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Changing organisational culture for making profit

14 Aug 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Every organisation has its own unique culture. It is difficult to say that one culture is better than another. What can be said is whether the culture is appropriate for the needs and circumstances of the organisation or not, the culture of an organisation has an impact on the way in which employees behave and can be taken into consideration for making human resource (HR) policies.

Organisational culture is the pattern of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that may not have been articulated but shape the ways in which people in organisations behave and things get done. In other words, Eldridge and Crombie defined that the culture of an organisation refers to the unique configuration of norms, values, beliefs and ways of behaving that characterize the manner in which groups and individuals combine to get things done. All these definitions clearly prove that the organisational culture can have a significant impact on performance and then profit. Hence, the need for changing the organisational culture has increased.

The strength of an organisational culture reflects on market performance. Furthermore, the way in which employees behave, think and deal with colleagues and customers can decide its performance. Companies with poor culture can never deliver a better service to customers. For instance, a majority of state-owned businesses has been unable to make customers satisfied and compete with the competitors in the market, mainly because of poor organisational culture.

As the culture has been formed over a period of time, it may be the toughest one to be changed. Because culture can be different even within the same business, carefully designed strategies have to be made. For instance, the culture of a marketing department can vary from the culture of a manufacturing department. On the other hand, there may be some common values and norms. However, the components of culture have to be changed for making profit.

Values
Values are important and lasting beliefs shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable and undesirable. Values play a major role in strategy making, because they drive the intent and direction of the organisation’s leadership. What the customer values should be valued by the employees as well. Because the values can be different from time to time, the companies ought to renew their values and make employees aware of it.
Some business organisations, which could not change values, have disappeared in the market. Behaviour is driven by values. Values can vary from business to business and create business uniqueness. The way employees and customers are treated is a part of values. Hence, the core business values must go with customer expectations.

Norms
Norms can be defined as an accepted standard or a way of behaving or doing things with which most people can agree. Norms tell people what they are supposed to be doing, saying, believing and even wearing. Although they are not written, employees are bound by norms. Actually, they are encouraged to work hard by positive norms. Consequently, before the strategies are made, the prevailing norms should be identified. Even some strategies introduced to change culture may not work out because of the invisible power of the norms.

Artefacts
Artefacts are the visible, tangible aspects of an organisation that people hear, see or feel and contribute to their understanding of the organisation’s culture. Some of the artefacts are the language used, the working environment and the way visitors are treated and so forth. As soon as people enter into a company, they get an image of that company based on the artefacts. Therefore, changing the tangible aspects that reflect on culture is of the importance.
Organisational culture can be changed by changing the above components. As soon as General Motors was taken over by Toyota, what Toyota did was that they changed the organisational culture that existed in General Motors. That was the first step at which a loss-making company could be turned into a profit-making company. Hence, positive culture helps managers to recruit highly qualified professionals capable of delivering a better service. This can result in making profits.

(Amila Muthukutti holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Colombo and can be reached at [email protected])

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Changing organisational culture for making profit

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