What is Organizational Culture?

The culture of the organization could probably be described as the environment that surrounds the people at work all of the time. Not only that, but it is also considered to be a powerful element that paves way to shape the work environment, the work relationships and the work processes. In other words, it could also be described as the personality of the organization, meaning to say that the culture of an organization basically highlights what kind of organization it is in the first place.

The organizational culture is basically made up of assumptions, values, beliefs, attitudes and the artefacts of the people in the entire organization. In other words, it is made up of all the real life experiences brought in by the employees in addition to the influence of the organization�s founder, executives and the other managerial staff who are involved in the decision making process of the organization. Having said that, in order to understand the culture of an organization more clearly let us look at some of the characteristics of the organizational culture.

Some characteristics of Organizational culture

However, the organizational culture may differ from one organization to another. For example, the culture of a hospital or university is quite different to the culture of a bank. This is because the culture of an organization is quite visible to some extent through their arrangement of furniture, how things are organized, what the people wear and what they talk about etc. Having said that, some organizations have weak cultures while some have strong cultures. �Let us� go look at each of the two types of culture in a bit more detail.

What is a Weak Organizational Culture?

A weak organizational culture is when the people in the organization do not agree on the same basic beliefs and values as applies to the organization, and in stead they tend to have their very own ideas, beliefs and behaviours etc. As a result, the people are controlled by way of using restricted rules, procedures, supervision and bureaucracy within the organization. On one hand, a weak culture may be the result of many subcultures. In other means, a weak culture would rather encourage individual thought and contributions.

To say, this type of culture would be better for an organization that tends to grow throw innovative ideas, and only if the people in the organization could at least have a common goal and help the management to come up with plans for the future, �even their ideas may be different. For example, different departments may have different sub cultures with different believes and ideas but still they should all work for a goal such as helping the organization to grow. But at the same time, if the people� in the group think individually having different goals in mind, then this will no doubt lead to conflicts or cause problems between the people and the management. If this happens, then of course the organization falls into a situation of failure because of the different sub groups trying to fulfil separate goals rather than a common goal. It should be said that weak cultures are easily changeable as they are not stable and the organizations with weak cultures are usually considered to be in efficient and less effective at most times. This is mainly due to the restricted rules, supervision and bureaucracy carried out within the organization.

What is a Strong Organizational Culture?

The� culture of an organization is considered to be strong when the majority of people in the organization tends to hold the same basic beliefs and values as applies to the organization. In other words, it could also be said that an organization has a deep rooted strong culture when the employees respond strongly to the values and thus passes it on successfully to the rest of people. Having said that, a strong culture in particular has many advantages. To say,

However, in spite of all the advantages, there are times when a strong culture may not exactly be the culture that is needed when it comes to facing the competitive environment. This is because the organization may have to come up with many innovative ideas in order to face the competition rather than sticking on to the old ways of doing things. To say, if the people in the organization are completely following the values and beliefs of the existing culture when it comes to achieving the goals, then they obviously lack the opportunities to think in a much creative or innovative way in order to come up with unique solutions or ideas to face the ever changing turbulent environment.� This is because they all think no beyond than their existing culture. This is basically a draw back in the strong culture. Too, a strong culture is indeed difficult to change at times of need, and needs a lot of effort to do so because people once adapted to the old way of doing things it is unlikely that they are willing to change their behaviour unlike in a weak culture.

Conclusion

It should be said that organization culture may be different from one organization to another. Meaning to say that, some organizations will have strong cultures while the other may have weak cultures. A strong culture is when the majority of people tends to agree on the existing beliefs and values and beliefs in the organization, meaning to so that there is one dominant culture in spite the other sub cultures that exists. �On the other hand a weak culture is when the majority of people disagree on the existing culture but instead forms their own sub cultures.

Having said that, it is also important to keep in mind that no culture can be the right culture. Even though many tend to believe that an organization should have a strong culture in order to survive, it is true to a greater extent but not always. This is because it is indeed vital to always keep of watch of the competitive environment thus because the existing culture may not be suitable for the competitive environment at times. For example, when it comes to facing the competition it more or less needs an organization culture that is open for more innovative ideas. In other words, the organizational culture must fit with the competitive environment and the organization in order to meet the goals. As a result, there is no right or wrong �culture. But the one that suits an organization �best is a combination of both the cultures meaning to say that �a strong culture that is open for the people to express �their very own (new) ideas. In other words a culture that is agreed by the majority of people but still respects the innovative ideas of the people at times of need.

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SCOPE-ANNAMALAI PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL, DECEMBER 2006, Vol.2, p:1-7.

INTRODUCTION

Electronic technology is changing our life-style to a great extent. There are many areas of electronic technology helping different sections of a common man. For instance, terms like e-commerce, e-business, e-banking, e-mails, e-organizations, e-governance, e-journals, e-books, e-medicine, internet, web-shopping, etc have become part of the current lexicon. Advances made in the fields of information and communication technology (ICT) and electronics has resulted in the emergence of e-culture. Electronic culture is enveloping the entire world, it is a global phenomenon. Today e-culture is the reality that we live in; it is no longer an option. Kanter (2001) indicates that organization will successfully meet the challenges of the �??Internet Age�?? only if they become communities of collaborative work relations with distinct �??e-cultures.�??

E-culture is also increasingly understood as a new digital media culture or digitalization of culture. Netherlands council for culture in its advisory report on digitalization of culture submitted to the state secretary of education, culture and science (2004) defines e-culture as �??all about a new, digital dimension; a new and �??until recently- undreamt of medium with which existing culture must seek to interact and in which new culture is being generated.�?� De Haan and Huysmans (2002) states the term �??e-culture�?? refers to the diffusion of new technology, its application for various purposes (especially information and communication) and shifts in related attitudes, values and norms. Patel and Rajendran (2005) have defined �??electronic culture�?� as �??increased use of electronic goods by individuals in various areas�?�; they have also developed an inventory to measure e-culture. In this research study e-culture was assessed based this perspective.

E-culture is both technological and a social development. There seems to be a widespread consensus that new digital and networking technologies like the World Wide Web (WWW) and the Internet have the capacity to reorder the domains of everyday social and personal life by transforming work and knowledge forms, gender and body politics, health and science, domestic life and entertainment as well as transforming national economics and international relations, democracy and the distribution of power (Dona Kolar-Panov, 2003). The positive approval of the concepts of information society and e-culture are reflected in the keenness with which political decision-makers have taken them over on all levels- local, regional, national and transnational. More accessible and transparent information is an easy expression, something that is unequivocally good. It is good both from the point of view of social resources and democracy. Furthermore, the ideas of an information society and e-culture have also implied or, at least to start with, did imply expectations of economic growth and stability, opening up of new sectors of production, increased productivity and the advent of a new, fluctuation-proof economy (Mitchell, 2003). The emergence of e-culture leads to cultural homogenization and immense concentrations of financial power thereby sending the threatening message �??learn English and buy a computer or you�??re out�?� (Marsh, 2003). E-culture also makes it imperative to develop digital skill that is to possess knowledge concerning the handling of electronic products especially the use of computer and Internet (De Haan & Huysmans, 2002).

E-culture in India is not different from the international scenario. India certainly is getting transformed into an e-society. The world�??s largest democracy (India) is perhaps one of the most uniquely positioned countries in the world. Although India is a developing country, its wealth of information, resources, and knowledge capacity immediately puts the country on the list of top 5 countries in the world. India is also one of the poorest countries in exposing their content on the global platform using digital media. Except TV, among all other medium India and its information assets are weakly represented. However, the scope of India�??s strength in this direction is immense. The government of India as well as many NGOs are dedicated and determined to enrich and enhance the e-status of India. Osama Manzar�??s (2005) book �??The Best E-contents 2005�?� published by �??Digital Empowerment Foundation�?? (DEF) is an eye-opener regarding the e-contents in India. The Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) has a mission to make India an information-rich country and thereby enrich the world about India’s ancient knowledge, skill and its cultural diversity. DEF understands that because of the content gap, the digital divide exists and therefore its foremost mission is to narrow the content gap using information technology (IT), information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet as means.

Culture and personality are interrelated (see Culture-and-Personality studies. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2006). Psychological processes and cultural norms influence one another (Lehman et al, 2004). Recognizing the importance of culture in shaping personality, Allport (1961) was quick to point out that individuals actively select their own way of life that suits their traits, temperaments, values, and philosophy of life. Since e-culture has evolved as a dynamic new medium of information, entertainment and commerce and demands change in life-style, people exhibiting culture conforming or culture rebellious behaviour and high or low novelty seeking or sensation seeking trait may tend to be influenced by it.

Culture plays an important role in the determination of behaviour and in the development of personality is the basic assumption of the concept of cultural determination (see Chauhan, 1985). Acceptance of culture can be measured through conformity or deviant behaviour.

Sensation seeking, as described by Zuckerman (1994) is a �??trait involving the seeking of varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences.�?� Researches on sensation seeking have accumulated robust evidences for a strong link between sensation seeking and the preference for high arousal, and physical pleasure (Oishi et al, 2001). The personality trait of sensation seeking tend to influence an individual�??s adjustment and reaction to socio-cultural changes, in general high sensation seekers in their urge for novel experiences will be more receptive to cultural innovations.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

E-culture though popular and prevalent, is a recent phenomenon, studies on it appear remote and negligible both at international and national levels. The scientist community has just begun to recognize the importance of e-culture and its influence. At present there are no much substantial empirical evidences available on the impact of e-culture. Even the �??concept of e-culture�?? currently is tentative and far from conclusive. Researches on e-culture now are only at the beginning of a long process. Reviews indicate that studies on e-culture are fragmented and inadequate. Scanty information is available about the effect of e-culture on social and cultural development. There are no much scientific tools and methods visible to study e-culture. Only recently, the International research community has started showing interest in exploring e-culture. In India, unfortunately, the research efforts in understanding the status of e-culture have still not gained momentum. The research and academic community are dormant regarding the influence of e-culture. An examination of related literature in Indian context indicates that e-culture has received poor attention. Hence this investigation is an attempt made to understand the relationship between e-culture and the psychological variables of cultural determination and sensation seeking behaviour.

METHOD

Sample

The sample for this study comprised of 100 students (50 females and 50 males) randomly selected from Annamalai University, Chidambaram Taluk in Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu. The age range of the sample were between 18 to 24 years (Mean Age= 22.1 years).

Tools used

The research tools used in this study for data collected were the (1) e-culture inventory, (2) Brief sensation seeking behaviour scale, and (3) cultural determination scale, selected after a comprehensive review of related literature.

(1) E-culture inventory

This inventory was developed by Patel and Rajendran (2005) to measure e-culture. The inventory consists of 42 items with 2 responses, i.e., �??yes�?� and �??no�?� respectively for each item. The 42 items are classified into 4 areas, namely, home=16 items, office=11 items, personal=8 items and public=7 items. The score for �??yes�?? in home area is 2, in office is 1, in personal area is 3 and in public area is 1 were as the score for �??no�?? in all the areas is 0. The maximum score possible in this inventory is 74 and the minimum score is 0. High score indicates high e-culture and low score indicates low e-culture. The reliability and validity co-efficient for this inventory were found to be highly significant at 0.001 levels.

(2)Sensation seeking behaviour scale

This brief measure of the sensation seeking scale traces its origin to the sensation seeking scale (SSS Form V) developed by Zuckerman (1978). The aim of this scale is to assess the sensation seeking level, which is defined both as a personality trait as well as a need. This scale consists of 13 items; each item has two statements �??A�?? and �??B�?? pertaining to activities indicating low and high sensation seeking. The respondents are expected to choose one of the two statements which suits them more by circling either �??A�?? or �??B�?�. This scale is a self-report and unidimensional. The responses of this scale are grouped into 2 categories. One category comprises of 8 items: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11 and 12, the responses of �??A�?? for these items is given a score of 1 and the �??B�?? responses are given of 0 scores. The other category comprises of 5 items: 4, 6, 9, and 13, the �??B�?? responses are given a score of 1 and the responses �??A�?? are given 0 scores. The maximum possible score that can be obtained by an individual in this scale is 13 and minimum is 0. High score in this scale indicates high sensation seeking and low score indicates low sensation seeking. Zuckerman suggested the following interpretation for this scale: 1-3 very low sensation seeking scores, 4-5 low sensation seeking scores, 6-9 average sensation seeking scores, 10-11 high sensation seeking scores and 12-13 very high sensation seeking scores.

(3) Cultural determination scale

This scale was developed and standardized by Chauhan (1985). The purpose of this scale is to assess cultural determination. This scale indicates conformity and rebellion towards culture in India. The revised version of this scale used for this investigation has 40 items pertaining to Indian culture with 7 responses each (7 point scaling technique), namely, �??fully,�?? �??too much,�?? �??much,�?? �??average,�?? �??less,�?? �??very less,�?? and �??not at all.�?? It is a unidimensional measure high score indicates cultural conformity and low score indicates cultural rebellion. The reliability and validity co-efficient values yielded for this scale were significant. The constructor of this scale has determined the reliability co-efficient by the test-retest method which was 0.74 and the validity co-efficient was determined with ratings of neighbours knowing the elements intimately which was 0.63. This scale consists of 40 statements; this is a 7 point scale. Each statement is followed by 7 responses, namely, �??fully,�?? �??too much,�?? �??much,�?? �??average,�?? �??less�??, �??very less�?? and �??not at all�??. The response category carries a weight age of 7 to 1scores from �??fully�?? to �??not at all�??. The maximum score an individual can obtain in this scale is 280 and the minimum score possible is 40. High score in this scale indicates cultural conformity and low score indicates cultural rebellion.

Procedure

The samples of this study were personally and individually contacted by the researcher and data was obtained through face-to face interview. The duration of data collection were spread over a period of one month (30 days). The obtained responses were scored and statistically analyzed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The objective of this research study is to explore the relationship of e-culture with cultural determination and sensation seeking behaviour. For this purpose Pearson�??s product moment correlation were calculated, since no significant gender differences were found results for both sexes are combined and given in Table 1.

It is inferred from the results summarized in Table 1 that e-culture does not have any significant relationship with cultural determination but is positively and significantly related to sensation seeking behaviour.

The concept of cultural determination assumes that culture determines behaviour. The outcome of this research appear contrary to this assumption, the findings indicate that e-culture is not influenced by culture, culture conformity and culture rebellious behaviour are not related to the use of electronic products. E-culture appears as a Tran cultural phenomenon, it seems to influence people irrespective of their cultural background.

Table 1: Showing the Pearson�??s moment correlation co-efficient for e-culture with cultural determination and sensation seeking behaviour.

Variables r

Cultural determination 0.034

Sensation seeking behaviour 0.154**

** significant at 0.001 levels

*significant at 0.005 levels

This study reveals a positive and significant relationship between e-culture and sensation seeking behaviour. The finding of this research indicate that high sensation seeking behaviour is related with high e-culture and low sensation seeking behaviour is related to low e-culture. High sensation seekers exhibit preference for high arousal, and physical pleasure and posses an urge for novel experiences (Oishi et al, 2001), since e-culture is highly interactive and is creative in presenting the traditional culture in new digital forms providing people with plethora of novel stimulation and infinite source of information, high sensation seekers tend to be more receptive to it.

CONCLUSION

The present study reveals that cultural determination is not related to e-culture but sensation seeking behaviour is positively and significantly related to e-culture.

REFERENCE

Allport, G. (1961). Patterns and growth in personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Chauhan, N.S. (1985). Manual for Cultural Determination Scale. Meerut: MAPA.

Culture-and-Personality Studies. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved May 3, 2006, from Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD.

De Haan, J and Huysmans, F. (2002). E-culture: An Empirical Exploration. The Hague: Social and Cultural Plan Bureau. pp. 145-155.

Dona Kolar-Panov (2003). Cautious Optimism for eCulture in Europe. In S. Dragojevic., D. Dodd., B. Cvjeticanin and C. Smithuijsen (Ed)(2005): E-Culture: The European Perspective- Cultural Policy, Creative Industries, Information Lag (From the proceeding of the round table meeting, Zagreb, 24-27 April 2003). Zagreb: Institute of International Relations. pp. 99-106.

Kanter, R. M. (2001). Evolve! Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Lehman, D. R., Chiu, C and Schaller, M. (2004). Psychology and Culture. Annual Review of Psychology. 55. pp. 689-714.

Marsh, J. B. T. (2003). Cultural Conflict in the Information Society. In S. Dragojevic., D. Dodd., B. Cvjeticanin and C. Smithuijsen (Ed) (2005): E-Culture: The European Perspective- Cultural Policy, Creative Industries, Information Lag (From the proceeding of the round table meeting, Zagreb, 24-27 April 2003). Zagreb: Institute of International Relations. pp. 21-30.

Mitchell, R. (2003). Information Society and E-culture: On the Rise and Popularity of the Concepts. In S. Dragojevic., D. Dodd., B. Cvjeticanin and C. Smithuijsen (Ed)(2005): E-Culture: The European Perspective- Cultural Policy, Creative Industries, Information Lag (From the proceeding of the round table meeting, Zagreb, 24-27 April 2003). Zagreb: Institute of International Relations. pp. 9-18.

Netherlands Council for Culture. (2004. English Edition). From ICT to E-culture: Advisory report on the digitalization of culture and the implications for cultural policy (Submitted to the Netherlands State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, June 2003). The Hague: Netherlands Council for Culture Publishing.

Oishi, S., Schimmack, U and Diener, E. (2001). Pleasures and Subjective Well-Being. European Journal of Personality. 15. pp. 153-167.

Osama Manzar (2005). �??The Best of E-contents 2005.�?� Delhi: Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF).

Patel, J. M. A and Rajendran, K. (2005) E-culture Inventory. SCOPE- Annamalai Psychology Journal, Vol. I, pp. 1-11.

Zuckerman, C. (1978). �??The Search for High Sensation.�?� Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, Inc.

Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioral expressions and biosocial bases of sensation seeking.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. www.cambridge.org/0521432006.

Managing across cultures is not an easy task and it has been a challenge for the offshoring companies to� manage across different geographic boundaries and with multi-cultural teams. A culture in itself is defined as a group or community which shares common beliefs and values. A cultural group is understood by the manner in which it behaves. A person can adjust to different cultures at the same time exhibiting different characteristics depending on the birthplace, family background, language, education, religion, profession etc.

�Understanding and managing multi-cultural teams is important to let the organization achieve results and success. Unless every individual in a team with different cultures adapts to a particular organizational environment, the organization cannot move in the right direction and attain profits.

It is culture which presents various challenges, one of them being the barriers to communication. When companies outsource human resources, one of the criteria it looks for is a cultural fit. Often candidates who� are capable of topmost positions are often eliminated on the ground of cultural mismatch as they are unable to justify themselves to be adaptable to a different set of cultural attributes. Few examples make this understanding of culture much more clearer. There are individuals who are understood to be wrong or aggressive when they make eye-contact for a longer time during the process of conversation while Americans find individuals untrustworthy who do not make proper eye-contact with the other person. Then, there are Japanese who bend their head whenever they greet the other person which otherwise is thought be too cordial by individuals of other countries.

If an individual is not able to accomodate�himself with the other culture, then he may go into a cultural shock the signs of which are high level of anxiety, isolation and also lack of performance on the job. So, it becomes necessary to manage across the multi-cultural teams not only� to show good performance on the job but also to stay cool, calm and stress-free. In this regard, many IT companies have come out successful as the IT workers worked their way up to breaking the cultural barriers and rising above cultural attributes such as language etc.

A manager of an organization often faces problems dealing an overseas client. Many countries may not have open-form of communication�and direct communication while many may have it. A manager may also have trouble understanding the accent and fluency of the other person.

Since, no single-step approach can work towards synergizing multicultural teams, It industry or any other industry per se should adopt the following techniques:� ���

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Besides the above tips to managing multi-cultural teams, one should maintain that when two or more teams come across, they all need to equally work hard in order to work together. ������