Managers In Controlling Organizational Culture

INTRODUCTION

All companies in this world have the insatiable desire to become the benchmark of their respective industries. Everyone wants to become a leader of any product line they offer. To be able to do so is never an easy job. It requires a great deal of hard work and intelligence. Group leaders have to do their jobs in order to make necessary adjustments in spearheading the campaign of their corporations. It is a big challenge for business leaders to lift their organizations to the top.

There are no shortcuts. There is a rigorous process that must be followed. The world today is the product of so many industries and corporations. Progress is pursued at a pace dictated by companies who are driven by both vision and ambition. Many visualize catering the demands of consumers and dreams to be the best in answering these demands. Everything in the books which are composed of many different theoretical approaches to business is being applied and tested. The path towards success is a careful process.

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There is a race out there in the local and international market. We are now in an era of the new world order where we are experiencing a free market policy. There has been a presence of a one-world-one-market policy. Freedom of commerce is much more evident and it slowly breaks regionalism and boundaries. We can see now the flourish of multi-national corporations.

Different factories and companies have their own establishments in different places around the world. The challenges for corporations even get getting harder and more complex. Corporations are scrambling real hard to make something out from the ordinary. Business leaders are always thinking ahead of their time to bring new activities and new policies to life. It is the best method to engage in a never ending competition that commerce is known for.

IMPORTANCE OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

“Effective leadership helps our nation through times of peril. It makes a business organization successful. It enables a not-for-profit to fulfill its mission” (Quinn Mills 2005). Leadership and management are important in different aspects of human life. The world’s history is a tale of great leadership and management stories. What the world looks today is a product of the past leaders of civilizations that contributed to the world. “Management of people over the past few hundred years has been based on a controlled paradigm of labeled worthiness. The people with control authority have been given the badges of managers, generals, supervisors, lieutenants, presidents and commanders” (Marshall 2005).

It is of great importance that in every organization, there are competent leaders and managers to guide and be behind its operational undertakings. Leaders and managers facilitate and direct an organization in order to achieve its own goal. The organization relies on the competency of leaders and managers for the majority of their success. The tasks of the organization’s members will be hard to accomplish and their success is hard to attain without the participation of leaders and managers. “Without leadership, organizations move too slowly, stagnate, and lose their way” (Quinn Mills 2005).

Hence, leaders and managers are vital parts of a group or an organization for its operations and for the attainment of its success. Organizational success relies much on management and leadership. The leadership and management teams are the brains behind the operation of the whole organization. They plan and execute the organization’s objectives of attaining success. An organization cannot survive without their management team behind every endeavor.

IMPORTANCE OF A STRONG CORPORATE CULTURE

“In the 1980's, we saw an increase in the attention paid to organizational culture as an important determinant of organizational success.  Many experts began to argue that developing a strong organizational culture is essential for success” (Scholl 2003).  A strong corporate culture is the key for a corporation to attain success in its operation. “Company culture is based on shared values and workplace norms (e.g., innovation, risk-taking) not necessarily personality likenesses.

Company cultures pervade the entire organization, not just certain departments or levels of employees.”(Rao 2003). Organizational culture is the underlying element inside an organization or corporation. “The conception of the desirable that establishes a general direction of action rather than a specific objective. Values are the conscious, affective desires or wants of people that guide their behavior” (Scholl 2003). Organizational culture is one significant element in the attainment of organizational success.

“Culture represents the personality of an organization, having a major influence on both employee satisfaction and organizational success” (Kane-Urrabazo 2006). A strong organizational culture enables an organization or company to confront with challenges effectively from its simple operations to the complex operations such as expanding operations around the world. A strong corporate culture is characterized by cohesiveness and cooperation. Cohesiveness allows a company a smooth running operation, which is essential in attaining success.

Every member is vital and contributes a vital role in the quest to have corporate success in every corporation. The teamwork of members and the leaders and managers is what it takes to be a successful organization. “A strong culture is a system of informal rules that spells out how people are to behave most of the time. In a weak culture, employees waste a good deal of time just trying to figure out what they should do and how they should do it” (Deal ; Kennedy 2000). A kind of culture an organization has impacts the operation of the organization as a whole. “Culture has a vital and measurable impact on the organization’s ability to deliver on its strategy. Thus culture is central for a successful operation and to long-term effectiveness of the company” (Gupta 2007).

“No organization in the 1990s would boast its constancy, sameness or status quo standing compared to ten years ago” (Cameron ; Quinn 1999). Organizations are always in the process of change and innovation. They always evolve. Evolution is greatly connected to an organization’s desire to continuously compete in their respected field of business. If an organization wants to be successful amidst the different demands of time, they must undergo change. “A primary reason for the failure of so many efforts to improve organizational effectiveness is that, whereas the tools and techniques may be present and change strategy is implemented with vigor, failure occurs because the fundamental culture of the organization remains the same”(Cameron and Quinn 1999).

Resistance to change is mostly connected to organizational failures because dynamism of organizations is a must in this changing world. New technologies and strategies emerge in every moment in time and not to adopt these new strategies would mean not being competitive. One prevalent change in today’s business world is the emergence of new technologies that changed how organizations and people inside it produce and function. Many organizations now adopt the digital era in expanding their operations worldwide. No organization wants to be left behind.

ROLE OF MANAGERS IN CHANGING AN ORGANIZATION’S CULTURE

“Culture in an organization is very important, playing a large role in whether or not the organization is a happy, healthy place in which to work. While many managers acknowledge the significance of culture, few realize the roles and responsibilities that they have in its development” (Kane-Urrabazo 2003). Managers are vital in organizational success but to achieve success, most cases banner the need to change organizational culture. Managers then become authors in an organizational change of culture for the purpose of upgrading the level of performance. “Culture is especially influenced by the organization’s founder, executives, and other managerial staff because of their role in decision making and strategic direction” (Heathfield n. d.). The top office are the ones responsible for making an organizational culture.

Managers do have the power to control organizational culture on the company’s bid to be successful. Mangers are tasked to manage and lead at the same time. To lead is to set the goals for an organization to reach. Managers are more involved in the daily undertakings of an organization. Managers makes sure that members are doing the planned things right and to make sure that the whole organization is still in the path set by the leaders. Individuals in an organization have different functions. Managers are to manage individual roles for the company to flourish.

Management focuses more on keeping the functions of individuals settled on their designated jobs. “A manager supervises the actions people take” (Quinn Mills, 2005, p. 19). The manager keeps an eye of the daily undertakings of the organization. “He will study results with the aim to improve his performance as a manager of people” (Pyzdek 2001). A manager is there to look at the whole organization and to find weaknesses and strengths. In this manner, the organization can make the proper plan for adjustments in the future. If something is wrong with the current culture of the organization, the manager will be able to noticed it and make proper recommendations for change.

The managers’ authority enables them to control changes in the organizational culture but of course not an easy job. “Executives in the organization must support the cultural change, and in ways beyond verbal support. They must show behavioral support for the cultural change. Executives must lead the change by changing their own behaviors. It is extremely important for executives to consistently support the change” (Heathfield n. d.). According to Pyzdek (2001), a manager has three sources of power.

These are the authority of office, knowledge and tact. Managers have the authority over employees but still it is not an easy job to manage and lead an entire organization. “A Leader has to make a commitment to his or her vision. People will judge a leader by his or her commitment, and will commit themselves no more than the leader does” (Quinn Mills 2005). The manager in leading people must be a role model. “People look to leaders for queues about what is important in an organization.

The most important thing a leader can do is act in a manner consistent with the desired social value.  When it comes to instilling culture values, “do as a say not as I do” does not work very well.  When organizational members observe a leader making a personal sacrifice for a value, it sends a strong message that this value is important” (Scholl 2003).

The leaders are tasked in general to plan and do the right steps towards organizational success. “Leaders must be able to "sell" their vision and results-orientation to everyone throughout the organization” (Sullivan 2006). It is important that members understand what the mission is all about in order to demand better results from them.

Managers in leading an organization to change its culture to attain success must have the knowledge to educate employees and must have the tact to convince them that change must be done in the organization’s culture in order to attain success. In dealing with the members of the organization almost in a daily basis, the manager must have the proper tools such as appeal and being a paragon to convince the members that the change in culture is reasonable.

An example of a successful organizational culture change that was brought about by managers was the mergence of General Motor’s and Toyota in 1982. Before the merge, General Motors experienced problems regarding quality of production as a product of conflicts with employees and some employees deliberately sabotage the quality of cars being produced. At the merge, the Toyota requested that their managers will be the one to run the plant. The request was granted. “One successful strategy is to not attempt top-down approaches, but adopt more horizontal strategies” (Lakeman 2006).

By creating a strong bond between managers and employees, cooperation and teamwork will rise on a higher level that paves way to a strong organizational culture. “For example, instead of the usual corporate practice of putting employees' names on their doors, our staff offices are identified by their pictures. This personalizes their workspace and gets people interacting quicker.” (Lakeman 2001). In horizontal strategy, there is the atmosphere in the organization of giving freedom to the employees. This would make them feel relaxed at work and able to interact quicker with other employees with no high emphasis on level of position.

“A manager of people understands that people are different from each other. He tries to create for everybody interest and challenge, and joy in work. He tries to optimize the family background, education, skills, hopes, and abilities of everyone. This is not ranking people. It is, instead, recognition of differences between people, and an attempt to put everybody in position for development” (Pyzdek 2001). This is the quality that Toyota managers have. They tried to appreciate and recognize the different skills and abilities of every employee. The Toyota managers gave their employees’ significance.

They gave value to each of the member of the organization. They transformed the company into a company that is team oriented and everyone is vital in its operation because they know that it’s the team that makes success possible. No individual manager can bring an organization all by himself. Success is achieved via the teamwork of all the members of an organization, from the owner and managers down to the lowest of rank. Teamwork is the essence of an organization.

The need to change the organizational culture in the mergence of General Motors and Toyota is indeed inevitable. Prior to the mergence, the General Motors have the culture of instability that is evident in the relationship of the top office and its employees. Some workers deliberately impair production of good quality cars. The managers of Toyota adopted the horizontal strategy.

Every employee was allowed to make their own business cards and make up their own titles. One employee’s business card was titled director of welding improvement. He became inspired with his job because he feels as one who made the cars. There was a dramatic increase in quality of produced cars as a result of the strategy imposed by managers. Many employees also value their contribution to the company. They felt that they are really parts of the craftsmanship of the company. (Cameron and Quinn 1999)

The contention that managers can manipulate and control organizational cultures in order to enhance organizational performance is true. Every organization always wants to be successful. In order to be successful, they must have a good organizational culture. Managers do have the power and ability to control organizational cultures. Managers are the people that were delegated to supervise and guide an organization towards success. Embedded on their tasks as managers is the authority to maintain and even author changes in an organizational culture if necessary.

They are the ones responsible in the quest of an organization to be successful. If managers view a certain organizational culture as productive, they are there to preserve it. If they see it otherwise, they are there to change it. All managers’ desire is to improve organizational performance in order to compete in the market and to be successful in general. This is the task that is endowed to them- achieve organizational success.

CONCLUSION

All companies in this world have the insatiable desire to become the benchmark of their respective industries. The organization relies on the competency of leaders and managers for the majority of their success. It is of great importance that in every organization, there are competent leaders and managers to guide and be behind its operational undertakings. Leaders and managers facilitate and direct an organization in order to achieve its own goal. Organizational success relies much on management and leadership. A strong corporate culture is also another key for a corporation to attain success in its operation.

Organizational culture is the underlying element inside an organization or corporation. A strong organizational culture enables an organization or company to confront with challenges effectively from its simple operations to the complex operations such as expanding operations around the world. Organizations are always in the process of change and innovation. They always evolve. Evolution is greatly connected to an organization’s desire to continuously compete in their respected field of business. If an organization wants to be successful amidst the different demands of time, they must undergo change. Resistance to change is mostly connected to organizational failures because dynamism of organizations is a must in this changing world thus, change is a significant aspect in an organization.

Managers do have the power to control organizational culture on the company’s bid to be successful. Mangers are tasked to manage and lead at the same time. Managers do have the power to control organizational culture on the company’s bid to be successful. Mangers are tasked to manage and lead at the same time. The managers’ authority enables them to control changes in the organizational culture but of course not an easy job. Managers must be a living example of great values and dedication to the company. The managers, no matter how competent they are, still need the support and cooperation of the members and employees.

Therefore, managers do have the ability to control and manipulate the organizational culture in order for a particular organization to be successful. This is evident in the mergence of General Motors and Toyota. The organization became successful with the introduction of new culture by its managers. Embedded on their tasks and duties is the authority to see problems and to make proper changes and adjustments for the betterment of the performance of the whole organization. The contention that managers can manipulate and control organizational cultures in order to enhance organizational performance is true.

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