Organisational Culture (Blog 9)

What is Organisational Culture..?

Organisational culture is a pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organisation’s history, and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviours of its members (Brown, 1998). Watson (2006) emphasises that the concept of culture originally derived from a metaphor of the organisation as ‘something cultivated’.

Handy (1985) described organisational culture by using four types of classification, namely power, role, task and person cultures. However Deal and Kennedy (1982) described the more visible levels of culture (heroes, rites, rituals, legends and ceremonies) because it is these attributes they believe shape behaviour. But it is the invisible levels that may be of more interest to public sector organisations in terms of their influence in progressing or impeding organisational change.

Models of Organisational Culture

Harrison (1993) presents a theoretical model for the purpose of diagnosing organisational culture. The organisational culture model indicates that the four dimensions of culture orientation are measured within two modes of operation, which are formalisation and centralisation. Both modes of operation can be measured on a scale of low or high levels.

Organisational culture can be diagnosed in four cultural dimensions,

1. Power oriented culture
2. Role oriented culture
3. Achievement oriented culture
4. Support oriented culture

             Figure 1: Diagnosing Organizational Culture 
Source: (Harrison, 1993)          

Power culture dimension

Power is centralised and organisational members are connected to the center by functional and specialist strings. A power-oriented culture organisation often has a top down communication approach.In this type of organisational culture a dominant head sits in the center surrounded by intimates and subordinates who are the dependents.

Role culture dimension

This role oriented culture defines as “substituting a system of structures and procedures for the naked power of the leader”. Organisations with this type of culture is characterised by a set of roles or job boxes joined together in a logical fashion.

Achievement culture dimension

Define achievement oriented culture as “the aligned culture which lines people up behind a common vision or purpose”. While using teams is an advantage, the main weakness of the achievement culture in this regard is that it overshadows individual performance.

Support culture dimension

Support oriented culture defined as an “organisational climate that is based on mutual trust between the individual and the organisation”. These organisations are normally small in size and people have worked together for a long time and have managed to build up personal relationships.

Levels of Organisational Culture

Schein (1985) maintains that culture has to be examined at the level of deeply held basic assumptions that members of a group share, and they are historically established structures, stored in the organisational members' almost unconscious realm, and which offer direction and meaning for man's relations with nature, with reality and in human relationships, while the artifacts are regarded as materialised expressions of the values and basic assumptions.

Schein (1985) proposes that the structure of organisational culture could best be thought of as consisting of three different layers,

 Figure 2: Organizational Culture and Leadership: 
Source: (Schein, 1985)

Artifacts 

What we see, what a newcomer, visitor or consultant would notice (e.g., dress, organisation charts, physical layout, degree and formality, logos, and mission statement.

Espoused Values

What they say, what we would be told is the reason things are the way they are and should be. This includes company philosophy, norms and justifications.

Assumptions and Beliefs

What they deeply believe in and act on Unconscious, taken for granted beliefs about the organisation and its work/purpose, about people, rewards etc.

References

• Brown, A. (1998) ‘Organisational Culture’, 2^nd edn., London: Financial Times Pitman Publishing.

• Deal, T. E. and Kennedy A. A. (1982) ‘Corporate cultures. Reading’, MA: Addison-Wesley.

• Handy, C. B. (1985) ‘Understanding Organizations’, 4^th edn., Facts on File Publications, New York, USA.

• Harrison, R. (1993) ‘Diagnosing Organizational Culture: Trainer’s Manual’, Amsterdam: Pfeiffer & Company.

• Schein, E. H. (1985) ‘Organizational Culture and Leadership’, 1^st  edn., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• Watson, T. J. (2006) ‘Organising and Managing Work’, UK: Pearson Education Limited.

• Figure 1: Harrison, R. (1993) ‘Diagnosing Organizational Culture: Trainer’s Manual’, Amsterdam: Pfeiffer & Company.

• Figure 2: Schein, E. H. (1985) ‘Organizational Culture and Leadership’, 1^st  edn., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.