In addition to the impact achieved through Community Impact Fund Grants and community initiatives they lead, Orange County United Way also helps build the capacity of their funded agencies with educational opportunities.\n\nOver 40 agency leaders gathered for a panel discussion on the importance of organizational culture in achieving community impact.  Janine McDonald was joined by Susan Bowman, SVP Human Resources, Emulex, Jackie DeMaria, SVP Global HR, Western Digital and Paul Kotz, People Consultant, Ernst & Young on the panel.\n\nWhy is organizatoinal culture so important?\n

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  • As many as 75% of reengineering efforts, transformational initiatives and mergers/acquisitions fail – the most cited reason given for the failure is neglect of the organization’s culture

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  • Developing and managing organizational culture helps reduce collective uncertainties, creates expectations and values, and creates collective identity while energizing employees

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  • It is well documents that organizational culture effects employee morale, commitment, productivity, physical health, and emotional well-being

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What is organizational culture?

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  • Implicit Assumptions: basic functions and roles of the organization and employees

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  • Contracts and Norms: the policies and procedures, both stated and unstated, that govern an organization

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  • Artifacts: physical evidence of the culture, such as the building and offices, logos, mission statements and dress code

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  • Explicit Behaviors: how employees interact, how invested each is the organization, what activities or behaviors are tolerated

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\nOrganizational Culture Indicators\n

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  • Readiness for change

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  • Importance of teamwork

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  • Importance of learning and development

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  • Importance of relationship management

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  • Tolerance for risk

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  • Quality of communication

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\nEvery organization has a culture, whether by design or default.  Edgar Schein, Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management put it best, “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is create and manage culture.  If you do not manage culture, it manages you, and you may not be aware of the extent to which this is happening.”\n\n \n\n