Understanding the Organization’s Culture, Essay Example

Understanding the organization’s culture increases the leader’s ability to influence followers. As Lou Gerstner states: behavior drives business results.  Therefore, understanding what makes people “tick” and change their behavior can help create a positive organizational culture. Tony Hsieh states that his first business venture failed because the leadership did not pay attention to the business culture. Culture is supported by a shared vision and principle and the alignment of individual beliefs. The manager’s task is to ensure that the culture of the organization takes into consideration the needs of all stakeholders, in particular customers.

Organizational culture can be defined as a facet of the company that supports group cohesiveness, collaboration, and working towards a vision. Managers need to align the organization’s vision with followers’ and customers’ personal beliefs and priorities. This way, managers can achieve a higher level of follower engagement, and commitment to shared goals. This, in turn, will result in a better overall organizational performance. An organizational culture needs to support communication  and new ideas. In the health care industry, a culture that is built around the shared vision of patient centered care can improve effectiveness and patient outcomes. When implementing new strategies, strategic managers need to assess the culture of the company in order to determine whether or not it helps achieving the mission. When completing a situational analysis, it is important to consider how each directional strategy is related to the organizational culture. Based on the results of the situational analysis and the internal analysis, managers can decide to maintain or change the organizational culture. When maintaining the organizational culture, the existing mission and vision needs to be reinforced. When changing the culture, effective communication of goals, mission, and vision to create stakeholder engagement is necessary.