An organisation is a group of people. It is different to define an organisation, because they are different. The difference may depend on the sector it operates. A sector can be private or public.
There is a very distinct divide between private and public organisations. But both need people and processes that are being managed.
There is an unifying function of all organisations - goal of supplying a product or services that people want or need. Generally an organisation will procure external resources (inputs), use the resources (process), and create products or services (outputs).
The organisations need to be managed in order to use the resources and add value to satisfy the external demands.
The principal role of a manager is to ensure that the business processes deliver the expected outcomes. Therefore understanding people's behaviour is critical within the managerial roles.
Management theories
The classical theory lead to prescribed way organisations and people are managed. This takes no account for the nature and the context in which the organisation operates, its size, or nature of people who work within.
This approach is strongly hierarchical. Some supporters of this theory believe that efficiency, standardisation and discipline are required for maximum productivity and profitability. This style does not take account for human nature and emotions. Work initiative and creativity are not considerations within this model.
Human Relations Theory
This approach is a direct opposite of the classical theories. In this concept it is believed that human nature, behaviours and emotions create cooperative social system. This approach considers dynamics of social interactions within the business. In those type of organisations teams become self-managing. Managers therefore are playing role of facilitators for creating an environment in which the teams can achieve their goals. In this set up the manager is more concerned with managing the sociological issues within the team members.
How can we determine the type of organisation model?
To help us to understand which model is applicable to your organisation you can ask yourself the following questions:
* Are there highly developed structures and procedures which not allowing for creativity and adapting to change?
* Is the business open to facing reality, changes and open criticism?
* Are there sets of values, perspectives and principles held by those who work for the organisation?
* Is the organisations political system based on authority and power?
* Does the organisation grow, develop and regenerates in order to survive?
* Is the organisation able to exert influence and power on others?
Organisations culture
A feature of an organisation which makes it unique is its culture. The culture is the values, believes and the way things are done within. Much of what we experience working for an organisation is its culture. It is the way we cope with the world and with each other.
Managers must have a good understanding of the cultural context of their organisation to be effective. This includes to being able to function politically. There is a wide range of factors that operate to shape the way that people generally perceive their organisational culture. These include organisational structure, control systems power structures, routines and rituals.
There are also different type of cultures depends on the environment in which the organisation operates:
1) Power cultures - centralised and authoritarian. Senior managers keep a firm grip on power and employees must submit the demands. These types of organisations have advantages in terms of flexibility and speed of response. But it is difficult for the leaders to maintain control as the organisation expands.
2) Role cultues - hierarchies where each persons job is highly specialised. There is an abundance of rules. Its great benefit is predictability and stability.
3) Tak cultures - defined by achieving driven teams. The emphasis is placed on accomplishing the task and overall teamwork. This offers flexibility and drives his level of motivation.
4) Person cultures - based on equality and mutual cooperation. The system exists to serve the individuals who form it.
The key management function is to develop the organisations culture among their teams.
Sub-cultures
I can sometimes be misleading to think in terms of single organisational culture, especially in larger organisations where groups work independently of other groups. It is therefore not unusual for different groups to have their own behaviours and applied values. These subcultures often emerge as a result of tensions between departments. These organisations are generally very difficult to manage. For example sales and marketing departments may be distinctly different to production or human resources departments.
Organisational culture is often citied as being responsible for all manners of organisational ills and on occasion, credited with creating positive qualities. It is essential to explore this concept more closely to diagnose the organisational problems. An intimate knowledge and awareness of culture should improve the leaders ability to manage and lead.
Impact of organisational culture
The nature of organisational culture which has far reaching consequences for management and all manner of organisational activity including change, corporate strategy and financial and other measures of performance. It is therefore vital that we explore different impacts and implications of the concept of culture.
One of the ways to present it would be evaluating the different types of cultures mentioned above.
Power cultures are found in small organisations. In these power lies in the centre of power holders. The organisations depend on informal communications and people who adopt the attributes and norms of the central power source will be valued and trusted. These type of relations are clear.
Role cultures have higher level of bureaucracy and coordination is provided by a small senior management. This organisation is generally departmentalised often into clear specialisation areas. Employees have clear roles defined by the job descriptions and work is rationally allocated. This type organisation is generally seen as a stable environment where efficiency on each level is required. Role cultures provide security for employees.
Task cultures is common in many organisations. This is where a team culture exist alongside autonomy, As a consequence these organisations are more flexible than those characterised by role culture and they can react to changing markets.
Person cultures are common in professional organisations such as firms or solicitors. There is limited formal control and communication links are informal.
Having the above it is clear that managing the culture would bring changes to the organisations and bring positive results. It is also apparent, that culture type will highly depend on the structure of the organisation.
With the change of structure, the culture change including reaping the benefits of the type developed.
It is also argued, that the culture, structure and other design features as well as personal behaviours of organisations individuals conspire the managers to see the reality in a limited way. For example there are conservative organisations which take very little risk and only come out with solutions which are "safe" in one way or another. On the other side it contrast with more innovative types of organisations. Although this model is of value, its limitations are apparent and it certainly links organisational culture with its overall strategy.
The above evaluation implicit, that in order to make significant changes in the organisation the cultural types need attention. They reinforce "how things are done around here" and indicate what is important to the business and its employees. The determination also allows to see the limits and reasons for certain behaviour. This is because of aspects of it can be of significance and provide important information when shaping strategic efforts. It helps people to understand what is required and expected, what are the values and how to comply with them. And finally, this provides for an avenue for those who want to manipulate and influence change.
Culture and diversity
It is often argued that diversity and culture are incompatible concepts. How can we have diversity in one organisational culture? Well, this is best explained by accepting that all cultures contain diverse elements. My true belief is that with a thorough understanding of the type of culture, the phenomena of diversity is easier to implement and allows to gain significant benefits of its characteristics.
Culture and change
From the early 1980s it was known that culture creates barriers for insinuating change. In fact, it is considered as an obstacle and a significant ingredient of the business success or failure in change management efforts. The organisations which posses elements of different types of cultural features will embrace change easier. Some people also believe that changing the recruitment, promotion, training and performance management policies will insinuate the change. This also involves an active Human Resources roles which promote the desired qualities in people. However the true change can only be done with personnel, structural and system changes. And, it is important to notice it is a top-down process and involves full leadership commitment and support.
It must however be remembered that the understanding how the existing culture is sustained is imperative before it can be changed. An analysis of assumptions, values and believes allows the learning process. It is also interesting to know that for cultural change is from six to 15 years, recognising the difficulty in understanding and managing it.
Cultural change is often managed by the Human Resource Management and individual heads of departments. This is because culture is collectively owned and the department management are critical to introducing any change. They are also often the barriers for improvement actions. Therefore this require a political acceptance for change to be successful. The individuals will than try to make sense of the change and others will accept it or resist it. Thus the communication level and interpretation of change is imperative. The questions "What will the change to to me?" will need to be answered. Managers are not powerless to change the culture, but need to be paying attention to the symbolic consequences of the actions they take.
Conflicts between subcultures
Like the conflicts that exist between departments, frictions is commonplace between different organisational subcultures. In order to maintain collective understanding it is necessary for the subcultures to merge into collective group. These unified values will better ensure the basis for power. Collectively, teams can develop new social identity.
Knowledge and increasing awareness of the organisational culture significantly influence the managerial thinking. Therefore managers should be open to:
* being aware that employees see the organisation from their own perspective,
* reflecting on their own perspective and experiment with others that may lead to new innovative solutions,
* understand that culture influence many organisational aspects, including strategy, performance, structure and business relationships
* be sensitive to different influences of culture such as age, gender or ethnicity,
* be aware, that culture is subject to change,
* understand that what one says and does can be symbolic to the employees and create cultural meaning,
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