Dimensions of Organizations Culture, Essay Example

Introduction

One of the best indicators of a working organization culture is the customer service track record of such a company. It is not the managers who enforce it but the employees who observe it, even without supervision. When a customer comes by asking for assistance, how the employee acts to offer that assistance, regardless of his organization rank, placing and departmentalization, goes a long way to elaborate the organization culture (Handy, 1985).

The extreme importance of getting the customer service interaction perfect is underscored by the fact that only when customers are treated right, do they exhibit favorable disposition to buy products or services from that company. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is among the finest examples available of an exceptionally excellent customer service. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has received the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award twice for customer service excellence.

Organization Culture Illustrated

Organizational culture refers to the attitudes, the psychology, the experiences, the beliefs and the values, members of an organization display. The most common definition of organization culture is as the collection of norms and values shared by people within an organization and which usually control the mode of interaction with clients, stakeholders and each other.  It is the system of beliefs and attitudes the staff has about their goals as members of any organization, their construed sense of responsibility in that organization and the standard of behavior they willfully use so as to achieve the organization’s goals. Rather than being what an organization has, organization culture is more of what it is (Handy, 1985).

That is why it is true to say that part of the organization culture of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, is exemplary customer service. Despite a noted decline of customer service quality in many companies today, the Ritz continues to offer its guests what can be called unparalleled customer service. The only way that this is possible is because of a highly motivated and trained employee base. These employees have adapted to a culture of satisfying customers as a personal commitment rather than a management’s order to achieve the hotel’s goals.

Some specific features of the Ritz customer service include acknowledging the customer in a timely fashion as soon as they appear, greeting the customer in a friendly and highly appropriate way, appearing eager to help and helping the customers personally by addressing each customer as an individual with a unique problem. The culture also involves being cheerful, respectful and courteous to customers and closing the customer interaction cordially. These traits of quality customer service define the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Adopting Such a Positive Culture in a New Company

If a company were to inculcate such an organization culture as the Ritz’s into their own culture, the process should be gradual and objective. A simple directive from the executive won’t do. In most cases, a strong and positive company culture only accrues when the staff responds to positive stimulus that aligns their commitment to those desired organizational values. Once the employees’ themselves see the need, appreciate the values and embrace the commitment to be, not to do as the executive desires, then all customer interaction environments for instance, will feature similar values regardless of supervision. The managers must thus be educated on how to convince the staff to achieve such positive values without coercion. The executive must also stimulate motivation in the staff towards attainment of such an objective.

Bureaucracy and strong supervision will not achieve such a culture. The management must adopt such values by helping the staff to feel as part of that culture. Employees always do the things they believe to be right, ideal and beneficial to them first, and to the organization second. Good customer service culture accrue when employees appreciate the need to bring each customer back and the need to send customers away while happy (Deal et al, 1982). These skills must be taught to the employees but even more, the employees must be motivated to appreciate them.

Whatever good a company may wish to glean from the exemplary customer service culture at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, there are some fundamental requirements. Any organization is as good as its management’s vision, philosophy, values and goals. Therefore, the beginning point of incorporating a positive customer oriented culture into a company must always start at the transformation of the management. The managers will then permeate the same to junior employees not only by saying but also by demonstrating the same in their work. This is what will drive the organizational culture towards change (Huczynski et al, 2007).

The culture must also be spread through the formal organization structures such as the up-down directive channels, while also using the informal organization structures such as the horizontal relationship between employees. The positive culture must also determine the adopted leadership models, the communication channels created and maintained at the company and again, the group dynamics that sprout within such an organization (Deal et al, 1982).

When all these elements of an organization culture are featured, the workers themselves finally perceive their quality of work life as dependent on their adoption of the new culture, thus gaining a high degree of motivation. Performance will ultimately peak. This constitutes the cardinal elements combining to build the framework and model of an organization’s operating culture.

References

Deal, T. et al. (1982). Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Handy, C. (1985). Understanding Organizations. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Huczynski, A. et al. (2007). Organizational Behaviour: an Introductory Text. New York: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.