Function and Dysfunctions of Org

Read this article to learn about the function and dysfunctions of organisational culture.

Functions:

1. The first function of culture is that it has a Boundary-Defining role which means that culture helps to create distinctions between one organisation and others.

2. Culture helps to create a sense of identity for the organisation members.

3. Culture facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than one’s individual self interest. Culture encourages the members of the organisation to give priority to organisational interests over and above their personal interests.

4. Culture enhances the Social System Stability. Culture is also known as the social glue that helps to hold the organisation together by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say and do. It provides a list of social do’s and don’ts for the employees.

5. Culture finally, serves as a sense making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviours of employees. This function is particularly important in the study of organisational behaviour. Every organisation has its own set of assumptions, understandings and implicit rules to guide the day to day behaviour of the employees. The newcomers will be accepted as fully fledged members of the organisation only when they learn to obey these rules. Conformity to the rules is generally the primary basis for rewards and promotions.

Thus, culture is beneficial to the organisation as it enhances organisational commitment and increases the consistency of employee behaviour. Culture is beneficial to the employee also as it reduces ambiguity. Employees become very clear as to how things are to be done and what is more important for the organisation.

Dysfunctions of Culture:

Impact of culture on organization’s effectiveness is both functional as well as dysfunctional.

Culture can prove to be liability to the organisation also as explained below:

1. Barrier to Change:

Consistency of employee behaviour is an asset to the organisation, when it has a stable environment. When the organisation is dynamic, it will prove to be a liability as the employees will try to resist changes in the environment. Companies such as IBM, Xerox and General motors’ have very strong cultures which worked well for them in past, but these strong cultures only become barriers to change when business environment changes. Therefore, organisations which have strong cultures which proved successful in the past can lead to failure in future, when these cultures do not match with the changing environmental needs.

2. Barrier to Diversity:

Strong cultures put a lot of pressure on the employees to conform to the accepted values and styles of the organisation. Even the new employees who belong to different race, religion etc. are expected to conform to the organization’s core cultural values, otherwise they are deemed to be unfit for the organisation.

Strong cultures do not acknowledge the fact that people from different backgrounds bring unique strengths to the organisation. Strong cultures can also prove to be barriers to diversity when these support organisation bias or when these become insensitive to people who are different in one way or the other.

3. Barrier to Mergers and Acquisitions:

Culture can act as barrier to mergers and acquisitions. Historically financial matters and product synergy alone were considered to decide which company should acquire which company or which unit should merge with which firm. But in the recent years there has been a change in the trend. Cultural compatibility has become a primary concern while deciding about acquisitions and mergers. Favourable financial statement or product line are, of course, the initial attractions at the time of acquisition, but another important factor to be considered is how well the cultures of the two organisations match with each other.