Organizational Culture

 Organizational Culture 

1. Collective programming of mind (Hofstede)
2.  way of behaving “ The way we do things round here”                              

Significance of culture for management

1. The management of an organisation should try to influence the corporate culture because a positive corporate culture can improve the effectiveness of the organisation
2. Schein wrote: ‘Building an effective organisation is ultimately a matter of meshing different sub-cultures by encouraging the evolution of common goals, common language and common procedures for solving problems’

Factors that shape organisational culture

1. Formal structure and size. Culture is usually more clearly defined in smaller organisations, but this is not always the case
2. Leadership. The leaders of an organisation can influence aspects of its culture, for example by stating the values of the organisation, and its goals and strategies
3. Environment. A corporate culture develops as a way of responding and reacting to the environment in which the company operates
4. Events. Culture develops as a result of many events, and how a group or organisation has responded to those events

Schein: 3 levels of culture

People who work in an organisation (its members) acquire the corporate culture.

According to Schein there are three levels of culture that members of an organisation acquire:

1. Artefacts, or an outer skin
2. Values, or an inner layer
3. Core assumptions: the paradigm

Artefacts or an ‘outer skin’. These are visible characteristics, such as the way the employee dresses, talks and does things at work; open plan offices; a coffee bar area in which employees are encouraged to take breaks etc.

Values, or an inner layer

Corporate philosophy and mission, corporate ethics (business ethics), strategies and objectives, stated corporate values. Inner layer can be influenced by senior management.

Core assumptions, or the paradigm

The unconscious and unspoken beliefs, perceptions and attitudes that are taken for granted.

Deep-rooted views, rarely brought to the surface or visible.

Provides the basic view of why the organisation exists and what its members think it is there to do.

 

Handy

1. Charles Handy suggested that the corporate culture in companies can be grouped into four broad categories:
1. Power culture
2. Role culture
3. Task culture
4. Person culture
2. Power culture
3. The corporate culture centres on a single, powerful leader
4. The leader is often autocratic in management style
5. Succeeds in influencing others through force of personality
6. Lack of formal organisation structure
7. The organisation is dynamic and entrepreneurial
8. This culture is found only in small organisations

Role culture

1. A culture based on roles and positions in the formal organisation
2. There are a number of clearly-defined jobs or roles. Individuals are employed to fill the roles
3. Well-suited to a large organisation in a stable business environment, where the pace of change is slow
4. Organisations with a role culture are often bureaucratic

Task culture

1. A culture based on identifying tasks that need to be done and getting them done.
2. To get tasks accomplished, project teams or temporary work groups might be established
3. A dynamic, innovative culture

Person culture.

A culture in which the organisation is focused on meeting the needs and requirements of one or more key individuals

Culture: international perspectives

Hofstede: international perspectives on culture

1. Hofstede (1980s) suggested that culture is a collective programming of the mind that is a feature of a group of individuals. Culture does not exist in individual people; it is a collective phenomenon that can only exist in a group
2. National cultures differ, and many people from the same country share a common culture
3. Hofstede suggested that multinational companies face a problem in developing a corporate culture, because of the differing national cultures of their employees and managers

According to Hofstede, there are five dimensions of difference in organisational culture arising from differences in national culture:

1. Power–distance dimension. This refers to the distance that an employee is from the source of power and authority
2. Uncertainty avoidance. In some national cultures more than others, individuals prefer predictability (precision, conformity, punctuality)
3. Individualism versus collectivism. In some countries, the interests of the community come before those of the individual
4. Masculinity versus femininity. Some national cultures are characterised by ‘feminine’ qualities such as intuition, quality of life. Other countries have a more aggressive ‘masculine’ culture
5. Long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. In some countries, people are more inclined to take a longer-term view of matters. In other countries, individuals focus on the short term