Organizational Culture and Performance

Organizational culture is a personality. It is the essence of how people interact, build rapport and work towards organizational success.  It can be defined as “the self-sustaining pattern of behavior that determines how things are done” (Katzenbach, Oelschlegel and Thomas, 2016). Hence culture is intuitive and composed of repetitive habits that cannot be easily copied nor pinned down.

In the recruitment stage it is essential to determine whether a candidate is culture fit. This is because the company culture is finally a summation of what employees bring in to the organization, their expertise, interests, background and values. A good culture fit employee is likely to sustain and excel in the organization regardless of inherent complexities.

“Culture is driven by leadership, how leaders behave, what they say and what they value drives culture” (Rick, 2015). This directs organization towards a unique social and psychological environment within the workplace. This is why anyone can copy company strategy but nobody is able to copy its’ culture.

Culture and Performance

“An engaged culture marked by high levels of involvement, consistency, adaptability, and a transparent mission improves sales and customer satisfaction” (Pontefract, 2017).  This signifies that a good culture will yield in higher share price, productivity and engagement as well as less employee turnover and absenteeism.

A positive culture is able to make an average person perform brilliantly and succeed whereas a negative culture may degrade outstandingly performing ones and perish. Hence the “key to performance is a strong culture” (Kandula, 2006). “When skillfully managed, culture can be a powerful and enduring source of competitive advantage” (Dewar and Keller, 2012).

Enculturation for a New Beginning

Companies need to welcome newcomers with a plan so that they adjust, sustain and progress without complexities. “Enculturation is a socialization process by which new workers adjust to, and become part of the corporate culture of their new company, office, department or workgroup” (Heathfield, 2019). Some of the activities to successfully achieve this is by communicating vision, mission, principles and values that underlie the organization, clearly conveying the culture and expectations, assigning a mentor who can guide the newcomer through initial phase of adjustment. 

References

Dewar, C. and Keller, S. (2012). Three Steps to a High-Performance Culture. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2012/01/three-steps-to-a-high-performa [Accessed 5 Jun. 2019].

Heathfield, S. (2019). What Makes Up Your Company Culture?. [online] The Balance Careers. Available at: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-makes-up-your-company-culture-1918816 [Accessed 5 Jun. 2019].

Kandula, S. R. (2006). Performance Management. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India private limited.

Katzenbach, J., Oelschlegel, C. and Thomas, J. (2016). 10 Principles of Organizational Culture. [online] strategy+business. Available at: https://www.strategy-business.com/feature/10-Principles-of-Organizational-Culture [Accessed 5 Jun. 2019].

Pontefract, D. (2017). If Culture Comes First, Performance Will Follow. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2017/05/25/if-culture-comes-first-performance-will-follow/#13ac3d3d6e62 [Accessed 5 Jun. 2019].

Rick, T. (2015). What is organizational culture?. [online] Torben Rick. Available at: https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/culture/organizational-culture/ [Accessed 5 Jun. 2019].