ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: AN ANALYSIS (part 3)

The Nature of Organizations

Organizational Culture

by

Charles Lamson

Culture is the way a group thinks and behaves. The most common use of this term is with reference to national or ethnic groups, that occupy specific geographical territories - such as the Japanese culture, or the American culture. Although its use with reference to organizations is primarily metaphorical, the metaphor is accurate.

Just as people in no two countries, or no two ethnic groups, are exactly alike; so also, people in no two organizations are exactly alike. People in organizations, over time, develop distinct organizational culture. So too, do even different units within large organizations. Knowledge about the organization, and its interface with the external environment, accumulates shared beliefs, values and attitudes. Myths are created and perpetuated. Unique ways of interpreting symbols and behaviors are formed. Original words and phrases are created, and new meanings are assigned to words in the language. In short, a culture unique to the people in that organization or unit, within an organization, comes into existence.

Much of the difficulty people have`when going from one country to another, is a function of not understanding the cultural differences between the countries. Moving from one organization to another can be just as traumatic as moving from one country to another. Social scientists have studied organizations intensely for for several decades, but they have reached few conclusions that can be generalized to all organizations. Each conclusion must be tempered with a few or many reservations based on the cultural distinctions between organizations.

The organizational culture is the context in which organizational communication takes place. Old established organizations normally will have very powerful cultures, ones that are relatively easy to identify, but very difficult to change. Newer and growing organizations frequently will have less well-defined cultures; ones that are more fluid and harder to pin down. Regardless of the type of organization in which you find yourself, it is critical that you learn the culture of that organization. Effective communication depends on conforming - to a major extent - to the cultural demands that are possible.

*SOURCE: ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: MAKING WORK, WORK 3RD ED. BY VIRGINIA P. RICHMOND, JAMES C. MCCROSKEY AND LINDA L. MCCROSKEY; PG. 9*

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