Individuals and organizations have different and unique sets of beliefs about certain aspects of life. Often times, these sets of beliefs are used to judge situations that arise in the daily to daily lives of the units. Collectively, therefore, belief systems are structures of norms that are interrelated and that only differ in the systematic degree of their application. Most organizations base their operations on a set of mutually supportive beliefs through which every action affecting the organization is interpreted (Madu, 2012). It is not surprising therefore, that individuals in a similar organization are bound to agree more on certain values and beliefs related to the conduct of their business. For instance, workers in one company could agree on the need for time management while disagreeing with workers from another company on a different organizational aspect. Ultimately, the decisions made within any organization are dependent on the belief systems in play among the employees. In cases where these beliefs and values are in conflict, individuals must find a common ground to ensure continuity of the business.

In shaping the organizational culture, belief systems play a very important role of harmonizing the different beliefs within the organization (Conway, 2005). The organization is largely driven by the belief that the customer is the most important shareholder in the organization. Consequently, therefore, the organization has a responsibility of developing and maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction. The interrelationship between customer satisfaction and business growth and development puts the former at the center of all business transactions within the organization. All employees are bound to respect the objectives of the organization in maintaining high customer satisfaction ratings. This objective is attained through continuous improvement in the customer service with an inclination towards friendlier service to the customer. The importance of this belief system is significant within the organization as it accomplishes delegation and coordination while minimizing the need for monitoring, supervision and influencing activities. The organization’s belief system is the result of years of development and evolution in shaping the cultural aspects. Indeed, the belief that customer satisfaction has a direct influence on the volume of sales and thus profit forms the basis for the insistence on friendly customer service in the organization.

Although the organization has an identified set of beliefs that collectively shapes its organizational culture, each individual has their own set of beliefs. Individual belief systems are also important in the success of the organization as they collectively influence the organization’s overall belief system (Conway, 2005). One of the employees within the organization has a huge inclination towards team work and always insists on the collective accomplishment of tasks. The conviction with which the employee desires to have processes within the organization run through teams is testament of their belief in the power of team work. There is no denying that team work has the advantage of attaining standard procedures through the reliance on specialization. However, team work is also prone to the incidence of lazy workers with others banking on their colleagues to complete the assigned tasks on their behalf. This belief system is important in the organization as it encourages people to work in harmony and achieve better overall results.

While team work is one of the successful belief systems within the organization, another employee advances the concept of individualism in the conduct of their tasks. In their minds, and rightly so, individualism is most effective because it encourages internal competition within the organization thus guaranteeing better performance for all the employees. In addition, individuals gain the most motivation from the feeling of having accomplished tasks on their own. Through this belief system, employees can apportion the level of success attained by the organization to them thus making them happier. On the other hand, though, individualism has the negative effect of leading to demotivation among non performing employees. The result is that such employees may end up not working hard and giving up since they already know they will be outperformed.

The case scenario presented documents an organization that has a different belief system from those of two of its employees. Obviously, conflict is bound to exist in the normal running of the organization as each of the three units is adamant that theirs is in the best interest. In harmonizing the different systems, the organization can attain a common ground by encouraging employees to trust their beliefs as long as they are productive (Madu, 2012). In addition, the management should apportion each of the employees to tasks where their skills are most utilized and their capabilities exploited. In so doing, every unit would be comfortable and produce the best resulst for the benefit of the organization.

References

Madu, B. C. (2012). Organization culture as driver of competitive advantage. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 5, 1.

Conway, J. A. (2005). A perspective on organizational cultures and organizational belief structure. Educational Administration Quarterly, 21(4), 7-25.