Content

Introduction
Interviewee #1
Interviewee #2
Interviewee #3
Analysis
Summary of Analysis
Discussion
Summary of Discussion
Recommendations
Conclusion
References

The Managers Role and

Responsibilities in Promoting and Developing Organisational Culture

Introduction
The topic for this report is the managers role and responsibilities in promoting and
developing organisational culture. All successful organisations have developed or adopted a
particular organisational culture which they deem to be healthy. These organisational culture
and the adherence to this culture have resulted in a system which creates a conducive
environment for their employees to work and at the same time is streamline with the
organisational goals. There is no single definition to what organisational culture is. Most people
often refer it to the just the way things are being done or a framework which needs to be
followed.
The culture that was developed were often influenced by these following factors:
1) organisational goals and shared values in the company
2) workplace attitude of the employees and the individual differences within the
organisation
3) The working practices in the company
4) th hiring practices of the company
5) interpersonal communication within the company
These are the themes which will be further explored in the report.
Thus to address the report topic more holistically, we have to study the managers role in
promoting and developing this culture. The managers are people who are responsible for the
coordination of the resources as well as the actions of others for the achievement of the goals of
the organisation. At the same time, these managers have to abide to a set of moral values, which
guides the actions, goals, strategies of managers and other employees within the company;
management ethics. This report will present the approach taken by three different managers
from companies of different industries with regards to their role and responsibilities in promoting
and developing the organisational culture in their company and at the same time staying within
the guidelines of management ethics.

Interviewee #1

The interviewee is a manager and co-owner of Aeroair Logistics Private Limited. It is a

freight forwarding company that have been established since 2010. It is a small company which
handles cargo between Singapore and Indonesia. In the interview, he gave insights on the
organisational culture of his company and his role and responsibility in it.
He mentioned that being in a logistics company, everything is time dependent and that
coordination and completion of tasks is of its utmost importance. He further added that a slight
delay in administrative work can cause as a major stump to the companys day to day progress
which can potentially cause losses of up to thousands of dollars. When asked how he ensures this
level of efficiency in such a time dependent company, he said that his staffs punctuality is very
important. He also specified that he ensured that every one of his employees is clear on the tasks
that have been handed out to them and also the degree of importance each tasks hold. He would
send his workers to a few courses to ensure that they were equipped with the necessary skills that
are required in their job scope. This is because, he said that the industry he was in had very little
room for errors. As such that if deadlines were missed or mistakes were committed by an
employee recurringly, he might even consider pay deductions as a method of penalty although
this was something that has never been exercised.
At the same time, he added that despite being in such an industry, he tries to create a good
working environment and tries to motivate his workers by yearly increments in accordance to
their job performance. He mentioned that there is not a particular stringent working framework
in his company, however, there is a basic office hierarchy and he tries to set good examples for
his workers to follow. He is usually the point of contact should any queries arise hence, he
encourages his workers to contact him if they were in any situations they were unsure of. He
said that over the years of being a manager, he have become more understanding towards the
challenges faced by his workers. As such he wants to be able to communicate with his workers
on a personal level so that they find him more approachable. He also wants to want to develop a
level of trust with his workers. As such, he organises bowling sessions with his workers once
every three months paid for by the company. He said that he wants to maintain a basic office
hierarchy but at the same time he wants to be able relate to his workers on a personal level.

Interviewee 2
Background
Anderson Tan is the director of Biipmi Pte Ltd, where he serves as a career coach,
adult educator and an entrepreneur. He holds a masters degree in Lifelong Learning from the

Institute of Education and his passion for it led him to start Biipmi Pte Ltd, an organisation that
specialises in employability solutions for individuals and companies. Biipmi is built from the
belief that employability goes beyond just the capabilities and skills of an individual and there
are many other factors such as organisational concerns and personal circumstances that
determine ones employability. Anderson is required as the director to strategise the marketing
positioning of biipmi.com as a distinctive platform for lifelong employability and recurrent
employment.
Anderson's view on Organisational Culture
Organisation's Values
Anderson communicates Biipmi's culture through its brand's values and beliefs.
Since Biipmi is a company that specialises in holistic employability, Anderson believes it is
essential to incorporate this concept into the working practices of the organisation in order for the
employees to experience the various facets of employability. It is only when the members of the
organisation understand and experience the concept of employability that they can communicate
it to their clients. This is inherent in Biipmi's flexible work culture which negates the belief that
breaking the nine to five work office based mentality makes you unemployable. Employees are
encouraged to have flexible working hours and mobility in the workplace to better experience the
organisation's belief in employability as well as better work life balance. This in turn will help
them serve their clients better after having internalised the organisation's values. However, this
'flexi-time , flexi-venue' policy may not be as effective as face-to-face meetings and hence
disliked by employees who prefer a stable job scope. Moreover, it may also hinder the bonding
between staff members since they work within their own space. Anderson solves this by keeping
them buzzed on their 'Whatsapp' group chat as well as by engaging them in fortnightly
gatherings to discuss new projects and celebrate successes.
With this flexible work culture already being a perk to employees of Biipmi,
Anderson makes sure they equally benefit in terms of job satisfaction and personal development.
Employees are constantly reminded that they are competent enough to do their job well. There
isn't an expectation imposed on them or a set standard they have to abide by to complete their
job. Anderson feels it is more important to make them feel capable and challenged enough to do
their job in any where that can meet and exceed expectations, be it in the design ,concept or
presentation of it. He accomplishes this by delegating different aspects of a project aptly based
on the strengths of the employees, to eliminate redundancy and boost efficiency. He thus ensures
that employees feel they belong and are all contributing to the team. However, he asserts that this
may only apply for self-driven employees and doesn't work well for everyone.
Interviewee 3
The interviewee, Ms. L, is a senior manager in National Environment Agency. She is in the
procurement department and has several years of experience in this field, having worked with

different organizations such as A*STAR. She is currently in the procurement and project
facilitation department.
The Procurement & Project Facilitation Department (PPFD) ensures the integrity of NEAs
procurement process. The department provides a range of office support services and facilities
for NEA staff in the Environment Building. In addition, the department manages consultancies
and development contracts to ensure that projects are completed in a timely fashion. (National
Environment Agency).
Ms. L leads a team of _____ and her job scope involves overseeing her team members
performance and ensuring the efficient handling of projects.
According to Ms. L, customer satisfaction and the efficient handling of transactions are of
utmost importance in this department. As such they can be considered as the organizational
goals of this particular department. Her team members therefore are required to be competent
enough to handle transactions in a timely manner while ensuring customer satisfaction. The
customer in this case refers to the various personnel and departments within NEA and the timely
completion of procurement tasks is therefore essential to ensure the smooth running of
operations. Ms. stated that only people with a minimal amount are recruited into the department
and this is the most important criteria during the recruitment process. Other factors such as
confidence and the ability to work in a team were used to differentiate potential recruits with
similar experience. Therefore, due to the experience team members are expected to be able to
handle their job with a minimal learning curve.
The performance of her team members are evaluated half yearly through performance reviews.
Team members are usually left alone to handle their tasks with minimal interference from Ms. L.
She would only step in if she received any complaints or there was a delay in transactions. While
she wanted her team members to have job satisfaction, she said that completing the tasks given
to them efficiently was the priority. Mistakes are tolerated for the first few times but the team
members appraisal is marked down if committed repeatedly. On the whole, team members are
generally expected to be independent. In the case of underperforming staff, Ms. L revealed that
she would talk to them to find out what was wrong and try to give them time to improve.
However if this continued, the team members appraisal is again marked down. While
personality clashes did arise from time to time, Ms. L does not usually step in unless the team
members performance is affected. When this occurs, she again tries to mediate between her
team members and try to get them together during cohesion events. However, she admitted that
this occurred rarely and personality clashes mostly did not result in a drop in performance as
team members were able to work it out themselves.

Ms. L's view on Organisational Culture

According to Ms. L, the organization culture is defined by the standard of work that is expected
of mangers and team members. The current organization she is in has a more lax attitude and
relaxed standards as compared to her previous employer, A*STAR. Thus she finds that there is a
tolerance for a lower standard of work. She feels that this is ingrained in the culture of the
organization. Despite she still demands high standards from her team members where possible.
However she finds that enforcing high standards in an environment where a lower standard of
work is accepted often results in her team members feeling overworked as they compare with
teams under other mangers. This may also lead to a lower appraisal from her team members as
they might feel that she is too demanding. Thus she stressed the importance of having to balance
these expectations.
She also found that it is often difficult to go against the culture and felt that while she as a
manger could greatly influence her team members work performance, there were still many other
limiting factors which made it hard to sustain it. Also she strongly felt that any changes to such
an organizational culture had to come from the top management such as the CEO. However she
stressed that any lasting change had to not only come from the top but also from the next few
management levels such as the directors of the various departments. She gave an example of a
previous CEO who tried to bring about changes to raise the standards throughout the
organization. However he did not have the support of the directors and other senior managers
who were used to the existing system and did not want change. Thus the CEOs was not able to
bring about the changes that he wanted. Thus she felt it is critical for several levels of
management to be congruent about the changes that they want for it to be sustainable.