Culture

The first thing that the book talks about in the chapter about culture is the difficulty in defining the term altogether. There is no set term that defines organizational culture best, but what most people seem to agree that is common among all of the definitions is that they care about values, beliefs, basic assumptions, shared understandings to constructing an organization. Some other things that the book talks about are the stories and myths, symbols, and the language that is used. These are things that I understand very well and that I can really relate to. In many of the organizations that I have worked in there are stories that are told. These stories are used to make the people that understand and remember the stories feel more included in the organization and those that do not remember the stories want to be there for when the next story happens. Symbols exist everywhere but are not always noticed until they are actually thought about in depth. There are some organizations that hide their symbols so that they may create further unity within their organization by being the only ones that know the secret. Secrets also somewhat apply when it comes to the language that sport organizations use. While they are mainly using the specific jargon to keep the intentions away from the competition, they are also increasing their team unity by being a specialized group that understands that particular language. Ceremonies are traditions that are predominant in sport organizations. By having different ceremonies, the values of the organization are enforced. For example, when a sports team holds a pep rally, then are showing all of the fans how much they appreciate their support and are showing how important they are to the success of the team. The organization might also hold an awards banquet for the team in order to recognize which players are doing the right thing and which should be role models for the rest of the team in upcoming years. The culture of an organization is also affected by all of the different aspects that we have talked about throughout the year. An organization may have to adopt a certain type of culture based on their type of structure, size, or any other contextual features of the organizations. Many different types of cultures for an organization are created when the organization is created. Organizations like to be able to say that their culture has remained consistent throughout their existence in able to communicate consistency within their company. Outside stakeholders will then be able to see that the organization has stayed the same and hopefully succeeded throughout their whole time of existence. It is seen as stability. As you can see, there are many different aspects to a company's culture. In that sense there are many different ways in order to influence an organization's culture. The culture of the organization could sometimes be considered the backbone because it has been with the organization from the beginning and the stories and other aspects will remain with the company for as long as it exists.