Management and Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example

Management and Organisational Behaviour Introduction There has increasingly been a considerable attention on the impact of organisational culture for affecting people’s behaviour. In fact, it is regarded as the most influential factor in organisation for interaction, communication and relationship among employees. It is due to the fact that the cultural environment largely determines the way people perceive and value the organisational functions and processes. Cultural environment inside the organisation affects its people in several different ways. The increasing direction of research attention on the issue demonstrates the importance of organisational culture in influencing people’s behaviour and affecting the performance. It is not only the behaviour that is important in organisation, rather it is the elements that make up the behaviour that determine the extent to which people are working towards the organisational goals. This essay illuminates the impact of organisational culture on people’s behaviour and elaborates how cultural environment affects performance. The recent emergence of organisational culture in research also encompasses the importance of transforming organisational culture in the process of evoking organisational change. Cultural environment has crucial significance in the event of organisational change because of its importance in defining the employees’ reaction. It is not only the employee’s reaction that is important in determining organisational change, but also it is the overall effectiveness of organisational culture that influences the process of change in an organisation. Furthermore, this essay argues that transformation of organisational culture is more important for the successful implementation of organisational change. This paper discusses the impact of organisational culture in affecting employee behaviour and elaborates the importance of cultural change in the event of organisational change. The essay question that it answers is “In recent years attention has shifted from the effects of the organisation of work on people’s behaviour to how behaviour is influenced by the organisational culture. What is much more common today is the widespread recognition that organisational change is not just, or even necessarily mainly about changing the structure but often requires changing the culture too” Stewart (1999). Therefore, this essay encompasses the ever increasing importance of cultural environment in the context of organisational behaviour and organisational change. The essay begins with analysing the effects of cultural environment on behavioural aspects of the organisation and moves on to the discussion of importance of culture in the process of organisational change. Organisational Culture Impact of Organisational Culture on Behaviour Organisational culture happens to be an important study in the field of organisational behaviour because of its significance for affecting people, behaviours and performance in the organisation. Recently, there has been increased focus on the examination of effectiveness of organisational culture in moulding behaviour of employees and giving it a certain form along with its importance in the instance of organisational change. Culture is an integral part of all the social aspects of human beings, but within organisational perspective, it has a critical significance in driving the people in organisation to work effectively and collectively towards the achievement of organisational goals. This has been the major reason that has driven the focus of research from effects of organisation on people to the impact of organisational culture in shaping behaviours within an organisation. The proceeding paragraphs demonstrate and the impact of organisational culture on people’s behaviour and change processes in an organisation. The term ‘culture’ has several definitions and understandings in different perspectives. The importance of 'organisational culture’ is evident from the definition and elaboration of the term. Martins and Terblanche propound that organisational culture refers to “… a set of basic assumptions that worked so well in the past that they are accepted as valid assumptions in the organisation.”1 It is therefore a set of values, perceptions and attitudes that individuals associate with the organisation and endeavour to perform within the boundaries that the organisational culture puts forward. Organisational culture is perceived by an employee as guidelines of performance, communication, coordination and interaction with other members of the organisation. It dictates to them the behavioural patterns that are acceptable in organisation regardless of their effectiveness in achieving the organisational goals. Organisational culture is an important role in shaping and moulding behaviours within an organisation. According to Martins and Terblanche, the function and influence of culture in an organisation form the overall role that the organisational culture plays. The functions of organisational culture can be classified as internal integration and coordination. The internal integration function determines the level of interaction and integration of new members within the organisation. The coordination function constitutes the whole internal environment and communication system by which the members of an organisation remain connected. Organisational culture has a significant influence on the behavioural patterns of the members of an organisation.2 The function and influence roles of culture significantly determine the way and extent to which people in an organisation interact with each other, influence others and pursue similar goals. In an organisation where the cultural environment highly functional and influential, the employees are likely to share good relationship with each other, interact regularly and work collectively towards the achievement of goals. However, organisations with a cultural environment characterised by low function and influence roles have people who share conflicting views and are unable to work together for the accomplishment of objectives. Organisational culture influences the employees’ perceptions and thoughts concerning the organisation itself and shapes their understanding of organisational structure and practice. Vandenberghe and Peiro suggest that “culture dimensions are differentially related to employees’ perceptions of organisational practices and processes and to their attitudes toward the organisation.”3 Cultural environment affects the way individuals perform, interact, coordinate and behave in the organisation and most importantly among themselves. It also has a significant influence on the employees’ perception towards the organisation, its functioning and goals. The impact of organisational culture in such abounding dimensions on the behaviour, attitudes and perception of people within the organisation reflects its absolute pre-eminence. It is because the way people adopt to behave in the organisation has a great influence in determining its success or failure. In order for an organisation to remain functional and highly competitive, it needs human resource that is creative and demonstrates an innovative approach. The cultural environment in an organisation also determines the way people conceive the importance of being creative and innovative. Martins and Terblanche also say that “organisational culture appears to have an influence on the degree to which creativity and innovation are stimulated in an organisation.”4 This is because culture has a great influence on the behaviour, attitude and perception within the organisation, it also determines whether or not people are rewarded or encouraged for bringing new or innovative ideas. If an organisation has an environment where managers promote interaction with their subordinates and encourage communication, there are more chances that the employees would be motivated to come up with bright ideas that could turn out to be a competitive advantage. This reflects how cultural environment affects behaviour and manages employees to take a particular course of action or behave in a certain manner. It all depends on organisational culture whether employees adopt a silent approach or interactive approach, whether they share friendly or conflicting relationship, whether they work actively or passively and whether or not the influence each other. This all certainly has a far reaching impact on the position of an organisation in the market. It is therefore very important for the success of an organisation to mould the behaviour of its people through the organisational culture in a way that is the most beneficial for the organisation as well as individuals. In fact, this has been the major reason which has led to the focus of current research on the effectiveness of organisational culture in influencing behaviours. Culture and Organisational Change Organisational culture shapes individual and collective behaviour and therefore plays a significant role in determining the success of change processes going on in the organisation. The values, attitudes and perceptions that have already been shaped by an existing cultural environment evoke considerable traits in individuals and organization with respect to change. It is because people are already accustomed to certain behavioural and attitudinal patterns that it becomes difficult for people to adapt with an entirely new environment. It is however the fact that the extent to which change processes are protested or favoured by the employees depends mainly on the prevailing cultural environment. If the existing cultural environment encourages flexibility, activity and communication, the employees are more likely to easily adapt to the changing organisational patterns. The organisational change process further entails not only the transformation of organisational structure but also involves changing the organisational culture to best suit the organisational change. It is so because changing organisational structure will not influence employees to change unless the cultural environment is transformed to facilitate change. Organisations need to adapt to environmental changes as well as the technological changes taking place in the market. Burnes, Cooper and West also illuminate that “the pace of change is accelerating as never before and that organisations have to chart their way through an increasingly complex environment.”5 The process of change in organisation cannot be successful unless people are willing to change and the cultural environment is conducive to such changes. If not, the organisational change process will very likely imply changing the organisational culture. This will have an impact on a number of factors that combine to make up the organisational culture such as organisational values, attitudes and perception. These factors play a very important role not only in shaping employees’ behaviours but also in determining people’s willingness to adapt with organisational change. The change process would lead to insignificant results if people within an organisation are not willing to change. Changing organisational culture requires changing the perception and understanding that individuals associate with the organisation, the values that drive their performance and the system through which they communicate. This is all done to ensure that the organisational structure changes are implemented and adopted successfully. Meek elaborates that changing culture implies “changing people’s values, norms and attitudes so that they make the ‘right’ and necessary contribution to the healthy collective ‘culture’ despite (or in ignorance of) any inherent conflict of individual and group interest…”6 Unless the cultural environment of an organisation is transformed in the best interest of organisational and individual goals, the change process will not yield desired results. The pattern of cultural environment significantly varies among organisation. Different organisations are characterised by different cultural values depending on their size, nature and environment. Zabid, Murali and Azmawani elaborate that there happen to be mainly four cultures in an organisation viz. communal culture, fragmented culture, networked culture and mercenary culture. An organisation having communal cultures has an environment where people share sound relationship with each other and pursue common goals. People in organisations with fragmented culture have conflicting relationship with each other and pursue diverse goals. Networked organisations are characterised by healthy relationship among employees but less solidarity with respect to goals. Mercenary organisations have a cultural environment where all the employees are collectively concerned with achievement of organisational goals but do not indulge in establishing relationships. All these different cultural environments have a great influence in shaping employee behaviour and attitude towards adaptation.7 Organisations critically need to decide the type of cultural environment that supports the change process as well as the one which will manage people towards adaptability and accomplishment. This will change the way people interact with each other, pursuer their goals and view their relationship with co-workers. An organisational change that requires enhanced coordination and collaboration of people with a common pursuit of goal would be successful with a communal cultural environment. On the other extreme, organisational changes requiring more focus on goals and strategies than the employee relationships would yield desired results in a mercenary cultural environment. Bringing about a change in the cultural environment is necessary for implementing an overall organisational change, but the type of cultural environment that is the most suitable for the organisation depends upon the situation specific to every company. Changing the cultural environment of an organisation is not easy for the fact that it involves changing the factors that serve as the core basis for interaction, communication and behaviour within the organisation. Zabid, Murali and Azmawani elaborate that “managing the human part of the organisation becomes a major challenge in handling change processes in an organisation as it involves values, preferences, and attitudes toward a particular activity.”8 Employees are generally not inclined towards big changes in the way they perform in the organisation. This fact also depends upon the cultural environment that is prevailing in the organisation. For instance, if the existing organisational culture induces flexibility into people’s behaviour, they would be ready to encounter changes. Organisational change involves changing organisational culture because of the fact that the culture itself is a major driver for change. A cultural environment that inhibits or restricts change cannot support the organisation’s overall change process. Transformation of organisational culture is more critical for the success of organisational change as compared to the changes in organisational structure. It is a fact certain elements of organisational culture in the form of values, attitudes, norms and perception naturally define the characteristics of the organisational structure. Martins and Terblanche elucidate that “a high level of responsibility and adaptability also accompanies an organisational structure that allows for flexibility.”9 An organisational culture that allows individuals responsibility rather than submission and adaptability rather than rigidity lead to forming an organisational structure that is more flexible. Therefore, changing organisational culture is more important than organisational structure to bring about organisational change successfully. Cultural environment shapes the patterns of communication within an organisation. Any changes in organisational culture involve transformation of the system which enables the organisation to communicate with its employees. Hoogervorst, Flier and Koopman put forward that “cultural change implies therefore that the organisation is implicitly communicating to employees through a different pattern of norms and values.”10 This is the most critical aspect involved in changing organisational culture because it might destruct the existing patterns of communication within the organisation. Employees might not respond to orgnisation if the system of communication is changed drastically. It is therefore important to communicate plans and objectives to employees at all levels so as to make them proactively prepare for the change. It is also important that the change is not forced upon employees or individuals, rather the transitory process towards cultural change should facilitate them to conveniently adapt to the changing culture. Conclusion This essay discusses the importance of culture in influencing employees’ behaviour. It also elaborates the significance of organisational culture in the event of organisational change. Organisational culture puts a great impact on the behaviour and performance of individuals within the organisation. It comprises the set of values, perception and thoughts that tell the employees how to adopt an acceptable behaviour in the organisation, how to interact with other employees and how to influence others. The cultural environment in an organisation also determines the system communication and relationship among employees. Culture determines whether or not the employees enjoy good relationship with each other. This has a great impact on organisational performance and employees’ commitment to achieve organisational goals. The essay argues that culture is the most influential aspect of an organisation and a flexible cultural environment is highly conducive to organisational change. Organisational culture plays a direct role in the success or failure of the organisational change process. It has the power to prepare the members of an organisation to favour or oppose the change process. Culture influences the organisational change process by affecting the strength of relationship between the employees and their efforts towards achievement of organisational goals. There are different types of cultural environments that are different in every organisation with respect to its size, goals and nature of relationship among employees. The change in organisational culture becomes important in the case when the existing cultural environment inhibits the organisational change process. In summary, it can be said that the cultural environment is highly important in determining the position of an organisation with respect to its behaviour, performance, values and the ability to change. In the organisational change process, the adaptation of organisational culture is much more important than organisational structure. It is because of the fact that cultural environment in an organisation has the power to drive people in favour or against organisational change. This is the reason there has been more emphasis of research on the evaluation of the impact of culture on the behaviour of people and in the process of organisational change. Reference: 1. Burnes et al. (2003), Organisational learning: The new management paradigm, Management Decision 2. Mullins L. J. (2005), Management and Organisational Behaviour 3. Hoogervorst et al. (2004), Implicit communication in organisations: The impact of culture, structure and management practices on employee behaviour, Journal of Managerial Psychology 4. Martins, E.C. and Terblanche, F. (2003), Building Organisational Culture that Stimulates Creativity and Innovation, European Journal of Innovation Management 5. Meek, Lynn, V. (1988), Organisational Culture: Origins and Weaknesses, Organisation Studies 6. Vandenberghe et al. (1999), Organisational and Individual Values: Their Main and Combined Effects on Work Attitudes and Perceptions, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology 7. Zabid et al. (2004), The Influence of Organisational Culture on Attitudes Toward Organisational Change, Leadership & Organisation Development Journal Read More