Organizational Culture and Organizational Structure - Assignment Example

SHAPING THE FUTURE Shaping the Future In the past, machinery was one of the assets of an organization that was very critical. However, inthe 21st century, knowledge has replaced machinery. This type of knowledge may be used to refer to the expertise, ideas, creativity or experience. Often, it is the employees who possess the knowledge. Knowledge sharing may be either promoted or barred by organizational culture. Often, multicultural organizations are faced with challenges while attempting to create organizational cultures that1 give the employees the freedom and safety to share knowledge. The performance efficiency of a multicultural organization largely relies on its organizational culture. Organizations that are effective are largely concerned with their performance level and also the aspect of performance consistency1. The organizations major objective is to offer customers the same quality of product or service whenever the customer visits the organization, regardless of the location. Quality performance results into repeat customers while consistency leads to loyalty of the clientele. Communication breakdowns that may be caused by cultural misunderstandings are a threat to efficiency in performance. For instance, an employee may opt to use indirect communication with a fellow employee who prefers direct communication and this result into a communication breakdown. Multicultural organizations are the organizations that hire employees from various cultural backgrounds, where the organization serves the clients that are from varying cultures or even the combination of both2. Expectations and behavior of the people within the multicultural organizations or the customers that are served by the organization may be driven by the cultural rules. It is, therefore, important to respect the cultural rules. The difference in cultures may arise from factors like direct or indirect communication, definition of identity as either individual or connection to a certain group and the level of comfort in the hierarchy. Organizational culture and organizational structure are some of the concepts that have the greatest predictive power and highest explanatory in the attempts to understand the forms and causes of people behavior in the organizations. Subsequently, the two concepts are mostly used when conducting research on variables that independent in the explanation of several phenomena that are present in companies or other forms of organizations. The influence of organizational culture and structure on other factors of management is normally researched independently and separately from one another. It is very beneficial to explore the relationship that exists between organizational culture and structure since both aspects determine the behavior of the members of an organization. Conversely, they do it in various ways. Organizational culture can be referred to as an intrinsic factor since it directs how people in an organization behave by its operation from within and by determination of values, norms, assumptions, and attitudes that guide the members of the organization in the daily actions in the organization3. 2 According to the definition, organizational culture possesses a symbolic and cognitive component in the content. The component that is cognitive comprises of mutual norms, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes that are shared by the members of an organization, and which also shapes their interpretive (mental) schemes. The importance of organizational culture arises from the truth that, imposition of some set of values and assumptions leads to the creation of a frame of reference for the interpretations, perceptions, and the actions of the members of the organization. Following this manner, it has influence over all the processes that occur in the organization, and also its performance. In the mental maps of the managers and the employees, organizational culture has influence over the dominant leadership style, knowledge management and organizational learning, strategy of the company, preferred method of changing the management, the system of rewarding the employees, commitment and other factors of connections between an organization and the individuals. It is, therefore, rational to make the assumption that the culture of an organizational influences the organizational structure of the company4. With the assumptions, norms, and values of organizational culture, it influences the reference frame of the top management which in turn shapes the organizational structure. Therefore, organizational culture can be perceived to be a type of cultural symbol that mirrors major assumptions and values that seem to be dominant in the organization. On the other end, organizational structure is perceived to be an extrinsic aspect since it influences the behavior of the people from the outside by utilizing the formal limitations that are set by division of labor, grouping of units, authority distribution and coordination. It is, therefore, possible that the behavior of a person in an organization is influenced by the impact of its structure and culture, and also influence from other aspects.3 Organizational structure, by definition, is the moderately stable, either spontaneous or planned, pattern of interactions and actions that are undertaken by the organizations members so as to achieve the goals of the organization. The understanding of the structure of the organization is founded upon the assumption of it being purposeful, that is, under the impression that organizational structure has a purpose. The structure’s purposefulness means that it remains to be a rational tool for the people who govern the organization, a tool that is used in giving the direction of the sequence of activities that are in the organization in attempts of achieving its objective. The organizational structure’s rationality is ensured by its integration and differentiation of the members of an organization with their collective and individual activities. The process of differentiation comprises of differentiation of the managerial and operational activities. The achievement of differentiation of the operational activities is achieved through division of labor, or simply, job design, and it leads to the specialization level of the organization5. The differentiation of managerial activities governs who should make what results in a particular level of centralization, or, in other words, decentralization of the authority within an organization. Integration is achieved through coordination and unit grouping. Unit grouping, also known as departmentalization, means structuring tasks and activities into organizational units, and it may be founded on output (project or market), input (functional), or the combination of both (matrix). Coordination harmonizes group or individual tasks and activities in the organization, for the purpose of making the activities function in unison. This kind 4of culture infers the family metaphor, which entails the members regarding the organization as a form of a patriarchal family that is led by the ‘father’. Naturally, the relationships that are established in the organizations portray the type of relations that usually exist in families. Therefore, the power is centralized in the hands of the ‘father’ of the family and makes nearly all decisions. The source of the power for the leader is his charisma or in the control he has over resources, and the extent of power which the members of an organization have is determined by the closeness they possess to the leader. As it is the case with families, an organization with family or power culture prioritizes the relationships that exist between the members of structure and tasks. This as well results in a simple structure, low level of formalization, and also causes underdevelopment of the procedures, systems, and other formal restrictions that govern collective and individual actions. The personal and direct influence that the leader has over the members of the organization conducts the enforcement of the decisions of the leader. This category of culture portrays a level of flexibility that is high, since the members of the organization accept readily all alterations that come from the leader. There exist several categorizations of types of organizational culture, and the differences that distinguish them vary with the method that is used to differentiate them. Organizational culture may be categorized in terms of people culture, power culture, role culture, or task culture; or incubator culture, family culture, ‘guided missile’ culture, and ‘Eiffel tower’ culture. Power culture, also known as family culture, follows the assumption that the concentration of power should be found at the top of the organization. ‘Eiffel tower’ culture, also known as role culture, is the culture that is used by bureaucratic organizations. The metaphor that is used to represent this form of culture is machine. The metaphor implies a great level of standardization and formalization since if the machine has to be like a machine, it must ensure accomplishment of its objective in a prescribed and a precise way. This gives the reason why formal procedures, rules, structures, and systems are very developed 56and play a major part in the operations of the organization. Role culture primarily values rationality. This, therefore, implies that the organization first of all must be a tool that is rational aiming to achieve the stakeholders set objectives. For an organization to achieve rationality,it must be standardized, specialized, and formalized. For the sake of rationality, it has to be depersonalized, due to the influence that may be social or personal. This follows that organizations that use role culture rely on the division of labor, tasks, and work structure, while the social relations that exist between people are not primarily important. The implication of this culture is that there will be uneven power distribution within the organization because the rules that the members have an obligation to comply are prescribed by the top authority of the organization. This type of culture results to resistance and rigidity to change because the changes disturb the pleasant working of the machine6. In ‘guided missile’ or task culture, the metaphor of a tool for completing tasks and solving problems is used to represent the organization. This form of culture values creativity, competence, accomplishments, change and competence. Teamwork is highly appreciated because the tasks that should be accomplished by such organizations are normally complex and require various types of abilities and knowledge. Also, in organizations that use the task culture, the professionals with the needed knowledge for solving the problems that are complex are very useful. The professionals need autonomy in the work they do and also the probability of independence to make decisions. This, therefore, implies that in this form of culture, power is mostly distributed equally among the members of the organization. In this culture, it is crystal clear much of the focus is on the tasks and work structure since this type of culture is perceived to be a tool for performing tasks and solving problems. It, therefore, remains that social relations between members are not primarily considered. In the incubator or people culture, individual growth and individualism represent the greatest values. The organization is perceived to be an incubator of ideas and people. The members of the organization are given the chance to realize their individuality. The types of culture that are described above vary with numerous criteria though the major differences are grouped into two categories. One of the criteria used in differentiation is the types of organizational culture that are classified by trompenaars and Hendy. This type of differentiation is set basing on the assumption of the power in an organization7. The distribution of power members of a social group, for instance, an organization, always come up as one of the numerous issues that each social group, and hence the organization, must get a resolution. The solution to this issue may7 be incorporated into the culture of the social group in the disguise of cultural assumptions. With reference to the criterion of power distribution, a distinction can be made between the cultures of the organization that makes the assumption of the necessity for the unequal, or authoritarian, that is, hierarchical power distribution, and the culture that assumes the necessity for, egalitarian or equal, power distribution. Hierarchical or authoritarian organizational cultures make the assumption that power distribution of power that is unequal within the social system is unavoidable, necessary, and useful for the realization of purposes and goals of the system. Conversely, egalitarian cultures, make the assumption that within the social system, for instance in an organization, even distribution of power as possible is something that is possible, necessary, and useful; and that it’s only this type of distribution that can facilitate the attainment of the goals of the social system. There are five fundamental mechanisms of achieving coordination. They include mutual communication, output standardization, direct supervision, process supervision, and knowledge standardization. In the organizational structuring, integration and differentiation entail four necessary scopes of organizational structure. They include delegation of authority, coordination, job design, and unit grouping. These scopes are congruent, and it, therefore, implies that there exists concordance or harmony between them. The congruency presumption is basic for the idea of organizational structuring since it assumes harmony or congruency as scopes of organizational structure results into the better performance of an organization. An organization has to avail mutual congruency of the scopes of the organizational structures it uses. Then, this leads to the creation of configurations of the congruent structural scopes which is simply another term for the models of organizational structure. In every organization, there must be leaders who make decisions and delegate. The delegation includes that of power, authority, and responsibility. However, there are various types of leadership styles that can be used in every organization. These styles can be either helpful or harmful to the organization or its competitor8s. Leadership style is a term that is used to refer to the characteristic behaviors of the leader when he is guiding, motivating, managing, or directing groups of people. Numerous forms of leadership styles have been identified by researchers. Of the earliest leadership styles that are well known is the Lewin’s leadership style. Further studies have yet discovered more styles of leadership though the early research that was carried out by Kurt Lewin, the leader of a group of several researchers has been very influential. His study revealed three major styles of leadership. During his study, he assigned schoolchildren to each of the three groups with a democratic, authoritarian or a laissez-fair leader. After the exposure, the children were afterwards led in a project concerning art and craft and the researchers were left to make their observations of the behavior that the children portrayed while they responded to the various leadership styles. The first leadership style that the schoolchildren were exposed to was the authoritarian leadership, also known as autocratic leadership style. The leaders who use this kind of leadership style are known as autocratic 9leaders. This kind of leaders avails very clear expectations of what they need to be accomplished, how it should accomplished, and when it should be accomplished. This leadership style mostly lays its focus on both commands from the leader and controlling the followers. There also exist a distinct division between the leaders and their followers. Leaders who are authoritarian usually make the decisions independently with either little or no any input from the members of the group. The researchers realized that it was harder to switch to a democratic style from authoritarian style than changing from authoritarian to a democratic style. If this style of leadership is abused, it is usually perceived to be bossy, controlling, and dictatorial. Authoritarian style of leadership is applied best to situations where time is limited for decision-making by the group or if the leader is the member of the group who is most knowledgeable. The autocratic style of leadership can be best when rapid and decisive decisions are required. Nevertheless, it is prone to creating an environment that is hostile and dysfunctional where the followers often get pitted against the leader who is domineering. The study carried out by Lewin discovered that the leadership style that is most effective is the participative leadership, mostly referred to as democratic leadership. The democratic leaders provide guidance to their group members, but they allow other members of the group to offer their input and the leaders participate in the group. However, the children who were exposed to this kind of leadership style were not very productive as those from the authoritarian group though the contributions they availed were of high quality. Leaders who are participative encourage the members of the group to avail their contributions, but they usually have the final say in the process of making decisions. In this organization, the leadershi10p style that is used is the democratic leadership. This rhymes with the culture of the organization together with its structure. The employees always feel free to air their views before the final say on a certain decision. The communication type that is used in the organization comprises of both the vertical and the horizontal for the sake of respecting the assumptions of the culture. The competitors of this organization mostly use the authoritarian style of leadership, and that is the reason why they don’t perform better than this organization. Bibliography Blanchard, K. H., Zigarmi, P., & Zigarmi, D. (1985).Leadership and the one minute manager: increasing effectiveness through situational leadership. New York, Morrow. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., & Mckee, A. 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