OLC EUROPE

HND BUSINESS

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Introduction

Organisational culture has been given a lot of attention in recent years.

Culture consists of the shared values of an organisation - the beliefs and norms that affect every aspect of work life, from how people greet each other to how major policy decisions are made.

It refers to the style, and sets of shared beliefs, habits, patterns of behaviour and traditions developed by people within an organisation

The strength of a culture determines how difficult or easy it is to know how to behave in the organisation.

Definitions of Culture

The Collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation

It is made up of the enterprise value system, its perceptions of necessity and sum total expected staff attitudes, priorities and behaviour.

The pattern of all those arrangements, material or behavioural, which have been adopted by society (corporation, group, team) as the traditional ways of solving problems of its members.

Handy - Gods of Management Handy suggests that we can classify organisations into a broad

range of four cultures.

The formation of `culture' will depend upon a whole host of factors including company history, ownership, organisation structure, technology, critical business incidents and environment, etc.

The four cultures he discusses are Power', `Role', `Task' and 'People'.

Usually the predominant culture reflects the real needs and constraints of the organisation. Handy uses diagrammatic representation to illustrate his ideas:

POWER CULTURE

The Person Culture(The Web)

POWER CULTURE

Best represented as a web

Often found in small businesses (with some exceptions though)

Effectiveness hinges on trust and empathy

Communication by personal conversation and telepathy

Few rules and procedures

POWER CULTURE – Pros and Cons

Advantages

Often very strong and permeate the whole organisation

able to move quickly

can react well to threat or danger

Disadvantages

Can break down if too many activities are linked

can suffer from low morale & high turnover in the middle layers

ROLE CULTURE

The Role Culture(Greek Temple)

ROLE CULTURE Structure is represented by a Greek Temple

Strength lies in functions or specialities, not individuals

Interaction is controlled by procedures

Normally coordinated by a narrow band of senior managers

Effectiveness depends on rationality of work allocation

Woks by logic and rationality

ROLE CULTURE – Pros and Cons

AdvantagesSucceed in stable environmentsProvide secure employmentroles and responsibilities are clearly defineda clear system for processing work exists

DisadvantagesUnsuitable to changing environmentscan be boringdoes not often have room for personal growthslow to adapt to things like new technology

TASK CULTURE

The Task Culture (Lattice or Net)

TASK CULTURE

Best represented as a net

Job or Project oriented

Brings together. Resources and people at appropriate levels and allows them to get on with it.

Influence is based more on expert power than on position or personal power

Utilises unifying power of the group

TASK CULTURE – Pros and Cons

Advantages of task cultures extremely adaptable teams can be easily reformed, abandoned or continued can work quickly - as each group often has all the

decision-making power it requires Individuals have a large degree of control over their work

Disadvantages

finds producing economies of scale difficult often cannot produce depth of expertise control in such organisations is difficult

PERSON CULTURE

Person Culture(Cluster)

PERSON CULTURE

Best represented as a cluster t galaxy of stars

Unusual, not found in many organisations

People like Consultants belong to this way of thinking but often operate in other cultures

PERSON CULTURE – Pros and ConsAdvantages individuals have a great deal of power

decisions are by mutual consent

the role one plays depends on one's expertise

Disadvantages Control mechanisms are impossible to implement except by

mutual consent

organisations are often powerless to evict such individuals

individuals with this orientation are not easy to manage

CULTURE AND ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN

Most organisations start as power cultures

Growth leads to specialisation and formalisation of activities (Role)

A need for greater flexibility, often results in cultural diversity which if resisted can do a lot of damage to an organisation

Factors that Influence Culture

History and Ownership

Goals and Objectives

Size

The environment

Technology

The people

History and Ownership

Centralised ownership leads towards a power culture with more control of resources

Family firms and owner-dominated organisations tend to be power conscious

Often new organisations are a combination of power and task in the bid to be flexible and adaptable

Rapidly changing technologies suit a power or task culture

Goals and Objectives Goals emphasise product quality and are often

suited to a role culture

Organisations seeking growth are suited to a power or task culture

The Environment

A rapidly changing environment calls for a task culture

Diversity inclines towards a task culture

Standardisation inclines towards a role culture.

Environmental hostility is best encountered by power cultures

SIZE

Often the single most important variable

Large organisations tend to be more formalised and tend to be role cultures

Exceptions exist where the decentralisation may make it impossible for a different culture to exist

Technology

Routine, programmable operations suit role cultures

High cost, expensive technologies are suited to a role culture.

Non-continuous discrete operations often suit power or task culture

PEOPLE The individual working with the organization to a large extent influence

the culture of the workplace.

The attitudes, mentalities, interests, perception and even the thought process of the employees affect the organization culture.

It is the mindset of the employees which forms the culture of the place.

Example - Organizations which hire individuals from military background tend to follow a strict culture where all the employees abide by the set guidelines and policies. The employees are hardly late to work.

Organizations with majority of youngsters encourage healthy competition at the workplace and employees are always on the toes to perform better than the fellow workers.