IMPLEMENTATION OF STRONG CULTURE IN LSPR

Gracia Rachmi Adiarsi

 

BACKGROUND

Organizations in conducting day-to-day operations and managing member behaviour need a behaviour guidance. Organization culture is values, beliefs, and norms that influence the way members of an organization think, feel, and act with others both inside and outside the organization. This is the foundation of organizational members in behaving and becoming the identity of an organization and characterize the differences between one organization and another. For example, Harvard University with Oxford University, Shell with PERTAMINA, McDonald’s with Burger King, Samsung with Sony, and others. Guidelines in conducting activities within the organization followed by members of the organization through leadership roles that become their role models. 

The organizational culture concept has emerged in the early 1980s, where the idea of ​​human relations in organizations originated in the 1940s. Human relations theorists view the basis of cooperation between organizational members based on informal, interpersonal, and moral commitments. This becomes more important than formal aspect. The perspective of human relations has received contributions from anthropology and sociology.

Robbins & Coulter (2018) explains that organizational culture transmitted to employees through stories, rituals, symbols, and language. Stories usually concern the success of the founders of the organization in developing the organization, the success of the organization in finding innovation and others.

Ritual is a series of activities conducted repeatedly to show and strengthen the existing organizational values. For example, the selection of the best employees, company anniversary events, halal bihalal every Eid Mubarak, Christmas events and others. Symbols of the organization that seen by the eye such as building interiors, employee uniforms, vehicles used by company executives and others. The use of language with a unique vocabulary characterizes or identifies employees in a particular organizational culture.

Eldridge & Crombie (1974) describes organizational culture as referring to the values, beliefs, norms, and ways of behaving that characterize organizational characteristics regarding the history and character building of organizational leaders. Schwartz & Davis (1981) explain the pattern of beliefs and expectations held by people in organizations to produce strong norms that shape the behaviour of individuals and groups in organizations called organizational culture (Brown, 1995).

 

STRONG CULTURE

All organizations have a culture, but there are some that have a stronger and more entrenched culture than others. A strong culture conceptualized as the organization’s core values and norms shared among employees, held by them, and guide their behaviour. Research by Deal & Kennedy (1982) found that organizations are successful because they have strong cultures. They argue that success in business is due to an increase in developing a strong culture. For organizations that have strong cultural elements, it will be a forum for their members to improve their performance so that it has a good impact on the organization. Deal & Kennedy (1982) explain four elements of a strong culture:

  1. Values ​​are beliefs and visions that people in the organization have.
  2. Heroes are someone who as examples to run the organizational culture. For example, Elon Musk (SpaceX and Tesla), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and others. They are known through stories shared on social media as well as other media.
  3. Rites and rituals are events by organizations to show cultural values ​​to members of the organization as well as to the wider community. For example, activities such as rewards for performance, company picnics, employee family gatherings and others.
  4. Communication or cultural network is a means of communication used to strengthen cultural values ​​among employees. Consists of formal communication channels via email or social media or informally where employee interactions are face-to-face.

The first element of a Strong Culture is associated with the LSPR organization   established in 1992. It started with a public relations course and has now grown to become the Institute of Communication and Business which has undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The LSPR organizational culture contains values that understood, implemented by members of the organization. These values consist of Ten (10) Pillars as follows: 

  1. Belief in God. 
  2. Honesty. 
  3. Respect. 
  4. Discipline. 
  5. Responsibility. 
  6. Politeness.
  7. Perseverance.
  8. Confidence. 
  9. Independence. 
  10. Excellence.

The second Element of Strong Culture is Hero. Someone who as an example and a role model in implementing organizational culture. The Hero of the LSPR Business and Communication Institute is Prita Kemal Gani as founder as well as leader of this organization. McKenna (2020) explain that leadership is the power to influence the activities among a group of people to achieve something different or better. This reflected by more graduated students and increased performance. Organizations need a leader figure in disseminating the culture and as a role model in behaviour. 

There are five ways for leaders to influence organizational culture; spreading motivation, a strong vision, training (coaching), responsibility and morals. A leader who has goals will motivate employees or her subordinates to achieve these goals. Open two-way communication so that she knows what problems are happening to her subordinates. Employees who feel cared for and whose aspirations heard will feel more valued (Nelson, 2018).

The foundation of any organization that founded lies in the vision of its leaders. They share values and views about work so that employees follow them as work guidelines. An effective leader shares their values and views on the job with employees to function as a guide to follow. To ensure effective leadership, it is necessary to include an element of integrity in leadership. Leaders can become coaches for their employees by setting an example by making choices and actions that are visible to subordinates. Open two-way communication by starting it first with subordinates so that they understand the habits of the leader.

The leader establishes and enforces implementing rules as a responsibility to the organization. The rules communicated to members of the organization so that they can conduct their obligations properly.

Followers or subordinates expected to follow the good behaviour and habits of the leader. The key factor is the behaviour and good attitude of the leader which reflects the culture that will spread widely to employees. Leaders need to develop a culture of encouraging subordinates. Let people know they did an excellent job and admit when they made a mistake. Employees can correct mistakes in the future.

The third element of Strong Culture is Rites and Rituals are events conducted by organizations to show cultural values to members of the organization as well as to the wider community. Rites and rituals are activities conducted regularly by LSPR as part of this organization having activities that reflect the values of the organization in the Ten (10) pillars such as the first pillar of Believe in God with Iftar (Ramadhan month), Eid celebrations, Christmas celebrations, Vesak, Hindu celebrations. The award ceremony for employees and lecturers reflects loyalty and follows existing values. Student events such as Teatro festival, PR festival, and others. 

The fourth element is Communication or Cultural network is a means of communication used to strengthen cultural values among employees. Consists of formal communication channels via email or social media or informally where employee interactions are face-to-face. LSPR using media Twitter, Instagram, Facebooks, LinkedIn, email, LSPR website and face to face communications via Zoom or Google Meet during pandemic. Through these media, messages conveyed in addition to providing information, persuasion and primarily to strengthen organizational culture

 

SUMMARY

In building a great organizational culture, an effective leadership needed that has influence and can regulate the implementation of organizational culture. Leadership style can influence subordinates to be positive or negative. Culture will be strong if the values, norms, and beliefs are firmly held by members of the organization, otherwise the culture is weak if members of the organization do not agree to implement the guidelines. Robbins & Coulter (2018) explained that there are factors such as the size of the organization, the length of time the organization has been in existence, how often there is a change of employees and others affect the strong or weak organizational culture.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, A.D. (1995). Organizational Culture. Pitman Publishing.

Buchanan, DA & Huczynski, AA. (2019). Organizational Behaviour, 10th edition, Pearson Education Limited.

Deal, T., & Kennedy, A.A. (1982). Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. Perseus Book Publishing.

McKenna, E. (2020). Business Psychology and Organizational Behaviour, 6th edition, Routledge.

Nelson, A. (2018). The impact of Leaders on Organizational Culture. https://www.interactsoftware.com/the-impact-of-leaders

Robbins, S.P. & Coulter, M. (2018). Management. 14th edition. New York: Pearson Education Inc.