Essay on Leadership’s role in organizational success

In the organization, culture manifests itself through the traditions, symbols, language, myths and artifacts. By a simple definition, “organizational culture is defined as shared philosophies, ideologies, beliefs, feelings, assumptions, expectations, attitudes, norms, and values” (Lunenburg 2).

Therefore, the role of organizational culture is very valuable and important. It is “created by leaders, and one of the most decisive functions of leadership made well be the creation, the management, and ”“ if and when that may become necessary ”“ the destruction of culture” (Haneberg 3).

The external culture of any company operates on the interaction with external stakeholders and largely determines the image of the organization. Today, culture influences a wide range of activities: can simplify or complicate the process of loans, investments, as well as is able to establish the long-term partnerships and place the organization’s securities. The internal culture simplifies the process of coordination of the organization’s units, and accelerates the process of decision-making and its implementation. Thus, “culture is what a group learns over a period of time as that group solves its problems of survival in an external environment and its problems of internal integration” (Schein 111).

Process management is an essential component of good governance. Every leader in the process of management fulfills his/her responsibilities in his/her own style. Adopted leadership style is one of the characteristics of the corporate culture of the organization. The behaviors aimed at creating corporate culture are:

  • Situations, which are controlled by the leader;
  • Beliefs, values, norms and understandings;
  • Criteria for promotions, career development, recruitment and dismissal of staff;
  • Training methods adopted by the director;
  • Participating in various corporate events and ceremonies of the organization (Haneberg 2).

Things the leader pays attention is very important for the formation of organizational culture. Systematically paying attention to anything is a serious signal to subordinates about what is considered important. Besides, the culture of the organization can be demonstrated in the course of training. The demonstration of employee’s benefits may be of great importance for the formation of the behavior of other people. The measure of the director’s participation in certain ceremonies allows employees to subjectively rank these activities in order of importance. This tool is easy to use to support or change the tradition of the organization. In addition, it is believed that the system of rewards and punishments is important in shaping the organizational culture. The leader’s views on the subordinate’s criteria values affect the selection of staff, as the organization are most likely to choose new staff appropriate to the developed criteria. Hence, the leader “needs to be able to identify that, have good people around who have these ideas” (Larson par. 6).

In return, different personnel departments maintain an organizational culture in modern companies: the selection process, criteria for assessment of performance of professional duties, activities for career development – to meet future employees. In the organization, leaders play a key role in the formation and maintenance of the organizational culture. Middle managers set their own ground rules and norms of behavior based on the statements of senior management and the model of their behavior in specific situations. These rules apply to the lower levels of the organization. Ordinary and new employees gradually learn what behaviors are most preferred. There is a restricted list of the manager’s effectiveness that negatively affects the impact of the leader on the organizational culture: inability to self-training, some difficulties with forming a team, inability to control one’s emotions, blurred personal values, stopped self-development, vague personal goals, low abilities to solve different problems, as well as the lack of creativity and inefficiency to influence employees.

Thus, the company’s leader must be an effective manager in order to successfully maintain and strengthen the organizational culture of the company. He should be confident, and able to solve the problems concerning the company’s process. Moreover, he must, above all, “see what needs to be done and help the team plan and organize the getting it done” (Larson par. 8).



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