years, is normally tied to the personality, background, and values of its founder or founders, as well as their vision for the future of the organization. It takes shape in the early days of a company’s history as desired by the founders. An organization’s culture is shaped as it faces external and internal challenges and eventually learns how to deal with these challenges. When the organization’s way of doing business provides a successful adaptation to environmental challenges and ensures success, those values are retained. These values and ways of doing business are taught to new entrants to the organization as the way things operate at the workplace.

For Clifford Geertz (1973), cultures are meaning structures that control human behaviour, while for Marvin Harris (1990), Diane Vaughan (1996) and Ann Swidler (2001), they are collections of behavioural tools and practical solutions for existential problems. Pierre Bourdieu’s (1990: 86) view connects these views by defining cultures as ‘symbolic systems’ that are products of practices that implement principles that are ‘coherent and compatible with the objective conditions – but also practical,... easy to master and use, because they obey a “pure” economic logic’.

However, what is practical and logical for one firm may be impractical and illogical for another with the same formal aims and objective conditions but with a different market niche, strategy, technology, employees’ tenure and their knowledge and skills. Hawthorn (1991) has pointed out that there are often some plausible practical alternatives which are forgotten once the incumbent has been chosen and succeeded or seemed to. These alternatives might have succeeded as well, or may after a while with new know-how and technologies, which human creativity develops (Joas 1996). Human creativity changes both the practicality of solutions and the viability of cultures as solution collections, while the adoption of new practices is affected by both the cultural context and the local factors such as executive leadership, material and intangible resources and social capital, especially trust between hierarchic ranks. See my articles on the elusiveness of high-trust cultures and leaders' impact:

Shapira, Reuven (2013) – “Leaders’  Vulnerable  Involvement:  Essential  for  Trust,  Learning,  Effectiveness  and Innovation  in  Inter-Co-Operatives.” Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 1(1): 15-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2013.06.003

------------. (2012) – “High-Trust Culture, the Decisive but Elusive Context of Shared Co-Operative Leaderships.” In: Johanna Heiskanen, Hagen Henrÿ, Pekka Hytinkoski and Tapani Köppä - New Opportunities For Co-Operatives: New Opportunities For People, pp. 154- 167. Mikkeli, Finland: University of Helsinki. http://www.helsinki.fi/ruralia/julkaisut/pdf/Publications27.pdf

What’s the Biggest Idea in Corporate Culture Today?

This is fine example. "The story of how Alan turned Ford around is now well documented. The company was the only big-three automaker to emerge from the recession without a government bailout. When Alan retired from Ford in 2014, Fortune magazine ranked him as the third greatest leader in the world, behind only Pope Francis and Angela Merkel.

One important thing that Alan did early on was to effectively eliminate shame. Up to that point, meetings at Ford were notoriously vicious, with executives publicly sparring or avoiding each other altogether by fiddling with their Blackberrys. Alan rooted out those problems through his brilliantly simple Business Plan Review program, which made meetings highly structured. Executives had to introduce themselves and report on their progress according to a precise formula (and no Blackberrys were allowed)..."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-biggest-idea-corporate-culture-today-marshall-goldsmith?trk=pulse-det-nav_art

Very interesting answers and opinions..thank you all

Happy new year to you all

Very interesting answers and opinions..thank you all

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222417155 Have a look at this one

Dear @Mohammed, thanks for the resource which you has brought here. It is very relevant resource with 231 citations and as many references as 144!

Dear Ljubomir, It was my pleasure to be able to contribute. I have learnt much from this community and am happy to give back.

Best Global Company Culture 2021 list ranking the top 50.

In its ranking, Comparably said it measured about 20 workplace culture categories from compensation, leadership and work-life balance to professional development opportunities, and perks and benefits...

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/comparably-takes-the-pulse-of-global-corporate-culture-amid-the-pandemic/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=26515897512689358169344413145444&mid=13326818&cid=959017973

my research focuses on the role of employees in creating organizational culture, specifically serving culture in service organizations:

Nowak, R. (2019). Developing serving culture: focus on workplace empowerment. Employee Relations.

My research point to leaders larger role in shaping organizational cultures: high-moral leaders who engender high-trust organizational cultures, model humbleness by vulnerable involvement and always prefer the common good over own interest. Such ones can best lead to sustainability without forsaking efficiency, effectiveness and innovativeness, keeping open communication and participative decision-making. See my attached submitted article and book.

Organizational culture arises from problem solving and adjustment, it is a stage in the development of group cohesion and the development of norms.

Sustaining organizational culture is associated with inertia and developing a sense of continuity while being flexible to the environment

It's time to walk the walk and build a learning culture

Building a continuous learning culture is of key importance...

"The building of a learning culture can only happen if there is a no-blaming or shaming of problems and if problems are made visible so that everyone can learn and profit from the problems, solutions and knowledge," the report said...

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/devops-institute-its-time-to-walk-the-walk-and-build-a-learning-culture/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=26515897512689358169344413145444&mid=13342623&cid=959017973

Evaluation a company’s Ethics and Compliance Program, Culture of Ethics, Corporate Citizenship and Responsibility, Governance, and Leadership and Reputation. This bring The 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies® Honoree List.

Having a strong values-based ethical culture is a responsibility shared by every Eaton employee and paramount to earning and maintaining the trust of our shareholders, customers, employees and the communities in which we live and work...

https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us/company/news-insights/news-releases/2021/eaton-again-ranks-among-the-world-s-most-ethical-companies-.html?elqTrackId=cbabfa6db1e5404a917aacad19bd1d1f&elq=da139294975749faafd86abacb022fcc&elqaid=36367&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=20060&elqcst=272&elqcsid=13965

https://www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees/

Intending to work with the values, principles and objectives that constitute the roots of the management system of an organization

While all these definitions are OK, a key factor that is essential to the transmission and acceptance of an organization's culture is that members of the organization believe that the behaviours and ways to act are acceptable and are willing to promote and pass on the information to others (Edgar Schein).

Caterina Valentino

Organization culture consists of values, norms and beliefs.

Great question.

Organizational culture is created involuntarily. It is created with the development of organizational behavior patterns. It is sustained by socialization and the repetition or modification of habits. Great question.