Question 1) Explain the term ‘corporate (or organizational) culture’, and discuss its importance to the operational success, or failure, or organisations.
Corporate culture, also known as organisational culture is ‘the system of shared values and beliefs that develops within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members’ (Schermerhorn,et al, pg 45, 2004). Robbins, et al, pg 70, 2003, explain that culture is a perception, and people perceive culture to be what they see hear or experience within the organisation. This is one reason that corporate culture is so important, as it just becomes part of daily routine or ‘the way we do things here’ (Schermerhorn,et al, pg 45, 2004). Therefore if these common practices are good practices there is a strong chance the organisation will be more successful.
The culture of an organisation is very important and can for a large part determine the success of organisations. As culture is a perception, it is concerned with how its members perceive the organisation and not whether they like it, (Robbins, et al, pg 70, 2003). If its members like the culture, the organisation is more likely to succeed. Organisations that have a good culture often perform at high levels, which also corresponds with staff morale. Robbins et al, pg 73, 2003 refer to a case study involving Virgin Blue, who have a different recruiting policy and job roles than other airlines in Australia. Virgin Blue want their staff to show their outgoing personality and interact with their customers during flights. Virgin Blue staff say morale is high and management gets on well with the workforce. The perception of Virgin Blue is that it is a little