1.
These readings cause me to think more about what organizational culture is, how it affects people and the way they live their lives, and how diversity plays a role in the success of companies. Based off the reading “What is organizational culture and why should we care?” it seems like the definition of organizational culture is a spectrum and is more of an opinion. Most of the people who voiced their opinions regarding what organizational culture is have very different ideas that one who said one thing might not have even thought of what someone else had said. The definition and the way it affects people is dependent on who the person is and what they have experienced in their life. While it would be easier for most people, if not everyone, to have one main definition for organizational culture, it seems like it will always be more of an opinion of what it is and that it affects people differently depending on what they see it as.
Diversity has been a topic of conversation for decades while people have struggled with discrimination and being treated a specific way because of their gender or skin color. It is extremely interesting that the companies that have more diversity in both gender and ethnic ways have more financial returns because as stated in “Why diversity matters”, this is definitely more of a correlation than a causation. Although, this could potentially be caused by the fact that by having a diversity among the people working could cause people who think differently to be working together and coming up with new and different ideas.
3.
The statistic that “racial and ethnic diversity has a stronger impact on financial performance in the United States than gender diversity, perhaps because earlier efforts to increase women’s representation in the top levels of business have already yielded positive results” is not only an interesting fact but proves that gender diversity has already been effective for businesses in the United States. The statistics in the article makes me think that the reason diversity is so positive for businesses is because there are different people with different backgrounds thinking differently about the same things. This allows me to create my own definition of what organizational culture is just like all the people from linkedin did in 2013. Organizational culture is within a company or even group of people when there is a diversity of people working on the same thing together. This matters because it is a way for people to be working together and is a way to get different perspectives and ideas on the same topic.
Zoe, I agree with your definition of organizational culture that states, “Organizational culture is within a company or even group of people when there is a diversity of people working on the same thing together. This matters because it is a way for people to be working together and is a way to get different perspectives and ideas on the same topic.” I also think that growth within an organizational culture could be included in this definition. Learning different perspectives and ideas, and learning from others’ personal experiences creates an immense amount of growth for an organization that ultimately makes it stronger. Then, a strong organizational culture can adapt to external and internal pressures, and use their diverse knowledge to create a very well-rounded solution.