Overview

As the title suggests, this post is focused on identifying how organizational culture is benefiting an organization but at the same time how it becomes an obstacle in certain circumstances. Although there can be many advantages and disadvantages of organizational culture, this post consists of the key benefits and limitations of organizational culture.

Benefits

• Creates a distinctive image of the organization that separates it from others

When two cultures of two companies are considered in the same industry, it is never the same even though they may have some common features (El-Sayed et al., 2021). From visible artifacts to invisible factors each company has its unique culture because it is formed with the ideologies of the founders, shaped by the leaders and maintained by the social interactions of employees with each other (Janićijević, 2011).

The organization culture makes the employees feel as if they are part of a family which encourages teamwork and commitment (Sun, 2008). It also gives them a sense of being in their own consistent comfort zone (Janićijević, 2011).

As individuals, people are more concerned about one’s own growth and success but the organizational culture unifies employees to think that working as a team for the organization is beneficial not just for themselves but for the organization as a whole (Robbins and Judge, 2013). Similarly, (Kushwaha and Rao, 2015) suggests that organizational culture aids in internal integration of the corporation to work as a group.

• Certain cultures create an innovative environment for employees

Zafar et al, (2016) asserts that some organizations like technological companies need to change regularly to the external environment, so a culture that promotes innovation is created. Zennouche and Zhang (2014), similarly suggests that innovation is not just about creating new products or technology but building a culture that encourages new ideas of employees in the decision making, problem solving ideas and new product development.

• Culture provides a framework inside which employees should work 

The organizational culture guides the employees on how their behavior is rewarded or punished based on the adapted organizational culture of the organization and determines the boundaries of their behavior (Allameh, 2010).

Video 1 consists of how “Apple Inc.” has used the benefits of organizational culture to create a distinct innovative culture which attracts best skills and retains the employee satisfaction which makes them succeed in the competitive market.

 Video 1: An insight in to the Organizational Culture of “Apple Inc.”

Source: (Learn and Transform, 2013)

Limitations

• Resistance to change  

A strong culture doesn’t like to change as they are already satisfied with the results of the current culture and avoid taking risks due to the feeling of insecurity (Blanc and Ramona, 2016). However, if the current culture hinders the performance or the effectiveness of the organization it is vital for the organization to change its culture to yield better results and survive. Employees who are attached to the current culture may resist changes and hinder the transformation journey (Karapancheva, 2020).

With growing importance of diversity in the organizational context, most organizations are recruiting and selecting individuals with differences in race, gender, religion, nationality, disabilities, personalities, cognitive style and education (Patrick and Kumar, 2012).

Nevertheless, if the majority of the company and values differ from the new recruits, they try to adapt or ‘fit-in’ to the culture of the company usually not expressing their concerns or not participating in giving ideas from their own point of view as their opinions are suppressed (Chuang et al., 2004). The existing employees might also discriminate new recruits who are outside or new to the organization culture (Sezerel and Tonus, 2016).

• Resistance for mergers and acquisitions 

Mergers and acquisitions are a widely followed form of integration as in the theoretical perspective, they provide a lot of advantages but a question arises in terms of organizational cultural integration (Aristos et al., 2018). It is a tedious task of bringing two very distinctive cultures together with the employees (Weber and Tarba, 2012).

If the organizational culture conflicts were not present, it may have been a successful merger but bringing forward a new organizational culture in alignment with a national culture is a very hard task and sometimes results in failure if proper strategies are not used (Remanda, 2016).

Even though limitations exist in an organizational culture, it is possible to avoid them if organizations analyze, plan their strategies ahead taking in to account that all individuals are not the same and finally communicate it to the employees in a transparent manner (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Video 2 includes seven strategies crucial to overcome resistance to change in an organizational culture.

 Video 2: Strategies to overcome resistance to change

 References

Allameh, M., Zamani, M. and Davoodi, S. (2010). The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Knowledge Management. A Case Study: Isfahan University. Procedia Computer Science. 3(2011). pp. 1224-1236.

Aristos, D., Georgios, S., Chalikias, M. and Kyriakopoulos, G. (2018). The impact of mergers and acquisitions on corporate culture and employees: The case of Aegean & Olympic Air. Academy of Strategic Management Journal. 17(1). pp. 1-13.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 13^th edn. London: Kogan Page.

Blanc, G. and Ramona, T. (2016). Change, Resistance to Change and Organizational Cynicism. Studies in Business and Economics. 11(3). pp. 47-54. doi: 10.1515/sbe-2016-0034.

Chuang, Y., Church R. and Zikic, J. (2004). Organizational culture, group diversity and intra-group conflict. Team Performance Management. 10(1).pp.26-34. 10.1108/13527590410527568.

El-Sayed, M., Wahba, M., Ragheb, M. and Elgharabawy, A. (2021). The Impact of Job Commitment on the Relationship between Organizational Culture and Sustainable Development. Open Access Library Journal. 8. pp.1-28. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1106998.

Forward Focus. (2016). 7 Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to Change. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9ulQvQdBQY (Accessed: 16th April 2021).

Janićijević, N. (2011). Methodological Approaches in the Research of Organizational Culture. Economic Annals. 56(189). pp. 69-99. doi:10.2298/EKA1189069J.

Karapancheva, M. (2020). The Future of Organizational Culture. Journal of Sustainable Development. 10(25). pp. 42-52.

Kushwaha, P. and Rao, M, (2015). Integrative role of KM infrastructure and KM strategy to enhance individual competence: Conceptualizing knowledge process enablement. Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems. 45(3). pp. 376-396. doi: 10.1108/VINE-02-2014-0014.

Learn and Transform. (2013). Corporate Culture Apple Example. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcHpgsTg458&t=97s (Accessed: 14^th April 2021).

Patrick, H. and Kumar, V. (2012). Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges. SAGE Open Journals. 2(2). pp. 1-15. doi: 10.1177/2158244012444615.

Remanda, L. (2016). A Review of Organizational Culture in Mergers and Acquisition process. Journal of Media Critics. 2(8). pp. 100-110. doi: 10.17349/jmc116206.

Robbins, S. and Judge, T. (2013). Organizational Behavior. 15^th edn. United States: Pearson Education.

Sezerel, H. and Tonus, H. (2016). The effects of the organizational culture on diversity management perceptions in hotel industry. Journal of Human Resource Management. 19(2). pp. 1-17.

Sun, S. (2008). Organizational Culture and its themes. International Journal of Business and Management. 3(12). pp. 137-141. doi:10.5539/ijbm.v3n12p137.

Weber, Y. and Tarba, S. (2012). Mergers and acquisitions process: the use of corporate culture analysis. Cross Cultural Management Journal. 19(3). pp. 288-302. doi: 10.1108/13527601211247053.

Zafar, H., Hafeez, M. and Shariff, M. (2016). Relationship between Market Orientation, Organizational Learning, Organizational Culture and Organizational Performance: Mediating Impact of Innovation. South East Asia Journal of Contemporary Business, Economics and Law. 9(2). pp. 40-56.

Zennouche, M. and Zhang, J. (2014). Evolution of Leadership and Organizational Culture Research on Innovation Field: 12 Years of Analysis. Open Journal of Social Sciences. 2. pp.388-392. doi: 10.4236/jss.2014.24044.