Ace Institute of Management Pokhara University

Submitted to: Mr. Madan Lal Pradhan Course instructor, OBL

Submitted by: Suraj Pd. Rouniyar MBAe, Term IV

1. .How would you respond to someone who makes the following statement? As far as managers are concern it is not important to know about organizational culture. Organizational culture is the behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders.

Ravasi and Schultz (2006) state that organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behavior for various situations. At the same time although a company may have their "own unique culture", in larger organizations, there is a diverse and sometimes conflicting cultures that co-exist due to different characteristics of the management team. The organizational culture may also have negative and positive aspects. While many managers do not deny the importance of organizational culture in employee satisfaction, few fail to realize the direct impact they have in shaping it. It is often believed that cultures are predetermined; however, this is a false assumption. It is crucial that managers at all levels are aware of their roles and responsibilities in upholding positive workplace environments that can increase employee satisfaction. Dissatisfaction is the major cause of turnover and can have detrimental cost and environmental effects on the agency.

Regarding with statement I totally disagree with statement, managers responsibili ty is to know all the activities going in the organization. Today, to identify culture, we look for clues in the climate people, products, and processes we can observe as well as leaderships espoused values, and perhaps most difficult, the unconscious, underlying assumptions shared by the team Due to the lack of knowledge about the organization culture, managers could not handle the work and decision making process could be delayed. Organization culture actually helps the managers to know about the employee loyalty, attitudes towards the work, how the resources are used and in what time frame the decision making are done. It also helps to know about how the organization takes risk, encourage innovation and creativity, to know employee empowerment. Also managers can know about the long-term Vs short term orientation. So these are some of contemporary issues about the organization culture that organization must know. Managers are always under the magnifying glass, with each action carefully scrutinized by subordinates. They must exercise caution when making decisions, ensuring that fairness and equitability exists among staff, and that ethical standards are upheld on a continual basis. The four cultural components, viewed as managerial traits of trust and trustworthiness, empowerment, consistency and mentorship coexist at all times regardless of the type of culture. Managers must put support systems and other mechanisms into place that allow employees the opportunity to empower themselves and to flourish, thus increasing their own effectiveness as well as that of the organization. Importance of organizational culture:

It helps to decide the way employees interact at their workplace. The culture of the workplace also goes a long way in promoting healthy competition at the workplace. The culture of an organization represents certain predefined policies which guide the employees and give them a sense of direction at the workplace. The organization culture brings all the employees on a common platform. The work culture promotes healthy relationship amongst the employees.

So from these points and argument about the importance and contextual application of organizational culture helps every manager to understand it. From my point of organizational culture plays a vital role and managers must need to learn it and know about different aspects.

2. .Explain the culture of your present classroom. Explain these by using the various characteristics/ manifestation of organization culture that you inferred from the literature that is available. Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. The culture of classroom is very interesting; students have a great participation during the lecture. There is also support and harmony among the students in the class. Most of the lectures are based on the power point slide. Facilitator encourages us to give free idea in relevant topics that are taught in the class. There is also innovation and risk sharing among the students, attention to detail, there is also a culture of outcome orientation, team management and orientation and there is also a culture of aggressiveness and growth among the students.

The characteristics and manifestation of organizational culture in context of classroom are: Power distance:

Different societies find different solutions on social inequality. Although invisible, inside organizations power inequality of the "boss-subordinates relationships" is functional and according to Hofstede reflects the way inequality is addressed in the society. In our class power distance among the student is equal. There is also a low power distance between facilitator and students because we deal all the problems and question in a class with direct involvement of our facilitator. So we share low power distance with facilitator.

Uncertainty avoidance:

The coping with uncertainty about the future. Hofstede uncertainty dimensions measures employees comfort with unstructured environment- unknown situations where surprising events may occur. In our class uncertainly avoidance is low as I feel many of the students want some change in their personal as well as work related activities. As we try to take more responsibility from instructor. Looking into the culture every individual come here to learn new ideology. Individualism vs. collectivism

It measures not only the degree to which employee maintains her unique attributes, but also the degree to which they like to work in the environment. Talking about our class there is culture of collectivism as well as individualism. As from the day one we were given many task to perform in group as well as individually. Masculinity

Reflect whether certain society is predominantly male or female in terms of cultural values, gender roles and power relations. As our society is male dominated so do our class is dominated by male. Even during the class participation male dominated it. During any events male students are noticed also there is low participate from the female side. Long term Vs short term orientation:

The long-term orientation dimension is associated with eastern culture and dates to the time of the Chinese leader Confucius. It measures long-term values, such as perseverance and thrift, against short term values such as respect for tradition, fulfillment of social obligations and avoiding personal embarrassment. Employees with a high measure of long-term orientation respond well to a hierarchy based organizational structure where leaders are highly respected. Employers with a low measure of long-term orientation demonstrate personal stability and observe customs such as reciprocating favors and gifts from others. In our class there is long term orientation which we focus on how in organizational structure we should work, make decisions and there is great professionalism among the students.

3. How are you contributing to making of this culture and how is your OBL instructor competing as well. Answer these also from the perspective of how he is affected by this culture. I am contributing to this culture by the following ways:

I also share a equal power distance between our friends. As the instructor has given me a chance to participate and convey the idea and message to others friends. As I believe to learn something new so I have always opens my mind to learn new idea also trying not be in a comfortable zone. Take a full participation in class for change. I also perform my task and assignment within in a group and individually.

As our instructor from day one guiding us to participate in the class and able to know our personal traits like our self-esteem, self-efficacy, self- monitoring and group performance in a organization or within a classroom. The instructor has also given us many theories and self test to know our traits so that it will be easier to set goals for career and focus on the what traits that we possess. We perform our full participation in the class. Our lecturer has also given us many important notes that are useful for both exam and professional career. With the good culture in the class there is synergy among the students. Due to our good culture in classroom our lecturer has also given a full participation from his side. Due to this he has also given notes that are very difficult to get in the market and web. He also gives practical examples of business world. So these are some of the contributing factors from the instructor.