Characteristics of Organizational Culture
Research shows that there are seven main characteristics which, as a whole, are the essence of organizational culture.
Innovation and courage to take risks. The extent to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and dare to take risks.
Attention to details. The extent to which employees are expected to carry out precision, analysis, and attention to details.
Results orientation. The extent to which management focuses more on results than on the techniques and processes used to achieve these results.
People orientation. The extent to which management decisions consider the effects of these results on people within the organization.
Team orientation. The extent to which work activities in the organization are on teams rather than individuals.
Aggressiveness. The extent to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than relaxed.
Stability. The extent to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in comparison.
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The dominant and subcultural values of the organization
Organizational culture represents a common perception of the members of the organization or in other words, culture is a system of shared meanings. Therefore, the hope built from here is that individuals who have different backgrounds or are at different levels in the organization will understand the culture of the organization in a similar sense.
Most organizations have a dominant culture and many sub-cultures. A dominant culture expresses the core values shared by the majority of members of the organization. When talking about the culture of an organization, it refers to its dominant culture, so this is the macro view of culture that gives its own personality in the organization. Subcultures tend to develop within large organizations to reflect the same problems, situations, or experiences that members face. The subculture includes the core values of the dominant culture plus unique additional values.
If the organization does not have a dominant culture and is only composed of many subcultures, the value of organizational culture as an independent variable will be significantly reduced because there will be no uniform interpretation of what constitutes proper behavior and undue behavior. It is this aspect of shared meaning that makes it a potential tool to guide and shape behavior. That is what allows one to say, for example, that Microsoft's culture values aggressiveness and risk taking and then uses that information to better understand the behavior of Microsoft executives and employees. However, the fact that cannot be ignored is that many organizations also have various sub-cultures which can influence behavior.
Dimensions of Organizational Culture
The culture of the organization can be felt its existence through the behavior of members in the organization. This can be seen from the patterns and also ways of thinking, feeling, responding and guiding the members of the organization in making decisions or other activities in an organization.
Robbins (2008) argues that the implementation of an organizational culture can be assessed with the dimensions of organizational culture. The dimensions of organizational culture are not easily determined but based on empirical studies. The empirical study is usually not done by using a small sample but by using a large sample involving several organizations.
the results were not found cultural dimensions that apply to the general. So that a conclusion can be drawn that understanding organizational culture through its dimensions can describe an organizational culture of an organization.
Formation of Organizational Culture
Robbins (2008) argues is that it takes a long time to establish organizational culture. Once formed, the culture tends to take root, making it difficult for managers to change it.
the culture of the organization is derived from the founding philosophy, which then greatly influences the criteria used in recruiting or employing members of the organization. The actions of top management will determine the general climate of behavior that is both acceptable and not. The level of success in socializing organizational culture depends on the compatibility of the values of new staff with the values of the organization in the selection process or on the preferences of top management to be able to socialize methods.