Abstract
Organizational culture ensures organizational members understand how they should interact toward achieving their organizational goals. Thus, it affects several variables, such as performance and success. For this reason, organizational leaders must develop organizational cultures that make their members comfortable working (Spicer, 2020). Dysfunctional cultures may make members uncomfortable. For instance, it can lead to conflicts between members and the administration. As this work will explain, organizational leaders must develop approaches to change a dysfunctional culture into a functional one. An organization can use organizational socialization, which entails learning several norms and values that an organization incorporates into its operations. Using this strategy, employees can develop work behavior and ethics, enabling them to implement the norms and values. As the work will explain, an organization can also use stories and language to pass organizational culture concepts to employees. For example, organizational members’ language depicts several things about their culture (Schlaile et al., 2021). Most organizations use formal language to communicate. This work concludes that organizational culture plays a huge role in identifying values and norms that organizational members should adhere to.
Keywords: organizational culture, strategies, socialization, stories, and language.
Introduction
Organizational culture plays a huge role in ensuring that organizational members understand how they should interact toward achieving their organizational goals. Organizational culture affects different organizational aspects, such as performance and success. Leaders should develop organizational cultures that make their members comfortable working (Spicer, 2020). Having a dysfunctional organizational culture would make members uncomfortable. One of the reasons is the conflicting ideas that such a culture would bring to the members. Thus, organizational leaders must develop approaches to change dysfunctional and functional cultures.
Strategies
Organizational Socialization
According to Gareth and Jennifer (2020), organizational socialization entails learning several norms and values that an organization incorporates into its operations. Similarly, employees can develop work behavior and ethics, enabling them to implement the norms and values. One aspect that drives employees into proper organizational socialization is understanding their organization’s visions. Once employees understand their organization’s vision, they can develop work behaviors enabling them to drive toward it. According to Gareth and Jennifer (2020), the best way to incorporate positive organizational socialization is by introducing them to an organization with a vision. They should not start working in a toxic environment, as far as organizational culture is concerned.
Implementation
Implementing this strategy is one of the most challenging aspects of any organization. Organizational leaders should maintain a positive socialization aspect in their organizations. They should start at the entry-level of their members. When the organization has a newcomer, whether an employee or an administrator, the leaders should create a good atmosphere for them (Spicer, 2020). This would eventually help prevent employees from developing negative behaviors with time. Studies also show that employees and administrators can help implement this strategy. For instance, they can make newcomers comfortable by helping them solve conflicts. Employees’ and administrators’ interactions with newcomers greatly determine their ability to learn the value and norms.
Another way to implement organizational socialization is by being confident in employees. This would be a reactive approach to eliminating a dysfunctional culture. In this case, a leader can entrust employees with certain tasks. Trusting employees with tasks and decisions would restore their capabilities (Spicer, 2020). They would feel appreciated, thereby allowing them to showcase their competence, skills, and knowledge regarding what they have been entrusted with. Such cases would also enable leaders to develop ethical working relationships with their organizational members. Ethical relationships have been proven to lead to organizational success. Philippians 4:13 states, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” This means organizational members should believe in themselves and do what they can. Entrusting employees allows them to entrust the leader with information and ideas.
Employee training is also a good way to implement organizational socialization. This case can work for existing employees and newcomers. If the organization has a dysfunctional culture, leaders should develop an education and training program to help employees learn their organizational culture’s role. They should also learn how to structure their work behaviors and ethics to meet organizational expectations. If there are conflicts between the organizational culture and employees’ cultures, leaders should devise a strategy to resolve them. Therefore, existing employees would learn how to prevent the dysfunctional culture from continuing. Newcomers would learn how to work with a functional organizational culture, which they would be ready to develop with the rest of the members. During training, leaders can also incorporate new thinking into the process. This way, existing employees and newcomers can share what they feel would help them learn the organization’s norms and values.
Stories and Language
Gareth and Jennifer (2020) explained that organizations could use stories and language to communicate their culture to other members. For instance, leaders can share stories about the history of their organizations with employees or newcomers. Such stories can inform the members about the origin of certain values and norms. Similarly, members can learn several traits and practices from organizational heroes. For instance, a leader can inform newcomers about the hero who began a given company. Newcomers can learn hardworking, risk-taking, and innovative traits from the hero (Jardioui et al., 2021). Therefore, they would also know what the organization expects from them regarding behaviors and values.
Implementation
Organizations can use stories and language to pass organizational culture concepts to employees. For example, organizational members’ language depicts several things about their culture (Schlaile et al., 2021). Most organizations use formal language to communicate. This helps, especially when such an organization has diverse cultures. The Bible says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed,” for I am your God; “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). This verse teaches organizational members to handle anything that might be challenging, as the Lord will strengthen them.
Similarly, it helps prevent misunderstandings between different parties. Formal language can also be used to showcase respect between members. For instance, one should address an organizational leader formally regardless of age. Therefore, an organization should practice a language that people are comfortable with. It should also identify a formal language that fosters diversity in the workplace.
Stories and language also denote the physical work environment in which members operate. Organizations should create a conducive environment for existing employees and newcomers (Krauss & Vanhove, 2022). One way to do this is by using language and stories. Organizational members, for instance, can interact with newcomers by telling them stories of how good the organization has been. Despite an organization’s dysfunctional culture, its members can inform newcomers of the opposite. This would help create a good image for the newcomers. They (newcomers) will eventually learn to operate in a functional culture, which helps them incorporate several values and norms.
Another aspect that stories and language entail is dressing. According to Gareth and Jennifer (2020), language can also entail an organization’s dress code. Dressing plays a huge role in revealing the organization in which one works. It also depicts a lot about the role and level that one has in an organization. For instance, most formal organizations, such as learning institutions, incorporate the formal dressing. Regardless of the trends in fashion, formal organizations will still recommend formal dressing. One of the reasons for this is that it has been a tradition for most organizations to do so. However, modern organizations, especially those in the tech industry, do not require members to dress formally. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, has always been seen in t-shirts and jeans. Thus, his dress has already sent a message to tech companies worldwide. There is more to an organization apart from the dressing. However, members should not take this for granted.
Conclusion
Organizational culture plays a huge role in identifying values and norms that organizational members should adhere to. Organizational leaders should be at the forefront of developing strategies to enhance functional organizational culture. This works, especially when an organization has a dysfunctional culture. As this work explains, strategies such as organizational socialization and stories and language enable organizations to change dysfunctional cultures into functional ones.
References
Gareth J., & Jennifer G. (2020). Essentials of contemporary management. 9th Edition. McGraw Hill.
Jardioui, M., Garengo, P., & El Alami, S. (2020). How organizational culture influences performance measurement systems in SMEs. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 69(2), 217-235. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-10-2018-0363
Krauss, J., & Vanhove, A. J. (2022). Organizational culture perceptions and change frequency: the moderating effect of members’ hierarchical level in the organization. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 43(2), 302-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-10-2021-0464
Schlaile, M. P., Bogner, K., & Muelder, L. (2021). It’s more than complicated! Using organizational memetics to capture the complexity of organizational culture. Journal of Business Research, 129, 801-812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.09.035
Spicer, A. (2020). Organizational culture and COVID-19. Journal of Management Studies, 57(8), 1737-1740. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12625
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