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Leadership and culture - Coggle Diagram
Leadership and culture
Organisational culture may be defined as the basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic taken-for granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment. Put simply as 'the way we do things around here'
A variety of organisational culture attributes, types and dimensions have also evolved over the years, for example bureaucratic culture is prevalent in stable and predictable environments where formal rules govern employee behaviour, standard operating procedures and hierarchical control; it is a culture that has an internal focus and a consistency orientation for a stable environment
An adaptive culture is an organisational culture that encourages confidence and risk taking amongst employees, has leadership that produces change and focuses on the changing needs of customers
A blame culture often associated with the bureaucratic culture, describes an organisation in which every error is regarded as the fault of an individual or group. Such cultures encourage a 'cover your back at all costs' approach to work and fail to encourage experimentation
With regard to entrepreneurialism and innovation, a risk culture describes an organisations propensity to take risks as perceived by the managers in the organisation. This includes a propensity to engage in new thinking and experimentation
Organisational culture may also be described as strong (homogenous) or weak (heterogenous). Such terms refer to the degree to which assumptions, thinking and practice are shared throughout the organisation
In a corporate context, organisational culture is taken to mean that of shared values, beliefs and supporting behaviours
Leaders aim to define and can with difficulty, change organisational culture and equally the cultural context may dictate which leadership styles will be most effective
When seeking to lead within an organisation, it is important for the leader to understand the organisational culture and subcultures of the followers that they wish to influence
To change an organisation's culture, the leaders will first need to set out a clear vision for what they believe the culture needs to be and reinforce this with the appropriate organisational structure, policies and controls to embed the new desired behaviour, this can mean changing performance and reward systems, processes and the qualities looked for when hiring new employees
Leaders will need to use both influence and power to ensure that behaviours within the organisation change
Organisational culture relates to the entire organisation, from the boardroom to the operational teams. Behaviours across the organisation need to change and the culture cannot be said to be embedded if employees in one or more segments exhibit entirely different behaviours from the desired cultural norms
Organisations, especially large ones, may also contain sub-cultures. Employees making up these subcultures adhere to the core values of the organisation but have additional values unique to their area or experience. These can arise for a number of different reasons, such as employees previous employed by an acquired organisation, those with specific functional specialisms or working in different countries. For example a public listed computer gaming organisation may have a culture of creativity but the accounting department will still need to exhibit more disciplined behaviours and abide by generally accepted accounting practices
International leaders must inspire and influence people anywhere in the world, however the manager must consider local culture as a set of norms governing expectations about behaviour. Culture is a key aspect of the prevailing situation or context however not all individuals operating within a specific cultural environment may hold the same beliefs or exhibit the same behaviours.
Leaders need to understand their followers by getting to know them while considering cultural factors that may be influencing them
A great deal of research suggests that being a participative leader is more important in some countries as opposed to others. Countries which are associated with a high tolerance to unequal power distribution and strict hierarchies tend to favour the autocratic style and expect the leader to tell the employee what to do. In such cultures, to involve the employee, subordinate or follower may be seen as weak leadership
Teams working within countries where the society generally feels uncomfortable with uncertainty or ambiguity would most likely perform poorly with a laissez-faire style of leadership and would prefer a more autocratic approach in leadership style. They would also need more leadership support during periods of change. Equally a more participative/democratic leadership style would most likely be preferred in a culture associated with considering the needs of a group over an individual
In some countries it is harder for women to be accepted in a leadership role, regardless of their skills, experience and effectiveness
Certain leadership behaviours seem to be universal, many cultures expect their leaders to have foresight, encourage and motivate while being able to communicate well, build confidence and be both dynamic and trustworthy.
Followers who categorise a manager as a typical leader are likely to allow them to exert leadership influence over them, however if leadership concepts are at variance with cultural norms, this will constrain the leader's influence