Subcultures in an Organization free essay sample

Might an organization be better considered as consisting of many subcultures which are conceptually different, rather than one major culture? The topic concerning this essay is if consider an organization as a whole of subcultures or as a single culture. First of all, it is necessary to explain what a culture is and how it influences in the company environment. Upon this, subcultures and their types are explained.TO finalize, it is analyses the convenience of consider a whole of subcultures or a major culture. 1. Introduction Executive managers in a company should ask continually themselves which elements are important for them business. The main aim is not only getting profits, but how to make them without harming the society or the employees of the organization. This does not mean that the economic view has to be inattentive; on the contrary, a good practices implementation in the company can lead it into an earnings improvement, for instance, due to the good image perceived by customers. We will write a custom essay sample on Subcultures in an Organization or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Ethics helps to strengthen the social responsibility objectives formulated and focused on the relationships management between the company and the stakeholders: customers, suppliers, public administration, financial institutions Thus, we find a corporate ethics, belonging to the organization like a whole but we also find a personal or professional ethics which is individual. Obviously, both of them interact and complement each other. The ethics of the company is reflected in its culture.Individual behaviors turn towards social or common behaviors for every member of the organization. Without values neither ethics nor corporate culture does not exist. 2. Corporate culture and subcultures. Corporate culture is the total sum of values, symbols and rituals shared by all the members of company. It describes the way how the things are done in order to solve internal and external problems related with customers, suppliers and the environment. The culture has a common and qualitative character and it is shared by everybody in the organization.It is important to explain some of the elements which make up the corporate culture: History: Conducts and facts happened previously in the company, like the structural evolution of the company, the performance of the managers or the rotguts evolution. * Myths, legends and anecdotes: Events which nearer traditional or historical ideals than true. They give employees reasons for satisfaction and proud. * Beliefs and values: Values say how and what to do in the company if the employee wants its behavior pattern to be considered satisfactory.These are rules about how to act. Having widely shared values make the corporate culture strong. * Rituals: Rituals are common practices obeying some rules and formal and informal procedures. They are considered as a benchmark. * Material symbols: Like dress code, buildings, facial cars, furniture, decoration, facilities * Immaterial symbols: How to call employees, informal contacts, given privileges, the approach of the Coos. .. * Communication: How the vertical and horizontal communication works.One important point talking about culture is the relationship between corporate culture and the companys strategy. An optimum culture for all the companies does not exist, so it is suitable to identify all the culture aspects which make stronger the strategies. If they are not in concordance, it would be suitable to think about changing the Strategy or trying to change the ultra, even it is more difficult to change the corporate culture because it involves the behavior of all the staff. Analyzing the corporate culture, it is not possible to refuse the existence of many subcultures in a company. They appear when there is a group of people who does not take part in the whole values of the company. This phenomenon happens frequently, for example in a merge, inside of some departments which are leaded by a charismatic person who does not like the companys values or inside of departments strongly focused in a specific aspect. These subcultures set their bases, evolve their beliefs and create their own behavior pattern, but it is possible that this does not happen according to the corporate culture.From this point Of view, a company should be aware of the subcultures present inside of itself in order to eliminate them if they do not accord with the corporate culture. The main problem dealing with subcultures is that it cannot be allowed that two or more elements of the organization are governed by two or more different cultures. Allowing a subculture to exist is a function delegation. It is possible that some elements of the organization are acting in other way efferent from whic h they came from. Subcultures are less frequent in young companies or in small ones.The bigger the company is, the higher possibility of having subcultures. In this case, human resources departments play an important role being aware of the behaviors in the company and not allowing the creation of sub-cultures contraries to the corporative culture. However, allowing certain types of subcultures to emerge in strong culture organizations can be one way to become agile without losing their basis of strength. Subcultures can permit an organization to generate varied espouses to the environment without necessarily destroying its internal coherence.These subcultures may provide the flexibility and responsiveness that a unitary culture may limit. On the other hand, as said before, subcultures use to be rejected in strong organizational cultures. Thus, we could state that only some types of subcultures are profitable to the company. In this way, we can differentiate between negative and positive subcultures which concern in a different way to the general culture. Talking about the positive ones, they often emerge in response of new demands and an be useful as a way to allow employees expressing their conflicts when they appear.Formally, researchers have developed a classification of corporate subcultures which includes enhancing, orthogonal and countercultures. Enhancing subcultures support the prevailing culture; orthogonal subcultures hold independent elements but do not interfere with the prevailing culture and countercultures are the ones that have objectives in opposition to main aspects of the prevailing culture. Fitting to the question we discuss, we are going to focus on the cultures conceptually different: the countercultures.Countercultures can serves some useful functions for the dominant culture, such as question ing old values and providing safe haven for the development of innovative ideas. A counterculture may be tolerated by the organization as long as it is bringing in results and contributing positively to the effectiveness of the organization. Some core values of the countercultures can become a challenge to the corporate culture, but they still being a threat to the company. These subcultures cause misunderstandings, confrontations, problems, discussions, wrong done actions and wasted opportunities.Thus, organizational culture must stop counterculture activity using the human resources department in order to pay attention to the leader of this counterculture and trying to get him or her back into the correct culture position. It is important to be aware of the existence of this counterculture, because it will be easier to stop it if it detected rapidly. Going against the counterculture requires spending resources. Thus, once defined culture and subculture terms and explained the different types of subcultures we can affirm that every company, with a relevant size , will have a culture surrounded of some subcultures. These subcultures can affect positively or not to the dominant culture. When they do not support the corporate culture, it will cause problems on the mid or long time. For that reason, the company should spend its resources in order to avoid the more as possible these countercultures to be expanded. Two or more kinds of different values, beliefs and behaviors in a company can cause problems of communication, discussions disagreements and other kind of problems which can result in a decline of the productivity, profits and the corporate image. 3. Conclusions: Many subcultures or a major culture?TO Sure up, what should be clear now is that in a company with a considerable size, subcultures cannot be avoided but can be controlled. Indeed, controlled subcultures can offer some positive aspects to the corporate culture even if they are countercultures. However, an organization should hold its own personality and culture. In order to achieve this, a major culture should be defined and accepted by the company environment. The human resources department must wholly aware of the existence of these countercultures. Sources will be expended in order to control them and to try hem not to damage the corporate culture and the business.Thus, an organization cannot be considered only as a unique culture but neither as a whole of subcultures. However, considering the dichotomy of this issue, it is preferable to consider a company with a major corporate culture in order to hold its personality and authority as a unique whole. The reality is that a strong company should have a strong culture complemented with some subcultures emerged by the daily activity among the years. Nevertheless, these subcultures should agree, as much as possible; with the dominant report culture, its beliefs, values, rituals, symbols and history.