Same as the head of a family (parents or grandparents) has a massive influence on how the lower ranks of the hierarchy behave and what things they uphold valuable, the same can be incorporated into the company’s formal structure. Similarly, in an organization, the upper management extends the organizational culture, values, beliefs, and customs to the whole system; the management effects on corporate culture are undeniable.
As the leaders of a group of like-minded workers, top management positions gradually shape their subordinates’ ideology and thoughts in the working space. They make up the organizational cultures, values, visions, and goals, and passed them down to the ones working below. How they behave, however, is a whole new story. Creative and reinforcing actions can up the management effects on organizational culture and keep the employees happy, motivated, and onboard. On the other side, building a stressful and toxic work environment completely destroys the workers’ will and sets the train on a path to utter nothingness. To have a clearer perspective on the subject, let’s first crackdown organizational culture.
A healthy and all-accepted organizational culture doesn’t just phantom out of thin air overnight; it takes time and effort to establish a common behavioral ground for the people involved in a company. It takes small bits of positive movements — and sometimes bigger ones — throughout the organization’s entirety to rally up everyone behind specific values and beliefs. For example, in the hiring process, managers should go beyond to find the right fits who share the same values with their business, alongside being able to perform at their job exquisitely.
Another critical factor in creating an organizational culture is to empower the company with sufficient resources. Management effects on corporate culture can take a turn for the best if the people in charge provide the workers with the right tools, technologies, and physical predicaments to get the job done. This not only boosts the outcome of the organization, but it also raises the morality of the troop and forms a better image in their mind of the management team.
Another crucial point in creating an organizational culture would be the unified vision of the system. The concept (or the goal) of a company should be more than just a few pithy statements and short bios. It should entitle the organization’s goals and the endgame and the route through which the system can achieve those. So, for the management effects on organizational culture to actually mean something, the organization’s visions have to be robust, and bright, with everybody determined to reach it.
No company can claim they’ve created a functional and uplifting organizational culture without laying down the groundwork for “employee satisfaction.” In other words, employees should feel appeased. If they aren’t fulfilled by their role and feel that they are not worthy of their work isn’t getting enough attention, the company can kiss “organizational culture” goodbye. Well-pleased employees are vital to unlocking the Pandora box of organizational culture, and without them, the quest is lost. Leaders should always have a vigilant eye over their workforce’s morality and be on their toes for any sign of passive behavior or disengagement. If they manage to sort this problem out before it hits the fans, they will have an easy time creating a positive and all-impacting organizational culture. On the other side, however, if the employees feel distant and alienated, management effects on organizational culture would not happen in only a destructive measure.
Sometimes, organizational cultures form on their own, without the need for any kind of interference from the management. For example, in startups, corporate cultures tend to shape up without the administration’s guiding hand. In these systems, management effects on the organizational culture turn into more disciplinarian impacts, with the management acting as the police, reinforcing the laws. In these situations, managers correct people’s behaviors and might issue written or verbal warnings to the staff, depending on the organization’s mission statement. They also always keep an eye out for areas of improvement within the company in accordance with the organizational culture framework. In these systems, managers will face a rough time trying to build a personal friendship with the crew, because everybody sees them as this strict and unbending authority figure who’s very presence means perfection, less fun, and more chaining rules. Consequently, workers will try to distance themselves from such individuals.
However, in bigger companies, in an open-atmosphere organization where no authority figure is not required, or not recognized by the staff, everyone takes part in creating the organizational culture. In such a disseminated company, the trademarks of a manager and a floor-level employee are barely visible, and everyone participates in building the environment and the organizational culture, something we usually bear witness to in smaller-sized companies.
Sometimes, a disseminated leadership culture helps the management effects on the organizational culture by allowing the managers to rack up personal relationships with the staff. While having a close interpersonal relationship with the entire team, managers can efficiently, and not to mention, observe, supervise the staff, and report to the company owner on a more personal level. These managers usually consider themselves in a low-stress environment, and feel more relaxed; the reason is a more direct, more straightforward communication channel with the employees, and interacting with them like actual human beings.
If we want to look over the case from a more general view, management can directly impact company culture through leadership, delegation, and communication. They set an example for the employees by adhering to the organization’s beliefs and values and leading the system towards its goals. They encourage the team to adapt to the common corporate culture.
To have more meaningful management effects on organizational culture, managers’ styles should be shaped according to the company structure. For example, if the company motto is to balance work and life, the management team should cherish this ideology and incorporate it into the daily tasks around the office. The employees need to think of the manager as a role model, whose work not only doesn’t contradict the common office culture, and work style, but also emits the true nature of it and helps people get on board with it.
If we genuinely want to expand the management effects on organizational culture, we should make a stride to practice delegation. A manager who’s not afraid of entrusting some responsibilities to the team, and in the run, empowering them, won’t really be able to show them what the company’s all about. Accordingly, the empowered units feel a tighter, more personal connection to the role, and as a result, to the company in general; they feel personally responsible for the company’s growth.
Through delegation, employees own their duties, and whatever side tasks come with them. This way, they will full-heartedly realize and touch the company’s grander goal, and all the efforts put in to reach them; they feel more connected to the system. Also, delegation helps in building trust, and mutual trust between the teams, and the management. Furthermore, it removes some time-consuming tasks off management hands and opens up space for them to focus even more on the staff and commandeer the system into success and glory. Delegation is a useful tool in empowering lower-level employees, highlighting the management effects on organizational culture.
Nothing can be crossed properly off the checklist when the communications fail, and connections fail when the two parties can’t find common ground to work off of. As pointed out on the vital-learning.com blog: “Poor communication and execution of organizational culture can negatively impact team morale. Managers unable to talk to their team can cause many issues. Projects fall behind schedule when employees have no direction. Stressful deadlines get put in place to try to stick to the original plan, but this move results in major burnout.”
This means that mainly, in the grand scheme of things, there should be a capable and healthy bridge between management and the team. For example, if an employee is going through some rough patch or encounters a difficult problem, they should be given the necessary time before the problem snowballs; because even the infinitesimal issues can turn into a major road bump in no time.
In short, everything matters when it comes to management effects on organizational culture since it’s a genuinely delicate aspect of our work life. In-depth and engaging cultural beliefs in the organization can push the staff to put all they got into reaching the organizational goals. However, if one doesn’t feel connected to those beliefs, it can mean the slow death of an organization that failed to get its teams onboard.
