Culture Management Issues - Essay Example

In the 80s, culture of corporations was seen as a central theme especially in the field of management and organisation studies. According to practitioners, the process of strengthening corporate culture was encouraged by excellence and was sanctioned enthusiastically by exponents of other flavours of the decade for example human resource management. This concentration in culture as a mechanism of competitive advantage has been strengthened and complemented by the growing academic attention to the symbolic dimension of organisational experience (Alan 1990). Culture is the pattern of basic assumption that a given group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of the external adaptation and internal integration (Hofstede 1991). It is both a dynamic phenomenon surrounding us at all times. It is constantly enacted and created through interactions with others and eventually shaped by leadership behaviours, routines, rules and norms that guide and limit behaviour. The strengthening of culture in organisations enhances performance by securing commitment and flexibility from employees. It is argued that improvement from productivity and quality flow from corporate cultures recognises and rewards individuals materially from identifying their sense of purpose with certain values designed in organisations. The main aim of corporate culturism is to win the hearts and mind of employees by managing what they think and feel and not how they behave (Broom and Selznick 1965). This helps to secure unusual effort on the part of ordinary employees. It is now evident that the practice of corporate culture is more than a passing fad and that it is now having an effect upon the politics of work. However, applications of corporate culture may be partial and half baked this is because it is may slide into disrepute if the raised expectations are not fulfilled or if the cost of implementation is not matched with the expected return. Nevertheless, core ideas of corporate culture seem to have remarkably flowed into the vessel of management thought. The new wave of management theory shows consideration and a force that has morals in addition to management significance (Itami 1987). Organisational culture is important as it helps people to reside in terms of ideas, values and norms. This makes them grow socially. Culture is also important in channelling messages and important information within the organisation. This helps to differentiate between permissible and non-permissible behaviours. According to Lawson and Shen (1998), culture is not just any thought, action or feeling but rather unifying patterns that are learned, aggregated and shared in a group of organisational members’. It is therefore not easy to develop a culture to be used by all the members of a certain organisation. This is because it goes beyond understanding, explanation, description and control. There is need for organisations to cultivate their cultural potentialities and to acknowledge cultural networks both formal and informal. This is because organisational success, policies and decisions are determined by their culture. For instance organisations that value their customer service influence its members for them to adopt a culture of being highly sensitive to matters relating to customers complaints in terms of quality improvement as well as high valued innovations. A strong culture shows a clear idea of what is required of every member and gives a clear sense of objective to be pursued (Kreitner and Kinicki 1998). It acts as a reliable compass and a powerful level to guide and balance behaviours. Due to its complexity, it is continuously learned by all members and simultaneously modified as a result of opportunity, experience and threat. Apart from profits, McShane and Von (2000) organisations have other things to be appreciated such as slogans, myths and stories. They also have got heroes who even managers can emulate. These organisations do not just reflect the personality of individual members but also the organisations that they represent. Culture acts as a control mechanism that creates commitment, achieve integration and finally help the organisation to adapt to changes both external and internal. It also scans psychological bounds within members by approving or disapproving certain attitudes, characters or personalities. To effectively manage culture, organisational group and goals of every individual should be unified and be congruent (Mullins 1993). Human resource management should realise that they need each others contribution and commitment for them to progress. Members should also realise that their role in the organisation is to earn income, social status and recognition. On the other hand, management ought to realise that prosperity, survival and profitability depend on the commitment, loyalty and contribution of every member describes Schein (1985). It has been found out that there can never be recipe to the solution of organisational culture- related problems. This is because culture is perceived as being implicit, cemented and imbedded in people’s minds. It is neither out there in existence nor is it of its own. According to Martin and Meyerson (1988), cultural members enact what they perceive but fail to enact what they fail to perceive. It is therefore very difficult to dilute existing culture to that of the organisation. Managers who do not take into account cultural differences within the organisation tend to be misleading and ineffectual in the long term. Measurements of work culture such as hardworking and efficiency are mostly influenced by organisational control mechanisms such as policies, procedures and rules. Though members respect authority of the managers, there is always some resistance by members to commit themselves wholeheartedly. This is because of the low level acceptance of the culture used in those organisations which results to poor communication (Martin 1992). There are three different cultural paradigms which include integration, differentiation and fragmentation. Integration paradigm views culture as an integrated entity. It gives emphasis to consistency and the organisational consensus. In reference to this perception, members with the same culture agree on what to do and why it is right to do so. They agree to share values and reject any form of ambiguity, injustice and bias. Differentiation paradigm recognises inconsistency but lack consensus in terms of symbol, actions and content. This is brought about by the existence of sub cultures that lead to differentiation in translating cultural meaning. However, differentiated subcultures may co-exist in an accord or conflict with each other. The manner that management handles each is determined by the category that each sub- culture is. It is therefore necessary for managers to accept, appreciate and utilize strengths from different spectrum of culture among members as long as they are corresponding with strategies, mission and the objectives of the organisation (Daley 1992). Fragmentation paradigm views ambiguity as inevitable and inescapable within an organisation setup. It recognises that member’ agreement towards organisational culture changes constantly due to changes in events, situations and attention (Ogbonna 1992). In this, people tend to accept the culture that benefits them and reject one that might bring about uncertainties. One challenge faced by management is how to categorise their members’ level of acceptance and attitude towards a given culture. Acceptance of culture is influenced by internal factors such as company’s policies, rules, ideology and the style of management. External influences involve technology and social- political factors (Huczynki and Buchanan 1991). To inflict change, members make a cost-benefit analysis and thus management should ensure that this change is for the better. However, managers should realise that when a culture is accepted today it may not be the same case in future. An example of this is where unionism had been accepted as a culture in many organisations but recently that has been abolished due to the introduction of effective human resource policies. In particular, the aspect of rewards and punishment due to culture change determines members’ attitude towards culture (Morgan 1986). Beaumont (1993) describes that culture has a greater intrinsic worth than physical products. In physical products, organisations are capable of changing their production level, the channel of distribution and the approach to promotion. This is by changing their systems, methods and strategies. They can plan, implement or withdraw products. Nevertheless, managing culture is more complicated. This is because once it is proposed and accepted; change itself becomes an obstacle to future change. It has never been easy for an organisation to determine which stage their culture is and the major difficult they face is when to introduce a new culture and when to abolish the existing one. Changing culture is a tough and expensive work with major implications in future. Although most organisations are reluctant to change culture, it still has to be managed in order to maintain the strategic direction of the organisation. It is suggested that the possibility of changing and managing a culture mostly depends on how well that culture is formulated, communicated and finally implemented in the organisation. It is not all about trial and error but the first time is right (Lynn 1992). Possibilities are that organisation’s past experiences, those of others and the communications networks are very important in achieving first time introduction of a new culture (Aldrich 1992). According to Torrington (1992) top management have a responsibility in determining the best culture for their organisation. They should be capable of formulating a clear and staunch vision of the future and determine the right strategies. They also ought to be innovators, pacifiers and implementers in terms of handling organisation culture. It is therefore crucial for top management to think and act strategically for the organisation to gain both financially and morally from the implementation of a strong culture. According to Carnall (1990) management should be on the fore front in rejecting biases and barriers that may prevent people from accepting an introduced culture. On the other hand, HR managers are not to be viewed as sacred cows that block a cultural change in a company. Instead they should interpret their thoughts, insights and plans into actions. The messages should be passed clearly and should initiate members to hold on to the culture as a motivational and a visionary tool. Indeed, top management are the main drivers who can determine the success of running a cultural show within an organisational setup (Sackmann 1991). In conclusion, changing organisational culture is quite different from changing its structure. Once culture changes, then the whole network also changes. It is therefore important to decide on the best culture to instil in an organisation basing this on collective views from all members and its implications should not be oversimplified. 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Schein, HE 1985, Organisational culture and leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Torrington, D 1992, Employee resourcing, Institute of personnel management, London. Read More