Dynamics Of Organisational Culture

DYNAMICS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE, ATTITUDES AND MANAGEMENT STYLE Organisational culture has assumed considerable importance nowadays because of its impact on employee performance and satisfaction. Meaning and Definition: By culture we mean that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man in a society. Organisational culture (or its sister term corporate culture) has been defined as the philosophies, ideologies, values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations, attitudes and norms that knit an orgnaisation together and are shared by its employees. The following ten characteristics help us to understand culture. 1. Individual Initiative: The degrees of responsibility, freedom, and independence that individuals have.

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Risk Tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive innovative, and risk seeking. Direction: The degree to which the organization creates clear objectives and performance expectations. Integration: The degree to which units within the organization are encouraged to operate in a coordinated manner. Management Support: The degree to which managers provide clear communication, assistance and support to their subordinates. Control: The number of rules and regulations, and the amount of direct supervision that is used to oversee and control employee behaviour. Identity: The degree to which members’ identity with the organization as a ‘hole rather than with their particular work group or field of professional expertise. Reward System: The degree to which reward allocations are based on employee. Performance criteria in contrast to seniority, favoritism, and so on. Conflict Tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticisms openly. 2

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Communication Patterns: The degree to which organizational communications are restricted to the formal hierarchy of authority.

Organizational members tend to internalize cultural practices and like to indoctrinate newcomers into such mores. Some of these practices are so thoroughly internalized that no one questions them – they are taken for granted, that is, they get institutionalized. CULTURAL DIMENSIONS Over the years a number of organizational cultures have been identified. The more interesting of these are as follows: a)

Mechanistic and Organic Cultures: The mechanistic organizational culture exhibits the values of bureaucracy and feudalism. Organizational work is conceived as a system of narrow specialism and people think of their careers mainly within these specialism. Authority is thought of as flowing down from the top of the organization down to the lower levels and communication flows through prescribed 3

channels. There is a great deal of departmental loyalty and interdepartmental’ animosity, a strong “We” versus “they” perception. This sort of culture resists change and innovation. Contrast is the organic culture. Formal hierarchies of authority, departmental boundaries, formal rules and regulations, and prescribed channels of communications are frowned upon. There is great deal of emphasis on task accomplishment, teamwork, and free flow of communication- formal and informal. In problem situations, the persons with expertise within the staff, of the problems, threats, and opportunities the organization is facing and there is willingness and preparedness to take appropriate roles to solve the problems. The culture stresses flexibility, consultation, change and innovation. CMC, A Central Government organization, comes to one’s memory when one describes organic culture. B) Authoritarian and Participative Cultures: In the authoritarian culture, power is concentrated on the leader and obedience to orders and discipline are stressed. Any disobedience is punished severely to set an example to others. The basic assumption is that the leader knows 4

what is good for the organization and he or she always acts in its interests. The participative culture is premised on the notion that people are more committed to the decisions that are participatively made than to those which are imposed on them. Further, group problem solving leads to better decisions because several new points and information are shared during discussions. Participative cultures tend to emerge where most organizational members are professionals or see themselves as equals. C) Subculture and Dominant Culture: Each department of an organization may have its own culture. In which case there is subculture. A dominant culture emerges when there is an integration of all the departments into an unified whole. Within any given unit, the tendency for integration and consistency will be assumed to be present, but it is perfectly possible for coexisting units of a larger system to jiave cultures that are independent and even in conflict with each other. D) Strong and Weak Cultures: In an organization having strong culture, the core values are both intensely held and widely shared 5

by its members. Such employees develop strong loyalty to the organization. One benefit of a strong culture is reduced turnover and positive employee attitude. A strong culture demonstrates high agreement among members about what the organization stands for. Such unanimity of purpose builds cohesiveness and organizational commitment. The opposite will happen when culture is weak. The danger with strong organizational culture is that it leads to “group think”, collective blinds pots, and resistance to change and innovation. E) National Culture V/s. Organizational Culture: Distinction is also made between national culture and organizational culture. Organizational culture is influenced by the culture of the land, irrespective of the origin of the company. Go to my company operating in India, Indian or foreign, the local culture is visible. The holidays declared, festivals celebrated, functions organized and other cultural activities reflect Indian ethos.

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HOW IS CULTUTRE CREATED? Culture is essentially learnt. What applies to the learning process applies to culture also. Culture Formation around critical incidents: Forms and beliefs arise around the way members respond to critical incidents. Something emotionally charged or anxiety producing may happen, such as an attack by a member on the leader, because everyone witness it and because tension is high when the attack occurs, the immediate next set-of-behaviors tends to create a norm. 

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IDENTIFICATION WITH LEADERS : A second mechanism of culture creation is the modeling by leader figures that permits group members to identify with them and internalize their values and assumptions. When groups or organizations first form, there are usually dominant figures or “founders” who help establish the early culture. They have a vision or mission of what the organization should be. They are unconstrained by previous customs or ideologies. The small size that typically characterizes any new organization further facilitates the founders imposing their vision 7

on all organizational members. Because the founders have the original idea, they also typically have biases on how to get the idea fulfilled. The organisation’s culture results from the interaction between (1) the founder’s biases and assumptions, and 2) what the original members who the founders initially employ learn subsequently from their own experiences. The late J.R.D. Tata typifies this type of culture creation. His supportive – consultive role, his belief on professionalism, and assumption that only honesty and fair dealing will pay have made the vast Tata empire what it is today. HOW IS CULTURE SUSTAINED? Once a culture is created, there are practices within the organization that help keep it alive. Three such practices are selection process, actions of top management, and socialization methods. 1.

SELECTION: The main purpose of selection process is to hire right people for right jobs. When for a given job, two or more candidates, with identical skills and 8

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abilities, are available, final selection is influenced by how well the candidate fits into the organization. By identifying candidates who can culturally match the organizational culture, selection helps sustain culture considerably. TOP MANGEMENT: The actions of top management also have a major impact on the organization’s culture. Through what they say and how they behave, senior executives establish norms that filter down through the organization as to whether risk taking is desirable; how much freedom managers should give their subordinates; what is appropriate dress; what actions will pay off in terms of pay raises – promotions, and other rewards; and the like. SOCIALISATION : No matter how good job the organization does in hiring people, new employees are not fully indoctrinated in the organization’s culture. May be because they are least familiar with the organisation’s culture, new employees are potentially most likely to disturb the beliefs and customs that are in place. The organization will, therefore, want to help new employees adapt to its culture. This adoption process is called socialization. 9

TOP MANAGEMENTS

CRITICAL INCIDENTS

ORGANISATION AL CULTURE

SELECTION CRITERIA

SOCIALISATION

ORGANISATIONS FOUNDERS

CREATION AND SUITENANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

HOW IS CULTURE LEARNT BY EMPLOYEES ? Culture is transmitted to employees through number of means. The most effective means are: Stories, rituals, material symbols, language and principles. Founding fathers of organizations emerge as heroes. Their sacrifices, valorous deeds, and ingenuity in the difficult initial years of the organization and later during crises periods are embellished into stories and sagas.

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