Essay: Corporate Culture And Its Dimensions: A Comprehensive Overview.

Heuristics that can assist the decision maker in speeding up the decision making process
Common Biases that can skew the decision making process
Social influences that might skew the decision making process

Corporate Considered an Important determinant of organizational success

Corporate culture refers to the norms, beliefs, or core values that control the organization’s employee interaction and production or service delivery to customers. The beliefs systems of an organization is normally envisage in its strategic plan and its formal document that has the vision or mission of the organization. Other organization’s cultural systems are based on the company’s narratives, myths and stories that inspire the employees to work toward attainting the company’s objectives. It is commonly believed that the organization’s culture determines the organization’s survival in the market to continue delivering products and services to client. Some of the most commonly used organization’s cultural dimensions are vision, core value, people, practice and place. Vision defines the purpose of the organization and what the organization intends to do in the market. Values are the guiding principles that control the interaction of the organization to customers and other stakeholders. People are the machinery that works in cohesion to achieve the organization objective in line with the norms that are part of the organization’s core values. Practice on the other hand represents the way company does its works or production. Place also indicate the environment under which the company operate (Sopow, 2007). There are many organizations that stress some aspects of corporate culture and this can be attributed to its success.

The organization’s culture may be in line with the national culture though the two are not normally congruence. The ability of an organization to utilize or to be inspired with its core values or culture defines the success of that organization. There are many companies that can attribute their success to certain cultural beliefs.  These corporate cultures may also be connected to each other leading to proper articulation of values to objectives and inspiration to perform in the market. Most of the organizations that have performed greatly in the market are guided with mission or vision statements that are the main features of corporate culture. Corporate culture also is part of organization’s behaviour that determines the relationship between stakeholders, employees and customers. This document seeks to explore different dimensions of culture, the emphasis place on this dimension of culture and the overall performance of some cited organization that can be attached to its corporate culture (Thomas, 2008).

The organization’s culture determines the success of the organization since it forms the core organization behaviour that guides the relationship between employees and the management.  Corporate culture determines the success of organization in these four ways. These are allows integration of employees in a company, guides the interaction of employees to achieve specific objectives, offers employees protection and connects the organization’s values and traditions (Cummings & Worley, 2004). Firstly, the corporate culture gives the guidelines for interaction between employees that allow harmonies working aligned with organization’s objectives. The guiding principles of an organization are the cultures of that organization. Secondly, corporate culture is the link between the organization and employees. Corporate culture such as people or values is connected according the company’s objectives hence goal oriented. Thirdly, employees are protected with the organization’s culture through values that determine the interrelationship between employee and the organization. This makes the employees to achieve better through the company’s values. Finally, the company’s culture determines that reflection of traditions on the performances (Schein, 2004).

1. Vision

Dimensions commonly used in describing a particular organization’s culture

Vision is one of the six main dimensions that are used to describe corporate or organization’s culture. The vision and mission statement of an organization is an important aspect of organization’s culture. It is estimated that the vision of the organization is one of the driving force that enable the company compete in the market. The phrase that is engraved in the business vision or mission of an organization is turned in to guiding principle that enables the business to perform according to its vision. A good organization vision connects the organization to its stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and other stakeholders (Boddy, 2011).

The organization’s vision and mission statement can be compelling or simple yet holds the destiny of the organization. According to Ravasi and Schultz (2006), company’s mission or vision may forms the basis of thinking orientation that assist the employee to align their activities according the statement in the vision. The thinking orientation due to inspirations that is engraved in the vision determines the behaviour of employees within that organization. This implies that vision statement and mission articulate the purpose of the company and therefore the need to achieve its main purpose. Some organizations have vision that they have exploited to reach their goal some of the organizations with such vision are The Alzheimer’s Association and the Oxfam. A vision statement is a simple but foundational element of culture.

Oxfam

Oxfam is an international organization that provides aid to various disadvantage groups in the society. Oxfam is connected to over 70 NGOs in its quest to provide charitable aid to various people. Oxfam Australia for instance is concern with poverty elevation from indigenous communities such as the Aboringi and Islanders people. The mission of the Oxfam at the time of its inception was to persuade the British government allows relief food. Oxfam is concerned with addressing the structures that that causes poverty and reduction of social injustice through its interconnection with other accountable organization in those regions. In addition, Oxfam’s main goal is to assist developing countries get direct relief to reduce poverty.  

Oxfam is envisions its vision statement of “a just world without poverty.” Oxfam uses its vision as the main dimension for its culture. To stress the vision of Oxfam, their main purpose indicates that the organization is aiming to create a lasting solution to reduce global poverty level.  The activities of the organization are therefore driven with the zero poverty level vision. The organization encourages people to create ways to secure future without poverty.  So the main mission of the organization is free poverty throughout the world.  In bid to create a free poverty state of the world the organization is partnering with other local and international organization that also share common vision that reduces the global poverty level. The organization therefore source and provide reliefs and other findings that aim to secure the future of poverty stricken communities. Moreover, the organization has established sustainable systems, public education, campaigns, humanitarian assistance in disaster and conflict and advocacy (Linstead, Fulop & Lilley, 2009).

Oxfam

The values of the Oxfam are also connected to the vision of free poverty level globally. In the beliefs of the organization much emphasis is put on the realization of the potential free poverty of every individual through secure and equitable distribution of resources. To ensure that these beliefs are uphold Oxfam believe that people have the right to live a sustainable life free from poverty. In addition, Oxfam through its wide network with other charitable organizations is already funding and financing local communities in sustainable poverty elevation programs. The organization further indicates that the current state of poverty is due to the unprecedented and challenging weather changes witnessed throughout the world. It is important to note that though the organization has not yet succeeded in achieving free poverty global state, the organization has successfully establish the foundation that come with long term poverty elevation strategy aiming to achieve its vision of free poverty globally. According to Montana and Charnov (2008), Oxfam is one of the organizations that have successfully utilize their vision to achieve greater purpose within Australia and globally. Oxfam there has highly invested in its vision as the core corporate culture that is toward poverty elevation.

2. Values

Though the company’s vision explain the purpose of that organization the values of that organization sets the guidelines on behaviours that are used to achieve the organizations’ goal or purpose. Company’s core value may be communicated to employee that defines the way the organization intends to offer services to the clients. These values also make the company to uphold good professional standards. According to Modaff and Butler (2011), indicate that most of organizations have their core values based on the employees, clients and professional standards or service quality. This leaves no doubt that the originality of the values is not important, what is important is the authenticity or the practicability of the value. The company corporate culture especially the core value assist the management evaluates the employee behaviour with respect to the documented code or norms of the company.

Another core value of the organization is dressing code, treatment and employee benefits. It is widely believed that that the core values of an organization defines the way company employees dress, are remunerated and relate to customers. The way an employee dress determines the way an employee with presents the company’s policies to stakeholders. This also determines the relationship between companion’s employees and clients. The performance of employees that is also connected to the performance of the organization is also directly related to the treatment of employees within the organization (Mullins, 2016). Some firms uphold the employee’s treatment through provision of employee remuneration benefits and good pay. This motivates the employee to perform better in workplace.

According to Papa et al (2008), there are also some informal norms of the organization that also form part of the core values. These are organization’s core value are not documented yet are core to the business at a particular time. This implies that these values are dynamic in nature and controls the behaviour of the organization at that time. For instance, employees appreciation values of the organization may give the employee some holydays that are only available at certain time and not all time. Firm that like offering employee this privileges make this activities are their norms and therefore, their core value.

Google Inc.

Google is multinational corporation the provide telecommunication services to its vast clients across the world. Google provides internet related services such as cloud computing, search, online advertisement and software or hardware. Though Google was found in 1996, its core value was proposed and adopted in the year 2000. Since its inception Google has reach it many users throughout the world from its initial American base. Currently Google has diversified its products that are many than the initial services it provided to customers. It also good to note that at the foundation the official Google value was not don’t be evil, yet the value statement was added later as long-term strategy to help Google realize its purpose.

Google values are enshrined in their core values that were founded in the year 2000. Google’s values might be best articulated by their famous phrase, “Don’t be evil.” The Google values are stronger since it was concerned with reducing the exploitation of customers that was going on with its competitors. Therefore, the don’t be evil value of the Google was coined in 2000 with intention of competing with other companies such as yahoo whom they believe was exploiting customers. To interpret the value statement, the company indicate that the trust that customers put in the company to get best services. In addition, the key founders of the company explain that don’t be evil value statement reduce the exploitation, conflict of interest and reduce bias through objectively serve the customers (Google Inc, 2006).

In contrast, most of the studies show different interpretation of the value of the Google that says don’t be evil as the key to make money without doing evil things. Originally the main intension of the motto was to separate Google advertisement from search engine with the bid to reduce negativity in advertisement.  However, in the company’s code norms the don’t be evil statement still provide the guiding principle that reflect the intended need to serve customers without any exploitation (Benj, 2011). The success of this value statement indicate that currently even most social networks has also developed their products with the principle of don’t be evil. The only critics that are raised concerning the Google culture is in line with its taxation policies especially in UK where there was concern that Google don’t pay taxes according to its volume of sales. In this sense the antagonist argue that Google has suddenly become evil.  Finally, we can attribute the success of Google to its strong stress of quality service provision to customers without the necessary exploitation. Currently, Google is one of the multinational corporation with vast online users and interconnection with other social networks or other online service providers throughout the world (Kristof, 2014).

3. Practices

Practice is the application of company’s values or vision to ensure they are accomplished. This implies that company’s practice is the practical aspects of the company’s culture. Normally an organization invests in the vision statement or on values to ensure that all that hold the vision of the organization are practiced. The company’s practice as an aspect of culture is reflected in the organization’s day to day activities and performance. The management therefore develops policies that encourage the practice of company’s cultures. The practice as an aspect of culture may be enshrined in the company slogan statement that inspires employees to work toward achieving the company’s objectives. Practices also are the fundamental indicator of performance of organization and its relationship to its customers or clients. The practice culture attributes to the success of most organization as indicated by Schneider and Barsoux (1997), that shows that nearly 20-30 % of firm succeed through practicing its slogan and vision statement.

The practice of the company also defines its ethical relationship with other firms in the market or its competitive strategy (Luthans & Doh, 2015). The way a company do its activities reflect a lot of its corporate culture and it is foundation of its ethical behavious in the market. Company’s ethical practice is also part of the company’s culture and is normally controlled with the guiding statement and the legal provisions.  The practice culture for instance dictates the professionalism of the organization practice. Health care facility for instance is expected to provide care to clients in the best way that does not contradict the legal standard set by regulating body. This means that every health practitioner is oblige to follow the legal standard. This implies that practice culture of an organization may sustain the organization in production or may leads to decommission of the organization by the government (Parker, 2000).

Wegmans

Wegmans is a food market that was founded in 1916 as fruit and vegetable company.  Wegmans was founded as supermarket that offers mainly fruit and vegetable in New York America. Since its inception Wegmans ahs expanded to many countries including England. Wegman is ranked in top 25 organization selling food throughout America. Wegmans’ current expansion program target creation of laboratory kitchen for research in food and other related food products. The slogan that guide operation and the business practice of Wegmans is grounded in its statement of “caring” and “respect”.

Wegman’s for example, heralds values like “caring” and “respect,” which is a promising prospects of “a job [they’ll] love.” And it follows through in its company practices, ranked by Fortune as the fifth best company to work for. The practice of Wegmans is grounded on its practice statement that puts care  and respect as the main guiding principle for its operation. According to the company’s website is making the deference to their vast client that are spread throughout the united states of America.  Moreover, the company clearly shows that it loves practicing care for clients. This implies that the company show commitment in providing good quality fruits, vegetable and food products to their esteem clients. The meal descriptions of the organization such as EZ meals as described by the company shows that the company practice honesty in provision of products and service. Vast research capabilities and creation of research kitchen also clearly show the level of practice in the organization. The care and respect statement there act as the inspiration that guides its employees into caring for customers.  The success of the Wegmans can be attributed to its clear guiding practice slogan that has survived for many years since foundation in 1916.

4. People

People are the critical component of organization’s culture as they are the one to embrace or appreciate the core values or vision of the company. The people as aspect of the organization culture possess the capabilities to accept or embrace the culture that are coined by the organization (Lewis, 2007). To appreciate the people culture of an organization, the culture of organizations is established through specific recruitment policies that are used to select and recruit people or employees in an organization. Furthermore, the success of company is determined by its culture of recruiting employee who are not only talented but also are suitable for particular task. In order to ensure the right candidate is recruited most successful firms normally has more than 20 personnel interviewing a single candidate to suite their corporate culture. This implies that the right candidates are culture carriers that are also integrated into the corporate culture of organization recruiting them (Schrodt, 2002).

People culture also describes the behavious of company’s employees towards the society. The behavior of employee determines the sustainability of organization and its response toward the environment. The people’s behaviour culminates to the organization’s culture and how it treats its clients. This culture is also part of organization’s behaviour toward other stakeholders such as shareholders and management. Companies with good corporate relationship culture are the best service delivery companies that currently strive in the market. The psychological appeal of the company’s products to the customers is also connected to the company’s people culture. Therefore, the organization’s people culture largely define the interrelationship between various people that are either directly or indirectly  link to the organization forming a pool of company’s stakeholders.

Wesfarmers

Wesfarmers is one of the leading producers of fertilizers, chemicals, coal and its safety products. Wesfarmers is based in west of Australia at place called Perth from where its produce this wide chemical products. Wesfarmers was founded in 1914 with the aim of products to farmers in west Australia.  From the time of its establishment to the current, Wesfarmers is one of the Australian largest companies by wealth.  Wesfarmers has large number of employees that are connected to its people based culture (Thompson, 2014).

The core operational feature of Wesfarmers is based on its sustainable working environment for its employees. As indicated in its core values and company’s strategic document, the people culture of Wesfarmers enshrined in integrity, openness, accountability and boldness.  Firstly, people working in the organization are controlled with the culture of integrity that defines working in ethical manner. Moreover, the integrity as a cultural interaction platform defines the relationship between employees and organization or clients. Secondly, people working within Wesfarmers Company promote the culture of open reporting, feedback and ideas. To ensure this is put into practice, the organization has wide reporting and feedback avenues that ensures there is openness in the people working within the organization. Thirdly, it is also culture of Wesfarmers to cultivate the accountability culture that promote good performance practices and increase the company’s reputation in the market. This accountability culture allows the people working in the company to protect the company’s position in the Australian market.  Fourthly, another important aspect of the people’s culture in the Wesfarmers is boldness in which the company works to achieve growth. People working in this company are free from fear and blame thanks to its outlined culture of boldness that is officially documented in the company’s core values (Adkins & Caldwell, 2004).

 The success of the Wesfarmers is grounded in its well defined core values and norms that control the interaction of various people within the organization. This can be attributed to the success of the company being in the top 10 companies that are larger in Australia. The boldness and ability of employees working in the organization to approach the challenging Australian market has no doubt but appreciate the boldness culture of people within Wesfarmers Company. Finally it is the company’s mandate to engage the people to bring about sustainable production systems that enable the company to continue producing its numerous products to Australians and beyond the Australian boundaries.

5. Narrative

The organization’s narrative is the organization’s historical beliefs that fuel the operation and performance of that organization. The ability of an organization to tap the historical narrative of that organization is the basis of organization’s culture. The company’s narrative can be formal like the narratives of Coca Cola Company’s or the narrative can be informal as some artists who were driven by some informal pas activities. Organization’s tradition and their way of doing things are carried in the narrative of those organizations. The narratives of events that relate to the organization’s performance can inspire the employees to perform higher.  The expectation of company may be shared though the employees leading to good implementation strategy. For instance, organization culture that is based on narrative may celebrate company’s heroes inspiring employees to work hard to attain high performance (Elmore, 2013).

Narrative culture may hold the company’s success stories and the facts about its history that has enable that company to survive in the market for a long time. Most companies that have survived in the market for many years have great historical inspiration that may keep the company going for other many years. This forms the cultural background of these companies and is used for training new employees to indoctrinate them into accepting narratives, beliefs and stories about a particular organization. As indicated by Pendergrast (2013), narrative may act as he heritage for an organization and is key for it performance in the market.  Some companies such as coca cola have longer history and narrative that make them continue to dominate the market.

Company’s narrative can also be define as the company’s past present and future prospect that can be used to inspire its production and sustainability in the market environment. Those companies that are capable of connecting their current market position and the past performance are able to performance better. This is due to the fact that past stories and performance normally reflect the future performance of that organization. For instance, those companies that underperformed sometimes can use that to correct the past mistake. Those companies with good performance records on the other hand can use its records to inspire future performance. At the point of recruitment most companies with long historic performance or production normally asses the employees based on their ability to adopt the company’s culture and add value to the organization (Islam & Zyphur, 2009).

The Coca Cola Company is multinational corporation that produce and sell carbonated soft drinks throughout the world. The name of the coca cola is attributed to its initial manufacturing ingredient of kola and coca. Coca Cola Company has dominated the soft drink market for most of the 20^th century. The longest history and myths about coca cola domination in the market has been the key foundation of operation and beliefs that make coke to excel in the soft drink market. The Coca Cola statements about happiness that is spread when using Coca Cola forms the basis of organization’s guiding principles (Richard, 2012).

The narrative of Coke is mainly about its ability to instill happiness, smile and emotional relief. This narrative has made Coca Cola to advertise its products throughout world. This is also part of the Coca Cola campaign network that is also coupled with promotion as a way to increase happiness to various classes of people throughout the world. For instance, in 2013 Coca Cola Company in its advocacy and campaign gave a promotional coke bottle to students in Colombia as a way to stress its slogan and statement heritage. To reinstate its narrative coke therefore, encourage collaboration between students in order to bring happiness. The Coca Cola narrative also gives the company’s stories about its success brand throughout soft drink market.

Coca Cola advertisements are normally grounded in its heritage and its slogans. For instance, the Coca Cola taste the feeling advertisement is attributed to Coca Cola’s slogan of coke making on feel emotional relief and relaxed. This advert is one of the successful advertisements and campaigns currently running in many media (Black, 2003). Social media has also embrace the Coca Cola heritage through its wider taste the feeling advert that is attached to many websites and social media platforms. The Coca Cola slogan on taste the feeling is also part of wide cultural beliefs of the Coca Cola company that indicate that since its inception Coca Cola has been bringing happiness. Finally, Coca Cola has been in the soft drink for many years that proves is experience and this is also its success strategy. Currently, Coca Cola still dominate the soft drink market owing to its Coca Cola brand that trend everywhere in the world. The slogan of Coca Cola that is directly connected to its stories, myths and narratives are the source of it success (Foster, 2008).

6. Place

Place as part of company’s culture is important definition of the company’s environment. The environment where firm is situated is strategically important and determines its performance. This due the facts firms that share many things in common normally interact informally within their environment. Place where business organization is situated shape the culture of that organization. The place culture also explains why some organizations especially those technology firms are found within the Silicon Valley. In addition, place culture shape the behaviour and culture of organization such as partnership or collaboration with other firm that they share some similarity of relationships. The place also determines the architecture and design of the firm structure and impact of the values. As explained by Saylor (2012), place can dictate the culture of an organization since place can have regulations that may contradict those of the organization.

The place culture of an organization determines its ability to connect to suppliers that bring the raw materials that are used in production. Another aspect of  place culture explains the relationship with outlets that company sell its product directly to the market. Companies that are directly link to other partners or customer due to its strategic place make its forms a wide network with clients. For instance, tech companies that are situated next to other tech companies can easily sell spare parts to other related companies.  Moreover, the quicker the company can connect to other people in the environment it operates dictates the network it has with other stakeholders (Kleinbaum & Aviva, 2013).

Apple Inc

Apple Inc is an international technology company that is situated in the Silicon Valley United States of America. Apple Inc produces various products such as electronics, computer software and online services. The term Silicon Valley was coined though the place forms on of the high tech company’s environment in California. Apple Inc has been one of the world’s largest technology companies according to Forbes. Currently Apple Inc store are nearly 495 throughout 18 countries (Adam 2013).

The place culture of Apple Inc is grounded in its location that is Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley is a good environment that offers partnership and collaboration capabilities with other companies within the region. In this environment the term silicon explains the extensive use of silicon in manufacture of most computer parts in this technological area. As place culture, the name of the environment where apple is situated defines the performance of this organization that is part of the tech belt in Silicon Valley. Many technology companies that are found in this place are producing similar products that make them interact informally within this place. In addition, the name of this place where apple Inc is based is inspirational for its employees that work hard to meet the needs of clients and other companies using silicon as raw material (Deal & Kennedy, 2000).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the paper has successfully presented the corporate culture in line with its overall effects on the performance of company and its environment. Corporate culture forms the main strategic plans that connect its objectives to its performance. The company corporate culture determines the success of the organization. The study highlighted vision, core values, people working in organization, organizations practice, its environment and ethical beliefs as the dimensions of culture. To fully understand the cultural aspects of organization, the report also shows specific companies that each cultural aspect has made to perfume in the market. Some of these companies are Google, Oxfam, Wegmans, Wesfarmers, Apple Inc and Coca Cola companies.

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