Organizational Culture , Innovation and Creativity Organizational culture innovation and creativity are interrelated. Organizational culture plays a vital role for encouraging innovation and creativity in any company. Organizational culture is also an important determinant of organizational success. Organizational Culture: Organizational culture is culture starts with leadership, is reinforced with the accumulated learning of organizational members and is powerful set of forces that determine human behavior. There is no exact definition for organizational culture it is explained with mere examples. For example in an organization, the way we do things around here i.e. consistent way of performing tasks, solving problems , resolving conflicts, interaction with customers and treating employees all these tasks comes together to form organizational culture.
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Organizational Culture , Innovation and
Creativity
Organizational culture innovation and creativity are interrelated. Organizational culture plays a
vital role for encouraging innovation and creativity in any company. Organizational culture is
also an important determinant of organizational success.
Organizational Culture:
Organizational culture is culture starts with leadership, is reinforced with the accumulated
learning of organizational members and is powerful set of forces that determine human behavior.
There is no exact definition for organizational culture it is explained with mere examples. For
example in an organization, the way we do things around here i.e. consistent way of performing
tasks, solving problems , resolving conflicts, interaction with customers and treating employees
all these tasks comes together to form organizational culture.
Work culture is a totality of various levels of interaction among organizational factors and
organismic factors interact among themselves at various levels.
Functions of organizational culture are behavioral control, encouraging stability and provide
source of identity.
Nature of organizational culture:
The culture of an organization may reflect in various forms adopted by the organizations these
could be
physical infrastructure
routine behavior, language, ceremonies
gender equality, equality in payment
dominant values such as quality, efficiency
Philosophy that guides the organization’s policies towards it employees and customers
like customer first and customer is king and manner in which employee’s deals with
customers.
Individual factors wont reflect organizational culture but combined together reflect
organizational culture. Large organization has a dominant culture and also sub cultures
exist.
Dominant culture is followed by every one in organization and sub culture is followed by
only particular department or group.
Levels of organizational culture:
At level-1: organizational culture can be observed in the form of physical objects,
technology and other visible forms of behavior like ceremonies and rituals.
At level -2: there is greater awareness and internalization of culture values. people in the
organization try solutions of a problem in ways which have been tried and tested earlier.
At level-3: a process of conversion, where the group repeatedly observes that the method
that was tried works most of the time, it becomes the preferred solution and get converts
into dominant value orientation.
Common Myths about organizational culture:
Organizational culture is same as organizational climate: these are not same but two
different concepts in organization. Organization culture is a macro phenomenon which
deals with beliefs, assumptions, values and behaviors
reflecting commonality in people working together. Where as organizational climate is
micro phenomenon and reflects how employees in an organization feel about the
characteristics and quality of culture like morale, goodwill, employee relations, job
satisfaction etc.
Culture is same as group think: culture refers to shared assumptions and beliefs; it is
likely to cause confusion, it is characterized by symbols, beliefs and artifacts. Where as
group think refers to group member hiding any differences in how they feel and think and
behave in a certain way, it is mostly happened in face to face situations.
Culture is same as organization: culture is a result of sustained interaction among people
in organization and exists commonly in thoughts, feelings and behavior of people. Where
as organization consists of a set of expectations and a system of rewards and punishment
substained by rules, regulation and norms of behavior.
Culture is a social structure: social structure in various collectives exhibit tangible and
specific ways in which people relate to one another overtly. However, culture operates on
a system of unseen, abstract and emotionally loaded forms which guide organizational
members to deal with their physical and social needs.
Types of organizational culture:
Types are explained easily with the help of competing value frame work.
Competing value frame work has proven to be a helpful framework for assessing and profiling
the dominant cultures of organization. The first dimension places the values of flexibility,
discretion and dynamism at one end of the scale with stability, order and control on the other.
That means it emphasis on adaption and effectiveness. The second dimensions is marked by
internal orientation, integration and unity at one end of the scale with external orientation,
differentiation and rivalry on the other.
Hierarchy:
Hierarchical organizations share similarities with the stereotypical large bureaucratic
corporation. They are defined by stability and control as well as internal focus and integration.
They value standardization, control and well defined structure for authority and decision making.
Examples are MC Donald’s and government agencies like department of motor vehicles .
Market:
These companies are similar to hierarchical companies in terms of stability and control but differ
in terms of focus. These organizations have external orientation and they value differentiation
over integration. This began largely because of the competitive challenges from overseas. These
focused on relationships with suppliers, customers, contractors, unions, legislators, consultants
and regulators. These organizational feel that through external relations they can achieve success.
Organizations are more concerned on competitiveness and productivity.
Examples are General electric (GE), during leadership of former CEO jack wetch.
Clan:
Clan is similar to hierarchy in terms of inward focus with concern for integration but they
emphasis on discretion rather than the stability and control of control. The organizations
operated more like families hence they valued cohesion, a humane working environment. It
emphasis on teamwork and sociality, needs spaces that foster. Companies were made up of semi
–autonomous teams that had the ability to hire and fire their own members and employees were
encouraged to participate in determining how things would get done.
Example is Japanese firms in the late 70’s and 80’s.
Adhocracy:
Adhocracy is similar to clan in that emphasizes on discretion and flexibility but instead of inward
focus it focuses externally and concern for differentiation. This approach developed to deal with
the fast paced and volatile business environment, social, economic and technological changes
made older corporate attitudes and tactics less efficient. These organizations value flexibility,
adaptability.
Examples is Google, which develops innovative web tools, taking advantage of entrepreneurial
software engineers and cutting – edge processes and technologies.
Case Study:
Organizational culture at NIIT:
NIIT was founded in 1981 by two IIT, Delhi graduates, Rajendra S Pawar and Vijay K Thadani
with a vision of meeting basic requirements for IT talent in a world moving into an information
based economy. They had anticipations about the unpreparedness of Indian society to cope with
the forthcoming information age and adopted the mission “bringing people and computers
together, successfully”. Initially, NIIT delivered IT training to a broad spectrum of people – from
students seeking a career in computers to IT professionals requiring advanced skills; from
managers giving their careers an edge, to school children using computers as a learning too.
NIIT’s innovative offerings demonstrated the company’s ability to constantly renew itself to
anticipate future technology trends. From a computer training institute, NIIT has emerged as a
global IT solutions corporation offering knowledge solutions along with developing software
solutions along with developing software solutions. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, NIIT
operated through 100% subsidiaries in the US, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Japan and has
operations in about 40 countries.
Its mission keeps pace with the developments in the field of IT is evolved through organization
wide discussions which helps develop commitment among employees. The organization operates
with the help of task teams designed for specific customer requirements for a specific period to
carry out the work. Team culture and openness are emphasized a great deal. NIIT,s corporate
culture focuses on values such as quality, creativity, and customer satisfaction. The quality
culture of NIIT has been the result of the sustained efforts of its management – perpetuated
through induction, socialization, reinforcement, innovation, and concern for internal and external
customers. The quality culture is ingrained at NIIT in such a way that the priority is to prevent
mistakes rather than rectify them. Also, quality efforts are backed by results, which are rewarded.
Employees are treated as intellectual capital and are looked after well. The happy and committed
employees ensure customer satisfaction and this has got them wide acceptance across the globe.
It has got well designed mechanisms for monitoring the quality for its products, services and or
software processes. Most of NIIT’s businesses have ISO 9000 certification. The work culture at
NIIT has gone through all the stages of culture development like symbols, behavior,
organizational values, attitudes, and shared assumptions, and probably this is the reason it has
been able to sustain it.
PRO’S OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
Strong organizational culture will attract high level talent. Best people can be choosy and
they will strongly consider whether a company has effective organizational culture and
how workers get along with each other.
Strong organizational culture will help to keep your top level talent.
A strong culture creates energy and momentum. Once a strong organizational culture is
built, it will gain a momentum of its own and will help to allow people to feel valued and
express themselves freely. It will have positive influence on organization.
Strong organizational culture will change mindset of employees positively like loving
work they are doing etc. which intern increase efficiency.
It will also make everyone more efficient and successful.
Con’s of organizational culture:
Positive change won’t occur if we don’t make it a practice to
Communicate a sound rationale for every undertaking and change
Appoint the right people to the right position
Seize upon every opportunity to improve the culture whether it is from your adversaries,
competitors or simply some one else’s misfortune.
Innovation:
In today’s ever-changing economic landscape, inventiveness has become a key factor
influencing strategic planning. Innovation generally refers to the creation of better or
more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted
by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention or renovation in
that innovation generally signifies a substantial positive change compared to incremental
changes.
The goal of innovation is to create business value by developing ideas from mind to
market. Most of companies find tremendously difficult to achieve.
Drivers of innovation:
There are basically four drivers which will gradually transform the manner in which
companies innovate and for each driver new innovative principles will arise.
Co-creating value with customers and tapping knowledge about users
Companies have to open their innovation processes. Companies must listen and
dialogue with customers and give them access to all kinds of information. Customer’s
needs and behavior must be considered as a integral part of a company’s strategy and
business model. Companies must be transparent and evaluate risk with their customers.
Tapping hidden knowledge from customers and involving users in the beginning of
innovation processes requires different knowledge and competencies than has previously
been necessary for innovation.
Global knowledge sourcing and collaborative networks:
Companies will form collaborative networks and engage themselves in binding
innovation partnerships. No single companies regardless of size will posses all the
knowledge and resources needed to innovate on its own. Hence companies will have to
access and combine globally-dispersed knowledge on a larger scale than ever seen