The Culture of Organization - Essay Example

?CAN MANAGERS INFLUENCE THE CULTURE OF THEIR ORGANIZATIONS? Culture is defined as a set of common basic assumptions shared by a group as it solves the issues of external adaptation and internal integration, which has proven reliable, therefore, to be conveyed to the new members of the group as the most suitable way to perceive, think and feel whenever problems arise (Schein, 2010, pp.18). Kotter and Heskett have defined organisational culture as a mutually dependent set of values and behaviours which a community shares and seek to propagate for a long period of time (Youker, 2004). Culture of an organisation is the set of assumptions, values, attitudes, beliefs and expectations common in the members of the organisations (Vallabhaneni, 2008, pp.12). Organisational culture can be a source of competitive advantage for a company. Leadership style is one the determinants of organisational culture and it can influence various dimensions of organisational culture. Managers, executives, board of directors and the people who can lead the organisations to achieve the set directions are the leaders and they have potential to influence the culture of organisations. The aim of this essay is to determine whether managers influence the culture of organisations or not, if yes, then how? Early researchers have always been interested to determine the role of managers in organisations. Most of them have studied the impact of organisational culture on effectiveness of managers. Ghiat and Willey conducted a study in which they explored the ineffectiveness of organisations in Algeria as a result of influence of personalities and styles of managers. Their findings depict that effectiveness of managers is determined by the local culture in which organisation is set (Davies, 1989, pp.26). The competition among the businesses and organisations is increasing and today leaders appear to the major assets for organisations which have the potential to influence the organisations. Therefore, today researchers are more interested in determining the impact which managers may have on organisational culture. Managers being the leaders of the organisations are considered to be the major actors in developing and shaping the organisational culture. Culture of an organisation is the set of ways through which things are done in the organisations and since culture is their shadow of leaders therefore, leaders (e.g. managers) are responsible to shape the culture (Ambler, 2009). It is the influence of the managers on the organisational culture, which makes them the change agents in organisations. Managers face the challenge to determine the most effective culture for organisations and how to effectively change the culture (Baker, 2002). Baker argues that it is the responsibility of managers to ensure the existing culture of organisation relevant to present and future while ensuring some continuity with the past. The example of WMATA shows the importance of a manager in an organisation and what problems an organisation can face when a manager fails to support the organisational culture. Governor of WMATA Board, O’Malley has announced that WMATA is planning to keep Richard Sarles as an interim General Manager/Chief Executive Officer of company rather than permanent GM (Alpert, 2011). Actually the company has been facing cultural issues such as administrative structure of organisation has become very strict, departments do not communicate with each other, skilled change agents are lacking the ability to achieve important tasks and employee turnover has increased. Sarles is the General Manager of company and he has been more involved in making relations with local officials and bodies and he has also launched a track progress report system however, he has been unable to solve the issues which company is facing. Moreover, the culture of company has been transformed into a secretive culture with poor relationships with press. Therefore, company is considering Sarles as an interim manager for a few years because he is already at retirements and company cannot take the risk to make him the permanent GM. Actually considering Sarles as an interim GM for a next few years has become a need for the company to achieve sustainability in the period when revenues of company are declining. Managers lead the organisations and they manage the people and organisational processes. The corporate culture is a stable characteristic and regular monitoring is important to achieve continuous effectiveness and strategy development (Kitchell and Mayer, 1994 cited in Stein, n.d.) and to effectively lead in organisation, one must be aware of the numerous motivational factors of the members with whom he works like people and organisational culture (Stein, n.d.). In a recent survey on globalisation by Earnst & Young, it has been found that leaders of successful organisations give a more focus on their global workforce and they are fearless to new experiments. Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca Cola, highlighted the “leading across boarder” strategy of Coca Cola, through which leaders encourage to keep employees outside their comfort zone by experience working in the areas which they have never visited before (Turley, 2011). This strategy of leaders at the company has helped the company to establish a culture where employees are more motivated to achieve their tasks. Various theoretical models and theories like leadership theories highlight the impact which mangers might have on organisational culture. Bass (1985, cited in Kono & Clegg, 1998, pp.134) has investigated the nature of transformational leadership and he shows how a charismatic leader can influence the corporate culture. Bass argues that a charismatic leader possesses unique skills and self-confidence which help him to develop goals and expectations that can establish blind faith, trust and loyalty among individuals. Quinn & McGrath (1985) have related four types of organisational cultures with four types of environmental conditions and leadership traits. The actions of individuals develop relations and the complexity of these relations varies based on the activities performed, technologies used and environmental situation (Bolognini, 2007). Suppose an organisation is facing high uncertainty and highly intense environmental conditions and the culture of the organisation is a Development culture. The managers are expected to be prime mover or idealistic. If in this development culture, a manager adapts a team builder style, he will never be able to control uncertainty rather the level of uncertainty will threaten the organisational culture. British Petroleum faces a highly uncertain environment. British Petroleum’s corporate culture has enabled the company to increase its market capitalisation five times as compared to past decade. Culture of company characterises short-term focus, decentralised management style and entrepreneurial culture. The safety culture of BP aims to reduce the injuries by enhancing the accountability and awareness of workers. However, the responsibility of explosion at British Petroleum refinery in Texas City has been given to the managers, executives and board of directors. They have been blamed for not ensuring sufficient attention paid by managers (Robertson, 2007). BP has always been facing problems for many years. Even the company admits that poor working conditions at local refinery are because of the managers’ failures to ensure safe operations and lax safety culture (Galvestondailynews, 2005). This example shows that actions of managers only influence the culture of organisations but they can also threaten the integrity of culture. Therefore, managers are expected to perform at some expected level to support organisation processes and culture. Source: ManagingChange Website The strategic leaders of organisations design the structures of their organisations and their communication, decision making and styles of management become the important part of organisational culture (Thompson, 1993, pp.78). Khademian (2002 cited in Rainey, 2009) argues that public managers influence the culture of organisation by focusing on the core elements, resources and tasks. Actually the influences of the managers at the very basic root level integrate and develop commitments which ultimately form the culture. Khademian argues that public managers actually develop the strategies through which they examine the developed commitments and their associations to the roots (Rainey, 2009). In short, managers create the culture and they influence the culture. Managers are involved in the decision making processes and their decisions can influence the way an organisation operates. The social exchange theory states that when leaders deal with problems and obstacles, they are expected to come up with innovative ideas. A leader has low esteem and influence if he fails to exhibit initiative and deal decisively (Yukl, 2007, pp.177). If a manager lacks the ability to innovate and come up with right decisions for supporting organisation decisions, he can put the organisations at risks by making it more vulnerable to wrong decisions. Since managers’ major role is to monitor and manage people therefore, the culture of organisation is directly affected by their decisions. Effective organisational change can be brought in organisations, if leaders have a clear understanding to existing culture of organisation and they correctly evaluate the characteristics of culture required to achieve the strategic aims. Without the understating of managers to organisational culture and required characteristics to achieve strategic objectives, cultural transformation is a blind attempt (National Defence University). With the increasing complexity of work, society and organisations, continuous learning has become imperative for organisations. Successful organisations are focusing on developing learning as an important component of organisational culture. However, to achieve organisational learning, managers have to be learnt individually how to create and support organisational learning. Argues that new forms of organisations fostering learning usually prefer team and cellular structures which can threaten the role of managers however, is of the view that the role of managers is becoming even more complex (Harris). Today, managers have become the assets for organisations and they are considered as a major determinant of success and failure of organisations. Nwagbaraji (2011) argues that corporate culture of an organisation is the collection of beliefs and values that the members of the organisations share. This culture is influenced by the action of those who represent the organisations therefore, the hostility and incompetency in corporate culture is a condemnation of management team. By giving the example of Dana Airlines, National Hospital in Abuja and many other examples, Nwagbaraji has explained the role of management in influencing organisational culture. Dana Airlines has is disreputable for keeping its passengers at airports for several hours and National Hospital does not have developed any proper mechanism to ensure the customer control. In this way, the lack of discipline, improper mechanisms lead to a culture where, employees lack motivation to perform to the desirable levels. The role of managers in influencing the culture of organisations is important not only in the context of businesses only. A recent incident of improving football clubs culture and performance through enhancing the roles of managers is an example of importance of role of managers in this sector. Richard Bevan, the chief executive of League Managers Associations, has argued that in any industry, the highest performing organisations are those who have developed winning culture based on shared beliefs, goals and behaviours, in parallel to long-term vision. However, in football sector, the sacrifices of football managers are being considered to enhance football clubs’ performance. The idea is that unless the managerial departures are reduced, developing a desirable culture is not possible (BBC, 2011). In sports, managers and coaches are treated and recycled like aluminium cans (Alfano, 1988) therefore, developing a consistent and strong culture in a sports organisation is actually a challenge. Therefore, based on the above discussion, it has been analysed that because of increasing complexity of businesses, the role of managers in organisations is also becoming complex. Managers are facing various challenges and their actions and performance directly influence different aspects of organisations especially the culture. Managers being the decision makers of organisations have a more potential to influence the organisational culture. Through the examples of various companies, it has proved that the success or failure of an organisation is largely based on their managers. Therefore, if efficiency, traits, expertise and experience of a manger can make an organisation success then his lack of interest, lack of sufficient capabilities and wrong actions can also threaten the organisational culture. 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