When a person feels isolated from his/her group of acquaintances, family, friends, society the person feels alienated. The experience of being isolated is dreadful. When a person feels ignored, or left out alone, his enthusiasm and spirit of working drops.  Employees become emotionally separated from others and their own feelings when they feel alienated. Feelings of alienation can happen without the employees or their manager realizing it.

Parents often alienate one of their children; the consequences of severe parental alienation on children are well-documented. Teachers alienate their students which are also well documented. Alienation creates low self-esteem, self-hatred, depression, anxiety, lack of trust in others which leads to consumption of drugs and alcohol in young age. Studies show that alienated children go on to have conflicted relationships later on in life.

Workplace alienation brings down productivity. Employers must take strong steps in preventing those feelings in employees. Often when employees are transferred to another department or geographically positioned elsewhere. It’s often observed in some organizations a manager plays game of favouritism: he/she behaves partially with an employee, while others feel left out. When managers play different standards of accountability and performance for subordinates their behaviour becomes destructive and pulls down the employee morale. When managers refer to an employee as the star of a group, treating him/her inversely and constantly praising them, others feel left out or alienated and resentful.

Many researches have shown that when employers feel alienated it starts cumulative turnover. Workers feel disengaged when they are treated shabbily. Retention shouldn’t be a company’s only concern; productivity and customer service levels also suffer when employee morale goes down. All humans desire to have an emotional connection and attachment with those around them. And when they lack that emotional support, they feel deserted.

There are many factors that contribute to strong employee engagement. The main among them is the ability of staff to reach professional goals and understand how they contribute to the organization’s objectives.

​​Work alienation can happen for several reasons. Workers may not feel empowered to speak their minds because their bosses don’t let them know their feedback. Employees might be scared to speak up or think it’s incongruous to volunteer an honest opinion if their boss won’t take it in a good spirit. It’s often seen that unconscious biases impact our ability to be truly inclusive. Unconscious bias, or unspoken bias, refers to a bias that we are unaware of, and which goes beyond our control.

Furthermore, work alienation occurs if bosses are not paying appropriate attention to employees. A performance review once a year is not enough to evaluate and track employee performance properly. If an employee is working remotely while the rest of the team is in the office, they might experience work alienation and feel out of the loop.

Employers should treat employees like human beings, not just workers. People come with feelings. Everyone’s emotions and feelings are powerful. Emotions and feelings bring our needs; they are human requirements for survival. They strongly move us toward meeting our needs and desires. Our feelings advocate for our needs.

When a group of people discard an individual from their group or association, that person starts withdrawing and feels powerless. The person’s productivity reduces. Sometimes such alienated individuals become dangerously rebellious.

Conclusion

Feeling of alienation for a longer time can lead to serious consequences. People fall ill mentally or physically due to being left alone. We spend longer time in our workplace, if left alone employees find it difficult fighting loneliness. The feeling of alienation triggers some of the hormones which body produces when we are under stress. And that can dim the immune system too. Organizations must make sure to treat employees with modesty.

Edgar Schein a former Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management is known for his work in the field of organizational development, more so in areas such as career development, talent management, group dynamics and cultural developments. Edgar Schein‘s model of organizational culture originated in the 1980s. Edgar Schein identified three distinct levels in organizational cultures: artefacts and behaviors, espoused (adopted) values and assumptions which came to be known as Edgar Schein’s three levels of organizational culture.

This paper highlights on importance of artefacts in showcasing organizational culture.

Artefacts

Artefacts are the apparent and obvious elements of an organization. They are typically the things which even an outsider can see, such as furniture in the office layout, dressing norms, inside atmosphere, jovial and helpful. Free food, birthday celebration, annual holidays is also artefacts. A beautifully decorated reception area with artistic furniture and aesthetic fixers showcase the organization’s culture. Artefacts can be easy to observe but sometimes difficult to understand, especially if your analysis of a culture never goes deeper. The Palo Alto office of IDEO famously has an airplane wing jutting out from one wall, a surprising and puzzling artefact if one doesn’t understand IDEO’s culture of playful experimentation and free expression.

For some Microsoft engineers in India, working in tech-driven infrastructure merged seamlessly with the local cultural influence is a pleasant experience. Spread across the top three floors of a six-story building in Noida, a satellite town of India’s capital New Delhi, in their newest Microsoft India Development Centre (IDC). What sets the space apart from regular corporate workspaces is the historical context it draws from. In simmering ivory white and dotted with jaali work typical Mughal architectural style of perforated stone or latticed screen, arches, and domed ceilings, the IDC Noida campus’ architectural reference points, inspired by one of the world’s biggest architectural wonders, the Taj Mahal, are hard to miss. Microsoft wants to portray that it respects Indian heritage and wants to enrich its endeavour in India that’s what the office portrays.

In psychology a first impression is an experience when one person first comes across another person, a house, a building, an office so on. The person forms a rational image or an impression of that person or place. The interior and the exterior speak a lot about the organization or family, though they remain silent. The impression need not always be accurate; it varies depending on the observer’s frame of mind and the target person, place, object, scene, etc. being observed. It has been proved that it takes just one-tenth of a second for us to judge something. Imagine, how much time is one tenth of a second – and in that we form an opinion – some very important and some not so important.

Artefacts include any tangible, evident or verbally identifiable elements in an organization. These include the architecture, beautification of workplace, careful design, layout, fitting and maintenance, built-in space for movement (space, sound, and acoustics), functionality, attractive visuals, elegance, furniture etc. Artefacts include dress codes – explicit dress codes speak a lot about workplace culture. They are varied as workplaces are. It differs as per the nature of the workplace; it is the starting point of defining and determining a dress code. Wearing I-Card and clean dress, well-groomed employees speak a lot about organizations.

The key to a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by strategy and structure. When an organization has a strong culture, three things happen: employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization’s values.

There are six major types of artefacts: symbols, physical structures, language, stories, rituals, and ceremonies.

On the most basic level, a good interior design improves a space by making it better suited to its purpose. Interior design is a process that provides people working in an organization with a set of aesthetically pleasing, pleasant atmosphere for giving efficient solutions for a better use of the space in question. The goal of interior design is to improve the user experience by better managing the space available for the interdependent processes in the working environment of an organization.

A well designed office is a nice place to work. It gives the facelift to renowned companies for their creative culture and attempt to emulate what they’re doing, but without understanding the dynamics of culture, we may only mimic its surface-level elements and fail to make lasting cultural change. For example, it’s easy to look at tech companies and notice foosball tables or beer carts and lots of free food. But such objects are only part of the picture.

Established in 1990, in chaotic commercial hub of Nehru Place in Delhi is the Paharpur Business Centre with an exterior tall, greyish-white with rectangular windows spread over 50,000 square feet and six floors. When you step inside you are taken aback with the multitude of money plants that fill your vision. It is not an ordinary office.

The Paharpur Business Centre was declared as the Capital’s healthiest working place from environment point of view in a city. As such Delhi is notoriously famous for being the most polluted city in the world. This building manufactures its own air that is supposedly of ‘mountain-fresh’ quality and free of any toxins. The building is house for 1200 plants such as areca palms and snake plants which are placed everywhere. There are 4 plants for every employee on an average. The air inside this quiet building smells slightly medicinal and is completely still. It is only after some time that you realize why the gentle breeze and general hum of air conditioning units that are present in other offices or homes are missing here. It seems air conditioners are switched on only on the weekends to give the plants some rest.

The employees are organization’s first brand ambassadors.  Law firms are different from IT firms, hospitals are different from hospitality, manufacturing is different from retail and back office work is different from client-facing work. Dress codes, languages, selection of courteous language, office jokes, all exemplify organizational artefacts. Artefacts are the visible elements in a culture and they make the first impression on outsiders. Lazy, shabbily dressed, sloppy employees mar the image of the organization. When we meet gossiping, paying no heed to customers and lost in their old world employees, we lose interest in transacting with those organizations.

From the entrance of an organization a person feels a strong or weak culture. While designing an office, weightage is given by the management to cultural priorities. Values focus not on individuals but on the organization and its goals. Leaders in successful companies live their cultures every day and go out of their way to communicate their cultural identities to employees as well as prospective new hires.

For example Myntra is a major Indian fashion e-commerce company headquartered in Bengaluru. The company’s office is the one that is full of creativity. It is full of energy with colours, elements and visual merchandising just perfect to energize and inspire its 1500 young users, the company believes that more the colours, more ideas.

Espoused Values

A mission statement describes the overall purpose of an organization. Vision statements mention aspirations of the organization; they lay out the most important primary goals for a company. The mission and vision statements are displayed at most vital places in the organization such as the entrance, boardroom, all departments, canteen etc. The organizational culture is a system of shared traditions, values, and beliefs, which have a great effect on how people behave in organizations. When organizations formalise espoused values they must be aligned with organization’s core character. They act as statement of an organisation’s guiding principles and beliefs, and provide a meaningful keystone for behaviour at all levels of the organisation. Values are lasting beliefs which have a strong influence on the people in the organization. It tells how the organization appears in public eyes.

Assumed Values

The most observable feature in an organization is the behaviour of employees. It is the manifestations of an organization’s culture that employees can easily see or talk about.  Employers have a vital role in perpetuating a strong culture, starting with recruiting and selecting applicants who will share the organization’s beliefs and thrive in that culture, developing orientation, training and performance management programs that outline and reinforce the organization’s core values and ensuring that appropriate rewards and recognition go to employees who truly embody the values.

Conclusion

Artefacts demonstrate the culture, norms and values of those who are in the organisation as well as all its stakeholders. In a nutshell it is a medium of communication within the members of the organisation and those outside the organisation.

Robert Cook’s model is an extension of Edgar Schein’s model. An ineffective culture can bring down the organization and its leadership. Disengaged employees, high employee turnover, poor customer relations and lower profits are examples of how the wrong culture can negatively impact the bottom line.

Individuals from different backgrounds and varied interests come together on a common platform called organization to achieve targets as well as earning their own salaries. Individuals in organizations work in accord to achieve towards a common goal. The behaviour of the employees is driven by the culture of the workplace. How people interact amongst themselves and with outsiders also depend on the organization culture.

The artefacts, espoused values and assumed values policies, practices, principles of an organization form its culture. It is essential for an employee to understand the culture and adjust to it well to deliver his level best and win management’s appreciation.

Organizational culture is a system of shared traditions, values, and beliefs, which have a great effect on how people behave in organizations. Values are lasting beliefs which have a strong influence on the people in the organization. It dictates how the organization appears in public eyes. Edgar Henry Schein (born March 5, 1928), a former Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, is known for his work in the field of organizational development, more so in areas such as career development, talent management, group dynamics and cultural developments. Edgar Schein‘s model of organizational culture originated in the 1980s. Edgar Henry Schein identified three distinct levels in organizational cultures: artifacts and behaviors, espoused values and assumptions which came to be known as Edgar Schein’s three levels of organizational culture

Artefacts include any tangible, evident or verbally identifiable elements in an organization. These include the architecture, beautification of workplace, careful design, layout, fitting and maintenance, built-in space for movement (space, sound, and acoustics), functionality, attractive visuals, elegance, furniture etc. Artifacts include dress codes; explicit dress codes speak a lot about workplace culture. They are varied as workplaces are. It differs as per the nature of the workplace, it is the starting point of defining and determining a dress code. Wearing I-Card and clean dress, well-groomed employees speaks a lot about organizations.

The employees are organization’s first brand ambassadors.  Law firms are different from IT firms, hospitals are different from hospitality, manufacturing is different from retail and back office work is different from client-facing work. Dress code, languages, selection of courteous language, office jokes, all exemplify organizational artifacts. Artifacts are the visible elements in a culture and they make the first impression on outsiders. Lazy, shabbily dressed, sloppy employees mar the image of the organization. When we meet gossiping, paying no heed to customers and lost in their old world employees, we lose interest in transacting with the organization. Don’t we?

Espoused values are the organization’s stated values and rules of behavior. It is how the members represent the organization both in terms of their behavior and the shared values. Their interpersonal behaviors and their behaviors with outsiders speak volumes. This is expressed in mission, vision, philosophies and values of the organization. The mission, vision, goals, values   need to be displayed nicely in framed posters in strategic locations in organizations. They are official philosophies and statements of identity for the public. A company’s mission statement is essentially its statement of purpose.

It serves as a guide for all of the company’s decision-making. Shareholders, leaders and employees and customers are generally the target of the mission. It projects the future, of what the organizations hopes to become. Likewise, vision statements help to describe the organization’s purpose. Vision statements also include the organization values. Vision statements give direction for employee behavior and helps provide inspiration. They help in organizational analysis which is the process of reviewing the development, work environment, personnel and operation of a business or another type of association. In professional organizations you will see that espoused values are shared by employees at all levels. Trouble may arise if espoused values by leaders are not in line with the deeper implied assumptions of the culture.

The third level is Assumptions which are shared basic assumptions. These are deeply embedded, taken-for-granted behaviors which are usually unconscious, but constitute the deep essence of culture. These assumptions are well integrated in the work culture, that they are easily recognized in actions of the employees and management. The inner aspects of human nature constitute the third level of organization culture. The inner values of individual employees can make or break an organization. Being honest to work, being a well-wisher of the organization, putting in the extra bit matters a lot. Sometimes when employees need to put in late hours, and they refuse, or when female employees are dominated by male employees, or when females employees are harassed by their bosses it portrays the culture. The organizations follow certain practices, which are not discussed often but understood on their own. Such behaviors form the third level of the organization culture.

The three levels refer to the degree to which the different cultural phenomena are visible to the observer.

Aligning the three layers: Inside organizations, there may be different subcultures. Schein believes that the alignment between these three subcultures is critical for growth.  Many problems that are attributed to bureaucracy, environmental factors or personality conflicts among managers are in fact the result of the lack of alignment between these factors of culture.

Organizations must use a broad-spectrum yet strict approach to educate its members of the organization’s values. Remember, values are important only when the organizations’ members have accept them. Organizations need to publicize them widely internally, so that it goes down well externally. For example, if an organization gives importance to educational qualifications of employees, the values should be explained in detail to the members as they pass through the organization’s education system.

The values must be demonstrated to the employees through the senior managers. They say ‘practice before your preach’ the seniors play a vital role in practicing the values of the organization. Douglas Macgregor states that highly successful organizations do not simply proclaim a set of values; rather they immerse their managers as well as their employees in the ideology to an obsessive degree. It is a certainty, that any disconnect between the behavior of the senior leaders and the values of the organization strongly undermine the commitment of the organization to those values in the minds of its members. And, the adherence of the members to the organization’s values is the core of discipline. Whatever that undermines values also undermines organizational discipline.

Also, when new employees enter the organization, they learn the values of the organization through their initial socialization processes with other members of the organization. Though, this fact is considered as informal method, it is quite powerful. The new employees can be molded in the system within first two weeks. Finally, all organizations are socio-technical systems in which the manner of external adaptation and the solution of internal integration problems are interdependent:  employees, managers, investors, suppliers, the community, government and the customers shape an organization. The internal adaptation of an organization shapes the external adaptation.

Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing shop currently based in Las Vegas, Nevada. In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, it has become one of the world’s largest online shoe stores. Zappos has become almost as well known for its culture as it is for the shoes that it sells online. How does Zappos culture look like? It believes in delivering an experience of ‘WOW’ through service. The company believes in embracing change constantly. It believes in creating fun and weirdness among the employees. Weirdness is necessary for creating innovation. It encourages its employees to be adventurous, creative and open-minded and pursue learning. The organizations believes in building honest relationship with its employees with transparent communication. In true sense Zappos behaves like a close-knit family.

When it comes to hiring employees, it starts with a cultural fit interview, which carries half the weight of hiring the candidate. New employees are offered $2,000 to quit after the first week of training if they decide the job isn’t for them. Ten core values of the company are instilled in every team member. Employee raises come from workers who pass skills tests and exhibit increased capability, not from office politics. Portions of the budget are dedicated to employee team building and culture promotion. The organization passes on great benefits and a workplace that is fun and dedicated to making customers happy all fit in with the Zappos approach to company culture, where one gets the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own. Zappos has established what the company culture is, and fitting into that culture is the most important thing managers look before hiring.