Cultural Organization In Human Resource Management

Cultural Organization In Human Resource Management

Introduction

Recent studies show that human resource management has become a very important aspect in the success of a business. One of the most valuable assets in any business is the employees. People have associated the human resource management with business performance. Others on the other hand argue that there is no direct impact whatsoever. This conflict led to the emergence of organization culture. This is evident in the way the employees behave and is said to affect the employees’ efficiency, job attitude as well as productivity.

The word culture is very much used in place of work. Sometimes people take it for granted and assume they know the meaning. However, when used in a proper manner, culture could be a tool in achieving high goals in the effectiveness of an organization. Organization culture is a perception held in common by the members of an organization. It is involved in providing the members of the organization with a sense of identity. It also demonstrates commitment when it comes to the mission of the organization and aims at reinforcing the required behavior standards.

It is not easy to change the organization’s culture. It is actually said that changing it is more difficult than maintaining it (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2012). Even if change cannot be touched or bring direct results, it has a great impact in the efforts of making the company be successful. The task of changing the organization culture is however difficult as it requires much attention. For it to be a success, it requires measument tools, like the organization culture assessment instrument.

The paper aims at discussing how change is an important theory in culture organization, the understanding of the culture organization, how it can be changed, its application in human resource management and then summarize the solutions or recommendations to the human resource managers.

Researchers have found out that there is a great relationship between the culture organization, HRM and the profitability of the firm. There are certain practices that a company may utilize in making the employers feel comfortable (Preffer, 1995). They are however universal and bring in a very positive effect when it comes to the performance of the organization. HRM practices implementation may lead to the performance of the firm through motivating the employees so that they can adopt the required behavior and attitudes. The practices tend to make the employees uniform and have common goals so as to shape them into the employee behavior. The cultural organization on HRM also creates an atmosphere where all the workers are able to work hard and be involved in the company with the aim of achieving the goals set by the company. One of the practices is rewards which provide great motivation to the employees. This in turn leads to the increased productivity of the business. Arthur, (1994) found out that incentive or merit pay systems offer rewards to the workers who have met certain targets or goals. This therefore makes the workers to be motivated and achieve them.

Organization structure plays an important role in the performance of the business. It is therefore necessary for the company to change the culture that is in existence if the performance is not doing well. In many cases, the organization culture may block the achievements of the business objectives. In such situations, the business requires to change their culture. On the other hand, the change may be necessary for companies to achieve the expected targets or implement strategies (Gupta, 2009). This happens when the company would wish to accomplish certain strategies which are different from the ones that were present earlier on. For example, a company may have new policies, growth, new leadership, market or even new competition. For these to be accomplished, the business requires to be reorganized. This can only happen when it is hand in hand with the organization culture change. The management of the organization culture is also an important aspect especially when there is need to improve the performance of the company.

Change is the most important aspect in the performance of the organization. The fundamental aspects such as goals, beliefs and values are very essential. When the company does not change the organization structure, it becomes difficult for it to succeed. This is because it easily reverts back to the previous dealings. Sustainable change is achieved only when there is change in culture (Cameron and Quinn, 2011). This change requires the management to be well prepared so as to change the organization culture. For instance, if the main strategy involves total quality management with the aim of benefitting the company, the organization culture modification is inevitable. The changes cannot be successful without the changes in the organization culture. This explains the fact that the organization culture change is very important in the performance of a business. The improvement strategies therefore cannot be achieved without it.

The existing problems in an organization can only be dealt with if the organizations comes up with a new culture. This is because the environment in which the business is in is always changing. The context of business is continually becoming complex for big organizations. Technology, social and regulations, political or even social factors are changing with time (Plister, 2009). Most of the challenges that are faced by companies require the organization to have come up with new culture so as to get a solid solution to the problems and solve them completely. Coming up with new culture therefore becomes an important requirement in the performance of the organization (French et al, 2011). The organization culture should therefore be in a position to adapt to the current environment together with increasing complexities. The existing culture is the main factor that determines the change in environment for an organization (Pfister, 2009).

An example of a company that changed the organization culture to achieve the goal of organization performance is the BAME (Building Agency of Ministry of Education) in Saudi Arabia. The agency is involved in delivering and following up the construction projects in the ministry. The culture that existed in 2005 though it had better parts required to be changed so as to improve its performance. Some of the aspects involved disclosing the agency performance to the top management level only. As time went on, the BAME management thought it was having a negative effect when it came to the performance. They held the feeling that if the agency performance was known to all, then the workers would be motivated and work together with the aim of performance (Mohammed, 2013). The managers developed the practice and changed the culture in 2010. This took 14 months to evaluate the method and covering of risks accrued to the changes of the previous culture. Motivation improved and the employees developed a culture of increasing their efforts so as to improve the company performance. BAME was able to record an improved performance in the areas such as employee satisfaction, loyalty and also project completion (Mohammed, 2013).

In conclusion, I would recommend that even though the process of changing the organization culture is difficult and complex, it has several benefits which are achievable and enormous in changing the culture of the organization. Changing the organization culture is very important and is applied when the organization aims at bringing in new strategies aimed at enhancing the performance of the company. In the case of BAME, the organization management were able to implement the best culture change effectively. I strongly believe that if at all the managers did not change the culture, they could not have reached to a better position (Mohammed, 2013). The organizations should therefore take the challenge and modify the existing cultures without fear whenever there are amendments to be made. This is because changing the culture of the organization is the most effective method of changing the needs of the organization hence improving the performance (Cameron and Quinn, 2011).

References

Arthur, J. (1994). Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing Performance and turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3): 670-687.

Cameron, K. S. & Quinn, R. E. (2011).Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competingvalues framework. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

French, R., Rayner, C., Rees, G., and Rumbles, S. (2011). Organizational behaviour. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley& Sons.

Gupta, Ashim.(2009). Changing organizational culture. Practical management. Retrieved on 14th Sept 2013 from

http://www.practical-management.com/Organization-Development/Changing-organizational-culture.html.

Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., and Hoskisson R. E.( 2012). Strategic management: Concepts and cases: Competitiveness and globalization. 10th ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning.

Mohammed A.Q.A (2013). Complexity of Changing Organisation Culture. Queensland University of Technology.

Pfister, J. A. (2009). Managing organizational culture for effective internal control: From practice to theory. NewYork, NY: Springer.

Pfeffer, J. (1995). Producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective management of people. Academy of Management Executive,9(1), 55-73.