Cultural influences contribute towards certain functions and operations within an organization through various means. Culture influences or impacts training and development since it is the main determinant of whether or not employees can learn and improve thus get training as well as development within the organization. Among the cultural influences on training and development, which are as a result of the fact that culture helps in the definition of how people are taught, how they learn as well as what is expected of them and how they communicate, is what the trainer believes makes for good training and development course.
The kind of culture that the trainer has, which may entail believing that individual observations and performances make for good training and development course, influence the manner in which training and development of the trainees occur, thus the cultural influence on training and development. For instance, a trainer may believe that communication and feedback from trainees are the best means for conducting training and development courses. As a result, this would form the basis under which the trainer conducts training, thus influence the manner in which he or she conducts the training and development courses (Edmundason & American Society for Training and Development, 2010). An example of the cultural influence that is related to what a trainee believes makes for good training is communication culture.
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Another cultural influence on training and development is the expectation of the trainees. Trainees, depending on their culture expect certain activities to be conducted in certain manners for training and development. For instance, when dealing with trainees from India, China or Malaysia since such trainees expect to be told what a great presentation is, they take notes and leave to work on becoming better themselves. One would almost say that training and development is a personal initiative, which is based on receiving proper presentations from a trainer, thus the cultural influence on training and development that is associated with the expectations of trainees (Edmundason & American Society for Training and Development, 2010).
Cultural continuity and change influence organizational succession planning in various ways. Among the effects of cultural continuity and change is disruption of the organizational succession planning. Cultural change disrupts the organizational succession planning since it entails the adoption of new ways, which may require training and more time to achieve. For example, if a company were to introduce a new policy on organizational succession, more time would be needed to conduct planning of the same thus disrupting organizational succession planning (Mohamed, 2014). Similarly, cultural continuity makes organizational succession planning redundant, as it does not provide for improvement since the same routines are followed throughout. For example, if a company was used to choosing leaders using a certain criterion, cultural continuity prevents it from adopting new criteria that may bring forth better and more effective leaders, causing the company to demonstrate redundancy in its performance as well.
Internal social media influences organizational culture by providing a platform within which openness, participation as well as connectedness are achieved, thus positively impacting organizational culture (Mohamed, 2014). Organizational culture can be improved or changes as a result of external social media contributions and comments, which also positively influence organizational culture. However, both internal and external social media may have a negative influence on organizational culture depending on how the platforms are being used. For instance, if the HR focus on the positive comments in both internal and external social media, it may fail to work on the negative ones, resulting in a culture that does not accept and work on criticism.
Lastly, social media may be an effective means through which employees share knowledge, but it is the not the most efficient way (Mohamed, 2014). This is because social media has various limitations such as accessibility as well as whether or not the employees are tech-savvy. Inability to access social media prevents effective communication from occurring. Similarly, if the employees are not tech savvy, which means they do not understand how to communicate through social media, then there is ineffective communication. As a result, social media may not be the most effective means through which employees communicate.
References
Edmundason, A., & American Society for Training and Development. (2010). Training for multiple cultures. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development.
Mohamed, A. (2014). Social Media and Organizational Culture: Chances, Consequences and Opportunities for the Internal Communication in Organizations . German National Library. Print.
