Organisational Culture Essay Example

In the study of management of organisations, the culture of organisation has become a vital theme in this field. This essay examines why organisational culture is considered as one of the most important factors to organisational success by explain three viewpoints. First is how organisational culture improves the effectiveness of the organisation. Second, organisational culture can be a source of competitive advantage. Third, organisational culture has influence on organisational creativity and innovation. This essay also suggests how managers should manage organisational culture. Due to the debate on stances of organisational culture, whether organisational culture can be managed depends on which stance managers take. In general, organisational culture can be managed, but managers need to highly monitor with this challenge task. Due to the little consensus on the definition of culture, it is difficult to give a exactly notion to define what organisational culture is. In this essay, organisational culture is defined as a set of values, norms, beliefs, standard behaviour and common assumption and expectation shared by members within the organisation that dominate the way in which an organisation operates its business (Barney, 1986).

Culture is one of the most valuable things an organisation has. A right organisational culture can increases effectiveness of the organisation and leads the organisation to success (McShane Olekalns& Travaglione, 2010). Organisational culture conceived as shared norms, practices, beliefs and principles of conduct potentially improves the organisation’s effectiveness by fulfilling three key functions (Bailey, 1995). First, it strengthens social control system. Organisational culture is an embedded form of social control system that influences individuals’ behaviour and decisions. Organisational culture has pervasive effects and operates unconsciously. Organisational culture directing employees to make sure their behaviours are