Organisational Culture - Essay Example

Organisational Culture Does the School Need a Major Overhaul? Name of Student: Student No: Date: Name of Supervisor: Introduction This essay will seek to ascertain where the fault lies in the case of Brian Stone who is said to have destroyed the culture of the United Nations International School of Melbourne. While Mr. Stone has both detractors and supporters, the main point is whether he is solely responsible for the destruction of the organisational culture at the school or whether other factors were culpable. This essay will argue that there was more to the situation than simply one man single handedly destroying the entire culture of the school. An organisational culture is defined as a collection of customs, philosophy, values and ways of behaving that give an organisation a distinct character (Brown, 1995). My argument therefore will be that it would be difficult for just one man to completely change the entire culture of an organisation on his own. However, there is clearly a problem with the culture of the school and an overhaul is necessary. In this essay, the theory of organisational culture will be examined and how it relates to the happenings at UNISM. A look at what the literature says on the subject shall be examined in order to gain support for the premise that the organisational culture cannot be attributable to one person. The following factors will be identified as having contributed to the breakdown of organisational culture that comprises of: A model of mutual fundamental assumptions, Created, discovered or incepted by a select group, As it adapts to external factors and internal assimilation, Which has been sufficiently successful in implementation to be considered valid and therefore, New members of the group are educated in this culture as the Right way to view, think and feel as it pertains to those problems (Schein, 1992) This would seem to indicate that the problem is more complex than just one man. In this concept, the organisational culture is defined and bounded by the group parameters in terms of language, ideology, ideas and circumscription as well as the normative criteria which is the premise used to allocate position, clout, influence, rewards, reprimand, camaraderie and deference (Schein, 1992). Culture is the determinant of what a group focuses on, how they monitor and respond to external environment. We find that Bruce Stone’s detractors stated that his brand of leadership brought a lot of division among the teaching staff, caused them to adopt an everyman for himself attitude and eliminated the culture of teamwork that previously existed. Those who supported him claim that he fostered just the opposite culture where his staff felt nurtured and appreciated; they received the help they needed in a timely manner and were encouraged to work as a team. Such polar views imply that the leadership skills or lack thereof exhibited by Bruce Stone which was said to have destroyed the culture of the school might be a matter of perspective. Shared values and beliefs are the glue that facilitates members of an organisation to understand their roles as well as the traditions of the organisation. This includes the observed behavioural regularities that are embodied in the common language, terminology and rituals; the traditions in place typified by the number of tasks to be accomplished and how cooperative the atmosphere is between management and employees; the dominating values espoused by the organisation including the calibre of product or service quality, low absenteeism and high efficiency ( Sisodia, 2011). This implies that the school had evolved a way of thinking or new values based upon the IT department and the focus shifted from the group, to this individual. However, this does not mean that the individual was responsible for the change because an individual cannot change the entire culture of an organisation according to Kotter (2012). He does however go on to say that it is possible to elicit a change in the organisation when a powerful person at the top or a large enough group can make the decision that the old ways do not work and changes the paradigm by acting differently and eliciting a different way of behaving in others. The new actions may produce positive results in which case they are disseminated and celebrated or they may be unpopular in which case the old culture fights back, killing off the new, and leading to the growth of new norms and shared values. In the case of UNISM and Brian Stone, both situations seem to have taken place. Some points of view had it that the new culture was better than the old, and took up the new culture with enthusiasm, because they received support and encouragement from Brian. The other group was resistant and feel that now that Brian has left, it would be better to go back to the old ways of doing things or incept a new culture altogether. The new head of the school, Kevin Devine, must make the decision to incept a new culture or continue with the old. The old culture however, seemed to have produced a polarising effect in the school with two distinct groups having opposing views to the same. For the sake of unity of the school, the new head may have to consider various scenarios on the way forward. Cultures have sufficient dynamism that changed circumstances can precipitate new patterns of behaviour or new concepts, although these are normally laid over existing core assumptions leading to a situation of intricate ambiguities or paradoxes (Trice and Beyer, 1993), which would continue until such a time as these new behaviours spawn a new belief system and set of core assumptions. Kevin Devine, the new head is tasked with bringing about new patterns of behaviour that would foster unity among the staff and lead to a happier, healthier working environment, however at the same time, he must consider the IT needs of the school and how he can continue to nurture this department without friction with the rest of the faculty. Bate (1994) views organisational culture as one aspect of differing components of an organisation. This aspect can be measured, manipulated and altered as can the other variables in an organisation such as structure, style, systems, strategy, skills and staff (Peters & Waterman, 1982). In this rationale, organisational culture is seen to be composed of values and beliefs that are espoused by leaders to be the guidelines under which the organisation is run, interpreted by the managers and employees into behaviours that they deem appropriate and reinforced by the use of reward and punishment (Bate, 1994). Thus, this scientific rationale implies that this culture is a definable entity whose strategies for change would emphasise modular, design and build activities that would often be linked to structures, processes and rewards. In order to not necessarily bring about change in the organisation but to rebuild the structure in such a way that all groups are going forward in a united manner, the new head could use this theory to eliminate or modify the elements that cause friction. This includes the complaint from teachers that the logging in of information takes a large proportion of their man hours, leaving a deficit when it comes to their core competency of teaching. Also the fact that IT support is not made available in an equitable manner to all staff at all times. Communication breakdown in how heads of school are informed of utilisation of the staff for whom they are in charge requires improvement. Therefore, the system needs not to need so much an overhaul as correction of anomalies within the existing culture. The discussion of organisational culture is usually done from the manager perspective rather than that of the staff and the emphasis is often on the role of the leader in creation, maintenance or transformation of culture. The leader is the shaper of the culture, which is then adopted by members (Hampden-Turner, 1990). This means that Kevin Devine is in a unique position where he can choose to continue the current culture of the school, or he can choose to change it depending on how he views the work environment. Ogbonna & Wilkinson (1990) carried out a survey of the effects of a supermarket culture change program. The program called for a shift in focus from cost minimisation to customer-service focus. This study clearly demonstrates that in organisations, there is a clear existence of subcultures, in this case the supermarket checkout operators vs. the managers. The changes brought about by training, rewards and structures may elicit a paradigm shift in one sub-culture; in this case, the managers, but only cause a surface change in behaviour in the other group, that is, the checkout operators. The latter group adapted behaviours expected of them since they were required to do so, and not because they were subscribers to the belief in better customer service. To juxtapose this study on the UNISM situation, it can be used to explain the polarised attitude to Bruce Stone and his IT innovations. On the one hand, the principle and board of governors were on board with the idea of his program because they experienced a paradigm shift in how they viewed the importance of IT usage within the school. The people directly under Bruce Stone’s supervision also experienced this paradigm shift and were able to work comfortably within the new system. The other teachers however, belonged to the old subculture and adapted superficial behaviour changes not commensurate with their beliefs. Hence the breakdown in communication and subsequent conflict. A lot more fragmentation in organisational cultures can be found than is evidenced in the supermarket example. Alterations in organisational configurations brought about by the emergence of project work, network organisations and strategic alliances in which people from different areas of an organisation join forces to complete a specific task is another illustration of this. When this takes place, the transient and diverse character of the work group makes the formation of an organisational culture or even subculture, unlikely. Such fragmentation has been discovered in even those firms that are traditionally structured (Hofstede et al, 1990). By his poaching of staff from different departments without the knowledge of the Head of School in that department to undertake various projects, Bruce Stone did contribute to the fragmentation of the organisational culture at UNISM. In order to heal this breach, it would behove Kevin Devine to take up a more inclusive systems and procedures to be followed when carrying this out. Conclusion The gist of this essay has been whether or not the school requires a major overhaul, following the departure of Bruce Stone as head of high school and the IT department. Mr Stone is said to be the cause of the breakdown in organisational culture at the school when he introduced a new IT system that some teachers report, added more non-essential tasks to their day without adding value. The differing views then caused a schism in the culture of the school, from one of cooperation to one of unhealthy competition. My argument in this essay is that Mr Stone was not the sole cause of this shift in paradigm that caused a culture breakdown, although he may have precipitated it with his IT system and his manner of conducting business. The other members of staff however, did adopt his way of thinking and behaviour and therefore were just as culpable in changing the culture of the organisation as he was. In order to effect transformation, the new head must identify the problems in the way the organisational culture is currently set up and find solutions to mitigate these problems such as better communication between departments and equal treatment of all sections of the school. An overhaul in organisational culture is definitely required in this situation, and every person must be involved in bringing this about. References Bate, S. (1994). Strategies for Cultural Change. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford Brown, A. (1995). Organisational Culture. Pitman Publishing, London Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Dval Ohayv, D. & Sanders, G. (1990). Measuring Organizational Cultures: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study across Twenty Cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 35, pp 286-316. Ogbonna, E. & Wilkinson, B. (1990). Corporate Strategy and Corporate Culture: The View from the Checkout. Personnel Review, Vol 19, no. 4, pp. 9-15. Peters, T. & Waterman, R. (1982). In Search of Excellence, Harper & Row, Sydney. Schein, (1992). Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass Sisodia, S. (2012). Organizational Culture. Trice, H. & Beyer, J. (1993). The Cultures of Work Organizations, Prentice Hall, New Jersey Read More