Culture of the University of Phoenix Essay

University of Phoenix is a centre of excellence, which has served thousands of students from all over the world since it inception. The university’s culture is its personality, and it holds the university’s community by encouraging adherence to the university’s values, norms and assumptions all of which makes the university to behave in a way likely to promote the university’s cause. The culture of University of Phoenix is demonstrated in the things, which the University of Phoenix takes pride in such as its multinational students as well as warm relations with the local community. Like many learning institutions the culture of University of Phoenix can be referred to as an â€Å"Academy culture†. This is mainly the case considering the fact that in the University of Phoenix, there is little movement of staff and the staff turnover is quite low. It is likely that, most of the staff members at the university have served in the university for close to a decade or longer. There is also a blend of â€Å"club culture† in the organization given the fact that employees in the organization are recruited as junior employees but end up rising through the ranks to top management. Usually those who begin at the bottom of the organization but enroll in part time courses end up gaining skills and at the same time experience. This puts them at a very good position to enhance as the university supports career growth and development of its employees. The leaders in the university do not exercise unregulated authority characteristic in organizations such as military organizations which operate under a bureaucratic leadership style. The culture at University of Phoenix is that of unity and collaboration amongst the university community members. The University of Phoenix pursues a culture of integrity, honesty, excellence, racial tolerance, devotion to studies, creativeness as well as positive attitude towards success. The culture also calls for high belief in achievement and being goal oriented. The University of Phoenix promotes a culture of high values in everything the community members undertake. As a result of the cultural beliefs, the organization upholds, the University of Phoenix encourages total commitment to zero tolerance against racial discrimination, discrimination on basis of colour or nationality as well as zero tolerance towards gender discrimination. As a result of adherence to high values, the University of Phoenix continues to attract some of the best scholars in the world. People feel free to participate in the University’s growth in terms of continually being a centre for excellence. Therefore the University of Phoenix can be said to have a strong culture because every function of the university in terms of academic excellence and research activities is aligned to organizational values. This is what defines the strength of a culture and how well it is aligned to the organizational values. At the University of Phoenix there is a high sense of belonging amongst the students who always want to be associated with the organization, are proud to be associated with the university and wherever they go they carry themselves in a way in which they make good ambassadors of the university. Conclusion In a summary the culture of University of Phoenix mix can be said to be ideal in that it promotes participation of all members of the University in the promotion of the University’s values. The university’s culture allows for an easy introduction of change and therefore whenever there are any changes to be done it is never hard for the administration to institute nor the students to implement. There are rarely challenges so very hard for the university community to overcome as the culture allows for functioning as teams. Finally the culture allows for easy conflict resolution whenever conflicts arise. Reference http://www. insidehighered. com/workplace/2005/03/28/phoenix. Accessed on 6/04/2001. www. intuitive. com/blog/university_of_phoenix_apollo_group_releases_free_speech_policy. html Accessed on 6/04/2001.