Expression of Organizational Culture - Essay Example

Running head: Expressions of culture Name Course Lecturer Date Introduction Organizational culture is a popular yet complex concept in the area of management. It has been identified as being an influential factor that determines the success of organization and the effectiveness of performance management. There is an increasingly growing element of the popularity of the importance of banking on the resource-based view (RBV) that focuses on the internal organizational resources to drive competitiveness. One of the RBV elements that has attracted growing interests among organizational behaviourists and researchers is organizational culture and its effects on the competitive advantage. Schein (2010) describes culture as an abstraction with powerful forces that are created in social and organizational situations. The influence of these forces is largely impactful because the abstraction is expressed beyond conscious awareness. Culture is expressed in various ways which have a direct impact aspects of an organization such as organizational structure, work design, management ideologies, decision making, change management and communication systems. It is now widely accepted that organizational culture influences organizational performance and long-term effectiveness (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). As such, it is imperative that management gets a clear understanding of this organization-specific component. This paper attempts to explore the various ways in which culture is defined and expressed in organizations. It also explores the effects of these expressions on the effectiveness of an organization thus adopting a practical approach that may aid in better understanding the concept. Expression of organizational culture This powerful abstraction has been linked to organizational performance, although the exact nature of this relation is mixed owing to variations in its conceptualization. Hence, managers are encouraged to adopt a contingency approach in order to maximize on this culture-performance relationship (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2007). There are organizations that have intentionally institutionalized systems to measure and manage culture-performance relationship. This is a response to the fact that one of the management’s top roles is to create, lead and influence an adaptive culture. Organizations are mini-societies which have distinct culture and subculture systems, an element which features in the many variations this organizational aspect has received. This paper adopts the conceptualization that organizational culture is a system of shared meanings among members of an organization which distinguishes an organization from another. It has elements that are structural, synthetic and subjective which influence the way employees conceptualize each other, organizational mission and vision, processes and their role (Bierly, Kessler, & Christensen, 2000). These elements characteristically define the expressions of culture in any organization. Essentially, perhaps the most articulate expression of organizational culture is management ideology. Management ideology adapted and implemented in the running of an organization forms the spine of organizational performance and directs all efforts. The management has a unique ability to develop a performance oriented corporate culture. The latter refers to a process by which employees are able to perceive various aspects of an organization in a distinct way thus entrenching shared meanings, values, and symbols. Literature suggests that the most appropriate way to learn an organization’s culture is to explore the behavior of top management since organizational culture is often a demonstration of management ideals and visions. Indeed, management is described as “powerfully impregnating” cultural patterns (Alvesson, 2002:pp.46). Management ideologies provide essential leadership values which are reflected throughout the organization’s employees. Contemporary managerial practice surpasses the traditional and has been construed as strategic leadership. Strategic leaders are located in various parts of an organization and are charged with enabling a firm achieve its goals and vision. As such, it is expected that these leaders are decisive, committed. In turn, these decisions inform performance and overall organizational outlook. There are various leadership styles that have been identified as being used by leaders, with each having specific implications on performance. These styles are a reflection of an organization’s culture. For instance, Cameron (2006) has related clan type of culture with a collaborative leadership orientation where a leader facilitates, mentors, and is team-based. This leadership is driven by the need to develop human capital in order to promote commitment and participation. A hierarchical culture is matched with leadership that is oriented to controlling and promotion of efficiency. If an organization has a market type of culture, it is most likely to be characterised by a competing leadership orientation that focuses on customer satisfaction. Organizational culture and leadership or managerial behavior are interrelated that one is either a foundation or a product of the other. The culture and the internal environment are a reflection of the leadership values. The leadership style has been indicated as being a prime factor in creating cultures. On the other hand, culture influences implementation of leadership styles, and may also necessitate that management adopts responsive changes. It is thus imperative that the management has a clear understanding of its culture in order to determine its impact on organizational performance, as well as determine any need to change the culture. A closely related internal environment reflection of organization culture is change management. It is a leadership-dependent success aspect that may be as weak or as strong as the organizational culture. With globalization, the business environment has become volatile, fast paced and quick to change and with vast interconnections that require equally fast paced and responsive innovation. This has been described as corporate entrepreneurship. Corporate entrepreneurship entrenches an organization’s ability to develop market-responsive newness through change management (Duygulu & Ozeren, 2009). The ability of an organization to survive on a sustainable competitive advantage depends on its ability manage change- its innovativeness. Change management entails the organizational future and well-being, thus placing on it critical importance strengthens overall management ideology. Any change in an organization is an initiative founded on defined strategies. Essentially, the leadership style, managerial ideology, decision making and organizational learning attitudes are core aspects that influence how change strategy is developed and implemented. Interestingly, the strategy determining factors are expressions of organizational culture. According to Pugh (2007), change management strategy should be based on the relationship between characteristics and the environment. In addition, change management should not be an event-based process, but rather the main way of driving progress. Organizational culture influences organization’s change management strategy. A strong organizational culture is expressed by a development focus of an organization that is based on change. An organizational strategy that places importance to change as the development element has a strategic advantage of stimulating sensitive and imaginative strategic thinking. However, many organizations often miss out on this change potential. With regard to this, (Burke et al., 2009) cites the expression of culture with respect to two organizational dynamics- transactional and transformation dynamics of change. Strong cultures depict more of transformational than transactional abilities and thus stimulate genuine change. Different types of cultures have different levels of change acceptance attitude and facilitation (Rashid et al, 2004). A strong culture is characterized by systems and structures that support and encourage adaptation to change demands and that energizes and motivates employees. In addition, the change process requires that the supporting systems unify people around organizational goals and mission thus shape the people’s behaviors towards attaining the strategic goals. People are the most vital factor in the process of change apart from other aspects such as technological and organizational. However, driving people to change is the most difficult as they express attitudes that depict the organizational culture. Subsequently, there are resultant implications on corporate entrepreneurship and sustainability of an organization’s competitiveness. The level of either transactional or transformational change orientation has far reaching implications on creating either an enabling climate or otherwise. There are direct influences on aspects such as sense of direction, organizational structure, standards and commitment of effort, rewards systems and customer orientation. As such, any change to an organization’s culture bears a direct impact on its climate. With respect to this literature recommends that managers orient themselves to a transformational culture which primarily levers organizational change and corporate entreprenuership (Burke et al., 2009; Duygulu & Ozeren, 2009; Lok & Crawfors, 2004). This is the adhocracy orientation which values newness and innovativeness and new markets as the dominant effectiveness principle. Its human resource management perspective is that of change agency which achieves its ends by facilitating individual transformation (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). As indicated in the previous section, corporate entrepreneurship depends on the importance accorded to the change process and subsequently on human resources. Employee relations are the other way by which organizational culture is expressed. As organizations become borderless due to the processes of globalization, there are two organization-specific resources whose importance has grown over time: information and human resources (Daft, 2010). The orientation of organizational leaders to be transformational or transactional when interacting with human resources manifests in the internal climate as the inherent organizational culture. Human resource management (HRM) and organizational interact so pervasively that one is a reflection of the other. The culture of an organization is reflected in the general design of the HRM strategy, its systems, structures, processes and functions. For instance, organizations with a performance-based culture and philosophy use compensation and rewards refered to as line of sight in which employees know how their output impacts pay and promotion (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). There other organizations with an entitlement philosophy which is emphatic on seniority for rewards and promotions. As such, performance is secondary, and the focus is on organizational loyalty. Whether such a culture depends on the mission and vision of an organization. On the other hand, HRM is one of the means management has to formulate and implement organizational culture change and development. Reward and compensations have been used to influence organizational culture. The culture is also expressed in the way work is organized, and performance is supervised with regard to the human resources. Whether organizations have bureaucratic or decentralized work organization and performance management systems are inherent in the managerial behavior, a direct expression of a culture (Daft, 2010). In addition, this has to correspond to whether employees prefer intrinsic or extrinsic rewards. The preference for either by employees as a motivation also reflects the culture. Essentially, this has an impact on the change process, adaptation to market needs and general performance. A bureaucratic system emphasizes on rules and regulations in formal regulation systems. The power balance is organized in a formal hierarchy based on positional power that organizes rewards and compensation systems emphatic on extrinsic rewards and performance- line of sight (Reed & Bogardus, 2012; Daft & Lane, 2008). In addition, the organizational culture is rigid, and managers do not use it as a means of promoting organizational mission. That notwithstanding, bureaucratic control has the potential to enhance efficiency and effectiveness as many employees appreciate having direction for their efforts. A decentralized system characterizes an adaptive culture which the managers use to promote team-based work structure and control achievement of organizational goals (Daft & Lane, 2008). The employees are mostly intrinsically motivated , and the management uses organizational goals and values to motivate performance. The reward and compensation system considers individual, team and organization success and incorporates free participation of employees in goal setting, implementation and monitoring. Decentralized systems are also characterized by efficiencies of organizational communication strategy. Communication strategy is vital for knowledge management. Interestingly, communication strategy also exemplifies organizational culture (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). This has been characterized as a strong culture, but may be detrimental if organizations institutionalize the values and practices without the consideration of environmental volatility (Daft, 2010). Organizational culture is expressed in various ways which are essentially organizational factors of success. This implies that culture has a large influence on the effectiveness of an organization. This paper has attempted to explore some of the major expressions such as management behavior, leadership development and implementation, human resource management ideologies and practices, organizational communication and work organization. In conclusion, there is one thematic element: that organizational culture and each of these expressions interact so pervasively that one is a manifestation of the other. As such, any organization is entirely a reflection of its culture. It is thus paramount that managers have an understanding of organizational cultures and sub-cultures and how to change, control and use them to influence competitiveness. Change management and innovativeness have been identified as being the core elements in adapting to market need. References Alvesson, M. (2002). Understanding organizational culture. London: Sage. Bierly, P., Kessler, E., & Christensen, E. (2000). Organizational learning, knowledge and wisdom. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13 (6), 595-618. Burke, W., Lake, D., & Paine, J. (2009). Organization Change : A Comprehensive Reader. New York: Jossey-Bass. Cameron, K. (2006). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture : based on the competing values framework. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cameron, K., & Quinn, R. (2011). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture : Based on the Competing Values Framework (3rd Ed). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Daft, R. (2010). Organization theory and design (10th Ed). 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