Relationship Between Organizational Structure and Culture - Coursework Example

?Relationship between Organizational Structure and Culture P There is no exclusive meaning of culture. Many theorists and sociologists have forwarded many definitions and explanations regarding this topic. However, culture basically, relates to the assumptions of moral values, behaviors, language, beliefs, norms, and lifestyles of a given society. Nevertheless, culture is all in the mind and applies on how we sense it. Culture varies from one organization to another. Ideally, culture defines the uniqueness and personality of any organization. The culture of a large company is quite different from that of a smaller organization. Hence, it is arguably true that operations of any organization define its culture. Culture is thus a powerful human tool and its importance in the management of any organization is unquestionable (O'Neil, 2006, p.1). Most significantly is the fact that culture develops with time and easily passes from one group of people to another within the same setup. The way our ancestors used to speak, believe, behave, and act is tradition that passed to us with time. Similarly, the ethical behaviors condoned in a given organization, the mode of communication, the relationships between the management, customers, and employees and method of making decision in an organization are attributes that passes from the management and employees to the new employees and new managers upon joining the organization. Consistent practice of these attributes develops a culture within an organization. Hence, all old and new stakeholders adopt this cultural way of doing things in an organization hence developing an organizational culture. Moreover, it is extremely hard to change an organizational culture one it has developed because the process is long, tedious and in most cases expensive. Just as there are distinct operations in variant organizations, so there exists different organizational culture. An organization can have or a combination of cultures. Many academicians have classified organizational cultures with different characteristics. Organizational cultures depend on function, products, geography, and matrix. The classifications of organizational culture includes process culture, bet your company culture, macho culture, work hard culture, club culture, normative culture, baseball culture, pragmatic, academy culture (McNamara,2000, p.1), adhocracy work culture, collaborate work culture, and fortress culture, role culture, task culture, person culture. However, the list is not exhaustive since the difference between any two organizational cultures is very minute. Variant cultures adopted by organization have distinguishing advantages and disadvantages. The work hard culture is dominant in large-scaled organizations. It involves less risks and fast feedback. Additionally, it has a steadfast customer help service. However, it uses specialized jargons only known to a few and involves multiple team meetings. Bet your company is dominant in organizations dealing with experimental projects. It has an advantage of making huge and important decisions over high stakes endeavors. It has a disadvantage of delayed results that can take months and years to come. It takes time to realize any feedback in this culture. The most important aspect of this kind of culture is big rewards, and quick feedback. On the other hand, a macho culture is dominant in organizations with quick financial services as brokerage firms. The culture is advantageous in that it involves quick feedbacks and high rewards. However, it is stressful to the employees and requires quick actions and a strong mentality to survive. Process culture is beneficial in the public service as it ensures consistency of results. Unfortunately, people in these cultures are obsessed with the process to the extent of neglecting the organization goals. The culture has no feedbacks, requires caution and adherence to the law. It is one of the poorest cultures. Baseball, Team Culture is dominant in advertising and investing organizations. In this culture, it is easy to get employment and employees are highly paid. However, the culture is very risky and fast. Normative Culture manifests high standards of business ethics. Indeed, procedures follow the set norms and rules. However, in a Pragmatic Culture, interests of clients come first and hence ignorance on set norms and rules. Charles Handy classified organizational culture in to task culture, club /power culture, personal culture, and role culture. Task culture is dominant in organizations that are involved in dynamic extensive research and development activities. The culture depends on expertise, up to date information and teamwork. As a result, the organizations can adapt easily to changes and has real time results. However, it faces challenges from the scarcity of resources rendering it more power oriented. The culture is thus short-lived. In a club power, culture is dominant in law firms and military camps. There is power reservation and decision making to a few people and expertise is not fundamental. Employees outside the power bracket cannot influence events in the organization. It can easily adapt or succumb to changes in the organization. On the other hand, in a person culture, individuals within the structure determine the direction of an organization collectively. It denounces formal management control. Most importantly, the culture seeks to meet the needs of the members. Hence, it can serve a self-help group effectively but cannot serve a business organization. In role culture, position is the main power source and rules and procedures govern the organization. A narrow band of senior staff coordinates the functions of the organization. In this culture, job description is more important than the skills and abilities of the employees since authority comes from job descriptions and not personal initiatives. The culture offers security to the employees, opportunities to advance expertise, relative remuneration, and possible promotions. However, this culture undermines the power-oriented employees and is only applicable in stable organizations (The Open University, 2012, p.1). P.1.2 An organization structure is the actually the mode by which variant sub-units are arranged and how they intertwine in a specific organization. An organization structure entails formalization, centralization, and complexity. Moreover, an organization structure helps in linking different functions and coordinating with the environment as well as providing guidelines on issues relating to management and relationships within an organization. The organization structure of any organization depends on its set objectives and the devised strategy of achieving the objectives. An organization structure can be centralized, geographical, hybrid, matrix, functional or decentralized. The relationship between Organization structure and culture has significant influence on performance (FAO, 2012, P.1). This relationship defines the activities of people inside any organization. If these activities focus on achieving objectives, then the performance of the business enjoys an affirmative impact. However, the reverses of such actions leads to poor performance. Additionally, this relationship affects the behavior within an organization. It affects the execution behavior of a company thus influencing its performance since performance is largely relying on how the company executes its decisions. It also shapes competence in an organization thus determining the output of the company. Additionally, the shape of performance relies on the structure and culture of an organization. Indeed, good performers who are placed in a poor structure will obviously adapt to the structure and the culture that giving poor results. Similarly, structure determines the coordination of cultures in an organization hence the resultant performance. Organization structures control or minimize individual influence on an organization. This ensures that performance is not subject to individual variations and thus consistency. In fact, the working environment that determines performance relies on the organization and culture of an organization. The relationship between organizational structure and organizational culture influences decision-making in an organization (Csaszar, 2008, p.2). Drink Tank London is a small entrepreneurial UK organization while Microsoft BizSpark is a large UK PLC. Drink Tank London has a personal culture power lies with the members. Members recommend partners who can add can add value to early stage tech companies to host events. The business communicates through high quality meetings. Organization culture and structure define competency of partners and decision making that takes place in the high quality meeting. This affects the performance of the organization in that the partners add value to the organization while the members decide who joins the organization and its entire management. These factors affect the performance of the organization positively. Indeed, the organization has overwhelming demand from its increasing performance (Meet up, 2012, p.1). Microsoft BizSpark has a role culture where power lies with a narrow band of senior staff. The managers and CEOs coordinate the activities of the organization. The business communicates through high quality meetings that maybe physically attended or take place online. Organization culture and structure define competency by recruiting professionals who offer technical support, business training, and a network to its partners. This affects the performance of the organization by ensuring professional and effective output. In fact, the organization has served more than 2000 partners and 45000 companies in over 100 countries in a period of only four years (Microsoft BizSpark, 2012, p.1). P.1.3 Various factors influence individual behavior in any organization. These factors include Personality, perception, attitude, Ability and aptitude, and conflict, stress and change. Additionally, demographic factors such as socio economic background, education, nationality, race, age, and sex also affect individual behavior. Abilities and aptitude significantly affect individual behavior and performance. A person with abilities and aptitude that correlate with their job adopt a behavior that boosts performance. On the other hand, perception relates to the ability of every individual to organize and interpret environmental stimuli according to their reference. Conducive environments will attract positive perception and positive behaviors that promote performance. Nevertheless, personality is the main determinant of individual behavior. It depends on culture, family ties, and the society. As such, people respond differently to organization environment. Since there are different organizational environments, variant response are guarantee and thus different individual behaviors. In addition, attitude depends on organizational environment. A favorable environment will create a positive attitude towards respective jobs. The employees can perform better in the organization if they form a positive attitude. Employees with positive attitude will develop favorable behaviors and subsequent good performance. M.1 An organization should adopt a corporate strategy to analyzing the entire industry and environmental conditions subject to the organizations activities in relation to the chosen structures and cultures of governing and organization (Kim and Mauborgne, 2009, p.1). The strategy should seek to ensure that company objectives, initiatives, and goals correlate with the chosen organizational cultures and structures. They should also abide to the organization’s vision and mission. More importantly, the chosen organizational structures and cultures should put the company in a better competitive advantage. These attributes should govern the judgment of the advantages and disadvantages of respective organizational structures and cultures. If the strategy dictates that the choice of organizational structures and cultures does not favor competitive advantage, company objectives, and vision, then the choice is disadvantageous. An advantageous choice of organizational structures and cultures should accommodate most of the listed attributes. In conclusion, I observe that there is a significant relationship between organizational structure and culture. However, both are equally fundamental in the running of an organization. Their relationship affects the performance of an organization through various ways. An organization should therefore establish a strategy to analyze the most effective organizational structure and culture to apply in an organization. Works Cited Csaszar, F 2008, Organizational Structure as a Determinant of Performance Viewed 28 March 2012, < file:///C:/Users/USER/Downloads/Documents/felipecsaszarpaper_2.pdf> FAO 2012, Structure of an organization FAO 2012, Viewed 28 March 2012, < http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7503e/w7503e04.htm> Kim, W and Mauborgne, R 2009, How Strategy Shapes Structure Hbr 2009, Viewed 28 March 2012, < http://hbr.org/search/W.+Chan+Kim+and+Ren%26eacute%3Be+Mauborgne/0/author> McNamara, C 2000, Organizational Culture Viewed 28 March 2012, < http://managementhelp.org/organizations/culture.htm> Meet up 2012, Drink Tank London Viewed 28 March, < http://www.meetup.com/drinktank/> Microsoft BizSpark 2012, Microsoft BizSpark Microsoft BizSpark 2012, Viewed 28 March 2012, < http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/About/Default.aspx> O’Neil, D 2006, what is Culture Viewed 28 March 2012, < http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm> The Open University 2012, Handy’s four types of organizational cultures The Open University 2012, Viewed 28 March 2012, < http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=403948§ion=3.5.2> Read More