The cultural environment

The cultural environment

The cultural environment is a crucial determinant of the success and efficiency of an organization. That is because it influences the working environment and the employees’ relationship in the workplace. It is fundamental to promote a healthy working environment, which affects the productivity of an organization. This report will outline the measures that need to be implemented and put in place at Virginia Meat Inc. to promote a positive organizational culture and promote employee satisfaction, employee retention, and the company’s productivity.

A negative cultural workplace environment results in stress. Stress has a negative impact on workplace efficiency, and it may result in reduced productivity. Workplace stress results in poor performance among the employees. It also cripples the relationships between the employees and the management and among the employees. Therefore, work-related stress and negative organizational culture are dependent on one another. When employees have work-related stress, the conflict more with their colleagues and management. That is attributed to low productivity in an organization and high employee turnover rates.

Virginia Meat Inc. is an international organization. That means that the employees that are employed at the company come from diverse cultural backgrounds. The organizational culture should complement all the different cultures that the employees have. That will shadow the differences in cultural backgrounds among the employees as they will all focus on the organizational culture. Suppose the management of Virginia Meat Inc. does not develop an effective organizational culture that incorporates all the employees. In that case, the employees’ cultural differences will be very evident and might result in an unconducive working environment and increase employee conflicts in the workplace.

One of the cultural differences evident in the company is the Chinese cultural background that the CEO of the company, Chinn, has, and the Western cultural background. According to the Chinese cultural background, the employees should perform all the tasks required of them without questioning regardless of the time used. However, according to Western culture, employees should only work for the required number of hours, and extra hours should be paid as overtime. The cultural difference in this scenario is very evident as they may result in conflicts in the workplace. To avoid the conflicts that result from such a difference in cultural differences, it is paramount to establish an organizational culture that will ensure that the employees achieve the required work within the working hours.

One of the measures to minimize stress at Virginia Meat Inc. and promote a positive organizational culture is communication. Effective communication is a key attribute to a successful organization. Ineffective communication may be one of the causes of stress in the workplace environment. That is because if people do not communicate effectively, some people may work based on assumptions, thus not achieving the desired results. Additionally, it may result in lack of achieving the required work threshold of work. Ineffective communication may also cripple teamwork in the workplace. All those negative implications of ineffective communication may result to workplace stress. It also promotes a negative culture in the organization. Through effective communication, the management of the organization and the employees may communicate effectively. That will ensure that all the workplace stakeholders are in the know-how of whats expected of them. Effective communication also improves collecting feedback, thus ensuring that the areas that have issues are corrected. Effective communication buries the cultural differences among employees and employee conflicts.

Motivation is another key factor in promoting a positive organizational culture and reducing work-related stress. Motivation brings to light the differences between engaged employees and happy employees. Engages employees have been given a certain target to achieve within a period of time. On the other hand, happy employees are employees that ave been motivated. The output and productivity that is achieved by both set of employees is different. Engaged employees work towards achieving a certain target that has been set. Happy employees work out of passion thus they can achieve more than has been set. Thus, happy employees lead to increased productivity in an organization. To ensure that the employees in the organization are happy, motivation should be promoted. That will ensure that the employees work on their on accord. Thus, they do not need to be followed by the management to perform their task.

Motivation can be promoted in various ways. On of the most common forms of motivation is rewarding the employees that reach a certain threshold. That will motivate the employees to work harder to reach the threshold, thus improving the company’s productivity. Through motivation, work-related stress is reduced and a positive organizational culture is implemented. That is because happy employees cannot foster negative issues such as cultural differences. They focus on their roles and how they can achieve them. With the new generation of millennials comprising of approximately 50% of the workforce today, the company should also promote personalized motivation and feedback. Millennials like being recognized personally. Thus, the company can start a culture of recognizing the individual who perform exemplary in public. That will motivate the employees to work better.

Work-life balance is an important factor that needs to be considered. Some employees have problems with work-life balance thus they may face work-related stress. They may also bring family stress to the work environment. Putting up schedules in conjunction with motivation can help the employees practice work-life balance. The company should also conduct seminars and training sessions to ensure that the employees have the skills and knowledge that is required for effective work-life balance. Putting schedules limits the working hours that the employees are supposed to work. Additionally, motivated employees are in a position to finish all the required work within the working hours. When employees finish all the work during the stipulated time, they have a better work-life balance. When employees have a good work-life balance, work-related stress is reduced.

The management of the organization should also consider the age differences among the employee. Some of the employees are Baby boomers, Generation x, and millennials. Due to the age differences, there might be different expectation of the employees. The management should ensure that they consider all the people when coming up with the policies. For instance, the millennials are more used to working with technology. The management should train the others the skills and knowledge to use the technology. They should be taken with a favourable pace so that they may understand well. The management should come up with effective ways to solve the age-related disputes. That will avoid work-related stress that may be caused by age differences. Additionally, the millennials should be given a chance for career advancement by availing them the posts off the employees that retire and coming up with training and workshops to increase their skills. That will promote workplace efficiency and a positive organizational culture.