Cultural Theory and Its Implications for Organizational Communication

Cultural Theory and Its Implications for Organizational Communication Organizational culture is a collection of values that help members of an organization understand what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior in an organization. Each organization has its own culture that characterizes an organization. This is one of the differences between one organization and another. Not all organizational cultures can support the organization. There are organizational cultures that are not in accordance with the times. This means that they cannot adapt to their environment, and it is even more worrying if the organization does not want to adapt its culture to the times because it feels it is the most correct. As according to Schein (in Azizah, 2004) that organizations tend to develop a dominant organizational culture over time because they adapt and respond to challenges and changes in the environment. Organizational culture has a very strategic role in encouraging and increasing the effectiveness of organizational performance, as an instrument for determining the direction of the organization, directing what can and cannot be done, how to allocate organizational resources, and as a tool to deal with problems and opportunities from the internal and external environment. The most basic thing about organizational culture is as a social control system for members of the organization to control the expected behavior in order to be in accordance with organizational goals. As Robbins (in Sulaksono, 2003: 303) said that a strong organizational culture will give employees a clear understanding of “how things are done around here” (in the organization). Culture provides stability to an organization. On the other hand, a bad organizational culture or one that is not in accordance with the personality of its members will trigger a decline in the performance of each member. There are many factors that must be considered. It takes mature thinking to be able to create, grow and develop a culture that will have a positive impact on the company. Organizational culture is a force that can move people in an organization to carry out work activities. Unconsciously, each person in an organization learns the culture that applies in their organization. Especially if he is a new person, in order to be accepted by the work environment, he tries to learn what is prohibited and what is required, what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, and what should be done and what should not be done in the organization where he works. So organizational culture socializes and internalizes to members of the organization. A strong organizational culture supports the company's goals, while a weak or negative one hinders or conflicts with the company's goals. So, organizational culture will influence and become a motivator for employees to behave positively, dedicatedly, and productively. These cultural values are not visible, but are a force that drives behavior to produce effective performance. The organization must be able to invite employees, especially new employees, to make adjustments to the organizational culture that is the guideline for achieving high performance. In addition, the organization must be able to socialize existing human resources so that the results of the socialization process will have a positive impact on productivity and commitment to the organization. Ultimately, the implementation of organizational culture socialization will support and encourage human resources to achieve the organization's desired goals. A leader must also be able to maintain the culture that exists in the organization. For organizations, socialization can be used to communicate all matters related to organizational activities and organizational culture so that what is produced can be utilized by employees to understand everything about the organization. The process of internalizing organizational cultural values can also be used to obtain human resources that are in accordance with the organization and have high potential to develop further. Selecting employees who are in accordance with the organization will facilitate the instillation of organizational cultural values, so that it will have an impact on efforts to strengthen organizational culture.