Is Sociability and Solidarity Analysis Useful for Todays Organisational Leaders - Essay Example

Name Class Unit Title: When analysing organisation cultures Goffee and Jones focus on sociability and solidarity. Is their kind of analysis useful for today’s organisational leaders? Explain your answer. Introduction Over the years, the concept of organisational culture has gained prominence as a means of understanding human systems. Culture is a vital component of internal environment of an organisation (McLaughlin, Bessant & Smart, 2008). The analysis done by Goffee and Jones focuses on solidarity and sociability. The authors categorises organisation culture into four distinct types based on solidarity and sociability dimensions. Sociability can be looked at as the existing friendliness relationships among people in an organisation. Solidarity can be defined as the ability of employees to pursue the existing shared goals in an effective and efficient manner for the benefit of the organisation. In solidarity, there is low regard on the impact on individual employees and existing relationships among them (Goffee & Jones, 1996). Organisation culture helps in understand organisation life. Despite this, some critics have argued that organisation culture link on organisation performance is ambiguous. This essay will prove that analysis on organisation culture done by Goffee and Jones which focuses on solidarity and sociability is very useful for today’s organisational leaders. Discussion Sociability is an important aspect in an organisation. Through sociability, friendships, ideas and interests are shared. There is reciprocity where actions of favours are done without expecting payback. Solidarity is favoured due to fact that it leads to single-minded dedication to organisation mission and goals. Through solidarity, there is quick response to changes in the environment and poor perfoamcne is not tolerated. This leads to an organisation where work roles are well defined and understood. Everyone works for overall good and high standards are upheld. Treatment is based on merit in high solidarity organisations (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). As the article explains, culture is what holds an organisation together. Without culture, an organisation lacks direction, purpose and values. Leaders have a role to access their organisation culture and determine whether it fits the business situation or not. Through this, they can be able to come up with ways of transforming the organisation culture. Culture bolsters the organisation identity thus making it a vital component that modern leadership must be concerned with. A company with a strong culture is able to outperform one without. Organization with a strong culture is able to work together and have their values which define them (Goffee & Jones, 1996). In modern organisation leaders, it is evident that communal, fragmented, networked and mercenary culture exists. This makes it important for today’s organisation leaders to understand the type of culture in their organisation and the impact it has on perfoamcne. The authors explain culture as a community where people relate to each other. Communal organisations are typical in new and fast growing companies. This is where people are driven by shared goals and have strong social bonds. In the modern start-ups, leaders have to understand whether they are operating in a communal culture and how the culture benefits them (Abdul Rashid, Sambasivan & Abdul Rahman, 2004). Through the analysis, leaders are able to determine the level of fragmentation in their organisation. The analysis introduces fragmented organisation as dysfunctional. These are organisation with low sociability and solidarity. These are rudderless and ungovernable organisation. In modern organisation, a leader is able to understand and act when the culture become fragmented. When there is high sociability and low solidarity, an organisation leader is able to determine the level of networking in an organisation. Lastly, mechanised organisations are evidenced by low sociability and high solidarity (Goffee & Jones, 1996). The main aim is to win the market place. This is an organisation with clear priorities and where action to outside events is quick (Edwards, Kumar & Ranjan, 2002). The leadership thus have the capability to determine the type of culture they need in an organisation and the one they are in. Culture and organisation performance Organisation culture affects perfoamcne hence have an impact on the organisation. Organisation culture has mostly been focused on the perfoamcne and facilitating change. As a leader, the level of solidarity and sociability will determine the change process. In an organisation where change is required, it is prudent to determine the impact the culture will have. The leadership are expected to determine the type of culture that favours change. This is a challenging task for the organisational leaders since they have to determine how to implementing change (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). Organisation change and culture Different business environment requires different types of cultures. Leaders are expected to determine the type of culture that will work in a given environment. This makes the analysis by Goffee and Jones vital for today’s leaders. For example, when the business environment is uncertain and market volatile, there is high competition. The mercenary culture would be the best in such a situation (Goffee & Jones, 1996). This is due to fact that it has the capability to attain high efficiency and effectiveness. Organisation culture is highly associated to attitudes towards change. Varying cultures have differing levels of acceptability and attitudes to change (Abdul Rashid, Sambasivan & Abdul Rahman, 2004). An organisation is expected to come up with a community that suits their environment. When implementing change, the leadership has to determine the existing organisation culture and the required. It has been evident that organisations have been made to change their culture due to competition. Companies which have been losing market share have been made to address issues with their organisation culture (Schein, 2010). Sociability does not only exist as a life experience since it is exhibited in the workplace. When a new employee enters an organisation, sociability is often the first thing seen. Solidarity contains the interests and sympathies that unite co-workers. It is based on the goals that benefits all in an organisation. Through a good understanding of the two concepts, modern organisation leaders able to come up with a better character that suits their organisation. It also helps them to make changes when it is necessary (Edwards, Kumar & Ranjan, 2002). Leadership, culture and behaviours Organisation culture shapes behaviours. There are positive associations between culture and behaviour. Members in an organisation are cultured into believing in their organisation culture. Group norms help a lot in shaping values and beliefs that exists. Through culture, it becomes possible to direct the employee behaviour. This directs the organisation members to the activities which are seen important for the organisation. This makes it prudent for the organisation leaders to have an understanding of their organisation culture (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). Organisational leaders require organisation culture to control the employees’ behaviours. The analysis done by Goffee and Jones is vital for organisational leaders. In a mercenary culture, employees may act in a way that is self-serving rather than in the interest of the whole system. In a communal culture, employees will behave in a manner that seeks to serve everyone in the organisation. In some cases, clash of cultures may occur especially if one individual values varies from others. The leader has to intervene in such situation and help the employee adapt to shared culture (Schein, 2010). Employee ethics are determined by the type of existing culture. An ethical behaviour is determined by the settings. The top management establish the culture and hence sets that ethics (Schein, 2010). The low level employees will act based on the organisation culture when faced with an ethical dilemma. The ethical issues that are experienced by employees in their place of work happen in every type of culture analysed by authors (Goffee & Jones, 1996). Even in a communal culture, there are personal choices based on ethics. This makes it vital for modern organisation leaders to understand organisation culture. As today’s organisation leaders, it is vital to understand that organisations migrate from one culture to the other. This is based on the size and level of complexity in an organisation. Most organisations in today’s business environment start as communal due to size and ownership. The employees in a start-up work closely in an intense and exciting environment. The level of sociability is very high in a start-up where employees socialise very often. As the firm grow, it moves from communal to networked culture. This is due to increasing group of workers where there is difficulty in maintaining sociability and solidarity (Goffee & Jones, 1996). The level of solidarity weakens and a culture based on relationships replaces the communal culture. As business grows, people assume that they will continue socialising with their co-workers. The shared sense of goals continues diminishing as the start-up expands (Roodt, Rieger & Sempane, 2002). Organisation culture is related to leadership. This is through the performance of the members in a given organisation. Culture affects the way in which employees work and their perception. A strong organisation culture is made by the existing management and reinforced by the employees. This implies that organisation culture have a capability to improve the organisation perfoamcne and ensure individual satisfaction (Lok & Crawford, 2004). Leaders in organisation thus have a role to create a sound and positive culture. For the modern leaders to become effective, they must understand the organisation culture as analysed by the article (Roodt, Rieger & Sempane, 2002). Leadership and knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing in an organisation is determined by culture present. For leaders to intensify and attain the required level of knowledge sharing, they are expected to create a culture where trust is fostered. For example, there is high degree of trust in a networked culture. This makes it possible for the workers to share information when they are given the reason for doing so. In a communal culture, sharing is based on clear focus on what is required. The leadership is thus in a position to come up with team work that can foster knowledge sharing among the employees. In an organisation that has mechanistic culture, there is utilitarian approach to issues of knowledge. In fragmented cultures, there is individualistic approach to work. This implies that workers lack cooperation and knowledge sharing is minimal. This implies if an organisation wants knowledge sharing in a fragmented organisation, they have to use individual approach (Kimble & Bourdon, 2008). Modern organisation requires a culture that is able to share. This is a culture where trustworthiness is high among the workers. Leaders that want to have workers that are able to disseminate knowledge must address their organisation culture first. This makes it possible to share right knowledge at the right time. Organisations are able to thrive through knowledge sharing. For the modern leaders, they must understand that culture and trust must coexist in an organisation. Culture must be understood in terms of sociability and solidarity while trust is benevolence and competence. Trust and solidarity have been proved to work together in ensuring that there is an environment where knowledge can be shared (Schein, 2010). Organisation leadership is expected to know how to change from one culture to the other without causing any damage. The leader should know how to change solidarity and sociability without compromising the organisation. This is well explained in the analysis by the authors. There are tools which manipulate each dimension. The leader is expected to be well prepared before changing the level of sociability or solidarity. This helps in coming up with the best culture that fits the environment. The article gives the steps that modern managers must follow to make changes in both levels (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). Lastly, it is agreeable that culture is examinable through a lens of sociology. This is through looking at culture into human relations; sociability and solidarity. Modern organisations require either high solidarity or sociability. High level of solidarity is difficult to attain hence sociability is becoming highly useful. Modern organisations are required to come up with ways of attaining sustainable cultures. These are cultures that can help in efficient attainments of goals. This makes the culture analysis made by Goffee and Jones to be very vital for modern organisation leaders (Goffee & Jones, 1996). In modern organisation, knowing the manner in which the organisation measures in sociability and solidarity is vital. This is a great managerial competence that modern organisation leaders require. This is due to fact that by knowing how the organisation culture fits the business environment, it becomes easy to create a competitive advantage (Sadri & Lees, 2001). Conclusion To sum up, the analysis done by Goffee and Jones is very vital for today’s organisation leaders. This is through determining which culture suits an organisation. The article points out that with the two dimensions (sociability and solidarity) there are four cultures. This is through the lens of sociology. Culture is a vital component in an organisation and determines it perfoamcne. As an organisation leader, there is need to have a comprehensive understanding of the existing culture. Culture is what holds the modern organisation together hence without it an organisation lacks direction and values. When implementing change, organisation culture plays a role. Different cultures have different influences on change process. Knowledge sharing in modern organisation is determined by culture that is present. Leaders who want to have knowledge sharing in their organisations must have culture that fosters it. The four cultures explained by the article have differing levels of trust. For high level of trust, organisation is expected to embrace networked culture. Each culture has an approach that can be used to enhance knowledge sharing. Modern organisations require having high levels of solidarity and sociability. There is also need for a sustainable culture. Through understating the organisation culture, it becomes easy to gain a competitive advantage. Thus, leaders in today’s organisations can benefit a lot from the analysis. References Abdul Rashid, Z., Sambasivan, M., & Abdul Rahman, A. (2004). The influence of organizational culture on attitudes toward organizational change. 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