Organizational Culture

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Description; In my clinical placement of community health nursing, I was placed in health center A. it is one of the biggest health centers in Nairobi with wide population coverage. On the first day we were dropped at around 0800hrs and all the doors were closed. Clients were pouring in one by one and within an hour the place was full. The staff had not arrived by this time. At around 0930hrs, the staff started arriving one by one including the one in charge of the health center. She welcomed us and told us she had been informed we were going there. She took us round the health center, including all the departments. We distributed ourselves to every room to get to know what happens. At 1000hrs I and my colleague were in the room ready to work. One nurse came in and greeted us and began to prepare the room. We informed her of our objectives and she was very welcoming and ready to work with us. We went to the reception where the clients were sitting. She took all the cards of the antenatal clients and told us to attend to those ones only and none coming in later or else they will be use to coming in late.

Analysis; As organizational members cope with internal and external problems, they develop shared assumptions and norms of behavior that are taught to new members as the correct way to think, feel and act in relation to those problems (Daft, 2005).there are three types of organizational culture as identified by Cooke and Haffevry (1989) as cited by Marquis &Huston (2006). These include positive culture which is a constructive culture in which members are encouraged to interact with others and to approach tasks in a positive way that will help them meet there satisfactory needs. This culture is based on achievement, self actualization and encouragement of humanism and affirmative norms

The other two cultures are passive-aggressive and aggressive-defensive. In these cultures members interact in guarded and reactive ways and approach tasks in forceful ways to protect their status and security. These two cultures are based on approval, conventional, dependant and avoidance norms and oppositional, power, competitive and perfectionists norms, respectively. In my case, the culture of the institution is more passive aggressive and aggressive defensive. It all starts with the leader who must take an active role in creating the kind of organizational culture tat will ensure success. According to Marquis & Huston (2006), success I building a new structure often requires new leadership and/or the assistance by the use of outside analysis. This applies in our situation where the leader is already entrenched in the culture and is hard to change her staff.

Culture also determines how the organization meets goals and deals with outsiders. The right cultural values can help the organization respond rapidly to customer needs or the moves of a competitor. Culture can encourage employee commitment to the core purpose of the organization, its specific goals and the basic means used to accomplish the goals (Daft, 2006).