Management and Organizational Behavior

Organizational culture includes the following components:
1) Beliefs ”“ employees’ views and opinions about what is right and wrong in the organization;

2) The values that are dominant in the organization, which determine what should be considered important in the organization. The areas in which values can be expressed include people relations and attitudes, care about consumers, fairness in the treatment of employees and others. T. Peters and R. Waterman, exploring the relationship between culture and success of the organization, made a series of values and beliefs of organizational culture, which ensured the success of companies.

3) standards are the unwritten rules of conduct about people’s behavior and expected actions. Standards of conduct reflect such moments in the organization as:
– relationship between manager and subordinates’
– honesty and respect for law,
– behavior in conflicts,
– political activity within the organization
– use of resources of the organizations, etc.;

4) Behavior – the daily activities that people do during work and in cooperation with others (rites and ceremonies, as well as the language used in communication);

5) Psychological climate – a stable system of internal communications group, which manifests itself in emotional mood, public opinion and results of operations.
None of these components alone represent the culture of the organization, but all together they can give an idea of organizational culture.
Thus, organizational culture is a set of values, beliefs, attitudes, common to all members of this organization, predetermining their norms of behavior. They can not be clearly expressed, but determine the mode of action and interaction of people, and greatly affect the progress of the work and the nature of the life of the organization. Corporate culture is a key component in achieving organizational goals, improve organizational efficiency and innovation management. The main objective of corporate culture is the provision of external adaptation and internal integration of the organization by improving personnel management. (Hofstede, 1991)

Since culture is a determining factor in achieving long-term effectiveness of organizations, it is necessary that people were able to quantify its key measurements, were able to develop a strategy for culture change and to commence implementation of the change process. There are different approaches to distinguishing the different attributes of the organizational culture, and one of them is the model of Denison.

The Denison research-based model was developed by “Denison Consulting” on the basis of a 15-year study of more than 1000 different organizations, representing the major sectors (manufacturing, service, finance, telecommunications, etc.), as well as non-profit sector. Due to the fact that the basis of any professional, result-oriented system is the human factor, which is the most powerful lever to make significant and sustainable change, in the heart of the Denison’s model are personal beliefs, values and expectations of employees.

The systemic elements of the model are the Mission, Consistency, Involvement, and Adaptability. These are basic characteristics to assess the corporate culture of the company, and which have direct relevance to the key business indicators. In addition, they are designed to operationalize the concept of culture and turn it into a controlled instrument. The procedure for a basic assessment of the current state of corporate culture with the model of Denison helps:
– to identify strengths and weaknesses of the organization,
– to define clear priorities for development,
– to focus on key business issues
– to strengthen weak areas, etc.
It is important that the model can help the organization to find answers to the following important questions: What are the strengths of culture of the organization, what promote the growth of productivity and business development? What are the weaknesses of the organizational culture? What should be paid attention to in order to ensure the successful operation of the organization?

The process of applying the model consists of three phases:

1. Diagnostic of corporate culture, revealing
beliefs and motivations of employees, their relationship to the organization and its work, extent of their involvement in joint activities, etc.

2. Analysis of the results: the results of diagnostics are presented to the company management. The top management reviews effectiveness of the current corporate culture, defining its strengths and areas for development.

3. Development programs: on the basis of the revealed features of culture and the challenges facing the organization is built a program of development of corporate culture.
The model allows to understand what key performance indicators of business: profitability, sales growth, market share, quality, innovation, or the degree of
employee satisfaction, which are directly related to the elements of culture, that may help or hinder their improvement. The model also allows the company to develop a common understanding, universal language and general expectations about the culture and its impact on individual and collective results.

In accordance with a specific desired outcome the model also helps to make idea of the perfect image of the company and shows the necessary efforts required for its formation. The model not only promotes better understanding of the phenomenon of corporate culture, but its use as a business-oriented and result-oriented mechanism. Experience of application of the Denison model proves that culture influences the organization’s ability to change in such a way as to achieve sustainable success.

References
Brown, A. (1995). Organisational Culture. Pitman Publishing, London.
Denison Consulting Inc. The Denison Model. Retrieved from: http://www.denisonconsulting.com/dc/Research/DenisonModel
Hampden-Turner, C. (1990). Creating Corporate Culture. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
Handy, C. (1993). Understanding Organizations. London: Penguin
Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organizations. London: McGraw-Hill.
Trice, H. & Beyer, J. (1993). The Cultures of Work Organizations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Richman, T. (1999). The Culture Wars. Inc. Magazine



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