Organisational Culture and Change - Case Study Example

Organisational Culture and Change Student Name: Student ID Number: Subject Code: Workshop Time: Workshop Facilitator Name: Due Date Table of Contents Organisational Culture and Change 1 Student Name: 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Main body 3 Similarities among the Articles 3 Differences among the Articles 6 Reconciliation of the Opposing Points in the Articles 7 Integration of the Information Contained In the Articles 8 Applying the Integrated Interpretation of the Articles to a Specific Work or Organisational Situation 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Appendix 12 Organisational culture and change Introduction Organisations are continuously facing pressure to espouse new developments like budgets cuts, introducing new management ideologies, and making policy changes. To adjust successfully to the organisation’s changing conditions; it has become imperative for the workers to feel proactive and important in order for them to enable the management put the proposed organisational changes into practice. This report focuses on three articles, which have some similarities and differences, and importantly, they demonstrate that organisations are evolving and the job of the supervisors is no longer commanding, but persuading. Organisational effectiveness depends on the managers’ ability to influence their subordinates in helping and supporting their plans, proposals, as well as motivating them to make effective decisions. The business world has become exceedingly competitive; therefore, these selected studies will be utilised to demonstrate why development of an innovative and flexible workforce has become a crucial factor for organisational change and continued organisational effectiveness. The purpose of the assignment is to integrating sources and develop in-depth knowledge with the view to Organisational culture and change by analysing studies by Boyce et al. (2015), Lai et al. (2013), and Vogel et al. (2015). Main body Similarities among the Articles The selected articles have a lot of similarities; for instance, at the introduction part, while summarising the objectives of their studies, they provide a brief analysis of key terms. In Lai et al. (2013) study, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has been defined as an individual behaviour which is unrestricted, not explicitly or directly acknowledged by the organisation’s formal reward system. Besides that, OCB has been described as performance supporting the psychological as well as social environment wherein task performance occurs. Organisational culture, in Boyce et al. (2015) study, has been described as the main firm performance driver and that performance and culture are related reciprocally. In Vogel et al. (2015) study, they mention that culture entails shared assumptions, language, conventions as well as other engagement rules held by employees. The authors further mention that culture guides the sense-making of individuals; thus, enabling them to handle problems associated with internal integration and external adaptation. All the three studies have outlined numerous hypotheses with the aim of describing in concrete (instead of theoretical) terms what they expect will happen in their studies. In Lai et al. (2013) study, they outline two hypotheses and each has two parts. In the first hypothesis, the authors postulate that the positive relationship between performance rating and OCB that targets individual is stronger in a team culture that is a highly collectivistic as compared to the less collectivistic team culture. In the second part of the first hypothesis, the authors mention that the positive relationship between performance rating and OCB targeting organisations (OCBO) is weaker in the team culture that is highly collectivistic. In the second hypothesis, the authors maintain that the positive relationship between performance rating and OCBO is stronger in the highly while in the second part of the hypothesis, they postulate that positive relationship between performance rating and OCBI is weaker in a highly individualistic team culture. In Boyce et al. (2015) study, there are three hypotheses; the first hypothesis states that the service and sales departments’ culture priority towards the customer satisfaction is casual. The second hypothesis states that the sales departments’ culture has causal priority over the sales of vehicles. The third hypothesis states that service and sales departments’ performance and culture are related reciprocally over time. In Vogel et al. (2015) article, they present two hypotheses; the first hypothesis states that the relationship between interpersonal justice and perceived abusive supervision is moderated by culture, in a way that the relationship affects employees coming from the Anglo culture more as compared to those from the Confucian Asian culture. The second hypothesis has two parts; the first maintain that culture moderates the perceived abusive supervision’s negative indirect effect on employees’ trust towards the supervisor, to the degree that the indirect effect becomes stronger for employees coming from the Anglo culture. The second part indicates that culture moderates the perceived abusive supervision’s negative indirect effect on the work effort of employees, to the extent that the indirect effect becomes stronger for employees coming from the Anglo culture more as compared to those from other cultures. Another similarity is the research method since all the studies have utilised qualitative research as their methodology for gathering information. The studies have utilised qualitative method to understand the underlying opinions, reasons, as well as motivations regarding their hypotheses. The qualitative method offered the authors insights into their research problems and enabled them to develop hypotheses. In Lai et al. (2013) study, they gathered questionnaire data from Hong Kong-based multinational Banking Corporation. The study population comprised of 403 employees as well as 81 supervisors, which formed 81 teams with each team having approximately four to six members and each team had one supervisor. In Boyce et al. (2015) study, the authors utilised data collected between 2000–2005 from 95 franchises that sell and service vehicles produced by a similar manufacturer. Vogel et al. (2015) tested their predictions by gathering data from working Master of Business Administration (MBA) students in U.S.A. and Australia (Anglo countries) as well as Taiwan and Singapore (Confucian Asian countries). The authors also surveyed individuals from different organisations in the aforementioned countries; thus, increasing the study’s findings generalizability. Differences among the Articles The difference of the three articles is attributed mainly to their study objectives; for instance, the aim of Vogel et al. (2015) study was developing and testing theoretical model which illuminates the effect of culture on the employees’ reactions to and perceptions of abusive supervision. The authors argue that the heuristic subordinates use is shaped by culture when the supervisory behaviour is interpreted. Particularly, the authors’ theorise culture to influence the assessments of the subordinates regarding the abusive supervision fairness as well as the level to which the supervisors are trusted by the subordinates. The authors maintain that in the Confucian Asian culture, employees’ heuristics point out that the supervisor’s abusive supervision behaviours are good enough; for that reason, perceived abusive supervision is considered fairer and indicate that such leaders are more dependable. In Boyce et al. (2015) study, the authors investigated the Boyce et al. (2015) study investigates the culture–performance (C-P) relationships in the franchise automobile dealerships’ service and sales departments. According to the authors, the dealerships utilised similar performance metrics and products but even so they were operated as well as owned independently. In line with the integration perspective, the authors conceptualised culture as a phenomenon that is shared at the department level. The authors placed emphasis on the sales and service departments since they operate rather independently in the dealerships and since the subordinates in such groups collaborate as a team and share common objectives for the performance. They utilised statistical tests to support the individual culture perceptions aggregation at the department level through several cross-lagged panel analyses. In Lai et al. (2013) article, they examined how job performance ratings are influenced by OCB in a number of team cultures, which were measured through team individualism as well as collectivism. The authors focused on the earlier team culture’s theoretical work to build the study’s hypotheses. While developing their hypotheses, the authors focused on two OCB aspects; OCB targeting organisations (OCBO) and OCB targeting individuals (OCBI). Reconciliation of the Opposing Points in the Articles The study results from all the studies demonstrated that the organisational culture enormously influences the employees’ performance. In Boyce et al. (2015) study, observed that organisational culture had causal priority over the performance-related outcomes. Generally, the authors observed that department culture predicted higher subsequent customer satisfaction ratings as well as vehicle sales. Organisational culture positively influenced the vehicle sales. According to Lai et al. (2013), organisations with cultures that were highly collectivistic focused more on peer support, workplace harmony, as well as interpersonal relationships. Therefore, the employees’ interpersonal nature can possibly fit the highly collectivistic organisation norms and could be deemed as good citizenship behaviours. OCB targeting individuals in highly collectivistic organisations, as observed by Lai et al. (2013), was connected positively to the job performance ratings. In Vogel et al. (2015) study, they observed that perceived abusive supervision strongly affected the interpersonal justice amongst the employees, especially from Anglo culture (such as Australia and U.S). This consequently affects their overall performance. Clearly, all the studies have demonstrated that organisational culture affects employees’ performance in one way or another. Integration of the Information Contained In the Articles Lai et al. (2013) posit that in the psychological as well as the social environment where task performance happens, culture in the organisations and groups plays an important part in shaping the performance of employees. The authors emphasise that the organisational culture is an important tool for influencing employees to pay heed, shaping events’ interpretations, and guiding behaviour as well as attitudes. The study demonstrates how organisational teams put cultural norms into practice with the aim of predicting the behaviour of the team members, particularly if the norms are crucial for the organisation’s survival. Boyce et al. (2015) concur with these arguments citing that the most successful organisations are typified by high levels of employee engagement, a strong mission, adaptability as well as internal consistency. When employees are engaged, they become empowered and are less likely to resist change. In Vogel et al. (2015) study, they argue the fairness perceptions amongst the employees rely heavily on the how their supervisor treats them. When employees are treated with dignity and respect they will likely feel a sense of belonging. The interaction between supervisors and employees influence how interpersonal justice is perceived by the latter. Abusive supervision is deemed a contravention of employees’ interpersonal norms. Applying the Integrated Interpretation of the Articles to a Specific Work or Organisational Situation Vogel et al. (2015) study demonstrate how organisational culture influence employees’ reactions to and perceptions of their seniors. When the managers are abusive, the employees are inclined to interpret it as unfair. This would possibly influence the level of trust between the managers and employees and also the work effort. When employees are treated badly, they are inclined to go against the organisational culture and may possibly resist change. Boyce et al. (2015) study exhibit that culture change is less likely to happen unless the employees view culture as part of the predicament. The organisation ability to change its culture is hampered as the organisation move towards maturity. Furthermore, the culture characteristics could result in change resistance. In Lai et al. (2013) study, they make obvious that the majority of employees must coordinate with the members of their teams in order to perform their tasks effectively. Cross-functional teams, for instance, are normally utilised for development of new products, whereby talents from various functional areas are rallied with the aim of facilitating creativity and innovativeness. As demonstrated in this article, employees must be mindful of the standards and requirements of their teams in order to effectively perform their work. More importantly, teams enforce cultural norms with the goal of predicting the behaviour of team members. The articles demonstrates the need for organisations to treat all the employees fairy and engaging them while making crucial decisions such as developing new products or changing the organisational culture. Conclusion In conclusion, the selected articles have demonstrated that employees have to regularly develop ideas and communicate them to enhance the existing policies, procedures, as well as method, especially when not aligned with the changing business environment. Organisational culture, as evidenced in all the selected articles, outlines the ways in which workers perform tasks and work together in the organisation. More importantly, corporate culture unites the employees together and offers the company a direction to follows. During the times of change, it becomes exceedingly challenging to change the organisational culture given that employees are already au fait with a particular way of performing tasks. As mentioned in this report, organisational culture is a powerful way of managing employees and culture change is less likely to happen unless the culture is considered as part of the problem. References Boyce, A. S., Nieminen, L. R., Gillespie, M. A., Ryan, A. M., & Denison, D. R. (2015). Which comes first, organisational culture or performance? A longitudinal study of causal priority with automobile dealerships. Journal of Organisational Behavior, 36(3), 339–359. Lai, J., Lam, L. W., & Lam, S. S. (2013). Organisational citizenship behavior in work groups: A team cultural perspective. Journal of Organisational Behavior, 34(7), 1039–1056. Vogel, R. M., Mitchell, M., Tepper, B. J., Restubog, S. L., Hu, C., Hua, W., & Huang, J.‐C. (2015). A cross-cultural examination of subordinates' perceptions of and reactions to abusive supervision. Journal of Organisational Behavior, 36(5), 720–745 . Appendix Article One Article Two Article Three Read More