The Content and Role of Corporate Culture in Russian Organizations

Abstract:

The article deals with the theoretical and applied issues of corporate culture in Russian organizations. The paper shows the history of the formation and development of the concept of «corporate culture of organizations» in foreign and Russian science. The authors define the concept of «organization’s corporate culture». We determine two ways of its understanding — deep and superficial. The content of deep understanding includes spiritual, moral, aesthetic and other values. Through them, the national culture, as well as the mentality of the people, is manifested. The superficial understanding includes artifacts of culture in the form of “tangible” norms, rules, customs, traditions, etc. The subjects of corporate culture are the owners and employees of an organization. Managing through the top managers, the owners decisively influence the corporate culture, determining the choice of management style (autocratic, liberal, democratic). Corporate culture, in this case, fulfills a dual role: on the one hand, it is created by the subjects of cultural relations, and, on the other hand, it influences them. Corporate culture defines the internal and external image of a company. Moreover, the company’s social responsibility organization depends on it. Such negative phenomena as opportunism, non-discipline, wasteful use of resources arise from the worldview, labor philosophy of workers. Without changing the philosophy, one cannot expect a workers’ earnest attitude to the means of production and working time. The transition from the philosophy of salaried employee to the philosophy of the cost-conscious employee is impossible without a significant development of the corporate culture. In this regard, it is difficult to overestimate the role of corporate culture in achieving the involvement of staff in the affairs of organizations. Recently, the theory of staff involvement, which is directly connected with the theory of the corporate culture, has spread. This theory examines the issue of how a company can achieve its strategic goals, creating conditions for the development of personnel in which every employee and manager will do everything possible for the good of a company. There is no single definition of «involvement». Usually, two concepts are compared: «employee satisfaction with a company» and «staff involvement in a company». On the basis of sociological research conducted by the authors in a number of organizations in different industries, we substantiate a concept of «staff dissatisfaction with a company».