A lesson from our OB (organizational behaviour) class that has really stood out to me has been the idea of organizational culture. In order to understand an organization’s culture one would have to drill into that organization’s values, beliefs, attitudes, and ideas. Well, a huge part of an organization’s culture is formed by the key leaders and tends to typically take on a trickle down effect. These effects can be seen when the individuals at the top of the organization effect the ways in which everyone within the institution from the top to the bottom tend to dress, act, and perform their jobs. This type of effect can be a positive or negative one depending on what the expectations are.

Recently, my personal life took a sudden interest in the specific topic of organizational culture. I had begun working at a supposed marketing firm that was very successful and had many campaigns. However, soon after my first few days I was able to see the pyramid scheme that had been well established within this company. Many of the ideas they discussed in our morning meetings were about making money and being deceitful through the sales of merchant systems. After my third official day I had gained enough knowledge about the company’s culture that I decided to resign. I did not feel comfortable with the way the leaders within the company asked us to lie to small business owners in order to make a quick profit. In this situation, the organization’s values stemmed almost completely from money and it seemed to me that any ethics had been tossed to the side.  (image citation, 1)

A blog known as Office Vibe commented that greed is the ultimate culture killer, and the businesses that milk their employees without providing a decent atmosphere are not built for sustainability in today’s society (2).These comments made me wonder how company’s can effectively transform or create a more ethical culture. I found from our textbook that this type of change can be made by the manager(s) of the organization by the implementation of a few principles including: being a visible role model, communicating ethical expectations, providing ethics training, visibly rewarding ethical acts and punishing unethical ones, and providing protective mechanisms (3). I believe that over time these principles could transform the business world from being one of disception and greediness to one of modesty and integrity.

Word Count: 388

Image Source:

(1) Rick, Torben. “Corporate Culture Comics and Cartoons – Organizational Culture.” Torben Rick. N.p., 06 Feb.2017. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

Text Sources:

(2) Fermin, Jeff. “What A Good Company Culture Does For Human Resources.” Office Vibe. N.p., 25 May 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

(3) Langton, Nancy, Stephen P. Robbins, Tim Judge, and Katherine Breward.Organizational Behaviour: Concepts. Controversies, Applications. Toronto: Pearson, 2016. Print.

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