F.Y.

MCOM (SEMESTER 1)

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2021-22

SUBMITTED BY

SAIKUMAR SHRIPAD SAWANT

FIRST YEAR M.COM. ADVANCED ACCOUNTANCY

ROLL NO: HFPMCAA053

NAME OF THE SUBJECT: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

PROJECT REPORT ON

“Organisational Culture: initiatives taken to make it better”

H.R. COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND ECONOMICS

VIDYASAGAR PRINCIPAL K.M. KUNDNANI CHOWK

123, D.W. ROAD

CHURCHGATE. MUMBAI-400 020

2021-22

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

SR.NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 4
3. DEFINITIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 5
4. DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 6
5. COMMON STRATEGIES— AND WHY THEY FAIL 7
6. BUILDING A BEST ORGANIZATION CULTURE 8
7. CONCLUSION 11
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY 12

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 INTRODUCTION

A number of definitions of organizational culture have been offered; however, if

managers and employees are consulted they may simply respond that culture is “how
we do things around here”. There is obviously truth to such a statement but it would be
a mistake to ignore the breadth and scope of the issues that are influenced by an
organization’s cultural norms and values—how activities within the organization are
carried out, how members communicate with one another, who is accepted into the
organization and who is ostracized, and what is the organization’s overall morale. The
culture of a particular organization is created and maintained by its members, particularly
the founders and senior managers, based on a variety of influencing factors—both
external and internal—and they are also the ones who can change and transform the
culture when they are convinced that such actions are necessary in light of the then-
current environment that the organization is facing. Organizational culture should not be
underestimated and research has indicated that the culture of an organization has a
strong influence on how the organization tackles problems and questions, sets strategy
and creates the structures that determine the work activities and relationships of
organizational members and also on how members behave when carrying out their
organizational activities. There is no single culture that is universally appropriate for all
organizations and there is clearly substantial diversity with respect to the dominant
cultural attributes among successful and effective organizations. The challenge is to
construct a culture that fits well with the overall strategic goals and objectives of the
organization and hopefully becomes a core competency for the organization and can be
used to distinguish it from competitors in the minds of customers and prospective
members.

Managing employee performance is a key part of effective leadership. Research has

shown that managers who engage in effective performance management produce
extraordinary business results compared with those who do not. One study
demonstrated 50 percent less staff turnover, 10 to 30 percent higher customer
satisfaction ratings, 40 percent higher employee commitment ratings and double the net
profits.

But many organizations struggle to realize these benefits. When asked what purpose
performance management should serve in organizations, employees, managers and HR
professionals alike cite important outcomes such as improving performance
effectiveness and results, developing employees, and facilitating communication and
information exchange between employees and managers.

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 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objectives of the study are:

• Explain various definitions of organizational culture.

• Explain the dimensions of organizational culture.
• Explain why Common Strategies Fail
• Explanation on building a best organization culture.

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Definitions of organizational culture

Not surprisingly, there is no generally accepted definition of “organizational culture” and

scholars from a diverse range of disciplines such as sociology and anthropology have
treated culture as something that is implicit in social life and which emerges over
extended periods of time as individuals interact with one another and begin to organize
themselves as identifiable social groups (e.g., tribes, communities, companies, non-profit
organizations, states and countries). Experts in management science and organizational
behavior and communication see organization culture as an explicit product of the choices
that a group of people make with respect to accepted behavior as they interact with one
another and key stakeholders outside of the organization (e.g., customers, suppliers and
regulators) and attempt to develop ways to confront their broader social environment.

1. Hill and Jones offered a definition of organizational culture as "the specific collection of
values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that
control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the
organization".
2. Schein defined organizational culture as: "[a] pattern of shared basic assumptions that
the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal
integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be
taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to
those problems".

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Dimensions of organizational culture

A wide range of models of dimensions of organizational cultures have been proposed,

often accompanied by suggestions on how organizational leaders can use the various
dimensional models in connection with their efforts to assess and evaluate their
organizational cultures and implement changes to those cultures that might lead to
improvements in productivity, efficiency and other tangible measures of “organizational
performance”. Many of these models were developed by Western researchers looking at
organizational activities and behaviors within firms launched and operating in the
developed world. Among those researchers that have proposed models intended to have
applicability across all types of societies—developed and developing—the ideas of
Hofstede and the research team overseeing the Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness project, commonly referred to as “GLOBE”, have received most of
the attention.

Hofstede, who is best known for his work in studying how national and regional cultural
characteristics (i.e., “societal culture”) impact organizational behaviour, also conducted
smaller studies that focused on organizational culture and identified the following
dimensions of organizational culture that could be used a descriptive framework for
organizational cultures: process-oriented versus results-oriented; job-oriented versus
employee-oriented; professional versus parochial; open systems versus closed systems;
tight versus loose control; and pragmatic (flexible) versus normative (rigid). Hofstede
acknowledged that his specific research base (20 organizations or parts of organizations,
ranging from a toy manufacturing company to municipal police corps, in the Netherlands
and Denmark) was too narrow to credibly argue for the universal validity and sufficiency
of the six dimensions that he identified and noted that additional dimensions may be
necessary or some of the six may be less useful in other countries and/or when analyzing
other types of organizations. In fact, while the organizations that he studied did evidence
widely divergent perceptions of daily practices he was only able to uncover “modest”
differences in values after taking into account the effect of non-organizational factors
such as nationality, education, age and gender.

The researchers involved in the GLOBE project on cross-cultural aspects of leadership

assessed nine cultural dimensions derived from a number of sources including Hofstede
and others identified in an extensive literature review.8 In contrast to Hofstede, the
GLOBE researchers worked from the perspective that “societal and organizational cultures
can be described using the same dimensions, recognizing that these dimensions can have
somewhat different psychological meanings at the different levels of analysis”.9 However,

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they conceded that when organizational, as opposed to societal, culture was the primary
subject of interest “there is no need to constrain the dimensions of organizational culture
to map onto the dimensions of societal culture” and then reported that exploratory factor
analyses of the responses to the questions on the GLOBE questionnaire to organizational
level items led them to identify the following, smaller, set of factors that might be more
appropriate when attempting to construct a list of organizational culture dimensions:
organizational collectivism/commitment; humane orientation; assertiveness; a
combination of uncertainty avoidance and future orientation; gender egalitarianism; and
individualism collectivism.

Common Strategies— and Why They Fail

Most performance management strategies focus on developing improved rating tools and
processes— including various rating formats, different rating criteria, more elaborate
process steps and using raters with disparate points of view. An implicit assumption is
that specific tools and carefully prescribed steps in a formal system will lead to effective
performance management. In the end though, these attempts to improve performance
management have ended up reducing it to an administrative drill that lacks real value.
Unfortunately, negative attitudes among managers and employees toward their
performance management systems have spawned the vicious cycle of attempting
improvements, followed by disappointing results, leading to continuous reinvention of
these systems. The great amount of research that has been devoted to performance
management without yielding success speaks volumes about how inherently difficult it is.

Figure 2 graphically demonstrates a common pitfall: Although performance management

processes are designed to drive effective behavior, they more often end up motivating
intermittent spurts of activity, spiking a few times a year.

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Building a Best Organization Culture

Several factors influence the likelihood that managers and employees will practice effective
performance management behaviour:

■ The extent that they believe performance management is essential to getting work done.

■ The quality and trust of the manager-employee relationship.

■ How well the company reinforces successful performance management behaviour as a

key business strategy.

Figure 4 shows a four-step process to help organizations trying to build and sustain a high-
performance culture. The steps focus on changing perceptions and training, reinforcing,
and ensuring that effective behaviour is integrated into the corporate culture.

Rather than trying to improve performance management tools and processes,

focus instead on creating a high-performance culture by improving the frequency
and effectiveness of performance management behaviour.

STEP 1: MOTIVATE CHANGE

An important first step in building a high-performance culture is to assess where the

organization currently stands. Does the company already have a culture that values
excellence, strives for success, seeks feedback, and embraces continuous learning and
development? The second step is to evaluate the extent to which both managers and
employees currently engage in effective performance management behaviour.

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In organizations that already embrace a high-performance culture, employees will more
readily understand these concepts, making changes in behaviour easier to achieve.
Organizations that do not have a performance mindset will require more time and effort
before they are able to demonstrate significant improvements in behaviour. Assessing a
firm’s culture provides a roadmap to the extent and type of change needed. Culture
assessments also provide a benchmark for tracking progress during and after
implementation, serving as a helpful tool for organizational feedback.

Figure 5 explains the Examples of Strategies to Improve Performance Management

STEP 2: LAY FOUNDATION

Scale Back Burdensome Demands

Regarding what system or process to implement, the key is to ensure that the associated
tools and steps support the ultimate goals of the organization. By focusing on completing
forms and steps within prescribed time frames, current performance management
processes tend to detract from effective behaviour. In fact, achieving a high- performance
culture that reinforces day-to-day behaviour means de-emphasizing, streamlining and
minimizing administrative requirements. We offer several examples below of how current
formal systems could be scaled back to better support effective performance management
behaviour.

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Most formal performance management systems contain a number of steps and processes
that have been shown to be difficult and time-consuming to implement well. These include
things like cascading goals, SMART goals set at the beginning of the rating period,
numerical ratings on a large number of competencies, and mandatory review meetings,
among others. Although these activities can add value in certain situations, they generally
tend to contribute to intermittent and cyclical behavior rather than to the ongoing, day-
today behavior that is necessary for a high-performance culture. To combat this problem,
evaluate each step of an organization’s formal process for the results it is producing, with
an eye toward eliminating steps, activities and requirements that fail to reinforce key
leadership behaviors.

STEP 3: SUSTAIN BEHAVIOR

Provide Tools and Resources to Drive Behaviour

After introducing the concepts underlying effective performance management through

formal training, the next crucial step is to incorporate tools and features that build and
reinforce productive behaviours.

On-the-job performance management aids are useful to strengthen skills learned in

training. For example, an aid might be developed that lists a manager’s primary
responsibilities in the performance management process. Such aids tend to be succinct “at
a glance” tools, and as such, they are usually most beneficial following formal training.
The advantage of such aids is that they can be used at an employee’s discretion.

Other tools that help keep performance management at the forefront of employees’ and
managers’ minds on a daily basis include things like cartoons-of-the-day and messages
from leadership, which can be sent to employees’ desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

STEP 4: MONITOR AND IMPROVE

Hold Leaders Accountable for Continuous Improvement

To drive enculturation of performance management behaviour, short pulse surveys are

useful for collecting feedback about the extent to which employees believe that their
managers are providing them with growth opportunities on the job, setting expectations
that make performance requirements clear and providing effective feedback that helps
them develop. Providing the results of these surveys to managers drives accountability
and helps guide behaviour adjustments.

Organizations serious about building high-performance cultures, like Google, not only
evaluate manager effectiveness but also provide coaches for those who need additional

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support. In turn, managers should periodically check in with employees, assessing and
discussing how well they are engaging in the process.

Building a performance management culture is not something that will happen overnight.
Rather, it can take considerable time, even years, for enculturation of sustainable change.
What will help drive a high-performance culture are ongoing evaluation, feedback and
improvement of the system as a whole. Pulse surveys directed to individual managers can
be aggregated so that metrics can be tracked at an enterprise level. Reporting these
results should further motivate the frequency and effectiveness of the leadership
behaviours we have been discussing. In addition, we recommend evaluating the extent to
which the new performance management practices are affecting bottom-line business
results as well as perceptions about the value of performance management.

Figure 12 below explains the simple evaluation metrics:

CONCLUSION:

• Remember, that the best culture makes all employees feel safe and welcome, never
excluded or uncomfortable.
• Focusing on "culture fit” alone makes it difficult to hire and welcome employees who
are different than the prevailing culture, even if they’d be an asset and great
counterbalance at your company.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. https://www.shrm.org/foundation/ourwork/initiatives/resources-from-past-
initiatives/Documents
2. https://alangutterman.typepad.com/files
3. https://www.ipa.ie/_fileUpload/Documents
4. http://www.arunk.com

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