Corporate Culture

Danilin SA, group Siku-2oz

Corporate culture (Essay).

First of all we want to say that organizations have an identity. In many cases, the feature of an organization is almost as strong as national, community and group identities.

The identity of an organization is commonly referred to as its corporate culture, defined as a set of norms, habits, behaviors, missions, principles, values, ethics, symbols and stories that form the collective identity of an organization.  Every organization with a history has a culture. It naturally evolve amongst groups of people who have shared experiences.

Many organizations shape their organizational culture to achieve goals. Culture is considered a major factor in the productivity and innovative capacity of an organization. Organizations use programs such as change management, internal branding, team building, mission statements and internal communications to transform corporate culture. It  impacts organizational performance in different ways.

The first way is a tendency for organizations and individuals to resist change and defend the status quo. The intensity of resistance to change varies greatly from one organization to the next. Where one organization quickly embraces radical change, another organization fights every small change (no matter how conservative).  Resistance to change is the primary reason that organizations become out of touch, lose their competitive advantage and fall into serious decline.

The second way is innovation, like an illusive organizational capability. Some organizations pump out innovation after innovation at an incredible speed. Other organizations have never innovated despite best efforts. Innovation requires a culture of creativity that allows good ideas to grow into business strategies.

Also corporate culture is a primary factor in employee job satisfaction and motivation. A culture that demonstrates strong teamwork, a sense of belonging, a sense of common purpose, respect for individuals, respect for ideas, flexible working arrangements, continuous recognition of achievement and rewards for performance tend to have engaged employees. They are generally more productive, creative and are less likely to leave an organization.

Organizational culture also describes as corporate norms, habits and behaviors with respect to customer relationships. Some organizations enjoy a culture founded on fundamental respect for customers. Customer relationships are friendly, professional, productive and flexible. This becomes a virtuous cycle whereby customers reply positively to the organization feeding the culture of respect for customers. Other organizations have a fundamentally negative culture of poor customer service. Such organizations may suffer from a combative relationship with customers that spiral downward.