The BBC and its Environment - Case Study Example

BBC Name Institution Background of the BBC and its Environment The British Broadcasting Corporation is a Corporation whose headquarters are based in the Broadcasting House located in London, UK. It was founded in the year 1922 (BBC, 2017). The government had previously shut down the other existing media house but kept on receiving many requests for the formation of other media houses. Therefore, to ensure that the members of the public did not feel incited to rise against the government for this refusal, the government agreed to allow the major manufacturers of wireless receivers to join to form one broadcasting company known as BBC. The company was later on changed from a private company to a non-commercial company. It currently has a BBC Board that is in charge of overseeing the BBC Executive Board (Harris, 2005). This organisational structure helps ensure that the executive board works hard to achieve the set goals as well as be accountable for every action and activity the company undertakes. The company started as a radio station in the UK but has over time expanded into other parts of the world as well as other forms of media communication such as television and online services (BBC, 2017). However, its operations in the UK is financed by money raised by other broadcasters in the UK. Some of BBC’s major competitors in the UK is the British Sky Broadcasting, Fox Entertainment Group and the Guardian. BBC’s competitors in the international market, on the other hand, include CNN and Aljazeera. One of the BBC’s strongholds is its news department commonly known as the BBC News. The department is able to help the company win over a large share of the market share in both the UK and in the international market. Introduction Organisational culture is the way of doing things in an organisation. It is influenced by the beliefs, attitudes, habits, skills and the values by the people working in a firm (Schein, 2016). It therefore varies from dress code, way of carrying out duties or activities to the rewarding strategies used in a company. One of the major and well known practice of British Broadcasting Corporation is its culture to give background information regarding each story that it airs or shares with its audience (Great Britain, 2006). This practice is part of the corporation’s core competence. The practice enables it to stand out from other broadcasting companies because BBC’s competitors hardly give background information and when they do, they hardly give detailed information. Its target market therefore comprises of people that are not only interested in knowing the latest events around them but also the history behind that event. BBC, on the other hand, intends to ascertain that its audience does not make wrong assumption but rather makes informed and accurate analysis. Every employee working in the BBC understands that it is important for the company to maintain its culture of giving detailed information to the consumers (Bennet, 2013). They therefore work together to ensure that this culture is maintained throughout the years despite the employees working in the company changing over the years. Reasons for choosing Schein’s Theory The theory is based on the assumption that organisational culture is formed after a company has been successful and the leaders have identified ways to ensure that the company keeps being successful by maintaining certain habits (Schein, 2016). This was the case for BBC. The leaders decided that giving detailed background information of the news broadcasted would help in making the company stand out from other broadcasters. Consequently, the employees working in the company have had to learn this culture and ascertain that their research and broadcasting skills were conformed to match this long held and treasured culture. The theory is further based on the fact that the beliefs of the leaders of a company have a great influence on the formed organisational cultures (Schein, 2016). This was the case for the culture of giving detailed background information in the BBC. Before the formation of the culture in BBC, the leaders of the company believed that it is their duty to ensure that their audience understand every aspect of news aired through the channel. They, therefore, introduced a requirement which involved giving detailed information for all news pieces. The theory is based on the same point of view. Using it would thus be effective in the analysis of the culture in the BBC. One other theory that was considered for use in the analysis of the organisational culture in BBC was the Hofstede theory. However, the theory was inappropriate for use in the analysis of the BBC’s culture to give detailed background information because the theory focuses mostly on factors such as power, individualism, which are not relevant to the culture in question (Ashkanasy, 2011). Using the theory would thereby lead to the analysis straying from the culture in question and the exploration of other cultures in the company. The theory is further not appropriate because it is not based on the same beliefs that the culture was formed. The theory is based on the belief that the distribution or implementation of certain factors in the company influence the culture that is formed in a company, which was not the case for BBC (Miner, 2007). Theoretical Framework Schein’s theory of organisational culture argues that there are three levels with which organisation culture can be looked at or seen. The first level is the behaviour and artefacts level (Kotter, 2008). This level includes things that are easily seen and identified by the employees of a company as well as outsiders. The artefacts include things such as mission statements, vision statements, employees’ behaviour, dress codes and many others. These artefacts help guide the behaviour of the employees in a given company. Through the artefacts, they are able to identify the cultures in the company that they should observe and adhere to in a strict manner (De Wolff, 2000). Through the use of the artefacts, a firm is able to ensure that its organisational cultures are maintained throughout. The second level that makes up the organisational culture is the espoused values of the organisation (De Wolff, 2000). These are the values, characters, attitude and skills that the employees in a given firm have that help maintain a certain organisational culture. In order for an organisation to maintain the cultures that the leaders deem appropriate for the company, the employees have to have these espoused values. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the hiring department to ensure that the employees they hire have these attitudes, skills and characters (Schein, 2009). The different employees working in the organisation, on the other hand, work together to ensure that their skills are directed towards maintaining the organisational cultures. The third level of Schein’s theory of organisational culture is the basic assumptions level (Miner, 2007). This level focuses mostly on the employees’ abilities that contribute to the success of an adopted organisational culture but are hardly recognised by the employees or the organisation’s leaders. This is because although the employees hold these values, they hold and use them unconsciously. They are, therefore, often assumed to have no impact in the organisational cultures. However, they are as important to the establishment and maintenance of the organisational culture as other characters and abilities are (Kotter, 2008). Analysis of the BBC’s Practice through Schein’s Theory Artefacts One of the cultural characteristics of BBC UK that falls under the artefacts category is the tendency to issue detailed information. The organisation not only issues headlines, but the news people ensure that they issue the background information and the main story. An example of a news piece that demonstrates this attribute is ‘UK university applications fall by 4% Ucas figures show’ by Katherine Sellgren. The writer of the article started by issuing statistics that show how she came to the conclusion that the figures were declining. The introduction was followed by a body that discussed the changes in statistics in four UK nations and among the mature students. Thus, the author focussed on not only stating the overall data, but also giving more details that show that the rate has been declining in all parts of the UK (Sellgren, 2017). Evidently, the audience was left with a limited chance of speculating about several details that could result in erroneous conclusions. Secondly, BBC embraces the concept of categorisation and differentiation. Although the firm releases news, it is keen to specify to the audience the type of news that it broadcasts. Some of the existing categories are culture, business and financial sector, global news, education, local news, and sports. For example, Sellgren’s article falls under the Education sector. The culture has helped identify experts of the different categories. For instance, Sellgren, who is a senior reporter, mainly concentrates on the news that revolves around themes under the education segment (Sellgren, 2017). The differentiation tactic is advantageous to the audience, since it can easily access the news that interests them. As an illustration, one can look up the categorisations in the BBC UK website and select the area of interest. The person, therefore, is able to access relevant information. Another cultural trait that is visible to the consumers is the allocation of a specific reporting time. This attribute is common among most of the existing broadcasting television and radio stations. It enables the people who are interested in the information to access the details at that specific time. BBC has therefore developed a programme that indicates the exact time and period that the broadcasting takes. The broadcasters have to limit themselves to the assigned period. As an illustration, on Tuesdays, 05:30 to 05:45 is set aside for the World Business Report. The programme focuses on the delivery of business news that takes into consideration the financial centres in different parts of the world (BBC, 2017). Nonetheless, the time limit does not reduce the ability to issue detailed information since the broadcasters are usually thorough. Values The employees at BBC share a value of having a keen interest towards sharing detailed information in their news pieces. Each one of the authors and editors are careful to conduct researches that help increase their level of understanding towards a specific topic. For example, in the article ‘UK university applications fall by 4% Ucas figures show’, Sellgren (2017) did not only quote the statistics that support the headlines, but also made an effort of explaining the meaning of the data. By viewing the statistics, the reader may assume that the 4% rate is constant in all the nations within the UK. To eliminate the misconception, the writer indicated the rates for each region. Thus, the interested parties can use the data for the purposes of comparison. The interest of the authors goes beyond giving captivating headlines as they are committed to giving detailed and useful data. The workers have a deep appreciation of good research skills that would help collect the detailed information that pertains to a specific topic they seek for the relevant resource persons, both primary and secondary sources. Drawing examples from Sellgren’s article, she collected data from a primary source, the Ucas director. She also sought for reasons why there was a decline in the percentage of people that were applying for the university through collecting data on the perspectives held by university leaders. The broadcasters may call for the reaction and analysis of experts on certain occurrences. For example, Sellgren (2017) included the response from the director of Fair Access to Higher Education and the president of universities in the UK. The culture of engaging in productive research work has resulted in BBC being a reliable source of information. Deeply seated in the minds of the workers is also the need to present accurate data. The researchers go to great depths and heights to collect and verify information. For example, various BBC news reporters go to war zones and disaster-infested areas in order to collect information from the site. They face numerous dangers such as the high possibility of losing death or suffering from mental disorders. According to Feinstein (2004), 33 journalists lost their lives when reporting from Iran about the war. Those who survived exhibit symptoms of trauma-related disorders such as PTSD. The reporters go to these zones and conduct their research voluntarily. Their main drive is the need to witness the events and issue the public with precise and unbiased details. Assumed Values One of the assumed values held in BBC that contributes to the company maintaining its culture of giving detailed background information is the ability of the employees to work together (BBC, 2017). The detailed background broadcasting requires that the employees work together to conduct the research effectively. Although most of the employees may not think that it is an aspect that contributes to the successful maintenance of the culture, the success of the thorough research is dependent on the employees’ team effort. The reporting process is also dependent on team effort. This is especially true for the television BBC News. The news reporting requires the employees to work together to ensure that the broadcast is successful regardless of how long the broadcast takes. The employees use their team player skills unconsciously and without realising that it actually contributes to the organisation’s culture. Identifying and satisfying the needs of the audience is also one of the assumed values held in BBC (BBC, 2017). It is important for the company to ensure that they identify the needs and interests of its audience to ascertain that it continues being relevant throughout the years. The employees have an obligation to make sure that the stories they pursue interest the audience. Failure to do this would lead to the BBC losing its loyal members of the audience. This process further involves the employees using their judgment abilities to identify the appropriate background information to include in the broadcast. This is necessary for activities or news that have a lot of background information and thereby helps save time by eliminating the unnecessary details. The assumed values in BBC further include integrity (BBC, 2017). The employees require to have high integrity levels to help ensure that the company keeps sharing the news and thereby achieving its mission in the industry. Failure to have high integrity levels in their work would lead to unethical reporting such as sharing inaccurate information. This would lead to the company losing its audience’s trust and thereby lose its market share. Therefore, though integrity may not be seen as a contributing factor to the success of the organisation’s culture, it contributes by ensuring that the company retains its audience over the years. Conclusion Evidently, the BBC has an organisational culture of giving detailed background information. The culture has been supported and maintained by the company’s employees over the years. They have done this through their skills, attitudes and behaviour. They include their research skills, their teamwork skills, high integrity levels, the ability to identify the interests and needs of the audience and specific time allocation. The leaders of the company support their employees as much as possible to ascertain that the culture is maintained. The leaders as well as the employees of BBC should continue working together to make sure that the company’s ability to give detailed background information is not lost as the years pass by since it is the company’s core competency. References Ashkanasy, N. M. (2011). Handbook of organizational culture and climate. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. BBC. (2017). BBC News Channel. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcnews/programmes/schedules/2017/07/12 BBC. (2017). History of the BBC – 1920s. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zxqc4wx BBC. (2017). Mission and values. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whoweare/mission_and_values Bennett, D. (2013). Digital media and reporting conflict: Blogging and the BBC’s coverage of war and terrorism. New York: Routledge. De Wolff, C. (2000). Organizational psychology. London: Psychology Press. Feinstein, A. (2004). The psychological hazards of war journalism. Retrieved from http://niemanreports.org/articles/the-psychological-hazards-of-war-journalism/ Great Britain. (2006). Further issues for BBC Charter Review: Report. London: Stationery Office. Harris, P. (2005). The handbook of public affairs. London: Sage. Kotter, J. (2008). Corporate culture and performance. New York: The Free Press. Miner, J. B. (2007). Organizational Behavior: 4. K. New York: M.E Sharpe Inc. Schein, E. (2006). Organizational development: A Jossey-Bass reader. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Schein, E. H. (2009). The corporate culture survival guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Schein, E. H. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership. Hoboken: Wiley. Sellgren, K. (2017). UK university applications fall by 4%, Ucas figures show. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/education-40581643 Read More