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Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a term for the personality of a company. Numerous Western companies enjoy a laid-back, family-oriented culture. Employees may dress casually; workstations may have decorations representing the inhabitants’ personalities or hobbies; pets may even occupy a space within the office. Other Western companies will have an atmosphere of professionalism where business attire is required, individual expressions are minimal, and a work-life balance may be imbalanced. Some companies may employ a mixture of the two or be completely remote so that an organizational culture may be non-existent. Successful managers will learn the company’s culture that employs them and their team dynamic to keep negative conflict to a minimum.
Evolutionists use the term culture to refer to: first, information or behavior developed through social learning; second, one or more social behaviors common to the group; or third, socially learned behaviors that have improved over consecutive episodes of societal instruction (Heyes, 2020). The company, from the case study, has a culture of competition and distrust. Due to high levels of competition, distrust has become a learned behavior. Employees will work hard to gain the advantage of the win and claim work that is not theirs, withhold information from others, or do other unethical deeds to gain the victory. In addition to employees’ characteristics, organizational culture plays a crucial role in influencing unethical actions (Kuenzi et al., 2020).
Managers will influence the attitude of their subordinates, either directly or indirectly. The negative effect is one of the ways that managers may influence their subordinates. A manager who is highly critical of those under them will provide negative affectivity to the team (Jones & George, 2023), and the team will see this as part of the culture and reflect that attitude, especially to newcomers. This vicious cycle will continue until it becomes commonplace. Mistrust, apathy, dysfunction, and reduced internal customer service will become traits of the office. New management will have a rough, uphill battle to change the culture when it becomes the standard for all involved. Senior employees will fight any policy changes because they will be under the impression that a newcomer does not understand the office dynamic and is trying to implement unnecessary changes.
Management has fostered a combative, dysfunctional culture within their workplace, and a change needs to happen immediately, primarily because of their inability to control the climate when issues were first known. Management has withheld correcting their employees, bringing chaos (King James Bible, 1995, Proverbs 23:13a), creating dysfunction that may not be resolved to stop an implosion in the workforce. The whole attitude of the team must change and change quickly. Acknowledging the dysfunction and addressing the competitiveness that has spawned such a mess must be done quickly. Suspending the reward system that allows unethical behavior will help send the message that each project is a team effort and that competing with each other is no longer allowed. Negative attitudes and talks must not be allowed within the business office, and attitudes must have appropriate penalties.  The reward and punishment system must be refurbished, employees who violate ethical standards must be disciplined, and individuals must be rewarded for ethical behavior and decisions (Kuenzi et al., 2020).
Just as the Father wants His children to live a turmoil-free life, management must change their perspective on how they view their subordinates. Christ’s love changes our mindset to see the positive and work peacefully with others. Dysfunction should birth a zeal to do better, to make life worth living. An attitude of positive affectivity needs to be set in stone and followed wholeheartedly. Dysfunction cannot be changed overnight, but recognizing the issues that have caused the dysfunction is the first step in fixing the issues.