INTRODUCTION

What does it mean by corporate culture? The culture itself meant the ideas and social
behavior of a particular people and society. During the current era of globalization, there is
countless type of culture, wherever and whenever you are, the mobility of human who brings
their culture into their heart and implement it with care make it impossible for cultures to die
out. This factor can lead to a spread of culture believer no matter the society or people.

In the topic 8 of the subject Corporate Culture, I will discuss regarding the context
and behavior of an organization or their corporate culture. The actions of an organization will
always mirror their practiced culture. This can bring in depth effect to the influence of the
communication in between organization.

Potter and Samovar (1997) simplified that a culture is a complex, abstract, and a
combination of few social element which can construct and hold impact to the society’s style
of life. A culture is determined when the person or society understands the phenomena and
overall concepts of what they want to believe.

Meanwhile, Geert Hofstede (1990, 2005) stated that a culture is a form of a practiced
belief collectively which can distinguish the difference between the variance of culture
believer. A culture isn’t something that can be inherited but instead a culture is something
that can be learned, usually from surroundings like family, friends or the conditions of living.

On the other hand, Neuliep (Richmond and McCroskey, 2009) defines a culture as a
compilation of moral value, belief, and behavior of a group of people who have the same
interest such as living together or working together. To simplify, a culture refers to a group of
people who have the same pattern of mindset, background, and ways of communication
commonly.

In regards to the definitions mentioned above, we can clarify that a culture is

manifested through four ways; symbol, person figure, ritual or value. The ways to implement
culture thoroughly depends on the belief of the culture itself and how the society of the
culture decided to practice it.
Types and Characteristics of Corporate Culture
As declared by Hofstede (2005: 282), it is declared that a corporate culture doesn’t
have any specified definition. However, the bachelors who studied regarding corporate
culture agreed that a corporate culture does have specified characteristics.

The characteristics mentioned are a corporate culture is supposed to be holistic,

meaning it does contain the overall of a system. Next, a corporate culture is known to be
decided through history of the organization. A corporate culture is also related to the matters
that is or was researched by anthropology experts. In addition, it is said that a corporate
culture is build by a group of individuals which forms an organization. A corporate culture
should be flexible but is difficult to change drastically in determining the culture.

Correspondingly, Buono, Bowditch and Lewis (Grunig, 1992: 582) divided corporate
culture to two types of culture. Firstly, the subjective culture and followed by objective
culture. Subjective culture refers to a form of sharing in beliefs, theories and hopes that was
made or followed by a group of society regarding their surroundings and daily life. On the
other hand, an objective culture brings the meaning of artifacts or privileges possessed by
organizations.

In addition, Daft (1997) stated that a corporate culture exists in two types of stage.
The first stage mentioned was the surfacing stage. It is stage where elements that can be seen
or shared, for example, behavior, dressing code, symbol, ceremony and tales being spread
amongst culture members. Meanwhile, the second stage is a stage where the elements are
more abstract, for instance, moral values, beliefs, mindset and the like.

To sum up, the types of corporate culture rely on their surroundings that can bring up
the elements of culture like symbols, person figure, rituals and value for them to believe and
spread it amongst their culture members relatively.

However, Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede (2005) additionally suggest that there
are six dimensions in corporate culture. The dimensions are the result of their research and is
believed to be the values and tradition in organizations.

The dimensions are called cross-organizational dimension. Firstly, the orientation

process compared to the orientation result. This dimension states that a culture based-on
orientation process is when the workers are set to avoid risks in working and only have the
same routine for their workload daily. Meanwhile a culture based on orientation result is
when the workers can be more comfortable in working where the situations will be varied
and their workload is up to the maximum where every day there is a new task for them.

Next, the dimension of worker orientation compared to the working orientation. In the
culture of worker orientation, the workers are being taken care of as the organizations
concerned regarding their workers welfare more. On the other hand, working orientation is
the concept where the workers are pressured to only complete their work. The organizations
in this concept only look at the result of the worker rather than guiding them throughout the
process.

Subsequently, the third dimension is the dimension of narrow-minded organization

and professional organization. The narrow-minded culture usually mixed-up worker’s
personal life and their work life, resulting in the workers losing their privacy. However, a
professional organization culture, it is the opposite. Workers are allowed to keep their private
life from company as long as it doesn’t interrupt their working life.

Following that, the next dimension is comparing between the open-system and closed-
system. Open system acknowledges all kind of people no matter their background in the
organization. Closed system on the other hand, only qualified and worthy to work in the
system individuals can be accepted into the organization.

In addition, the dimension of loose control system and tight control system. In
structured organizations, the loose control system usually has costing, flexibility, and success
rate issues due to person in charge not handling the system correctly. Of course, in the tight
control system organization, every issue will be handled well as the person in charge
understood their work competently.

Last but not least, normative culture compared to pragmatic culture. In organization
which possessed normative culture, the process and procedure of a work is more important
than the result as they emphasize the important of work culture and honesty. Normative
culture takes the responsibility of an organization towards the society seriously. Meanwhile,
pragmatic culture is a culture where organization prioritized the result more than the
procedure and process. Usually, flexibility of skills is the most needed in this dimension.

The dimensions mentioned above gives a preview on how the structure of

organization can lead the practiced culture of an organization. The culture practiced gives an
impact to the identity or image of an organization and determine the public perception in
them.
Culture and Communication

In all of the cultures in the world, doesn’t matter the beliefs and rituals,
communication plays an important part in creating the culture itself. Generally, the members
of culture use symbols, languages or signs that can only be understood by the members. Since
communication is the crucial part in keeping a culture alive, it is the reason why
communication is the main catalyst in protecting or expanding the moral values, beliefs and
behavior of a culture.

There are few terms which can be use to promote a culture or an organization by
using communication, according to Richmond and McCroskey, 2009: 138-40). The purpose
of the terms is to avoid confusion and to distinguish the difference between the cultures.

Pre-culture is a fraction of the primary culture. The members of pre-culture share the
same primary beliefs but different ways to communicate. For example, the Malay culture
shares the same language, Bahasa Melayu, but there are differences of Malay society in the
aspect of their state and area.

There are a few types of communication in between cultures. Intra-culture

communication which means interaction in the same culture or interaction within sub-culture,
interaction with variance culture, international communication where the interactions
between country and different types of ethnics are the examples.

Furthermore, in organization and communication, there are also terms that can
influence in communicating between cultures. First of all, pancultural is an element that
includes all of the biology features of human, for instance, smiles, small talk and body
languages. These features help the members of society to interact with each other
comfortably depending on the meaning of the gestures in their culture.

Moreover, the next term is gender connotation. This term refers to the concept of
femininity and masculinity. This concept is usually a primary backbone in accentuate the
communication system in most cultures.

All of the terms mentioned above exist in every organization no matter what kind of
organization they are. This is due to the development of most organizations that has advanced
to global level, attracting different race of people from variant country. Hence, the variation
and differences that exists must be controlled using the right corporate communication
method.
CONCLUSION

Smircich and Calas (Grunig: 1992) stated that a culture is important in giving impact
to organizations. It is important to learn regarding the perspective of cultures as it can gives
clear answer regarding certain process in an organization.

Variance or diversity refers to the distinction. The mobility of people around the
world makes it easier for the diversity to spread around as these people carried their culture in
mind and applied in whenever and wherever they are. Therefore, the variance of culture
exists differently in multiple range of an area or district.

Due to nowadays organization practicing open system culture, there will be different
type of person accepted into an organization and the corporate culture along with
communication culture will be a big help for them to fit in. However, as mentioned before,
mobility of people makes it easier for different type of culture to mix in, and the
characteristics of culture is that it is not easy to change or accept changes. Hence,
organizations need the right communication method to fix the problem.

In other words, a corporate culture is always determined by the higher-ups in an

organization. But throughout the usage of open system culture, the influence of surroundings
in an organization may change the current practice. Therefore, an organization need to relates
corporate culture and communication culture sufficiently.

In topic 8 of Corporate Culture, the concepts of culture, characteristics, types,

elements and dimensions of the corporate culture is discussed to describe on how variance
corporate culture is operated into an organization and how important it is for them to build a
good culture for the future.

The formation of corporate culture does not only depend on the terms mentioned
above, but also depends on whether the public organization including internal public can be a
contribution to a formation of culture which can affect the identity, public perception and
image of an organization. And this is all pivot on the practiced corporate culture in an
organization.
Points for Presentation

SLIDE 1 – Introduction

Definition(s)

- Potter and Samovar (1997), Culture is a complex, abstract, and a combination of few
social element which can construct and hold impact to the society’s style of life.
- Geert Hofstede (1990, 2005), Culture is a form of a practiced belief collectively
which can distinguish the difference between the variance of culture believer.
- Neuliep (Richmond and McCroskey, 2009), Culture is compilation of moral value,
belief, and behavior of a group of people who have the same interest such as living
together or working together.

SLIDE 2 – Types of Corporate Culture

- Subjective Culture (a form of sharing in beliefs, theories and hopes that was made or
followed by a group of society regarding their surroundings and daily life.)
- Objective Culture (an objective culture brings the meaning of artifacts or privileges
possessed by organizations)

SLIDE 3 – Characteristic of Corporate Culture

- Holistic
- Decided through history of the organization
- Related to the matters that is or was researched by anthropology experts
- Build by a group of individuals which forms an organization
- Flexible but is difficult to change drastically in determining the culture

SLIDE 4 – Dimension of Corporate Culture

- Orientation process compared to the orientation result

- Worker orientation compared to the working orientation
- Narrow-minded organization and professional organization
- The open-system and closed-system
- Loose control system and tight control system
- Normative culture compared to pragmatic culture

SLIDE 5 – Communication in Culture

- Intra-culture communication
- Pancultural
- Gender connotation

SLIDE 6 - CONCLUSION