SEEU Review vol. 6 Nr. 2 (pdf) - South East European University

SEEU Review Volume 6, No. 2, 2010Organizations are and have always been complex in nature. They are sodue to the fact that they rely on the effectiveness of communicationprocesses and practices within the organization. Furthermore,communication itself is so complex in nature and as such it makes it difficultfor people to understand each other, send effective messages, keep peoplehappy, and ultimately be clear and understandable to everybody. Thecommunication processes in organizations, being so complex, makeorganizations sites for conflicts, misunderstandings, mistreatments, and siteswhere employees feel threatened rather than motivated to do their best. Thus,many have come to find that improving communication practices inorganizations is key to improving overall life in organizations.This paper focuses on the impact social norms and political system mighthave in creating and sustaining positive or negative organizational lives.Even though social norms rely heavily on political systems, the two remaindistinct yet reflexive. Both have direct impact on the way organizationsfunction, but, on the other hand, political systems influence social norms andin some way social norms shape or create political systems. Although theycannot be fully isolated from one another each of them have genuine impacton organizational cultures. More precisely, the paper focuses on how socialnorms impact organizational cultures and overall how the socialist systemfailed to create and sustain positive organizational cultures. On the otherhand, I would like to prove that democratic state systems allow promotion ofpositive organizational climates where employees are part of the decisionmaking processes and as a result they feel much more committed anddedicated due to the high morale and motivation.It is important to mention that I am not promoting a theory that arguesthat democratic systems create and sustain the best organizations and thatthey do not have or encounter difficulties in their operations, however Iargue that democratic systems, such as the United States democracy, allowthe creation and sustainability of organizations where employees feel muchmore motivated, dedicated and committed, which is partly due to thedifferent and more contemporary leading styles their managements employ.This, however, does not resemble any post-socialist country where due to theprevious political systems, the organizational norms reflect the social normswhere the powerful influence the powerless and the number of thosepowerless is much larger than the powerful. Thus, more specifically, myargument is that older democratic countries, due to their political, social, andindustrial cultures, allow the creation of more effective organizations whichare organized around a specific goal yet at the same time allow for itsconstituents to be embedded parts of the organizational structure.83