Review On The Office Environment Management Essay

The environment in the office determines how its employees react to situations. Each organization and its department has a different work environment; for instance, lighting, noise, privacy, and the amount of stress in the office which affects the whole organization’s work communication, efficiency and effectiveness, and productivity (Parks, 2003). Having the right environment will generate happier employees that will work more effectively and productively rather than employees who are uncomfortable (http://tinyurl.com/56tcmy).

Roles & Relationship

The roles and relationship played between managers and subordinates produces behaviors that affect work productivity. Both the manager and employees assume roles in the office, which are defined as performing a job function with a set of tasks or responsibility according to their job requirement. Relationship, on the other hand, is established by communication while carrying out a role’s office duty (The Reader’s Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder, 1994; http://tinyurl.com/3qguo). For instance, the frequency a manager interacts with his staff creates a relationship, either positive or negative, while performing their job function will result in different outcome.

In this case, mangers are known to be the leader and the employees are the followers. Therefore, a leader must know to inspire his followers, as without them, the leader cannot function properly. The manager must have a good understanding that the difference between all his employees in terms of leadership styles that has variant reaction with their needs, emotions, and motivation. In order to be successful, the manager has to persuade employees that he is creditable to be followed. (http://tinyurl.com/3qguo)

Corporate Culture

Corporate culture can be referred as a set of values, beliefs, and behavior patterns that form the core identity of organisations, and assist in shaping the employees’ behavior (Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Jones, 1983; Schein, 1992; Kotter and Heskett, 1992; Pheysey, 1993; Van der Post, 1998; Deshpande and Farley, 1999). Corporate culture also acts as a cognitive map that influences the way in which the situation is providing the selection mechanisms and values when people want to carry out events (Jones, 1983). Most people believe that corporate culture is a pattern of beliefs, symbols, rituals, myths, and practices that have change over time in an organization (Pheysey, 1993). Thus, it causes corporate culture became leading values that adopt by most of the organization. This is because corporate culture is also a part of the organization structure and control system to generate behavioral standards (Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Quinn, 1988). This can increase staff’s morale and self-discipline as well.

Furthermore, Despande and Farley stated that there are four types of corporate culture; that are competitive culture, entrepreneurial culture, bureaucratic culture, and also consensual culture. First, competitive culture is a value that linked with concepts such demanding goals, competitive advantage, marketing superiority and profit margin as well. For example, top sales person will be rewarded extra commission of MYR 1000.00 and this causes all sales person competing harder to get the extra commission. Then, entrepreneurial culture is emphasizing on innovation, risk taking, high levels of dynamism, and creativity; followed by bureaucratic culture which is refer to values like formalization, rules, standard operating procedures and hierarchical coordination. Lastly, the consensual culture is concern on the elements of tradition, loyalty, personal commitment, extensive socialization, teamwork, self-management, and social influence which are important in the organizational values (Despande and Farley).

Additionally, Pool (2000) claims that the organizational culture (passive or constructive) could obstruct job performance, job commitment, and job satisfaction (http://tinyurl.com/5qn56a). This is because corporate culture has a major impact on employee morale and productivity. For example, employees which are committed to the vision and the strategy of the organization will able to achieve organization goal easier compare to an organization that are never adopt corporate culture. Moreover, an effective culture could ensure the organization meets its long-term goals as well. Therefore, most organizations are realizing the importance of effective corporate culture at fundamental level that could help to translate that engagement of corporate culture into high performance. Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Peters and Waterman (1982) had taken a prescriptive approach towards culture management. They argued that adopting certain common cultural traits would result in superior performance.

Nevertheless, it is very difficult to imitate a successful culture into an organization because there are many interlocking elements. Based on the resource based theory, there are two other reasons that cause culture to be extremely difficult to imitate. First, cultural norms and values are subject to a pathway of addiction. On the other hand, life cycle theory stated that cultural development and strength depends on the historical development of the company itself. Thus, the assumptions of values and interlocking elements need a longer period of time to build. Therefore, the strength and management style of the company cannot easily duplicate by the competitors. Lastly, the capabilities of an organization to adopt a new culture are still unclear. This is because the impacts of adopting a new culture on the organizations would get the situation worsening due to a wide range of social interactions among organizational members because all organization’s members are not ready to accept new things yet. (Adapted from: Journal, “The influence of corporate culture and organizational commitment on performance” & “Corporate culture and organizational performance”)

Keyword: workplace environment, leader-follower, beliefs, myths and norms.

H1: Leadership is influenced by the environment towards rising company sales.