MGT 501: Organization Culture Essay

For the Session Long Project for this Module, you are expected to explore some aspects of your organization's culture, at least as you see it. Since the concept of organizational culture is open to many interpretations and classifications, this assessment offers a slightly different approach from your background reading on organizational culture.

Required Reading

Debra Woog McGinty and Nicole C. Moss have compiled a short corporate culture survey aimed at identifying characteristics of workplaces. It is scored in pencil-and-paper fashion. The categories of workplace description that it generates are fairly self-explanatory.

Assignment

When you have completed the assessment think about it for a minute, and how it compares to the Academy, Baseball Team, Fortress, and Club cultures described by McNamara in the background reading. Then prepare a 2- to 3-page paper discussing:

• Your organization's scores on the McGinty/Moss assessment and whether the results fit your general expectation or constitute a surprise in some ways.
• Your assessment of your organizations culture "type" according to McNamara's categories.
• The degree to which these two assessments seem to be telling you similar or dissimilar things about your organization.
• Anything that you can infer from these assessments about how your organizational culture fits or doesn't fit with you, and what (if anything) you might be able to do to make your interaction with the culture more effective. Be as specific as you can in the interests of getting the most value from the exercise for yourself.
• Your overall opinion of these typologies as a means of understanding the organization and how you cope with it - what they measure well and anything that you believe they do not measure well or at all.

Your paper should be short (2-3 pages, not including cover sheet—references not generally required) and to the point. You are expected to deal with these issues in an integrated fashion, rather than treating them as a series of individual questions.

Keys to the Assignment

• Your completion of all the steps in the exercise.
• Your inclusion of the actual instrument or results.
• Your understanding of both approaches to culture "types," both in terms of similarities and differences.
• Your ability to interpret the results of the assessment in terms of your own experience, either to confirm or to question the results.
• Your ability to derive from the exercise ideas about improving your managerial understanding and/or skills.
• The clarity and quality of your writing.

Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the following five (5) criteria:

• Assignment-Driven Criteria (Precision and Breadth): Does the paper fully address all Keys to the Assignment? Are the concepts behind the Keys to the Assignment addressed accurately and precisely using sound logic? Does the paper meet minimum length requirements? 
• Critical Thinking (Critical Thinking and Depth): Does the paper demonstrate graduate-level analysis, in which information derived from multiple sources, expert opinions, and assumptions has been critically evaluated and synthesized in the formulation of a logical set of conclusions? Does the paper address the topic with sufficient depth of discussion and analysis?
• Business Writing (Clarity and Organization): Is the paper well written (clear, developed logically, and well organized)? Are the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary appropriate for graduate-level work? Are section headings included in all papers? Are paraphrasing and synthesis of concepts the primary means of responding to the Keys to the Assignment, or is justification/support instead conveyed through excessive use of direct quotations? 
• Effective Use of Information (Information Literacy and References): Does the paper demonstrate that the student has read, understood and can apply the background materials for the module?  If required, has the student demonstrated effective research, as evidenced by student’s use of relevant and quality (library?) sources? Do additional sources used in paper provide strong support for conclusions drawn, and do they help in shaping the overall paper? 
• Citing Sources: Does the student demonstrate understanding of APA Style of referencing, by inclusion of proper end references and in-text citations (for paraphrased text and direct quotations) as appropriate? Have all sources (e.g., references used from the Background page, the assignment readings, and outside research) been included, and are these properly cited? Have all end references been included within the body of the paper as in-text citations?