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5.1 Organisational culture - Coggle Diagram
5.1
Organisational culture
Conceptualising organisations
the entitative view
Organisation is viewed as something that exists as a solid or concrete thing [which] may refer to human institutions
According to Knights and Willmott, mainstream definitions of organisations present organisations as objective, tangible ‘things’ (entities).
Buchanan and Huczynski’s definition of an organisation (2017, p.777):
“a social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals”.
Implicit within this conceptualisation is the assumption that the structures and systems that constitute the organisation are determined by rational decision-making processes undertaken by those with an established authority to do so. This perspective creates a rational model of organisations
Instrumental rationality is the assumption that an action is taken because a person (or group) has determined through reasoned thought that it will be effective in meeting a particular desirable objective.
The model also assumes that the formal structures and systems that provide order and stability are created and aligned to meet well-defined organisational objectives. It creates a mechanistic image of the organisation as something that has been designed, created and is controlled to perform a specific function.
Many organisational researchers have questioned and criticised these entitative views, arguing that they fail to recognise the complex social processes that actually occur, within all organisations.
the process view.
The process view see organisations to be created by the processes of organising that occur through social interactions, in a context that includes factors such as conflicting priorities and interests, ambiguity, uncertainty and change.
the activity of organising and being organised. All particular organisations are examples of this process…"
Jackson and Carter, 2007, p.7.
The process view invites us to understand behaviour in organisations as a process of ongoing interactions and negotiations (Knights and Willmott, 2017, p.27)
It sees the process of ‘organising’ as a dynamic activity in which social and political interactions shape aspects of the many inter-related activities and competing goals that constitute an organisation.
Organisational culture
Deal and Kennedy (1982) we can understand organisational culture simply in terms of ‘the way things get done around here’.
it is often assumed that structures define organisational culture, so much so that they are sometimes treated as the same thing.
whilst organisational structures are important in shaping organisational culture, culture is much more complex, and more deeply embedded within an organisation, than the structures that appear to define behaviours
Whilst the organisational structure and the lines of authority it creates can be quickly redrawn by those with formal power, culture can appear to resist attempts to change it, and in some cases may be impervious to it.
To understand what we mean by organisational culture it is necessary to focus on how people interact with each other
We must think about how norms (values, beliefs, understandings, behaviours, language use and ways of thinking) guide the actions of organisational members to maintain the organisation and strive to meet individual and collective goals.
Culture pervades an organisation (even if it goes unnoticed). Everyone within an organisation participates in maintaining and reproducing it as they go about their activities.
Culture permeates all aspects of organisational life and aspects of it can be seen in areas such as:
authority and power relationships
missions and goals
procedures, processes and organisational routines
communication and interaction patterns
reward policies and prohibitions
organisational stories, rituals and myths
the physical environment: architecture, decoration, dress code
implicit expectations of how employees behave.
One of the key questions for managers is therefore whether (and to what extent) organisational cultures can be managed and purposefully changed.
The iceberg model of culture
Schein’s iceberg model of culture
Schein argued that different elements of culture can be discerned at different ‘levels’ within an organisation
Elements of Culture:
Visible
In Awareness
Artefacts
Behaviour
Invisible
Out of Conscious Awareness
Norms
Assumptions
Values
Beliefs
It is quite an entitative model
It does not seem aligned with a process perspective in which organising is seen as a dynamic activity with social and political interactions actively shaping culture.
there are two fundamentally different perspectives on organisational culture. According to Smircich (1983),
culture can be seen as something an organisation ‘has’,
or instead as something an organisation ‘is’
root metaphor
shifts attention to the activities that produce an organisational culture
What Smircich stresses is that culture is at the heart of organising and organisations.
It cannot be instrumentalised in the manner described by other theorists, who see it as something that can be manipulated and changed.
Do and Don'ts in Leading cultural organisational Change:
Do come with a clear vision of where you want the organization to go and promulgate that vision rapidly and forcefully with leadership storytelling.
Do identify the core stakeholders of the new vision and drive the organization to be continuously and systematically responsive to those stakeholders.
Do define the role of managers as enablers of self-organizing teams and draw on the full capabilities of the talented staff.
Do quickly develop and put in place new systems and processes that support and reinforce this vision of the future, drawing on the practices of dynamic linking.
Do introduce and consistently reinforce the values of radical transparency and continuous improvement.
Do communicate horizontally in conversations and stories, not through top-down commands.
Don’t start by reorganizing. First clarify the vision and put in place the management roles and systems that will reinforce the vision.
Don't parachute in a new team of top managers. Work with the existing managers and draw on people who share your vision.
Culture as something an organisation ‘has’.
Culture is treated as an organisational variable – a property or asset similar to, for example, labour, inventory or capital assets.
this perspective suggests that (like other organisational elements) culture can be shaped by management to facilitate the achievement of particular organisational goals such as improving profitability, or becoming sustainable
Peters and Waterman (1982), characteristics that they considered to be inherent in strong, well-run companies.
an attitude which they called ‘stick to the knitting’ (i.e. concentrate on the business the organisation knows best)
a bias for action
being close to the customer
autonomy and entrepreneurship
productivity through people
a hands-on, value-driven approach
a simple organisation structure, lean staffing
simultaneous loose-tight properties (high levels of discretion for employees but tight control through centralised values).
their work emphasised the need for leaders to create the right sort of organisational culture if a business was to be successful.
There is no recipe successful organisational culture
Contingency models: one best culture, or different types of culture?
Deal and Kennedy
behavioural norms will flow down from the leaders and permeate all levels of the organisation.
organisational culture is something that can be actively changed by leaders
They offered a typology with four different types of culture:
process culture
bet-your-company culture
work-hard/play-hard culture
tough guy culture
They suggested that the type of culture that is most likely to be successful in a particular organisation depends on the features of the organisation’s environment.
Handy
the view that different types of cultures can support organisational success, and that cultures are contingent upon the environment, has also been supported by Handy (1993).
suggested that company size, the markets/sectors they operate in, and individual worker preferences are the main variables that influence which type of culture will work best.
Four key types of cultures:
the power culture (a web)
the role culture (a Greek temple)
the task culture (lattice)
the person culture (a cluster)
The Competing Values Framework
Cameron and Quinn (1999).
They use two dimensions to map out different cultural types:
One contrasts flexibility (emphasising flexibility, discretion and dynamism) and stability (stability, order and control).
The second considers the type of focus: whether the organisation is internally focused (internal orientation, integration and unity) or externally focused (external orientation, differentiation and rivalry).
The Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)
Morgan (1997) warns of the danger of taking these models too literally and assuming that organisational culture is a static entity that can be measured and then manipulated by a skilful leader in order to create a successful organisation.
When we explore organisational culture, we must avoid assuming that culture is a monolithic entity
Contingency models in practice: cultural engineering at British Airways
They presented culture is something an organisation ‘has’. There appears to be little attempt to question the connection between an organisation’s culture and its performance
the possibility of manipulating the culture in order to enhance the organisation’s performance is presented as unproblematic.
Is there a link between culture and performance?
Boyce et al. (2015)
they were able to show that a positive culture had a positive impact upon performance (sales) in the subsequent one to three years.
Importantly they did not find the opposite: high performance was not necessarily followed by a more positive culture.
their work was limited for a variety of reasons and cannot be treated as definitive proof,
it is important to stress that we should not assume that a great organisational culture guarantees organisational success.
And conversely there are examples of organisations that appear to have a very hostile management culture and have enjoyed astounding performance.
Culture as something an organisation ‘is’
According to the process view Culture emerges from and is maintained by social interactions between individuals and not something that is created by leaders and then transmitted to the rest of the organisation, and passively accepted by its members.
According to Knights and Willmott, “the ‘is’ perspective conceives of organizational culture as a jointly but not equally produced system of intersubjectivity” (2017, p.396).
The concept of intersubjectivity suggests that a social group possesses shared ideas, beliefs, values and norms that are co-created by its members. Organisational culture can be seen as intersubjective: it is not owned or controlled by any single individual, but is a collective understanding of how the world is, and how to behave.
According to this conceptualisation, culture is a socially emergent phenomenon, and not a variable to be developed and managed therefore constantly changing.
Culture, control and power
Willmott argued that managers are encouraged to create a situation in which employees believe that they have control/autonomy over their work
However, employees have no freedom to make choices and decide for themselves, as such choices are entirely framed by the dominant message.
Grey (2016) provides a similar message, criticising cultural management programmes and their impact on individuals.
Willmott (1993) argued that cultural management is similar in its objectives to the activities of the totalitarian government in George Orwell’s novel 1984, using an approach based on ‘double think’.
the implications of organisational culture for engineering managers
Culture is fluid
divergent goals, behaviours, values and narratives simultaneously exist and compete within an organisation.
Culture evolves in an organic emergent way
Something an organisation has or is?
Both perspectives are useful, but neither is complete
Culture is deeply embedded
Organisational culture(s) pervade all aspects of organisational behaviour
it is possible to change the mission and structure of an organisation, and redesign its processes – but do these activities actually change the organisational culture?
Is it possible to simply reshape the ‘mind and soul’ of an organisation?
Changing aspects of how an organisation functions may not change the culture.