What is organizational culture? Definition

Organizational culture is believed to be an integral part of the workplace and plays a key role in it. There are many definitions of this concept. According to economists, it is “the appropriate organizational climate and management method, a system of incentives, qualifications, and interpersonal relations.” According to E. Schein, the culture of an organization can be called a pattern of basic assumptions discovered, invented or developed by a group during its confrontation with its internal problems or with the problems of the environment. There are many other definitions, but they have common points from which it can be concluded that the organizational culture expresses patterns of behavior, norms and values relevant to the company. It has various functions:

– enables the integration of employees,
– determines the manner and time of criticizing people in power, and the decisions they make,
– allows you to understand the strategy and assumptions of the company, as well as to identify its basic goal,
– increases employee involvement,
– defines the boundaries of the group, and additionally the criteria for accepting and rejecting it,
– allows you to avoid aggressive actions and negative emotions, and soothes conflicts.

Organizational culture is based on various disciplines, such as organizational sociology, social psychology and anthropology. It makes it possible to distinguish a given company from others on the market, and also attracts people with similar values.

Components of organizational culture

The aforementioned E. Schein distinguished three elements of organizational culture, that is: artifacts, norms and values, as well as basic assumptions. They should be compatible with each other. Artifacts are conscious, visible, but also artificial cultural creations that require interpretation. They are divided into several types:

– linguistic – this group includes both the language, history and legends of the company,
– behavioral – ceremonies, employee behavior, rituals,
– physical – items characteristic for the company, dress code, technology.

Norms and values are an element more durable than artifacts, but also more difficult to observe. These include:

– a specific image,
– company strategy and goals,
– features desired in employees,
– organizational structure,
– management style.

In turn, the basic assumptions are considered to be the foundation of any organizational culture. This element is the most durable of all three, and at the same time the most difficult to notice. It mainly includes:

– the nature of man and the environment,
– the company itself,
– the company’s relations with the environment,
– interpersonal relations.

Types of organizational cultures

There are different lists presenting the types of organizational culture. One of the most popular models is the one developed by K. Cameron and R. Quinn in 2006. It is considered universal, according to him, there are four types of organizational cultures:

– Klan – otherwise family culture, typical of local, small businesses. They all share similar personality traits, share the same values, and maintain friendly relationships. Great emphasis is placed here on employee involvement and team building, but also on tradition and loyalty. In the culture of the clan, an important role is also played by freedom of action and a partner-like attitude towards clients.
– Market – popular in particular in very large sales companies. It puts emphasis on getting tasks done and improving results. There is a lot of competition between employees and leaders. Hostile attitude towards competition, sometimes also towards the customers themselves, is a common phenomenon in market culture.
– Hierarchy – the opposite of the clan culture, there are many professional levels and well-defined structures and rules here. The leader ensures that the employees are correctly following the procedures. It is a bureaucratic and formalized culture, characteristic of international corporations. Problems and situations that arise are usually solved at a given level.
– Adhocracy – it is characterized by innovation and creativity. The exercise of power is exercised by people who have the greatest knowledge in a given field. The culture of adhocracy is dynamic, focused on constant development and adaptation to the changing reality. Employees are encouraged to new ideas and experiment.

Another division can be found in many studies on this subject. It distinguishes three cultures:

– Normative – the company’s employees fully agree with its goals. They are committed and fully devoted to their tasks, and they often treat the workplace as a second home.
– Coercion – the opposite of normative culture. People work in a given company for financial reasons. It is true that they follow the applicable rules and values, but do not identify with them. This makes the level of employee involvement low, they have no hesitation to leave the company when the opportunity arises.
– Utilitarian – one could say that it is situated between the culture of coercion and the normative one. Employees are involved in their duties for financial reasons, but wages are not their main motivation. There is therefore a certain bond between them and the company.

The organizational culture begins to take shape at the moment of establishing the company. It is very often influenced by the personality and approach of the business founders. It is worth remembering that each enterprise is influenced by various internal and external factors. Organizational culture may change accordingly. Of great importance is, among others the age of the employees and their character traits. Usually, younger people are more risk-prone and open to changes, thanks to which the company becomes more dynamic. On the other hand, older employees attach importance mainly to the sense of security and tradition. The industry, competition in the market or even the value system of the society are also important for the organizational culture.

Why is organizational culture important and how to create it?

The culture of the organization greatly influences the way the company operates. It determines not only the types of relations between employees, but also determines the way in which it is perceived by customers. Not every person using the offer of a selected company knows its system of values. However, it can be easily seen when employees are involved, conscientiously fulfill their duties and, above all, care about the right approach to customers. It is thanks to the organizational culture that everyone can experience the values and the code of ethics adopted by a given company. Thanks to it, the company also gains a chance to stand out from the competition. It is not uncommon that the elements of the organizational culture have a decisive impact on customers’ purchasing decisions, so everything should be carefully prepared.

More and more often it is said that organizational culture plays an equally important role as a good operating strategy. Even a very original business idea will not be successful if the right organizational culture is not built. However, many entrepreneurs have doubts about how to do this. You should pay attention to, among others on the selection of people for the team, but not only in terms of knowledge, competences and skills. It is also necessary to take into account whether future employees agree with the values on which the company wants to focus. Other important aspects include:

– consistency (between what is said in the company and what happens later),
– specifically formulated standards and expectations,
– skillful listening to employees, using their creativity and talents,
– establishing clear rules, respectfully,
– encouraging employees to discuss (especially about what works for the company and what doesn’t),
– discussing failures and learning from them for the future.

In the era of a pandemic, supporting employees has become even more important in the context of creating organizational culture. They may feel stressed and insecure about the future, and have problems finding work-life balance. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to their mental health and make them feel safe. This shows employees that regardless of the circumstances, they can count on their company and are an important part of it.

Neglecting the individual elements that make up the organizational culture may affect the fate of the company. There is a risk that it will develop too slowly or not at all, and therefore will not be successful. An underdeveloped organizational culture means that employees are not motivated to work, there are also other problems such as avoiding active action, lack of willingness to improve oneself and the entire business, or a negative image of the company outside. Its construction is a long process, which requires finding the golden mean between too rigid approach and giving too much freedom. It is worth spending a lot of time and taking care of every detail to create or redefine the organizational culture. This will facilitate building your position and gaining an advantage over competitive enterprises, as well as creating space for employees to increase their efficiency.

The examples of how different organizational culture can be. When asking about role models, experts often point to companies such as Google, Danone or Apple. Each of them developed their own scheme of action allowing them to achieve successive successes. Entrepreneurs should be aware that the organizational culture largely determines the way their businesses operate, and the management’s approach has a key influence on its shaping.

What exactly is this Programmatic?

Programmatic advertising is a fully automated buying and selling of online advertising. Transactions in this model are much more effective. Target groups are automatically selected in such a way that they are the recipients most likely interested in the category of products and services that we offer them. So we reach a potential customer at the right time with the right message. The rest depends only on our creativity and a well-thought-out strategy. As a result, we save time that we would have to spend on testing many groups of recipients (usually a process lasting several months) and a budget that is spent on high-quality traffic.

The above, combined with the right strategy and advertising creation, can significantly shorten the shopping path. The whole process takes place within one technology platform, in which we can access many channels, ranging from mobiles devices, through audio platforms, websites and television.

How does automated advertising work?

It all starts from the website. After the page loads, the signal is automatically sent to the ad market. All this happens in a split second. On the ad market, the auction is immediately carried out among all advertisers who have registered an interest in displaying ads on this page.

How does the system know who to show the ad to?

At this time, cookies appear informing advertisers what a customer is interested in and what their browsing history looks like. For example, if he spent a lot of time looking for new brand shoes, footwear companies from the premium sector will present them with an offer according to his preferences.

Let’s say you run a business that sells wedding dresses. You can create the following ad profile on the software platform:
– Woman, aged 25-35,
– locations: near your salons, wedding dresses,
– Interests: wedding dresses and accessories,
– He spends a lot of time looking for wedding dresses during the day,
– The ideal time of day from 5pm to 10pm (peak browsing time),
– Targeting desktop users (for example, by testing a search campaign before, you already know that this channel has the greatest potential in your case).

The platform also allows you to set a maximum bid, which is the highest amount you’re willing to pay for an ad placement.

This is just a general example. In fact, there are many more targeting possibilities in the programming model. Plus for you, if you’ve already managed to define your dream client quite accurately.

Programmatic Buying and RTB is it the same?

Let’s explain it once and for all. Programmatic is a technology, RTB (Real-Time-Bidding) is just one of the methods to implement this technology. RTB can be seen as a subset of programmatic (programmatic RTB), a piece of a much larger puzzle.

If an advertiser decides to invest more, they will receive a guarantee of displaying their ads on target sites instead of having to participate in auctions. This is a frequently chosen option that does not require RTB. Premium brands in particular opt for it.

This buying method is often referred to as “programmatic direct” and allows very precise targeting of the audience. Traffic quality is much higher, so it usually goes hand in hand with higher ROI.

This is a more expensive solution, but it has incomparably more advantages for the advertiser. It solves its two biggest problems: loss of time and partly spent budget for advertising creations directed at a wider audience, of which only a certain part is in the real area of interest in the product.

So machine learning replaces human work?

Definitely not. This technology replaces time-consuming activities such as offers or negotiations. Thanks to this, man has more time to focus on activities that have a direct impact on the success of the operation. Whoever follows the Pareto principle in life knows how much benefit it can bring for him. Optimizing and planning the right strategy suited to the objectives are key aspects of the campaign’s success, which for now can only be guaranteed by a very experienced specialist. Programmatic buying saves not only money, but also time.

Purchase methods. It’s too complicated! How are they different?

This is true. In conversations with clients, we noticed that many of them have a big problem distinguishing models for purchasing inventory in the programmatic system. So we hurry up with help.

In the programmatic system, we distinguish several different purchase methods. They are in turn:

A. Real-time bidding (RTB)
In this model, we purchase advertising in digital media in the real-time bidding process. The place of sale and purchase are advertising platforms called ad exchanges.

In practice, it looks like this:

When display becomes available, an RFP is sent to DSP (Demand Side Platform). The query is analyzed and sent back to the ad market, where it participates in the auction.

SSP (Supply Side Platform) filters the responses to the offer and sells the advertising space to the winner, i.e. whoever offers the highest price. In the last step, the ad appears on the landing page. All this happens in a split second and takes less time than loading the site. This model is available to every advertiser.

B. Private Marketplace
This model is intended for premium publishers. They offer their inventory to a selected group of advertisers that has previously been approved. It has full transparency of purchase. The advertiser always knows on which sites his ad will appear. Purchase, as in RTB, is done through real-time bidding, with the difference that the publisher must first approve the buyer. These are called closed auctions.

C. Programmatic Direct
Programmatic direct, in turn, is a model in which you buy inventory directly from the publisher. Before the campaign begins, the terms and prices are negotiated between the buyer and seller. After determining them, the buyer can start the campaign.

Transactions do not take place here in the auction system, and the price is set in advance.

This is undoubtedly a very desirable model in a programmatic system because it provides:

– high campaign effectiveness,
– qualitatively the best move,
– high ad position,
– brand safety and increased trust in the brand (ads are displayed in places selected by the advertiser).

The above points + a responsibly planned strategy can provide the brand with an uninterrupted stream of revenue.

D. Preferred Deals
The preferred offer model is similar to the direct model, with the difference that despite the pre-determined price, inventory is not reserved only for the buyer. This means that the publisher offers them first, but if he does not accept them, they are put up for RTB auctions or go to a private marketplace.

Is Programmatic Buying the future of digital marketing?

Everything points to it. Advertising expenditure in this model is growing rapidly. It is currently expected that in 2020 they may reach as much as $98 billion. Brands want to invest in a programmatic model and it’s easy to understand why.

For an entrepreneur, time is money. So why waste it on bureaucracy, when you can secure the best destinations in milliseconds. Companies are increasingly aware of this and therefore decide to programmatic buying.

Over the next few years, this approach will become increasingly common. Who decides to launch a campaign in a programmatic model usually does not go back to old habits. A bit like in the automotive industry, because if you change to Porsche, would you like to go back to your old car decaying car?

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the ways by which you can promote your online business. The essence of SEO is such activities that Google will consider a site valuable, which will show it higher in search results. Website optimization consists in conducting activities on the site (on-site) and off-site. In addition, content on a website is extremely important in SEO. The better the texts appear on the site (both in terms of language and content), the better Google will evalsuate the entire site.

In this article, we present the advantages of SEO, which – we hope – will dispel your doubts about starting positioning activities. Below are seven SEO benefits that will affect the development of your business.

Seven reasons to invest in SEO

A. Visibility on Google
98.38% of users use Google search engine (data from September 2019 according to Paraphrase-Online.com). Of this huge number, a really negligible percentage goes to the other side of the search engine – that’s why you should make sure that your keywords get the highest possible page rank. Because it is using the Google search engine that customers look for information about products and services.

The higher you go to Google, the greater the chance that a potential customer will visit your site. The benefits of SEO in the form of visibility will translate into more website traffic.

B. SEO is an opportunity for small businesses
Promoting a site on which no previous positioning activities were conducted can take from six months to even several years. For some this may seem like a long period of time, however, the effects that the website will get – if only the actions are performed correctly – can last for years.

Search engine optimization is a long-term process – stopping website optimization may result in a decrease in visibility, because Google focuses on promoting websites that are constantly expanding. In addition, remember that if you give up positioning activities, you give competitors who know the advantages of SEO, the opportunity to chase you away in search results. Regular investment in SEO brings enormous benefits, especially to growing businesses that are unable to spend on promoting such large budgets as large corporations.

With a constant budget, you build visibility of your online business for years. SEO benefits are also such that after a while you don’t have to (but you can, the effects will be even better) increase your budget significantly.

C. SEO is profit for the company
Investing in positioning with a reasonable budget and maintaining business continuity will ensure a return on investment. That is why it is worth starting a cooperation with a marketing agency, which will not only conduct a detailed audit of your website, but also plan activities for the next months, so as not to burn your budget.

A good SEO agency will not only prepare a plan for you, but will also constantly monitor the growth of individual keywords and will ensure the visibility of your website. However, don’t be put off by the lack of results after 3 months – it’s not like you don’t have any benefit from SEO. As we mentioned in point B. for SEO to be profitable, the site should be positioned for at least half a year.

The benefits and advantages of SEO are enormous when it comes to your company’s earnings. Positioning is an investment that after some time (depending on many factors, e.g. industry or your budget) will bring you significant profit while maintaining a low budget.

D. SEO is cheaper in the long run
The advantages of SEO are also a constant budget and growing effects. A well prepared SEO strategy can be cheaper than other forms of online advertising. The first half of the year is mainly an investment that, compared to other PPC ads, may seem unprofitable at first glance. However, if you survive the first phase, in which you mainly invest, then you will later appreciate these seemingly unprofitable positioning activities.

For paid advertising methods, you must pay to see results and traffic on the site. In the case of SEO after the first phase, traffic is still growing (organic searches) despite the same budget. Positioning conversions for long-term activities are simply more effective.

After some time, organic traffic continues to grow while maintaining the same budget. The costs of positioning activities do not increase drastically, as in the case of other forms of online advertising. These SEO advantages will also allow you to set a firm budget for the months and years ahead.

E. Local SEO will attract customers from the area
SEO also brings benefits to the local market. Google has long been giving users results that are based on their geolocations (e.g. GPS locations).

How does it look in practice? You enter “cheap hairdresser” or “good patisserie” on Google, ignoring the city, and Google based on your locations will show you the results of the nearest premises in the current area. Most of the answers to queries that the user directs to the search engine are personalized. The advantages of SEO are different, but for smaller businesses this is one of the most important, if not the most important: local positioning is also cheaper than global positioning, and for some industries it is also much more effective. A good SEO agency will tell you which type of positioning will be most profitable for your business and what exactly benefits SEO will give you.

Local positioning is often cheaper and more profitable for small businesses that address their offer to the local market.

F. SEO will show you as an expert
What are the benefits of SEO besides increasing sales? Positioning increases the visibility of the website on the internet, which translates into greater customer confidence in the brand. SEO activities also include content marketing, i.e. creating valuable content from the user’s point of view.

The more answers your questions find on your site, the faster Google will notice and position you higher. And the higher the page is on Google, the more likely they are likely to be trusted by its customers. SEO will help you achieve the image of an expert on the web, and will also show users that your employees are very knowledgeable and not afraid to share it. The more substantive content you provide to users, the more likely they will buy a product from you or pay for the service, believing that you know what you are doing. The advantages of SEO are not only influenced by increasing sales – it also increases brand awareness in the eyes of your potential customers.

The higher your business is on Google, the more likely Internet users will trust you. And people prefer to buy from experts and trusted sellers, than unknown companies.

G. SEO is advertising reaching a specific group of recipients
SEO will allow you to reach people actually interested in your offer. In the case of e.g. billboards or outdoor advertising, the message reaches both people who would be interested in leaving you money and people who will never use your services. Positioning allows you to create a model persona and match both queries and answers to the user who is your potential customer.

With well-conducted SEO activities, you don’t have to worry that part of the budget reaches people who are not interested in your offer.

What are the benefits of positioning?

Website positioning can give you above all real profit from business – sales and customers. By climbing the next positions in the search results, you have a great opportunity to reach more people who want to buy your product or use your services. The higher you go on Google, the better chance you have of increasing inquiries. And that’s what you mean, right?

Website positioning process

SEO is a long-term process worth investing in. However, it is difficult to run your own business – hiring employees, taking care of orders or accounting as well as the quality of the goods or services provided is time-consuming enough. Therefore, you should not make decisions about independent positioning hastily. In SEO agencies, positioning is done by teams consisting of several people. These are, among others, positioners, client supervisors or copywriters. Each person is responsible for a different aspect of positioning, thanks to which they can 100% focus on performing specific actions for your company. Thanks to cooperation with an SEO agency you have the chance to significantly increase your revenue.

Combining strategies

We encourage you to combine different e-marketing strategies. The combination of SEO and PPC ads, i.e. Google Ads, is particularly effective under the influence of conversions. Google Ads drives sales in the first phase, when positioning will work on itself, and then will support (with a lower budget) organic traffic, obtained through SEO.

In the elements of eristics and rhetoric we read: “In statements, keywords should be repeated or replaced with words related to them semantically.“

Of the four advantages of praising (brightness, correctness, appropriateness and ornamentation), repetitions affect two. Thus, thanks to repetitions, the statement becomes clearer (specifically: consistent) and decorative. They will also make it easier for the specialist text reader to remember the most important information.

How to increase consistency through repetition

Have you often heard the phrase: “Replace repetition with a synonym“? Well, I have interesting news for you: a synonym is also a repetition! Only inaccurate. Both exact and inaccurate repetitions and discussions, i.e. periphrases, help to make the text consistent. What repetitions will give the text consistency?

– the same word – when necessary, e.g. Google values ​​timeliness. If you expand an old article by adding some new paragraphs to it, Google will see it and index it again. Although you can replace the word “Google” with the word “search engine” in this sentence, Google will be more precise.
– a synonym, She liked to wear a hat with a feather. The decorative headgear attracted the attention of passers-by.
– a more general word, e.g. People surrounded Angelina with a wreath. This squat woman with a distracted look knew all the latest news.
– replacement of one name with another, i.e. metonymy, e.g. The actor read the poems of the master. The words of the master from the forest, heard years later, seemed different than in school times.
– pronoun, John made an appointment with Julia. He invited her to a concert of his favorite band.
– discussion, or periphrase, e.g. We ordered a chicken stew. Pieces of meat in white sauce served with loose rice turned out to be a good choice.

So when should you avoid repetition? And how, if the synonym is also a repetition? Let’s look at the sentence: A terrified neighbor ran out to the staircase. The man shouted: “People, thief!“. Repetition of an inaccurate male neighbor is superfluous and additionally confusing. Is the man who shouted a neighbor or someone else? So let’s apply the most effective editing rule: remove the unnecessary word. A terrified neighbor ran out to the staircase. He shouted: “People, thief!“

How to decorate and strengthen the text with repetitions

Writers, repeating words, do it on purpose. In addition to creativity, rhetoric helps them in this difficult art. Ways of deliberate repetition have already been discovered in ancient times.

According to the rules of rhetoric, repetition belongs to the word figures by joining. Unlike the figures by dropping, which serve to condense the content, the figures by attaching contribute to its elongation. Unnecessary? Only seemingly.

Repetition as an ornament helps to highlight words, draw the reader’s attention to them, and also play with the language. How to create such a repetition? Learn the word figures that will help you.

Poliptoton helps to focus attention on the repeated word

Repeat the same word. In this way, you’ll notice how important it is, e.g. Is there anything more valuable than time? Lost foaming can be recovered, lost time – never. And yet, when we share time with a loved one, we multiply it. Poliptoton will work better in oration than in the text. Very often we hear it in the speeches of politicians who want to emphasize the importance of a thought in this way.

Anadiplosis adds pathos

Begin the sentence with the word that finished the previous sentence, e.g. We are trying to catch up with the world and the world is not waiting for us. In this way you will emphasize the continuity of thought. Ireneusz Iwański aptly notes that anadiplosis gives the expression a shade of pathos.

Anaphora serves to strengthen

Repeat the same word or phrase at the beginning of the following sentences. According to Marek Walas, anaphora enlivens the text and makes it more emphatic. This is probably why you can often see it in advertising slogans, and they repeat it three times, e.g. in the slogan My Life. My world. My furniture. Use anaphora to stress the voltage. Let each subsequent sentence sound stronger than the previous one. Finally, anaphora, from Greek, means “lifting,” for example. She was beautiful. She was perfect. She was so haughty that I was afraid to look her in the eye.

You can repeat the selected word more than three times. Thanks to this, the tension will last even longer. Here is a statement by Captain McAdams about his last boat trip. Subsequent subordinate sentences begin with the word no:

“Not a solemn farewell in New York, not the journey itself without interesting events, not a couple of weeks waiting in Hong Kong for handing over the ship recycling facility, not even the moment of deliberate grounding or leaving the flag. I was most moved by the last descent on the gangway and the reflection from the side of the motorboat taking us. The ship was about to cease to exist. “

Epifora highlights the end of the sentence

If you repeat the same word not at the beginning but at the end of the text passages, you will receive an epiphora. Usually it appears in texts in which the subsequent parts have a similar structure, so they are parallel.

It is difficult to write a few sentences with the thought that each of them will end with the same word and make the whole sound natural. Despite this, the epiphorus appears quite often in advertising. Then the repeated word – often the brand name – appears as an answer to the recipient’s problems, e.g.
Fever? New Healthy Brand!
Sore throat? New Healthy Brand!
Overwork? New Healthy Brand!

Epanalepsa shows what the point is

Put the repeated word in important places – preferably at the beginning and end of the sentence – to emphasize what you think is the most important, as in the example: History belongs to us and the people create history. Epanalepsa will also add drama.

Diafora discovers a new sense of the word

Use the same word twice, but in such a way that the repetition prompts the reader to think about its proper meaning, e.g. What steel is steel.

Paronomasia encourages linguistic play

Use similar wording with different meanings. In this verbal fun you can also use words that sound the same, but differently written. Advertising often uses paronomasia as a set of words that differ in one or more letters.

Repeat to make it easier for the reader to remember

All information that reaches you at a given moment goes to the sensory memory, in which it remains for a maximum of 2 seconds. The ones you pay attention to are supposed to be stored in short-term memory for about 20 seconds. From there, the road leads to long-term memory. It will contain only a small part of what you have stored for a moment in short-term memory.

Proposal? Only information that he draws attention to has a chance to get to the reader’s long-term memory. You’ll increase this chance by repeating important words. “Repeating is kind of lengthening attention.“

This way you can also help the reader remember more. Because repetitio mater studiorum est. How and what to repeat in an expert article?

At the beginning of the article, pay attention to the dates you will write about – for the time being to make them interesting. You can ask a question that will direct your attention. For example, at the beginning of this article I asked a question in which two names appeared: “Do you know how to use such rhetorical figures as polyptoton or epanaleps to strengthen the text?”

Explanations and definitions in the further part of the entry will cause that the announced date will be repeated in the article. I described both polyptotonoton and epanalepsis in subsequent parts of the text.

Repetition is also a summary. You can summarize the knowledge after each important passage, or collect mainly thoughts in conclusion, as I will do now:

– Thanks to repetitions, we increase consistency, add expressiveness and facilitate memorization.
– Exact repetition, synonym, pronoun, generic word, and discussion affect consistency.
– Accidental repetition often confuses or delays the content.
– Intentional repetition helps to focus attention on a selected word, emphasizes part of the sentence, encourages linguistic play or shows what the core of thought is.
– To make it easier for the reader to read a specialist text, repeat key terms and summarize messages.