To What Extent Can Management Control Organizational Culture - Report Example

To what extent can management control organizational culture? Introduction Organizational culture reflects the norms, values, beliefs and assumptions that an organization inherits and incorporates in its business operations. Management style of the organizations, their product and marketing strategies, degree of technological inclusion, employee welfare etc. are designed followed by the cultural practices inherited by the organizations. In fact, organizational culture also signifies the rationale behind how the employees react to various organizational aspects such as to its mission, vision and various organizational systems (Smircich, 1983). Though culture is an inevitable part of any organization, there is a long enduring debate among the behavioural scientists on whether an organization has culture or if the culture is a part of the organization. To be more specific, some of the researchers are of the opinion that culture is an intrinsic entity of an organization and every organization tends to practice their own unique culture (Fleming and Sturdy, 2009). Such researchers view culture from managerial perspective and accordingly believe that culture of an organization highly depends on the intrinsic values of the management of the organization and the entities involved in it. The managers lead to establish the culture which is exclusive to the organization through infusing their own values and beliefs (Meek, 1988). On the contrary, other group of experts explained organizational culture from a far broader societal standpoint. According to them, culture is in-built in the society and environment in which the organizations are operating (Smircich, 1983). Therefore, organizational culture is influenced by such social science perspective and cultural interaction and control is established in the organization depending on the cultural prevalence in the social arena. In this paper, a comparative analysis will be done on these two contrasting views of organizational culture. Discussion Though organizational culture appears to be naïve, its various perspectives make it debatable for the researchers. In the next segment, the opinions of various researchers and behavioural scientists regarding organizational culture will be critically analyzed. Culture as a Specific Part of the Organization: Managerial Perspective Many researchers are of the opinion that organizational culture is specific to the organizations and it is the cultural practices that differentiates one organization from others, irrespective of their business lines. According to Fleming and Sturdy (2009), organizational culture indicates the way the management of the organization interacts with its employees and accordingly the groups and employees interact with the suppliers, distributors, customers and all other external stakeholders associated with the organization. From their viewpoint, it is evident that it is the management of the organization that sets the cultural norms which is reflected in the interpersonal relationship among the employees and stakeholders, both internal and external. Jones, Lasky, Russell-Gale and LeFevre (2004) are of the opinion that the reason behind management to create organization specific culture is that through culture, the management strives to incorporate the mission, vision as well as short and long term objectives of the employees. Managing culture in such a way, the top management aims to mould the organizational operations and employee activities so that they can achieve the pre-determined organizational objectives. Anaeto (2010) has also said that in this era of continuous transformation, technological disruption and further innovation, management strives to institute organization specific culture because; through culture they can infuse innovation in the production and distribution system of the organization. Such innovations, which is considered to be the part of organizational cultural practices, provides the company with long term stability and ensures sustainability of the business in future days by facilitating a competitive advantage as compared to its competitors. Therefore, according to Anaeto (2010), as organizational culture helps the organization to attain competitive edge, it gives the management an incentive to construct organization- specific culture. In this context, Fleming and Sturdy (2009) had also put forward the concept of cultural engineering. Culture engineering is a systematic approach through which managers formulate strategies for further development of the organization which can be achieved only through designing a better organizational culture. The process takes into account the ethical, philosophical and technological changes evolving around the business environment and attempts to incorporate all such factors into production and distribution function of the organization (Secret Engineer, 2015). Such procedural change through cultural engineering helps the management to enhance their business and ensure long term sustainability in the competitive business world. Cultural engineering also helps the management to identify the issues and obligations the organization is encountering at that stipulated time period and develop practical policies to deal with such obligations. This is another aspect that influences the management to create their own culture and manage it in their own way (Secret Engineer, 2015). Regarding organizational cultural and cultural engineering, Brown (2011) highlighted in his research another concept that further strengthens the reason behind management to regulate organizational culture. According to him, though organizational culture holds immense importance in improving the organizational performance, it is merely a theoretical concept. In reality, the management mainly concentrate on managing their customers and shareholders. However, in order to enhance customer base and number of shareholders, they drive cultural engineering process and accordingly bring innovative changes in the operations which are definitely a part of organizational culture. Following his thoughts, Jones, Lasky, Russell-Gale and LeFevre (2004) have also specified that as organizational culture aids the manager to accomplish the mission, vision and objectives of the organization, the management can measure the effectiveness of the culture through monitoring the degree of accomplishment. According to them, organizational culture is also quantifiable as successful cultural practices include sound interpersonal relationship among the employees, suppliers and customers as well as modernization in the business process. As these factors help the organization to experience enhanced profitability, the management can quantify the cultural efficiency through measuring the increment in profitability, customer base and shareholders’ confident. Therefore, from the above discussion, it is prominent that all such factors influences management to put considerable effort to give the organizational culture a proper shape and to strive to control all the organizational attributes through incorporating a dynamic and sustainable culture (Ackroyd and Crowdy, 1990). Culture as a Part of the Organization: Social Science Perspective Though there are sufficient theoretical and practical evidences in the studies of organizational behaviour to prove that organizational culture is driven by the management of the organizations, contrasting views are also there that interprets organizational culture from social perspective. Finger (2005) in his research explained organizational culture as a reflection of the societal and environmental culture in which the organization is operating. Therefore, according to his insight, as the organization includes managers and employees from this society itself, they tend to incorporate their individual values and beliefs that they inherit from the society from which they are coming. Therefore, organizational culture can be redefined as the assimilation of cultural aspects of individual societies. Moreover, as the employees deal with the customers and other external stakeholders with identical societal norms, it helps them to understand their requirements better and accordingly present their products and services. Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulte (2011) have exemplified that because of this cultural preference, all the multinational companies operating in different parts of the globe aims to include local people in their subsidiaries and rely on local suppliers and distributors. The rationale behind taking such action is that the local employees possess better understanding about the cultural prevalence in the province and the needs and demands of the consumers present in there. Therefore, they are in a better position to enlighten the company about the method of business operation that will be best fit for the subsidiary of the parent company. Hence, as the organization culture tends to align itself with the prevailing societal cultural where they are operating, such practices have yielded great benefits to the MNCs. Contrasting the view of organization specific culture, Flamholtz and Randle (2011) argued that rather organizations possess a specific culture trend that incorporates the values, beliefs and norms predominant in the society. He was also of the opinion that organizations operating in the same society, tries to capture the cultural essence of the society and accordingly design their business practices. For example, a multinational apparel company operating in India will definitely design their products keeping in mind the traditional aspect of the country. McDonald’s, the world famous fast food restaurants chain started using chicken instead of ham while preparing their famous burger for Asian consumers only to comply their business with the cultural preferences of this particular region (Patel, 2013). In fact, talking about organizational profitability, Coffey (2010) also argued that business of the organization is bound to be more profitable if it incorporates the societal culture in its business process, rather than prioritizing management’s own cultural perspective. Considering the case of McDonald’s, if the organization would have given priority to the management’s belief rather than the societal norms where they were going to establish business, they would have never be able to reinforce business in the Asian market. According to him, this is true for all the multinational companies as well. Management might possess a little knowledge about the intrinsic values, beliefs and assumptions prevailing in the various nations; it is the organizations and their subsidiaries that strive to consume the cultural aspects of the society. Moreover, as the chief objective of the management is to enhance organizational performance, the managers also facilitate the organization with local resources and process which in turn reflects the societal cultural inclusion within the organization (Kortmann, 2012). As per Watkins’s (2013) view, organizational culture is so vast and includes so many aspects from the greater society that it is difficult to define it in a concise manner. She described organizational culture as the immune system that protects the organization from every situational pressure. According to her, organizations operating in this competitive environment are affected by multiple immoral entities. Moreover, tremendous competitive pressure often influences the organizations to deviate from their ethical standards. It is the organizational culture that works as a refiner and eliminates evil thoughts, wrong person and other harmful entities damaging the organizational process transparency and incorporates only those attributes that are beneficial for the organization in the long run. McKenna (2000) elaborated that as a result of operating in the society for a very long period of time, organization gains the knowledge about good and evil in the society and it develops its culture in such a way that it only attracts the good in the society, neglecting the corrupted approach. From this discussion, it is clear that organizational culture can also be viewed as the reflection of the social and environmental culture, incorporating which smooth operations of the organization can be ensured. However, many researchers such as Pfister (2009) and Baird (2011) have contradicted this view on the ground that the global societal culture is so vast and includes so many sub-cultural counterparts that it becomes impossible for the management to integrate and manage all such cultural aspects efficiently. Alvesson (2012) is also of the opinion that such organizational cultural approach emphasizes on incorporating values, beliefs, assumptions prevalence in the society and provides less or no importance to the business dynamics. As the business environment changes at a much faster rate as compared to the changes in the society and environment, requirement for technological up-gradation and modification of business process gets neglected in social perspective of organizational culture. Moreover, Hartnell, Amy and Kinicki (2011) have agreed upon the notion that as social perspective of organizational culture concentrates more on social and ethical considerations of business, giving less importance to the organizational changes and the scope for performance enhancement, it becomes difficult to relate organizational culture with its performance and to measure its effectiveness. Therefore, from the above discussion it can be summarized that it is difficult for the management to control the organizational culture from social perspective. Conclusion From this comparative analysis, importance of two perspective of organizational culture becomes very prominent. The first view explains organizational culture as an intrinsic part of the organization itself. It signifies that as this cultural aspect is measurable and performance- oriented, the management can effectively monitor, control and changes such cultural attributes from time to time according to the requirement of business modification. In contrast, the social perspective of organizational culture provides huge importance on qualitative aspects of the social culture such as the underlying values, beliefs, norms and ethical consideration. Therefore, it becomes difficult for the management to quantify and control such organizational culture. However, in order to ensure long term sustainability and efficiency, organizations should incorporate cultural aspects from both management and social perspective. Reference List Ackroyd, S. and Crowdy, P., 1990. Can culture be managed? Working with raw material: The case of the English slaughtermen. Personnel Review, 19(5), pp. 3-13. Alvesson, M., 2012. Understanding Organizational Culture. London: SAGE. Anaeto, S. G., 2010. 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