Organization Culture

Topic: Does a strong organizational culture increase the overall performance of a firm? Why? Support your arguments with organizational example(s).
Introduction
As Barney, J.B. (1986) indicates, “Organizational culture can be defined as a system of common values and beliefs that are held and shared by the members in an organization. It is also a valuable resource which can improve the competitiveness of a company and be used to distinguish the company. A strong organizational culture means from top managers to front-line employees sharing the same beliefs and values. Over the past decades, there is an increase of importance of organizational culture and its become one of the critical and influential factors that affects the overall performance of a firm.
Strong Organizational Culture: Google’s case
Google was one of the companies that successfully blended technological innovation with strong organizational culture. In the following paragraphs, we can see the comparative advantages of Google compared with other technology companies in terms of recruitment system, working environment and management.
Recruitment system
A company organizational culture plays an important role in its success. For example, when recruiting people, Google focuses on people who give preference to team goals rather than personal goals. Google employs technology professionals worldwide and set up team to let them work together, explore and exchange ideas. Google will give the teams’ complete freedom regarding their projects so that employees can exert their creativity. That is why Google can attract the majority of talented engineers in IT industry.
Working environment People are impressed by Google’s relaxing and flexible culture. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory that human needs physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization, Google meets high level needs. Google top management uses people orientated approach to motivate employees to commit organization goal and enhance overall performance. Human and Resource Department of Google always find ways to optimize their employees in terms of happiness and performance and they focus on making a great and relaxing working culture in which employees can enjoy in the desirable working atmosphere.
Management
Besides, the roles of managers have been changed and are developed to open communication across organizations. Instead of keeping controls or giving commands, sharing ideas and trusting others as well as being concentrated on Google’s goals are more preferred in light of the concept of empowerment. Larry Page, the CEO of Google said “If you want to run a great business, you need great people. One way to draw them there and keep them is by making their work fun.” Therefore, Google does not view their culture as a “set it and forget it” plan but keep on changing and maintaining their work place. This leads Google to become a top performing company.
Weak organizational culture: BlackBerry’s case
The definitions of culture described that culture as historical, including beliefs, values and norms that guide the action of cultural members, as being learned and as an abstraction from behavior and products of behavior (Keesing - Strathern 1998, Kroeber - Kluckhohn 1952). Therefore, organizational culture has been identified as an influential factor affecting the successes and failures of organizational change efforts. What is the result of a weak organization culture? A declining company, BlackBerry will be used to illustrate how a weak organizational culture affects the company overall performance.
Poor Motivation
Secondly, weak organizational culture cannot motivate employees. Employee’s motivation is the combination of fulfilling the employee's needs and expectations from work and the workplace factors that enables employee be satisfied. However, Blackberry fails to understand that a clear mission and vision of a company which is an important factor to motivate. It lacks skills and knowledge to boost up employee moral which lowers the productivity of company as a whole.
Suggestions
In order to redevelop and compete with Apple and Samsung, BlackBerry need to build corporative cultures from top managers to front-line employees. As organizational culture needs to be seen as contested, changing and emergent, and researchers should examine how meanings are created and recreated in organizations. (Avison – Myers 1995, Czarniawska-Joerges 1992, Lucas 1987, Robey – Azevedo 1994.)
Counter Argument on strong organizational culture: Foxconn’s case
Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer measured by revenues. It produces approximately 40% of the world’s electronics items like Apple’s iPhone and iPad and employs more than three 300,000 workers in China’s factory with extremely poor working condition dubbed “Foxconn City”. It is obvious that Foxconn has a strong organizational culture as the firm overall performance is great in terms of profits. However, Foxconn’s organizational culture is not generally accepted. In the following paragraphs, we can see its culture in terms of working environment and management.
Working Environment
Foxconn hires a huge number of dirty cheap employees who are peasant workers at the “hell factory” in China. Most of them are discriminated due to their poor educational backgrounds and hence deprive them from basic human rights. Workers need to stay in terrible and limited space to work for more that 60 hours per week which violate the China’s legal hour’s limit of 40 hours per week. They have low wages and do not receive overtime compensation. Managers emphasize on tasks orientation and treat workers harshly and inhumanity to enhance productivity. The working environment is extremely poor as there are no safety regulations. The air quality in the factories is poor and they always need to sit in the hot area doing the same thing everyday. Employees can not feel security working in the unhealthy environment. Managers treat employees badly and control them to produce in a fast pace to meet the production target to increase sales. All these conditions make the Foxconn sweatshop.
Management
With reference to Administrative Management Theory (Henri Fayol’s Principle of Management), Foxconn has standardized policies and regulation to monitor and control workers to let them know the organization goal. It imposes external control such as banners with big words to remind workers their responsibility and the company goal. It is a kind of brain-washing approachs letting workers blindly follow the top managers’ requests. According to Hofestede’s Framework, China has high power distant. There is an extremely unequal distribution between managers and workers.
Strong organizational culture also leads to problems
However, there are unintended problems under Foxconn’s strong but negative organizational culture. Within a few months in 2010, a cluster of suicides happened in Foxconn, 14 young migrants workers jumped from Foxconn campus which arouse the worldwide outcry about the sweatshop in China. It reflects that pushing workers under strict control will bring negative impacts. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory that human needs physiological, safety, social, Foxconn cannot provide workers with low level of needs as the working environment make workers life in danger.
Conclusion
In the last two decades, organizational culture of companies becomes an important managerial approach with great implications. Organizations can learn the successfully factors of Google (a strong organizational culture to control the whole company) and avoid high pressure approach like Foxconn who suffers serious consequences and the image of the company is spoiled.