Culture and Change in an Organization - Literature review Example

TOPIC: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE (Name) (Institution's Name) 20 /03/08 Introduction According to Parker (2000) organizational culture is also known as the corporate culture. It comprises the experiences, attitudes, values and beliefs of an organization. It is also looked at as a detailed collection of values and norms which are shared by people and also by groups in an organization. These norms control the behavior of interaction amongst the people as well as the stakeholders in the organization of people. Organizational values are simply beliefs on the kind of objectives that should be pursued by the members and standards that are appropriate to be adopted by the members of the organization in order to achieve these objectives. Organizational norms are brought by the organizational values. These are generally the guidelines that determine the appropriate kinds of behavior of employees in certain situations. The norms control the behavior of members of an organization on how they relate with one another. More often the corporate culture is determined by the management. They may also wish to impose corporate values and some standards of behavior which reflects the organizations objectives .In addition to what the senior management may impose; internal culture within the workforce also comes into play. Employees in an organization hold their own culture which determines the way they interact and their behaviors do affect the whole system to a certain extent. There are also some task cultures that can be imported. For instance, technical expertness such as the computer technicians has their own language and behaviors which are gained independently. Their presence do influence and affect the organizational culture as a whole. The purpose of the essay is to critically discuss the paradoxical nature of organizational culture as an incorporating element of both stability and change and also consider its contribution to organizational change. The essay will have various sub headings such as literature review, strong and weak cultures in an organization, classification of organizational culture, organizational culture evolution, organizational culture and change and a conclusion at the end of the essay. Literature review Change is inevitable. Many organizations find themselves entangled in serious problems that take long to solve because of their rigidity to change. The evolution of organizational culture or corporate culture was solely aimed at harmonizing the various beliefs that existed between the different stakeholders in an organization so as to have a common culture that each of them would operate in. With a common culture, the senior management in an organization found it easy to effect any change that occurred in an organization and also monitor the effects of the new change. Organizational culture is a crucial instrument to the stability of the organization because it offers a common ground of carrying out different tasks in an organization. It brings sanity in different departments in an organization which trickles down into organizational performance (Phegan, 1996). Strong culture and weak culture A strong culture exists where staff in an organization responds to stimulus because of the way they uphold the organizational values. A weak culture comes in a situation where the staffs show no regard towards the values in the organization. Control has to be exercised through procedures and extensive bureaucracy. A strong culture motivates people to do things because they believe it is the right thing to be done. A risk crops up in an organization when group think phenomenon exists. This is a situation where people with different ideas and thoughts about something in the organization are not allowed to challenge the way things are in the organization. It results into reduced capacity for innovation. This is normally witnessed in a scenario where there is heavy reliance on a central figure in an organization or where people blindly follow the values of the organization. Members who defy such values are often turned down or perceived as a negative influence by the rest of the group. Classification of organization culture Several methods have been used to classify organizational culture. Firstly, Hofstede (1980) gave the first dimension of classifying organizational culture by stating that regional and national groupings affect the behaviors of an organization. He identified five dimensions of culture such as, the power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus the collectivism, masculinity and femininity and the long versus the short term orientation. Power and distance were defined as the level to which the society anticipates to be differences in the level of power. As observed by Holfstede (1980) a low score serves as an indication that the society expects that people should have equal rights. A high score would be taken as an indication that the society expects some people to hold more power than the others. The extent to which the society accepts risks was reflected in the uncertainty avoidance. Individualism refers to the extent to which people are expected to stand up for themselves but according to recent researches high individualism may not necessarily mean low collectivism. Masculinity and femininity refer to the male and female values that are placed by the society. These include assertiveness, competitiveness, ambition and the accumulation of material as well as the wealth possessions. The society's time horizon and the importance attached to both past and present versus the future is defined through the long-term and short term orientations. The society’s perseverance and thrift are valued more in the long term while the favors and gifts as well as the respect for tradition are valued more in the short term. According to Kennedy and deal (1982), the way things are done around the organization constitutes the second definition of organizational culture. Organizations were measured in respect of, risk, feedback, and the work hard/play hard culture, the tough-guy macho culture, the bet your company culture and the process culture. The degree of uncertainty in an organization's activities is depicted by the risk culture. Feedback means the response to issues in an organization. The tough-guy macho culture is a stressful culture in which to operate because it involves the fast moving financial activities such as brokerage. The organizations strive to offer high quality services to their customers. It has more characteristics such as team meetings, buzzwords and the jargon. The bet your company culture involves the exploration and development projects. This is where big stakes decisions are made. In organizations where there is little or no feedback, then the process culture exists. People concentrate mostly on how things are done rather than on what is to be achieved. Organization culture as noted by Schein (2005) is the residue of success within an organization. It is the most difficult attribute to change and it outlasts products, services, leadership and founders. Three cognitive organizational culture levels are illuminated in the Scheiners model. He described attributes that can be seen, heard and felt by an observer. This category comprised things like furnishings, offices, recognition, dress mode, visible awards and the interaction mode of members. The next level comprises of the organization members professed culture. At this level the slogans and the mission statement of the company including other operational creeds are more often expressed. Personal and local values are widely expressed within the organization. According to Handy 1985, organizational culture is linked with organizational structure. He described power culture, role culture, task culture and personal culture as some of the popularized methods of looking at culture. Organizational culture evolution The organizational culture dynamics can evolve and change if there is good leadership psychology. Every level of organizational evolution people work, think, feel and act at different levels of personal commitment. Leaders offer direction and personal skills to other people. People work at individual level on the plane of skill. The requirement that people work make them develop skills and use them because they feel secure about their jobs. People have an emotional connection to their individual work in the level of a group. On the plane of attitude people normally work at the level of group. Unlike those who work at the level of individual those who work at level of group take additional tasks and apply more effort to their job. This people are only guided to a certain direction and they do every thing else without the need to be told what to do or not to do.. At the organizational level individuals perceive their work as their purpose. At this level people do greater things than those that are done at group or individual level. People perceive the organization as only a channel into becoming more advanced and greater than they are. The organization and all its people become one since individual’s commitment make them do for the organization the same he/she would do for themselves. As observed by Cumming and Worley (2003) leaders need a greater understanding of their role in the culture dynamics and use this understanding to make necessary changes to move it to the next level. He stated five levels of organizational culture namely, the blame culture, multi dimensional culture, live and let live culture, brand congruent culture and leadership enriched culture. Fear is cultivated through the blame culture where the people put blame on one another to avoid being reprimanded. This culture results into lack of personal initiative and ideas because people don't want to risk being wrong. The multi dimensional culture minimizes the cross department cooperation and communication. Each department becomes a clique of the other and this creates a lot of gossip. Dimensional and corporate culture deficiency is manifested in the inefficiency of the organization. Low creativity and mental stagnation is brought out in the live and let live culture which is a culture of complacency. People in this culture end up losing their passion in life and they have little vision. Communication and cooperation are very minimal and things do work but there is no progress. In this culture people develop their personal relationships and decide who to avoid and therefore there is nothing much left to learn. The brand congruent culture makes people believe in the product of the organization and they remain positive about what the organization is striving to achieve and they contribute into achieving it. People in this culture have almost the same goals as the organization. Problems are solved using personal resources and people see their jobs as more important than actions by the management. In the leadership culture people perceive themselves as an extension of the organization. People therefore feel good about the organizational achievements as well as what they are able to achieve through their organization because they are motivated. They therefore demonstrate a high level of exceptional cooperation. People align their goals with those of the organization. The organization is perceived to be more of a family which provides personal fulfillment. Due to this, the fulfillment that arises enables the people in the organization to bring out the best in each other. Hence even the leaders in the organization help others develop themselves into leaders. To maintain a culture in an organization is a challenging task. Directive communication is therefore very necessary in order to continuously develop and maintain an organizational culture. Johnson (2005) observes that there are several ways of describing or influencing the organizational culture. These elements are, paradigm, control systems, organizational structures, power structures, symbols, rituals and routines and stories and myths. The element of paradigm shows what the organization is about, its mission, what it does and its values. The systems of control depict the monitoring processes about what is going on in the organization. The structures in the organization brings out the information on how work flows through the business, the reporting lines and the hierarchies in the organization. The structures of power in the organization shows the procedures of making decisions, how power is spread in the organization and the basis of that power. Symbols include the organizationals designs and logos. Rituals and routines describe the board reports, management meetings. Myths and stories passes a cross the message about the organization and what is more valued in that organization. Culture and change in an organization When a certain aspect needs to be changed in an organization it is always important to put into consideration the culture in that organization. This is because a corporate culture is one of the hardest things to be changed. Employees need time to adjust and get used to the new ways of doing things. Those organizations which have a strong culture find it harder for them to bring change in any aspects of the organization. As observed by Cummings and Morley (2005) there are guidelines that can be followed in changing the culture of an organization so that it becomes easy to change any other aspect in an organization. First is the formulation of clear strategic vision. To make any cultural change in an organization a clear vision of the new strategy, shared behaviors as well as values is required. Second, the top management needs to commit themselves by displaying the willingness to change. This trickles down to the rest of the organization. Thirdly, it is vital for culture change to start at the highest management level. This shows that the management is in favor of the change. The behavior of the management needs to symbolize their acceptance of the change they have embraced through behaviors and values they uphold. The management has to show the strengths of the new culture. Fourth, once the new culture has been accepted by every one in the organization it is important to modify this culture in order to support organizational change. The six guide lines are crucial because organizational culture contributes a great deal in organizational change. Once employees get acquitted with a certain culture of doing things they become reluctant to let go this culture because they feel more comfortable and stable in that kind of a culture. The organization itself becomes stable when there are several ways of performing different duties is set in place. This becomes the culture in that organization and it minimizes the conflict of interests. Conclusion Organizational culture is a very crucial tool in any organization. Once it is set in place it becomes hard to change and it therefore becomes a major hindrance in organizational change. However, when the organizational culture is changed, it becomes a major contributing factor to organizational change. The cultural change should start with the top management which serves as an indicator to the rest of the organization that they have to embrace the change. This is clearly depicted by the changed form and behaviors amongst the top management team in the way they handle various activities. The employees follow the footsteps of their seniors and this makes it simple for any other change in the organization to be carried out. Finally, development of ethical and legal activity in line with the new culture adopted is necessary because change in culture leads to tensions between individual and organizational interests. References Cummings, T. Worley, G (2005), Organization Development and Change, (Thomson South-Western, USA: New York Press). Kennedy, A and Deal, T.(1982)The Rites and Rituals of corporate Life,( Hardsmorth: Penguin books) Schein, E. (2005), Organizational Culture and Leadership, (London: Oxford press) Johnson, G. (2005), Strategic Management Journal vol. 9 pp 75-91 Handy, C. (1985), Understanding Organizations, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books) Holfstede, G.(1980) Cultures Consequences: International Differences in Work Related Values,(Beverly Hills CA:Sage publications) Parker, M. (2000) Identity and organizational culture,(London: Sage Publications) Phegan, B. (1996) A hand book for Leaders and managers: Developing your company culture (London: Context Press) Read More