Organizational culture: people, politics, language, and values

Business

Organizational culture refers to the culture found within a business organization. They refer to it as culture because the way things are done and the method that people interact within a particular business is different than the way things are done and people interact outside of the business. Thus, when a new employee enters a particular business they are faced with learning a new culture.

Four types of organizational cultures include people, politics, language, and goals and values. Each of these shape the over structure of a business organization. People refers to the interpersonal relationships between employees and the social networks that are built and therefore make the job more comfortable than an organization would be without this cultural aspect. Politics refers to the inter-office politics and the different roles (such as leader and follower) that each employee tends to take and the power struggles that ensue. Language refers to the cultural aspect of being able to "talk the talk" of the business' particluar jargon and understanding the unique vocabulary. Finally, the cultural aspect of the organizational goals and vlaues refers to the common goals and values that are shared between all those involved in the business organization and thus direct the activities and progress of the organization and all of its components.

Some of the unique cultural aspects of the business at hand are the value placed on flexibility, family and employee independence. All of these cultural values are heavily focused on the people factor. Any changes to these values will have to take into account the effect it will have on the employee's moral and thus productivity. Many of our employees are successful because their values are in line with the business' values and therefore there is no "culture shock" so to say.