Management Essay Example: Shaping Cultures and Ethics of the Organization

This literature review is about shaping culture and ethics in an organization. In the article, it is pointed out that strategic management process goes hand in hand with the process of decision-making (Wulf, 2012). However, the flow of information in an organization plays a vital role in enabling decision-making processes in an organization. For one, the culture of an organization could be defined as the principles, values, traditions and the way of doing things in an organization that influenced the way in which organizational acted within their institutions of employment. However, the shared values attitudes, guiding beliefs, ways of thinking have to be supportive of the goals set as part of an institution. This is to mean that the values have to be relevant to the operations of an organization. Culture could also be defined as the ways of conduct and the values that workers shared by being part of their establishments or the common perceptions held by employees in varied establishments. The majority of institutional leaders thought of ethics as something to do with personal scruples or the confidential issues between people and their consciences (Trevino & Nelson, 2011). As such, a good number of institutional managers always treated mishaps at the workplace as isolated occurrences thus considering the perpetrators of the misdeeds rogue employees. In most situations institutional leaders hardly thought of the actuality that some of the mishaps exhibited by their employees in carrying out their undertakings at the workplace may have been caused the institution. Institutional leaders rarely took responsibility for some of the mistakes their employees made at the workplace even if some of these flaws might have been instigated by the way employees were treated at their place of work. Amongst the majority of institutional leaders, ethics did not have anything to do with management.

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There have been numerous definitions of organizational culture in the past by different books and authors. However, organizational culture can be broken down and defined as the system of values, believes and assumptions that are shared by individuals in an establishment. The values that are shared by everyone in an organization are intended to influence the employees or those within the organization, and give a general direction on how employees were expected to behave or even dress and how people were expected to perform their duties (Bachmann, 2017). It is important to note that every organization can develop its own unique culture that gives a general directive on boundaries and guidelines amongst employees. The directives would point out how employees were required to conduct themselves, which in most cases would be in line with the organizations long-term vision, goals, and objectives.

What are the major elements and dimensions that define culture in an organization?

The culture in an organization is built up of seven components that vary in priority. Every organization has a unique value they attached as part of their daily operations. There were particular organizations whose major focus was always on the outcomes of the tasks undertaken by their employees and not on the strategies individuals employed in achieving distinctive goals and desires at the workplace (Fairholm, 1994). Similarly, other institutions placed a lot of emphasis and focus on the value of the culture they adopted as part of their establishments. For example, a company that gave its sales team the liberty to do what it takes to get sales orders was one that placed a lot of emphasis on the outcome of their company operations as opposed to the strategies people employed in attaining their desires.

Precision orientation, also known as attention to detail is a component of the culture of an organization that dictated the extent to which members of staff were required to exhibit accuracy in their work (Daft & Lane, 2015). Organizations that had this type of culture expected their employees to be precise in carrying out their duties thus minimizing the likelihood of making mistakes in the duties they were assigned to undertake.

Innovation is a culture that encourages employees to take risks and be inventive in undertaking their duties at the organization. Organizations that placed a low value on employee innovation expected their employees to continue doing their tasks by abiding by the routine old-fashioned ways of conducting institutional operations (Schein, 2010). Organizations that organized work to be done in teams instead of individual employees exhibited their increased affiliation to the teamwork type of culture. Research shows that employees who worked in organizations that embraced the notion of teamwork developed better relationships with their managers, and fellow workers. Competitive orientation also referred to as aggressiveness, is a culture that would require employees to be assertive and less easy going when it comes to dealing with competition in the market setting. Such companies always worked towards developing strategies they could put to play in alleviating increased levels of competition in their surroundings.

How does communication style define business culture?

Nevertheless, there were several benefits of organizational culture to an institution, and its publics. The fact that individuals shared a common culture in an organization helped in creating a unified bond between employees from different cultures within an institute. Many employees in diverse institutes did not share the same backgrounds, traditions and families. As such, the majority of persons had their own ways of life or cultures despite the actuality that these individuals were still required to work together to achieve the goals of their establishments (Mele, 2009). Developing an environment in which people from distinctive backgrounds could experience a sense of understanding and unity amongst fellow employees is imperative for the prosperity of any organization. Similarly, employees within companies that experienced success in their operations were given access to an environment that was conflict free and an environment in which there was proper communication between employees and employees and between employees and their bosses. Common culture provided a neutral environment that brought about equality by making sure that no employee was treated better than the others were or some neglected at the workplace.

Impact of flow of information to culture

With adequate information flow in an institution, employees would know the tasks they were expected to execute in their institutions and the way their company expected them to conducted themselves at the institution.

Impact of communication break-down to culture?

However, in an institution in which people experienced problems in communication, most employees would fail to know the actual tasks they were expected to take part in at the institution. Similarly, confusion is bound to surface in situations whereby two superiors gave contradictory instructions to their employees due to lack of proper communication in an institution.

What is cross-cultural communication?

Cross-cultural communication could be defined as the exchange of information between persons or groups of people from different cultural backgrounds to create understanding.

What role does individual personality play in the culture?

The way people conducted themselves in their place of work helped a great deal in defining the cultural values that were upheld in an institution. People with an aggressive personality would always interrupt smooth operations in establishments by thinking that they were better than their colleagues were. If customers were to interact with aggressive employees, they would develop the notion that aggressiveness was the attitude of all employees in the company. Such tendencies of aggressiveness may also influence other employees to also become aggressive if such an attitude is not dealt with in due course.

Is there a defined personality trait of a productive employee?

It is undoubted that there is no one defined personality trait of a productive employee. This is because productive employees are always respectful, good listeners, and hardworking in all the activities they engaged in at work.

What are the links between individual personality and values to the workplace?

If in any case employees in a company carried out their undertakings in a more respectful manner then they would be able to influence other employees to adopt the same virtues to feel like they had a sense of belonging.

1.3 What common values should the organization share?

Proper values should be taught to individuals in any part of the society. This is because a corrupt person is someone who would ignore ethics, values, and culture. It is important for employees to be enlightened on the significance of ethics and culture. It is undoubted that values would only be instilled in employees and incorporated as part of institutions when they were practiced often, and not when they were embraced for a short while. Employees always followed what individuals in management positions did rather than what they said. Therefore, if the behavior among people in management positions were inconsistent or not in line with what was expected in their institutions then the integrity within such institutes was lost. Such leaders could never influence positive culture and ethics in their organizations (Walker, 2011). An organization could only develop inner value in ethics and culture through application. However, most institutional leaders did not know how to develop ethically. Most leaders only had the academic knowledge of ethics, but when it came to practicing ethics, they did not have any ideas concerning how to develop their organizations. After observing different leaders in different industries, one would notice quite a number of different values that most institutional heads shared. Amongst these values were honesty, integrity, benevolence, dedication to purpose, strength of character, humility, patience, and social justice. However much these attributes could be learned, most of the attributes mentioned above had a biblical origin, and a spiritual foundation. Subsequently, those who integrated faith in the workplace were often perceived as more ethical and cultured. Therefore, it is without doubt that people who embraced ethical standards originated from a background of faith.

1.3.1 What effect does the values and attributes of the culture have on business?

Values and attributes of culture create a sense of unity in the workplace thus enabling employees to work together for the common good of their institutes.

1.3.2 Does the environment and organizational structure reflect those values?

The environment within which institutions were operated and the organizational structure helped individuals in learning more about the values of an institution. Culture is the deep structures of organizations that guided individuals ways of conduct in their places of work. Ethics and culture in an organization could influence and enhance the performance of an organization. Ethical standards and culture of an organization could also help in promoting the feeling of satisfaction among employees and the confidence of employees in solving dissimilar problems they encountered in their surroundings. In case of internal and external positive changes in the environments in which establishments were operated that in one way or another affected, the activities of institutions then establishments were to change accordingly to accommodate the positive changes in their surroundings even if that meant changing their values. An essential part of ethics and culture in the business environment is what is known as managerial ethics. Managerial ethics is defi...