How can Culture be Defined & Why is it Important?

It is important to be clear what we mean by using the term culture. Failure to clearly specify what culture is can result in confusion, misunderstanding, and conflict about its basic function and importance. Without a culture a company lacks, values, direction, and purpose.

Culture can be said that is a community of how people relate & interact each other. They are built on shared interests and mutual obligations and thrive on cooperation and friendships.  

Thus, Culture can be “a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organization members. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behavior of individuals and groups.” (Schwartz & Davis, 1981).

Culture can be the central norms that characterize an organization. Norms & expectations about what are appropriate and inappropriate attitudes and behaviors. The central values and styles that characterize a firm, perhaps not even written down, can form the basis for the development of norms that attach approval or disapproval to holding certain attitudes or beliefs and to acting in certain ways.

However, there is an important difference between the guiding beliefs or vision held by top management and the daily beliefs & norms held by those at lower levels in the organization. The former reflects the top managements’ beliefs about how things ought to be. The latter define how things actually are. Simply because top management is in agreement about how they would like the organization to function is no guarantee that these beliefs will be held by others.

What do you mean by using the word Culture?

The concept of Culture implies:

• Stability: When we say that something is cultural, we imply that is not only shared but is also stable because it defines the group. Can be said that is the “lighthouse or beacon” of the organization. Culture is something that survives even some members of the organization will depart. But as new conditions arise, environment is changing and strategy is adapted, new members will enter the organization with new beliefs, values, and norms there will be a change as new solutions should be invented for the problems of internal but external survival too.
• Breath: Culture is pervasive and influence all aspects of how an organization deals with its primary purpose, its various environments, and its internal operations.
• Depth: The basic assumption of a culture is the deepest, often unconscious part of a group and less tangible and less visible. When something is more deeply embedded can also drive stability.
• Integration: Culture implies that rituals, values, and behaviors are tied together into a coherent whole and this pattern or integration is the essence of what we mean by “culture”. Furthermore, as organizations develop sub-groups, those sub-groups develop their own sub-cultures, which may conflict with each other or with the larger “corporate culture”.

 Why Culture is Important?

There are 2 reasons of that:

1. The fit of culture and strategy, and
2. The increased commitment of employees to the organization.

1. Once a firm’s strategy is established dictates a set of tasks and objectives that must be accomplished through a congruence among the elements of people, structure, and culture. The choice of strategy also has significant implications for the culture; that is, the norms of the organization must help execute the strategy. For a strategy to be successfully implemented it requires an appropriate culture. A proper, acceptable, and totally understood culture will enhance the effective implementation of the strategy. The opposite will be a disaster! As we say, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” (Drucker). When firms change strategies, and often structures, they sometimes fail because the underlying shared values do not support the new approach.
2. Culture is critical in developing and maintaining levels of intensity and dedication among employees that often characterize successful firms. This strong attachment is particularly valuable when the employees have knowledge that is essential to the success of the organization. A failure to gain the commitment of employees during mergers and acquisitions can destroy the value of the agreement. In contrast a highly dedicated workforce represents a significant competitive advantage.