Organizational Culture: Definition and Importance
Discuss about the Humanities for Formal and Informal Organizational Culture.
Business culture which is also referred to as organizational culture, helps in determination of the ways the employees are involved in the business organization. The business culture is often affected by the culture of the nation where it functions, which is highlighted in this paper. Additionally this paper discusses the role of the translator and the approach they adopt in order to deal with the different business cultures prevalent in the different countries. Here focus is on the business culture of UK and Spain along with the role of the translator to deal with the business cultures of the two countries in different ways.
Business culture is a crucial aspect that is used as a parameter to assess the development or economic growth shown by any organization of a respective nation.
Topic sentence: Business culture also known as an organizational culture can be defined as the style of business operations within an organization.
The organizational culture determines the way in which employees belonging to different levels communicate with one another as well as with the consumers and clients. Culture, being one of the most crucial components in a business, imposes an immense impact on the strategic direction of an organization. The business culture of an organization influences decision making as well as all the business functions starting from accounting to production. According to (Cohn, Fehr and Maréchal 2014), business culture represents the collective beliefs, values as well as principles of the members of an organization. The factors that determine organizational culture includes factors like history of the business, the market in which the business is running, products or services that are being manufactured by the company, types of employee that is whether the workforce is multicultural or not, management style and finally the natural culture. Business culture on its own has its own unique dimensions which include meetings, formalities, negotiation,usage of social media, getting off on the right foot, work placements, internship along with other organizational elements. According to (Jondle, Ardichvili and Mitchell 2014), business culture can be considered as a set of shared assumption which provides guidance to the management by defining appropriate behavior for different situations.
Business culture can be segregated into two patterns, namely, formal organizational culture and informal organizational culture. Formal organizational culture helps the management to prevent overlapping of tasks and coordinate with the employees by creating a chain of commands. Informal organizational culture, unlike the formal one is about casual dress code and the more flexible relationship between the employees and their superiors. Majority of businesses organization in this era follows the informal organizational culture. According to researchers, informal organizational culture has the potential to boost the productivity of the business. This is because, employees, when they feel to be at home even in the workplace develops more potential to perform. Moreover, informal business culture also makes it easier for employees to access the management. Informal business culture, it is difficult for the lower level employee to reach the top management due to the steep corporate structure. According to (Gordon 2013), both informal business culture enhances employee retention by improving communication between the employees along with enhancing the collaboration and thus creating an environmentally friendly workplace. Not only that, a healthy business culture has the potential to enhance the job satisfaction level of the employees. Most employees prefer to work in an environment where they can express themselves freely.
Formal and Informal Organizational Culture
Zappos.com is referred to well-known online shoes and apparel retailer. The company is well known for its excellent organizational culture that helps the management not only in retaining valuable employee but to create a trustworthy loyal consumer base. In order to build a healthy business culture, the company starts with a cultural fit interview that carries half the marks that are required for hiring a candidate. A new employee, if he or she decides to quit after the first week of training is offered 2000 dollars. In order to create a healthy workplace environment, 10 core values are instilled in every team member. Office politics is highly prevented in the organization and performance appraisal takes place only when employees pass skill tests and exhibit increased capability. A commendable portion of the budget is invested on employee team building as well as for cultural promotion in Zappos. Apart from that, various fun activities are organized by the management in order to keep the employees happy. The company is well known for its rapid and accurate consumer service. According to the managers of the organization, happy and satisfied employees can be considered as the chief reason behind great customer service.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, a healthy business environment is highly crucial for any organization since it is considered to be one of the chief reasons behind employee retention and consumer satisfaction.
In this paragraph, the business, as well as the business culture of the UK, has been discussed. The UK business culture is characterized by business communication, business meeting etiquettes, student placements and internships, the work-life balance of the employees, social media guide and cost of living. The most popular industries in the mentioned nation are finance and banking, Information technology, healthcare, oil and gas, wholesale and retail industry.
The United Kingdom is comprised of four entities, namely, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The business cultures of the four mentioned entities have a good number of similar aspects. CRS, punctuality, gift giving, business dress code, corruption and workplace communication can be considered as the integral parts of business culture in the UK. Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is one of the most crucial parts of the business culture in the UK. With the emergence of Social media and grass root organization, a strong growth of consumer activism can be recognized. The three chief theme of CSR UK is workplace issues, community contribution and the environment. While workplace issues comprised of work-life balance, employment and human rights, community contribution includes social justice. The environmental issue is comprised of the suitability of resources along with other environmental hazard preventions. Several issues are currently considered as highly sensitive in the UK society. Tax avoidance of large online retailers and waste management are two current highly sensitive topics of UK CRS (Cooke and Huggins2018).
Zappos.com: A Case Study of a Successful Company Culture
In the business culture of Britain, punctuality is highly valued. In case of organizational meetings, employees are found to be reaching the venue exactly on time or slightly before the declared time. In UK time is valued as an economic resource and the act of arriving late for a business is considered to be highly impolite in the UK. In several business organizations in Britain, employees who arrive late more than a few minutes are penalized. However, when it comes to social events, a late of 15 minutes is not considered to be a big issue.
When it comes to gift giving, in private organizations in the UK, accepting any kinds of gifts from employees as well as from consumers is not encouraged at all. In cases where a gift is offered, the management makes sure that the gifts are not expensive enough to be considered as a bribe or so inexpensive to be considered as a major insult. The gifts that are considered to be suitable for gifting officially are cards, pens, books and flowers. Classical conservative attire is the norm for both men as well as women in British culture and dark colors like black, charcoal grey and dark blue are predominant. Women generally wear skirt and trousers as office wear. In Britain the quality and brand of office wares determine the status of an individual. However, the dress code of employees varies with the type of business in the UK. Employees who work in the digital marketing sector wear more relaxed dresses like trousers and shirts. Several office-based organizations have introduced casual Friday in order to ensure a relaxed dress code.
In the business culture of Britain, indirectness is considered to be the key aspect of British communication in business culture (Khosrowshahiand Arayici2012). British managers are found to avoid direct statement. Polite phrases are used in order to avoid offending statements. It is considered to be highly offending to directly differ in opinion with a colleague or superior In Britain.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that in businesses of UK, culture plays a highly crucial part. Employees are bound to follow several rules and regulation to get amidst the culture of the organization.
Topic sentence: In this paragraph, the business culture of Spain has been discussed. Like business culture of UK, Spain’s business culture is similarly characterized by business communication, business meeting etiquettes, student placements and internships, the work-life balance of the employees, social media guide and cost of living.
UK Business Culture: Communication, Meetings, and Workplace Etiquette
Although it is suggested that the business culture in Spain is more or less similar to that of the other parts of Europe, however there are several differences like in case of business etiquettes where the Spaniards follow kissing of the cheeks which are generally not followed in other such cultures. According to the Spanish tradition, before addressing with the first or the last name, Senor or Senora should be added. Spaniards show a tendency to become acquainted with the individuals with whom they are going to conduct business. Hence there is a need to accommodate sand simultaneously answer any question that is asked which might be related to personal background. In Spanish culture, honesty plays an important role, therefore the Spaniards before conducting any business make it a point to check whether an individual is honest and reliable. It is quite unlikely in Spanish business culture that a meeting will stick closely to a provided detailed agenda (Brierley et al. 2012). Negotiations are quite open in Spanish business culture. One party might take the lead but there is flexibility in the agreements. The Spanish are perceived as great conversationalists, which also need to be considered while conducting business with them. Their presentations often are long-winded. Another factor of Spanish business culture is that they lack a culture of political correctness.
During business interactions, face to face meetings is very important, where there is always a warm welcome. The businessmen of Spain appreciate regular visits. For them, business relationships are considered in a friendly manner and they often prefer oral communication. During the conduction of the meeting, they prefer the interlocutors to speak first(Gonzalez 2014). They generally prefer an official conclusion in matters of business in order to avoid mistakes in the last minute regarding questions or repetitions. As mentioned in the above section the Spanish prefer to conduct business with those whom they can rely on. Their relations tend to grow more casual. Often during their first visit, a gift is given which might be a souvenir or a promotional product. The Spaniards are quite particular regarding the sartorial aspect of the individuals they communicate with. They always maintain a small degree of etiquette as a mark of respect. For business in Spain, professional visiting cards are necessary.
The fact that for the Spanish, the individual with whom the business is being conducted is important is all the more proved with examples from the fact that the look of the person is also given priority. Therefore dress code forms an integral part of their business culture. They believe in wearing classic brand names which include brands like Dior, Louis Vuitton or Chanel and other such classic brands (Gonzalez 2014).
Spain Business Culture: Communication, Etiquette, and Negotiation
The above discussion shows that for the Spanish business, the relationship with the individuals with whom they want to conduct business is very important. Additionally their culture plays an important role in their business etiquettes which they address without fail.
This part aims to highlight the approach undertaken by the translators with respect to business and the difference in approach that is adapted for the UK and Spain.
The role of a business translator is to translate business meeting between parties and also a translation of official and legal documents that are needed to be translated from one foreign language to another. The role of the translator might be the same in a broader sense; however it varies in relation to the business culture that is prevalent in the respective countries (Katan 2014). There are various cultural differences in UK and Spain, likewise differences are also present in the business culture. One of the major differences in both the countries is the difference between its emotional cultures which heavily impacts the business culture. In Spain the emotions are impulsive in comparison to England where they have an institutional emotion (Kooyers 2015). The translators need to keep this in mind for a better approach to play their job roles.
Several findings have led to the fact that the Spaniards enjoy a higher level of job commitment in comparison to the people of UK therefore the translators must show signs of self-actualization through their interactions that are carried out in the business setting. Additionally the Spanish enjoy higher levels of professional efficacy which is free of turnover intention. Whereas the British on the other hand, being much more institutional care about turnovers hence the translators often show deep acting (DA) while their interactions in business sessions in order to receive a good turnover (Dafouz, Camacho and Urquia 2014).
Examples can be seen in matters like punctuality. In the UK, punctuality is given a huge importance unlike Spain. Other aspects include the greeting gestures like kissing in Spain suggests that even the translators working with the Spanish are needed to be more impulsive in their attitude (Katan2014). They should possess a positive outlook and professional efficacy in order to avoid forced communication which is not appreciated in Spain. The UK on the other hand, being more institutional maintains a reserved attitude, which too must be observed by the translators.
Therefore the above discussion concludes that the translators must have a different approach while dealing with the different business cultures since each culture has its own norms. The Spanish are impulsive whereas the people of the UK are institutional in their behavior. Such differences are needed to be addressed by the translators while playing their role.
Reference list
Brierley, W., Gordon, C., Bruton, K. and King, P., 2012. Business Cultures in Europe. Routledge.
Cohn, A., Fehr, E. and Maréchal, M.A., 2014. Business culture and dishonesty in the banking industry. Nature, 516(7529), p.86.
Cooke, P. and Huggins, R., 2018. High-technology clustering in Cambridge (UK). The institutions of local development(pp. 63-84). Routledge.
Dafouz, E., Camacho, M. and Urquia, E., 2014. ‘Surely they can’t do as well’: a comparison of business students’ academic performance in English-medium and Spanish-as-first-language-medium programmes. Language and Education, 28(3), pp.223-236.
Gonzalez Pandiella, A., 2014. Moving Towards a More Dynamic Business Sector in Spain (No. 1173). OECD Publishing.
Gordon, R., 2013. Culture and the Implementation of a Reverse Logistics Program Saladin Khalilallah RLMT500 B001 Win 13 American Public University. Culture, 2, p.10.
Jondle, D., Ardichvili, A. and Mitchell, J., 2014. Modeling ethical business culture: Development of the ethical business culture survey and its use to validate the CEBC model of ethical business culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(1), pp.29-43.
Katan, D., 2014. Translating cultures: An introduction for translators, interpreters and mediators. Routledge.
Khosrowshahi, F. and Arayici, Y., 2012. Roadmap for implementation of BIM in the UK construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 19(6), pp.610-635.
Kooyers, J., 2015. The United States and Spain: A Comparison of Cultural Values and Behaviors and Their Implications for the Multi-Cultural Workplace.
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