Student I.

D: 392056

Given Names: Syed Faisal

Family Name: Shah

Tutor: Dr. Rob Hecker

Unit Code: BMA 547

 Organisations should strive to create a positive organisational culture.

Point:

The ultimate goal of any “for-profit organization” is to maximize profits, and the effectiveness
and efficiency of its human resource plays an important role in achieving that goal. Smart
organizations tend to create cultures within themselves that seek to construct perceptions like
“positive frame of mind”, which leads to increased productive work and that productivity
ultimately transforms into increased profits.

The idea of “positive frame of mind” is to create a sense of fulfillment the employees will enjoy
while performing their tasks and responsibilities. As stated in (Ahmad, 2012), “ Managers need
to pay attention to not only their organisational culture such as training, rewards, teamwork and
communication but to also ensure that they are aimed towards improving the fit between
individuals and their work environment”.

Research shows that individuals with positive work attitude are more productive and happier in
their personal life. As they exhibit high level of organizational citizenship, low turnover &
absenteeism and demonstrate a low frequency of deviant workplace behavior. The individual
level variables such as motivation, values and attitudes, ability, perception, personality &
emotions are positively influenced. As indicated in CHEN et al., 2012, “Organisational support
and organisational identification have positive relationships with organisational behavior”.

Off course creating a positive organisational culture is not magic but understanding the process
and its elements like being relevant, proving others wrong, career advancement, safety & job
security, effective communication, trust worthy leadership and self-esteem/job satisfaction might
motivate employees to work harder, smarter and productively.

Job involvement is one example where an individual measures the degree to which his perceived
performance level is important to the organization and what self-worth it creates in the eyes of
that individual. As indicated in Robbins et al. 2014, p. 63, that employees with higher level of job
involvement strongly identify with & really care about the kind of work they do.
As satisfied employees are more likely to talk positive about their organization and are willing to
help others beyond their call of duty. It is that job satisfaction an employee enjoys which in turn
increases self-esteem which helps to implement the perceptions of fairness in relationships, to
replicate positive experiences and to engage in helpful behavior with colleagues.

Satisfied employees are more likely to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty as explained in
Robbins et al. 2014, p. 71, a number of companies are acting in the light of this evidence. For
example the Boost juice hire ‘boosties’ or young people who are vibrant, outgoing and can ‘hit
the ground running’. Satisfied and committed employees exhibit high level of organisational
citizenship and are more likely to have lower rates of absenteeism and turnover. Moreover they
are likely to display low levels of deviant workplace behaviors.

Proving others wrong is a trait often displayed by proactive personalities, those who identify
opportunities, show initiative and take action until meaningful change occurs. As described in
Robbins et al. 2014, p. 91, that regardless of obstacles or constraints “proactives” brings positive
change to their environment and not surprisingly they have many desirable behaviors that the
organization want.

Job security & safety plays is an important factor towards productivity and so employers must
ensure the safety and health of their employees in the work environment so workers aren’t
engaged in dangerous activities that can cause a work related injury.

Employees are motivated to have safety and security in their jobs as they want a stable future.
Thus allowing employees to set work goals, choosing their own benefit packages & solving
productivity problems can increase productivity and job satisfaction.

Career Advancement as in job promotion and compensation in terms of monetary rewards does
motivate employees and many companies may underestimate its importance when it comes to
retaining high performing employees. In order to maintain productivity managers must ensure
that rewards set with a particular tasks/responsibilities are a blend between intrinsic and extrinsic
rewards and it can be achieved by helping employees to set clear goals towards their tasks, to
give them the confidence to believe that they can do a seemingly difficult job rather than putting
less effort or giving up altogether when confronted with challenging tasks.
As indicated in Robbins et al. 2014, p. 177, that employees will be more happier and thus
productive if they achieve a goal of an intrinsic interest but if organizations only allow intrinsic
rewards as pay-offs to higher performance then employees might feel that they are being coerced
to do a job, simply, because the organization just wants them to do. On the other hand if they are
rewarded purely on the basis of extrinsic rewards employees will be less likely to be happy even
if they achieve them as those goals will be less meaningful to them. Finding the right balance
between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and tying the rewards together will increase
productivity and satisfaction which in turn will reduce absenteeism & turnover.

Effective communication and employee satisfaction are interrelated, as less the uncertainty,
distortion, obscurities & absurdities higher the satisfaction as explained in Adelman et al. 2012,
“Award winning CEOs, facilitated employee voice by being approachable, mainly achieved
through their regular presence throughout the organization. By being consistently visible and
available to employees these CEOs fostered relationships, built trust, and promoted open
communication. Leaders in the study created a cultural focus on continuous improvement largely
built around transparency of information, particularly looking for the bad news from their
employees. Voice invitation and positive voice response from leaders reinforced that critical
upward feedback is not only welcome, but expected”.

Leadership plays an integral role in understanding group behavior as in general a leader directs
the members towards their goals. And as a good leader is able to enhance group/team
performance, organizations are increasingly searching for managers who can exhibit
transformational leadership qualities. Researches on transformational leadership has made major
contributions towards leadership effectiveness and organisational culture as explained in woods
et al. 2004, “Organizational culture has emerged as a valuable commodity in organizations
during seasons of change. An organization must possess a culture (transformational leadership,
trust, and tolerance of ambiguity) that is prone to adapt to the external demands in order to
remain competitive”.

Leaders those lookout for the best interests of their employees will win their trust which will
motivate them to achieve organisational goals thus enhancing productivity. Trust is a powerful
motivational tool and those leaders that are more transparent with their employees will find
astonishing results and innovative prospects to develop employee aptitude.
Understanding of these elements will help managers/organizations to strive to create a positive
organisational culture as these fundamentals influence both the dependent and independent
variables as in productivity, absenteeism, turnover, deviant workplace behavior, organisational
citizenship & job satisfaction which in turn influences communication, group/team structure,
leadership and trust. Which influences the organisational culture and structure as a whole.

Counter Point:

The term “positive organisational culture” is a vague expression and it’s pretty hard to define
what a positive or a negative organisational culture is. Employees as individuals are different
from each other with respect to personality. So they will perceive the organisational culture and
its values differently and might not act as “happy clappers”. As described in Robbins et al. 2014,
p. 86, the Big Five model and its traits such as emotional stability, extroversion, openness,
agreeableness and conscientiousness & the kind of influence they might have on the
organisational behavior. Other personality traits such as narcissism and Machiavellianism may
also be relevant in certain situations.

How can somebody be encouraging when sacking employees from the organization? How is it
possible to reassure employees “that it’s for the greater good”? This only leads to decreased
organisational citizenship. So it becomes important to know the person’s values. As they often
stimulate and describe attitudes, behaviors and perceptions. Employees performance and
satisfaction are likely to be higher resulting in low turnover, if their values such as terminal or
instrumental, fit well with that of the organization’s. As defined in Robbins et al. 2014, p. 96,
“Holland’s personality-job fit theory, linking an individual’s personality and values to the work
place”. A person who places great importance on imagination, independence and freedom is
likely to be a poor fit with an organization that demands conformity from its employees.

Individuals basic temperament is largely fixed. So attempting to change an individual’s behavior

may lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. Individuals behavior are often directed by the way
they perceive the external environment. From employees perspective they see issues like fair
pay, job promotion and working conditions in a very individual way and they may see the same
way their organization interprets them.
As absenteeism, turnover and job satisfaction are feedbacks to an individual’s perception about
their job and the belief that their organization lacks promotion opportunities. So managers must
understand how employees view their job and working conditions. As the employees view of a
good or bad job is simply an interpretation.

Organisational culture is concerned with how employees perceive the characteristics of an

organization’s culture, not with whether they like them (Robbin et al. 2014, p. 425). Creating a
positive organisational culture is difficult to say the least as organizations don’t have uniform
cultures within. As they may range from dominant to subcultures, strong to weak cultures and the
overall organisational culture might act as a liability when it comes to barriers to change, as it’s
shared values might not be in an agreement with those who might oppose them. So yes building
or having a positive organisational culture can be manipulative. Things like asking employees
that “do they know what their strengths are”. “And it would be nice to stay in an organization
that help you to discover them”. Statements like these are quite coercive in nature as their
purpose is to keep employees productive while they might be working in less than an ideal work
conditions and to keep employees under control while retaining low pay and benefits.

Managers need to realize that how employees perceive happiness, how they see the
organisational culture as a whole, does it provide them with the oppourtnity to grow? To have a
better career, better pay, does their work is relevant to organization and does it matters? The
theory behind positive psychology is to devise techniques that will incorporate values of having a
positive frame of mind in the work place. According to Achor, 2015, “doing an act of kindness,
writing an email of doing something good today at work will help our brain to shut out negativity
and help us to focus on the task at hand and if we find a way of becoming positive in the present
rather than the future we are likely to happy, productive, working harder and intelligently”.
Which will increase organisational citizenship & job satisfaction and in turn decrease turnover,
absenteeism and deviant work place behavior.
References:

Ahmad, K. (2012). The Mediating Effect of Person-Environment Fit on the Relationship between
Organisational Culture and Staff Turnover. ASS, 8(2).

CHEN, S., YU, H., HSU, H., LIN, F. and LOU, J. (2012). Organisational support, organisational
identification and organisational citizenship behaviour among male nurses. Journal of Nursing
Management, 21(8), pp.1072-1082.

Llopis, G. (2015). The Top 9 Things That Ultimately Motivate Employees to Achieve. [online]
Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/06/04/top-9-things-that-
ultimately-motivate-employees-to-achieve/ [Accessed 30 May 2015].

Huhtala, M., Feldt, T., Hyvönen, K. and Mauno, S. (2012). Ethical Organisational Culture as a
Context for Managers’ Personal Work Goals. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(2), pp.265-282.

Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A., Millett, B., & Boyle, M. (2014). Organisational behaviour (7th ed.).
Pearson Australia.

Adelman, Kimberly, PhD; Stokes, Charles D, BSN, MHA, FACHE. Journal of Healthcare
Management 57.2 (Mar/Apr 2012): 133-47; discussion 147-8.

Woods, Regina Dawn, The effects of transformational leadership, trust, and tolerance of
ambiguity on organization culture in higher education, Regent University, ProQuest, UMI
Dissertations Publishing, 2004. 3146727.

Penelope Fay Mitchell; Pattison, Philippa Eleanor. Journal of Health Organization and
Management 26.1 (2012): 32-59.

Lok, P. and Crawford, J. (2004). The effect of organisational culture and leadership style on job
satisfaction and organisational commitment. Journal of Mgmt Development, 23(4), pp.321-338.
J. Achor, S. (2015). The happy secret to better work. [online] Ted.com. Available at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work [Accessed 31 May
2015].