Jagdish-Chandra-Rout

Since the mankind has evolved into rational and civilised beings over the centuries, the term “Culture” stands immensely significant and speaks volume, because “Culture is a way of life of a group of people in a society or organisation. It is symbolic communication that comprises the behaviours, beliefs, values, and symbols that the people accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.”

The definition of “Culture” as cited by Texas A&M University, “It refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.”

In a nutshell, “Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.”

Now let’s try to dissect an important term called “Organizational/Corporate Culture” that is perceived as “all of a company’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and how these influence the behaviour of its employees. It also concerns customers of the company as well as the suppliers who work for it.”

Experts also view: “Organizational/Corporate Culture is the rules, values, beliefs, and philosophy that dictate team members’ behaviour in a company. The culture consists of an established framework that guides workplace behaviour that includes integrity, teamwork, transparency, and accountability.”

If we go Google and browse for the profile of “Organizational/Corporate Culture”, it portrays seven rainbowish characteristics: Being 1) Innovative, 2) Aggressive, 3) Team-Oriented, 4) Outcome-Oriented, 5) People-Oriented, 6) Detail-Oriented, & 7) Stable.

Experts have also underlined four functions of “Organizational/Corporate Culture”, namely: 1) Role-Oriented Culture, 2) Achievement-Oriented Culture, 3) Support-Oriented Culture, and also 4) Power-Oriented Culture.

Opining on a good “Organizational/Corporate Culture”, researchers have found out and revealed, “Perks and perquisites are certainly great to have, and can help employees to feel supported and appreciated. A great corporate culture goes much deeper. It involves open communication, mutual respect, shared goals, and a commitment to employee growth and development.”

According to a blog on “greatplacework.com”, “The secret to attracting and holding onto the world’s best talent isn’t about the work perks — it’s about relationships. It can be hard to define, but you know it when you see it: a great company culture. One where employees feel seen and heard, where management is transparent, and where teams are proud and excited to work together.”

On the contrary, company coaches have also coined another term called “Toxic Company Culture”.

Elucidating on it, it has been explained that a weak company culture makes one to be “on a slippery slope into toxicity.”

Throwing ample light on it, the experts further explain, “A toxic company culture is one plagued by negativity, where employees don’t feel engaged at best, or don’t feel safe at worst. There could be gossiping, backstabbing, bad habits and a general feeling of mistrust. Things like a lack of values, ineffective leadership, and no sense of belonging can kill employee trust and morale.”

Thus, such an abhorrent and detestable “Toxic Company Culture” is evident enough to sound the death knell tending to be the final nail in the coffin of the company/organisation/firm’s already fragile and fluctuating fate.

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