Culture and Business Operations

Culture is a medium we exist in like fish in water. Since culture surrounds us and lives within us it is often unnoticeable to all except the most insightful. However, corporate culture can have a huge impact on an organization as it grows and develops impacting everything from the way we communicate with our colleagues to the functions of our departments.

Let take a look at the concept of intelligent organizations. These organizations can learn to adapt to their environment through the collaborative efforts of learning (Staskeviciute& Neverauskas, 2008). The people within the organization have learned to learn. The cultural medium in which the workers exist encourages the challenging of norms and concepts of fact which thereby leads the organization to higher states of existence.

The intelligent organization is a sign of a positive culture put to good use for the betterment of the whole. The development of such a positive cultural can lead to reinforcements within the organization that encourage such scholarship through reward systems, promotion, and increased responsibility. In other words, the culture of the organization can lead to functional changes in the business model.

However, not all organizations are positive in their cultural orientations. The Mafia is also an organization and business in its truest sense of the word. People running for the high position of Regionali have a high sense of internal control, dogmatism, attachment and dependence (Lavanco & Varveri, 2008). The very nature of being in an organized crime business may reinforce those behaviors deemed necessary for survival through the rewarding of a higher position.

No matter if an organization is legal or illegal it maintains a sense of self. This sense of self is seen as culture and interplays with corporate identity. The corporation is often defined by the products it develops and the model it uses to achieve these corporate objectives. The founder's culture may help determine the model of the organization which in tern influences future member's behaviors and outlooks.

Culture can have an impact all the way through the service-profit chain of an organization (Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 2008). A spirit of superior customer satisfaction can be a guiding beacon to employees faced with daily decisions. These employees often draw off of the cultural principles when making day-to-day fundamental decisions regarding customer service. So significant are culture and its impact on the organization that a strong culture can lead an organization to high profits or plunge it into insolvency.

Culture can help organizations determine their next step in growth and development as well as employees who determine their next approach to pleasing the customer. Culture and organizational structure interplay on each other to send a strong message of behavior to workers. This culture and resulting behavior is often reinforced through the organizational structure and compensation systems thereby perpetuating the culture onto others. Organizations attempting to develop efficient systems should take serious consideration to the cultural underpinnings of their existence.

Heskett, J., Jones, T., Loveman, G. Sesser, W. & Schlesinger, L. (2008). Putting the service-profit chain to work. Harvard Business, 86 (7/8). Retrieved September 8, 2008 from Ebscohost database.

Lavanco, G. & Varveri, L. (2008). Politics and Mafia culture: a research on candidates in Sicily. Revista Electronica de Psicologia Politica, 6 (17). Retrieved September 8, 2008 from Ebscohost database.

Staskeviciute, I. & Neverauskas, B. (2008). Forward changes towards intelligent university. Economics & Management. Retrieved September 8, 2008 from Ebscohost database.