corporate culture

Corporate Culture

The culture of an organization is the set of values, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes that helps its members understand what the organization stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important"(Griffin, 49). In other words, "the way things work around here" (Dr. Williams). In order for any small business or large corporation to be successful, the employees must understand what is expected of them. While things might be slightly different in a large corporation versus a small "mom and pop shop", the goal of both is the same. MAKE THE BUSINESS MONEY. The topic of my paper will be on makes a good corporate culture.

Running a business is not so much about the particular business but instead about the "sound business philosophies" that are shared by every level in the organization (Chapin, 1). Fortunately for smaller business's, finding those "business philosophies" are not as hard or have the need to be as complex as big corporations. According to Steven Chapin, author of "Building a Sound Company Culture", there are four basic building blocks that serve as a strong foundation for the company. These four blocks are integrity, leadership, dedication, and service. "Integrity is the keystone" (Chapin, 1). Complete honesty is the ethical way and should be the only way that one does business. Without integrity, there would be no trust between your company and the customers. When clients and consumers trust you, they want to do business with you and will continue to do business with you until they feel as though the integrity has been sacrificed. The second "building block" for a sound corporate culture is leadership (Chapin 1). Leadership is not only a quality that upper management and managers need to have, but instead it is a quality that all members of a business should develop (Chapin, 1). If a company only had one "leader" then the company would not be very successful because that particular person would be only person to incorporate change in the company. With many employees having leadership qualities, a company is able to better itself with by having multitude of ideas to choose from to better the company. If a company wishes to better leadership qualities then the company should encourage and "active participation in technica...

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...enefit the company with a good out flow of energy released. Miler’s next principle is the excellence principle. “Our culture values comfort, both material and psychological” (Miller, 15). “We feel as though we should achieve personal satisfaction and fulfillment” from our job (Miller, 15). According to miller the only way to encourage excellence is to provide dissatisfaction (Miller, 15). Miller also states that a workers satisfaction is often in conflict with excellence. The average employee would rather not come under any tests and trials and it is this motivation, in part, that keeps them going (Miller, 15). The consensus principle is Miller’s next idea. “Managers are stuck in the culture of command” (Miller, 15). An organizations ability to bring ideas together and the challenge of making the employees/managers think creatively will be the success of a company (Miller, 16). It is important, according to this principle, for the employee to share his thoughts and feelings. It is also important for the employee to change his efforts from physical energy to mental energy (Miller, 16). It is “This change in task” that “necessitates a change from command to consensus” (Miller, 16).