TASK D 2
The term culture is used to refer to the priorities that a company sets for different things
and issues. The culture is sometimes stated in the company’s mission statement or its operational
structure. The priorities can also be defined by the various functions designated to the different
departments within the enterprise (Hindle, 2002). Culture can also be defined as the assumptions
and the beliefs that the managers and every employee in the organization hold as to how the
company performs its obligations. The culture creates a uniform behavior among all the
members of the company and determines the how individuals behave without supervision. The
culture set by the company also determines the behavior of the employees (Hindle, 2002). For
example, new employees often behave according to what they see and what they hear about the
conduct expected of them by the management. The culture or the priorities of the company also
shapes the employee recruitment process by giving the guidelines on what the company expects
from its new workers.
The norms and values guide the culture of any system. The combination of standards and
values forms the primary characteristics of culture. Norms refer to the rules and regulations of
society; that determines what is good and what is bad about behavior (Browaeys and Price, 2011,
p.11). The norms give people a certain amount of freedom of choice between what one should do
and what he should not do. Conversely, values are what is considered important or unimportant,
right or wrong, or what the society views as beautiful or not beautiful. Value is what one
experiences inwardly and that which is not opened for discussion (Browaeys and Price, 2011,
p.12). The system of norms and values varies from culture to culture, but also differ from one
part of the society to the other.
Organizational culture refers to the common value that the organization believes and
expects everybody associated with it to have. It can also be referred to as the unique personality
