GENERAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE COMPANYS PERFORMANCE

GENERAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE COMPANYS PERFORMANCE

1.INTRODUCTION

Globally, the preoccupations for identifying the culture of the organization, the place and its role in the success or failure that mark the evolution of the company are relatively recent.

The manifestations of the theoretical concerns and of pragmatic approaches regarding organizational culture stand for the new vision on the human resources in the modern company and the new type of management. Participative management is looking for mobilizing peoples culture, orientating their choices and determining their activity. If people are culture-mobilized, unsuspected resources appear, and thus the company becomes a place of cultural integration, but also an identity vector. Management methods answer to a rising need for integration and distribution of the cultural practices and elements, for the introduction of organizational changes, linked to the evolution of social structure at all its levels.

In order to influence the type of culture in the organization, managers must decide first the type of culture that suits their organization, and then take calculated and clear actions to encourage the emergence, development and conservation of the type of culture they have chosen. The understanding, reorientation and use of organizational culture depend on the managers, just as an important agent for the competitive evolution of the organization.

The company identifies itself by one organization and one cultural environment, whose main characteristics are:

• a system of values that consolidates the members of the organization;
• an ideal, that gives each member and the group a transcendent aspiration;
• a system of creation and production that answers to the material and immaterial   needs of the organization and its members;
• a communication system, a support, a spreading-information network;
• a structure that directs the roles, by the complexity of the organization;
• an educational system that favors the long-term life of the organization , by taking into account the limited-life duration of people, and the internal and external changes in the organization;
• a system of economic trades, i.e. a resource distribution system, inside and outside the organization;
• a political system that provides the continuity of the organization;
• a law system that determines the function rules of an organization.

2. Definitions of the organizational culture of the company.

From a theoretical point of view, there have been many attempts to delimitate and

define this new side of the managerial practice.

In American Heritage Dictionary, culture is defined as the totality of beliefs, values, behaviors, institutions and other results of human thinking and work, socially transmitted among a collectivity.

Among the many definitions of the organizational culture, three are presented.

The American researcher, Edgar Scheine has elaborated a complex definition, according to which culture can be delimitated by its six component elements, as they follow:

• behavior rules;
• the norms that develop in the work teams;
• the dominant values adopted by the organization, regarding its produces;
• the philosophy that leads the politics of the organizational need to its own employees and clients;
• the rules established in the organization for an efficient activity;
• the spirit and climate in the company, and the way its members take contact with the outsiders.

According to O. Nicolescu and I. Verboncu, organizational culture represents all the values, beliefs, aspirations and behaviors moulded through past years in every organization, that are dominant inside it, and directly and indirectly condition its functionality and performance.

In our opinion, organizational culture is an assembly of common values, beliefs, behaviors adopted by the members of an organization to contribute to the development and performance of the organization.

Therefore, the culture of the company is an assembly of characteristics that differentiate it from any other unity and represents an untouchable heritage. Culture is a result of a long adapting process of the organization to the problems imposed by its existence and evolution.

Shaping culture in a company is facilitates solving two major problems: the interactions with the environment and maintaining the internal solidarity that allows assuming the mission of the organization.

3. Manifestations of organizational culture.

The manifestations of organizational culture influence the evolution and performance of the organization. They are partly untouchable and less visible, and this explains why specialists consider them relatively different.

The diversity of the organizational culture is illustrated by figure 1:

3.1 Symbols

Among the organization, symbols can be represented by any object, event or formula and are used to transmit and consolidate cultural messages with a certain signification. By cultural symbols, there are transmitted signs that reveal the philosophy, values, ideals, beliefs and aspirations shared by the employees of the organization. For example, a symbol can be the name of the company itself, when it represents an essential element in its activity. The label of the company often represents a major symbol for both the employees and clients. Slangy or official language frequently carries many symbols.

A distinct symbolist value is represented by the arrangement, furniture, paintings and even the architecture of the building of the organization. A round table in the council room means participation, group action. The   size and the position of one members desk, but also the access to the parking places stands for the status this member has in this organization.

3.2 Organizational values

Organizational culture has as essential elements a set of beliefs, values and behavior norms, that represent the foundation for the employees perception on what happens in the organization, what is desired and accepted and how a threaten is depicted.

Beliefs are convictions expressed by general formulations, regarding the functionality of the environment in which the individual, the group or the organization evolve. For example the idea that a compact group of individuals is stronger than one isolated individual, and that the chances of the former to succeed are bigger is a belief.

Values are collective preferences and attitudes that appear in an institutional context and which are imposed by the members of the organization. Values can come either out of a social environment, as general attitudes promoted by national culture, or out of the employees and managers experiences. They are promoted by the group that has the power and authority, being perceived as ideals, standards or flaws inside and outside the organization.

Norms are specific behavior rules that are applied to all the members of the organization. They transpose the beliefs and values on a behavior level.

Customs are elements that appear as conventions, agreed by a large number of members of the organization. They are the result of passive agreements, rather than the ones imposed by certain formulae.

Throughout the organization characterized by clear, strong and positive values, the performances are easy to be achieved, than the one characterized by ambiguities, confusions, lack of responsibility in their promotion and spread among the employees.

3.3 Rites, rituals and customs

Rituals and ceremonies are collective behavior models, especially situations with a formal character. They tend to be relatively constant in time, and have a strong symbolic content. These are the most visible aspects of the symbolic behavior manifestations in a organization.

Rites are collective activities with a low range of formality, that mark the beginning or end of one organizational process.

Rituals are established actions, with a strong emotional content, and combined different ways of expressing organizational culture. Through them, certain social patterns are confirmed and reproduced. One example is represented by meetings presided by a certain leader, an agenda and a schedule, where the objectives are previously established and transmitted to the participants of the meeting.

Ceremony is a collective, formal and solemn manifestations that expresses consciousness of the company tradition and history. Ceremonies are celebrations of cultural values, events that reflect and honor organizational culture; they are also moments people remember in time.

3.4 Storiettes, myths

Storiettes are narrations based on real events, but are inserted, more or less with fiction elements. The latter amplify the cultural and human dimensions of the organization.

Myths are organizational storiettes that refer to high-ranked leaders of the company and also to what happened long before. Its recurrence and acceptance degree is very strong. They can be perceived by organizational metaphors, as a way of expression that transmits symbolic messages beyond the real content of words.

Myths and storiettes stand for and transmit essential values of the organization, honor the heroes virtues, offer models to follow in similar or ambiguous situations. The founder member of an organization appear as hero, or person that assured the success of one organization, in its crisis moments.

4. THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON THE COMPANYS PERFORMANCE  

The ascension of the companys performance can be obtained by following the cultural pattern. Identifying the cultural models and characterizing its own culture is a main advantage of the organization.

Main performances of the company depend on promoting an evolutional culture. This way, managers promote the necessity of changes, also offering the possibility to adapt to the environment, so that three groups of actors should be satisfied: share holders, clients and employees.

In a company, organizational culture helps us understand the differences between what is officially declared by managers and what really happens inside it.

Cultural values influence and even determine, to a large extend the way managers elaborate and take important decisions about the possible directions that a company should follow. Through organizational culture, different rules, procedures, affirmations and declarations are interpreted and applied to.

Company culture is one of the main factors that influence the strategies and conceptions. Results are obtained when company culture is likely to the adopted strategy. Also quality strategy, as a way of the unity to manifest in variety.

Organizational culture is the most important and determinant elements in changes attitude. In comparison with management of an organization, any event or project to make changes that is not comprised in the system of the organization will generate suspicion, moodiness, reluctance, discreditation and defiance. It is important that the cultural difference should be considered, and an action should be taken to make admission possible.

The importance cultural has for the management is that it leads to the improvement of work productivity, exciting employees to integrate. It allows managers to observe, control and shape the behavior of each member of the organization, by describing the symbols, values and conceptions inside the organization. A strong-cultured organization is more able to face complex and tumultuous environments, for the modality to control this situation is more flexible than the administrative control forms.

Culture is a main part in realizing the aims of the organization, its communication, integration and motivation represent cultural devices in achieving the organization aims.

Culture can reduce the consequences caused by a poor system of communication. Common language created by a companys cultural allows employees to integrate the system. The sooner employees integrate, the better the performance of the company. The values and beliefs adopted by the company allow employees to interpret a phenomenon, symbol and gesture in the same way. Culture can create an environment that allows individuals of the organization trust each other. Employees cooperation makes possible achieving personal and organizational objectives.

Adhering to objectives is a motivating factor to engage an action for the members of the organization. Some practices imposed by culture make work valuable. The individual takes part to the organizational objectives, when he considers they bring him personal advantages. Beliefs and values that make-up culture help generating this feeling to the employees.

5.CONCLUSIONS

The impact of the changes the beginning of the 21^st century has on the management of companies, under the conditions of economy integration in the structures of powerful economic countries will manifest by managers of responsabilities regarding:

• providing the companys competivity in the economical european and global context;
• creating a company culture, in order to facilitate and favour change and development by adapting it to the markets requests, by changing the mentality about the individual-collectivity relations, inside and outside the company;
• providing employees satisfaction for the work they are doing,and the prestige of the company by high-ranked quality and productivity.

Origanizational culture will have an important place regarding the future companies. Management is a main factor in creating and consolidating this culture, by supporting the positive evolution of the company.

In order to have a strong company and a superior management, managers on the other levels, and also the employees must take into consideration this untouchable heritage. Their decisions and actions direct the energy generated by the organizational culture to the competitive evolution of the company.

Shaping the culture of the new organizations is a long term process, that shall be completed in several stages : from the constitutive stage to its mature form.

A strong-cultured organization characterizes itself by the existence of homogenous and intense values, adopted by all members and all constitutive groups. These values must correspond to the environment to which the company belongs to.

Culture can have a positive impact on the proficiency of the organization, when the former supports the organizational objectives, is largely assimilated and taken into consideration by all its members.

Organization tempts to create a culture of its own, oriented towards sudden changes. Its members accept and want this change to happen, being sure the organization can change the competitive environment for themselves.

Cultural consolidation aims at selecting and promoting new rituals, symbols, specific languages but also assuring the concordance between the companys performance and its members expectations. The new cultural components must be supported by a developing and consolidation process, whose proficiency depends on the superior management.

The most recommended devices to develop and consolidate culture in an organization are:

• Personal example and advice,
• The criteria used for promotions and status ,
• Selection, promotion, retirement criteria,
• Extension of the practices that devolve from language, rituals, group norms,
• Intense promotion actions; focus on promoting new symbols and cultural values,
• Selection of the personnel regarding the new cultural headquarters,
• Performance correlation in the new cultural type with material and moral rewards.

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