Culture And Structure

Some form of organizational culture and structure exist in every organization. Successful organizations are often credited with having an appropriate organizational culture and/or structure in place that allows them to reach success. Many companies can believe that they have the needed structure in place to assure success; yet they fail where others succeed. Some work very well, and some just do not work at all. For any organizational culture and structure to function properly, it seems as though alignment within the organization towards these end goals is necessary. In organizations, upper management determines the company vision (its desired end state) as well as its mission and strategy to achieve this ultimate goal. The ability of an organization's culture to motivate employees and increase its effectiveness is directly related to the way in which members learn the organization's values.

Organizational structure controls how people and groups cooperate and interact to achieve goals. The principal task of organizational structure is to encourage people to work hard to coordinate their efforts to ensure high levels of organizational performance (George & Jones 2005, p. 6). It plays an important role in day-to-day functions of an organization. The delegation of authority, work specialization, and employee reporting framework are some of the elements that help determine what the organizational structure should be. An efficient structure will facilitate decision-making and smooth the span of control or scope managers have over operations.

Organizational culture can be defined as the set of shared values, beliefs, and norms that influences the way employees think, feel, and behave toward each other and toward people outside the organization. As noted in Schein's view, culture is "a pattern of shared basic assumptions a group learns as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that is considered valid, is taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems" (George & Jones 2005, p. 535). It includes routine behaviors, norms, dominant values, and a feeling or climate conveyed. The purpose and function of this culture is to help foster internal integration, bring staff members from all levels of the organization much closer together, and enhance their performance.

Edgar H. Schein notes in his paper Organizational Culture & Leadership that there are five guidelines for the leader:

1. Don't oversimplify culture or confuse it with climate, values, or corporate philosophy. Culture underlies and largely determines these other variables. Trying to change values or climate without getting at the underlying culture will be a futile effort.

2. Don't label culture as solely a human resources (read "touchy-feely") aspect of an organization, affecting only its human side. The impact of culture goes far beyond the human side of the organization to affect and influence its basic mission and goals.

3. Don't assume that the leader can manipulate culture as he or she can control many other aspects of the organization. Culture, because it is largely determined and controlled by the members of the organization, not the leaders, is different. Culture may end up controlling the leader rather than being controlled by him or her.

4. Don't assume that there is a "correct" culture, or that a strong culture is better than a weak one. It should be apparent that different cultures may fit different organizations and their environments, and that the desirability of a strong culture depends on how well it supports the organization's strategic goals and objectives.

5. Don't assume that all the aspects of an organization's culture are important, or will have a major impact on the functioning of the organization. Some elements of an organization's culture may have little impact on its functioning, and the leader must distinguish which elements are important, and focus on those.

Organizationally, if Green River can incorporate these forces, the ability of the organization's culture to motivate employees and increase its effectiveness will be directly related to the way in which members learn the organizations values. As the organization's culture matures, employees will learn the pivotal values and norms from the organization's formal socialization practices and from the signs, symbols, stories, rites, ceremonies and organizational language that develop informally. Organizational culture is shaped by the interaction of four main factors: the personal and professional characteristics of people within the organization, organizational ethics, the nature of employment relationship, and the design of its organizational structure. These factors work together to produce different cultures in different organizations and cause changes in culture over time.

Green River's culture can change