The Approaches Defining A Culture Through Two Paradigms

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction.

This report is based on the study of an organization with the name of Tech de Lords (Pvt) ltd based in Milton Keynes, UK. It’s an Industrial and agricultural Investment bank .It’s a medium sized organization with over 500 employees working for it out of which 350 are based in Head office in Milton Keynes and 150 in Halifax West Yorkshire. This study is focused on the human behavior in organizations and the organizational culture. This report aims to provide an insight on how organizations behave in a certain environment, who are the people who set the culture of the organizations and what changes are pertinent to improve the culture in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. This investment bank has been selected to share the process of changing the paradigms to integrate and understand the culture .In broader perspective culture is controlled by people who run the organization (Cameron, K. S., & Quinn, R. E., 2011). 

The variables and the parameters which shape the organization are pointed out in this study to enable the reader to understand how the variables make the environment of the organization, what changes are required and how change management plays its part effectively. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate how the employees behave under different situations and how their behavior controls the tone of the organization. Tech de Lords (Pvt) Ltd was a classic example of demonstrating the organizational behavior associated with its culture (Pfister, J., 2009).

Paradigmatic perspective

Integrated approach or paradigm 1 explains culture as a basic set of way of doing things as formulated by the leaders of any organization and that has got to be followed by the employees throughout the organization. Tech De Lords (Pvt) was following this kind of paradigm 1 culture which clearly explains that people and organizations inadvertently follow their leaders. Thus, initially culture is a set of rules, later on it becomes a ritual and later on becomes a practice in a certain organization. In other words the culture of that organization is centralized. This is an integrated approach of defining culture or paradigm 1 .Tech de Lords (Pvt) Ltd head office which was in Milton Keynes was following centralized kind of culture. The reality of the matter was that the chief executive of the company was a man of short temperament and was not favouring the employees. A stagnant kind of a situation was going on for years and years.The whole set of systems and procedures were centralized. The dominant role of the chief executive centralized the culture of the organization. It was further expanded within the employees. The employees in turn were hostile towards each other and the whole environment looked very tensed and stagnant. The integrated approach looked like when any king reigns an empire and the people follow him blindly .Whatever culture he makes it becomes the culture of the entire nation. So certain people generally are known to be conservative in their approach and this is a culture that is set by their rulers which is coming from ages now. The head office people were rude in their tone, very difficult to deal with, unlike branch people who were in Halifax (O'Connor et al., 2009).

Company background

Tec de Lords (Pvt) Ltd was as a private investment bank and it was formed in 1999.The chief executive was a very qualified and experienced Chartered Management Accountant , but in ethics and temper he was hostile and he formed the entire culture of the organization. For years the head office in Milton Keynes experienced the same kind of culture as explained in the above paragraph. It was their culture that had been developed as a nature adopted by the employees to remain aloof from each other and form barriers with each other. Overall the environment gave a suffocated look. Unlike that in Halifax people in branch office were docile, mallow and cool tempered. They adopted the nature of their branch manager, which gradually became a culture of the branch. They were having parties and luncheons together and together on outdoor picnics and excursion trips along with their families, not to forget weekly get together on movie. Extremely light atmosphere, congenial environment. Positive attitude of employees. Moral was high and the attitude very welcoming. The aptitude for work was also very proactive; this was the paradigm 1 approach of culture which explains that the leaders set the culture for the organizations. The company was dealing in bonds, debentures, term deposit certificates, project financing both long term and short term. They could have expanded a lot in their product line but as their chief executive of the entire organization was not an open minded person so the organization could not grow and hence the people could not grow. They remained stagnant. This attitude travelled from top to bottom vertically.

Literature review

The paradigm 1 reflects that in ancient times certain things were practiced and it became a culture. This was the theory that was being recognized as the most common one as mostly writers confirm culture as reflected in paradigm 1 .The ideas initially become set of rules being practiced by the leaders which later one became rituals and develop into a culture. The organization which is under discussion could not grow because their people were constrained because of the close ended culture of it that was travelling from top to bottom. From the chief executive to the line managers to the clerks all were seen with the same kind of rigid and bizarre attitude. Their moral was low .They were demotivated and the salary issue was of course there playing its part. There was no job satisfaction.

The United Kingdom is ruled by the queen. She believes in mass welfare and helping the poor and needy. So overall throughout the country this attitude is prevailing. The people on the whole are helping and the entire culture reveals the nature of the queen. It’s a welfare state and the people of UK are all practicing the same virtues and it has become a part of their culture to help the poor and needy. That’s the reason why there are so many charity organizations, hospitals and schools running free for the general masses in UK. It is this culture which is basically playing a dominant role throughout UK (Alvesson, M., 2012).

However, whereas some writers opine that culture comes from the leader, there are other writers who are of the view that there are many different cultures within an organization that are individually practicing their own unique culture but collectively on the forefront giving an impact of the centralized culture emanated from the leaders that is the top management. As in the case of Tech De Lords (Pvt) Ltd, the organization had multicultural environment as there were 8 different departments in the organization. Every division had its own culture. Hence paradigm two dictates the theory of Martin which says that there are differential cultures tied together with the main culture of the organization which is superficial. In reality and spirit they are practicing their individual cultures. Actually the organizations are so blended that they are operating in a multi environment culture and yet continuing to follow the main culture of the organization (Keršien, K., & Savanevicien, A., 2005).

Organizations need to grow in today’s modern world. In order to grow they have to leave their conventional methods of centralization which is the culture, but move towards decentralization. Actually organizations are still practicing decentralization by practicing their own cultures in their individual departments and various branches. Even the paradigm 1 an paradigm 2 prevails between parent and subsidies of organizations. Even in democratic states government are decentralized and one national /federal government is working along with simultaneous working of other provincial governments which are enjoying their autonomy to the fullest extent (Fan, P. H. J., Wong, T. J., & Zhang, T., 2007).

Even in different families of the same country or people different cultures are in vogue. As is seen in different schools of United kingdom of England , the Furzton school in Milton Keynes, exhibits entirely different culture than Jubilee centre in Halifax, although both the schools are managed by the people of the same nation /country , but it is established that different regions have different cultures. They are more or less speaking similar language, same dialects, same clothing but still they have their own culture which is very different from each other.

Similarly people living in Emerson valley and Milton Keynes village have different cultures although both are situated in Milton Keynes only. These live examples explain the paradigm 1 and 2 both and their integrated blend with each other .Hence they are integrated universally but differential at the same time.

Two children belonging to the same parents differ from each other, although they are brought up and raised in the same environment, but hence their natures are different hence paradigm 1 and 2 both pay their role.

Organizations having their head office in one city and branch office in the other city have different cultures, but since they are working under the same umbrella they have an integrated yet differential culture because of the different environments in which they are operating.

Similarly all the chain of super markets like Tesco, Sansburry, Morrison, ASDA they have their own outlets in different cities Although they are working under the same umbrella yet their culture is different in different cities, even if two tesco super markets are located in two different sectors of the same county , their cultures will be different , but at the fore front they have the same manual of systems and procedures and line of products, because they all are operating under one management. Yes, sometimes in case of Franchise arrangement the management is also separate and hence the cultures are totally different from each other. For example take the classic example of KFC in Pakistan, Bangkok and that of Milton Keynes. The culture of KFC is entirely different in all the three countries. So is the case of Mcdonalds (Deresky, H., 2006).

Apart from explaining what’s a culture in terms of paradigm 1 and paradigm 2, we must adhere to the reality that change has to come in force for stagnation is the only result of closed cultures. Change is the need of time, at every time organizations will encounter a change and they will have to be prepared for it.

According to Kurt’s Lewin’s theory change passes through three stages

1.Unfreezing

2.Transition

3.Refreezing

Unfreezing

The term unfreezing relates to the circumstances which had leaded to bring a change. Meaning thereby when the employees were surveyed it came to light that they were demotivated because of their low pay scale and hence their moral was down .As a consequence they were not working in harmony with each other but they were seen pin pointing at each other and always on verge of some criticism at one another .It was all a scene of chaos and adhocism .Nobody seemed to do his duty diligently and everyone was running away from taking any extra responsibility. This is human nature it happens that when something very demoralizing is going on than one has to take control of it to bring in a change, a real change which is the requirement of the hour. The main purpose of appointing the new chief executive was to ascertain the old lot from head office in Milton Keynes that if they will not perform well than a staff reshuffling will definitely be on their agenda. It was quiet a signal for them. The ways and techniques of conquering all the negative elements prevailing in work place and that too happened to be a bank of International repute. His appointment was to curb the effects of all this negativity and a change was hence brought in (Helen Simms, 2005).

Transition

Now a transition took place, everyone was being handled individually. All attention was being paid to every single employee to make them familiarize with the change. To make them feel more secure and easy HR took control of the situation. He made regular sittings with each and every employee, did psychological counselling with them that they would not be thrown away with the induction of the more qualified bankers. They had resisted the presence of newly appointed employees so much that they had made their life miserable. They thought that since they are equipped with modern techniques so they would turn them out and now they are not required any more in this organization and their days are over (Helen Simms, 2005).

Freezing

Freezing is again a term that was the last stage of Lewin’s theory of change .This term reflects the change brought in has to be fixed and guarded so that the employees may not go back to their old routine or state of mind. It is that state in which the employees have managed to accept the change finally and they know that this change has brought beneficial effects on their career progression. Only by safeguarding that it stays in its place the HR division keep reinforcing within their minds that they will be given trainings and refresher courses to attend at the expense of the organization. Their motivation levels rose to a greater extent and they started performing well. Slowly and gradually they started accepting the entrance of new bankers in their system. They learnt how to accept the change and move ahead. (McKinsey Global Survey Results, 2008).

Monitoring the freezing

In the chain of this planned change at Tech de Lords (Pvt) Ltd , it was noticed that if the frequent interaction with the old employees was broken at any time, the old routine would come back to its place and all the efforts would go in vain. So the HR started a system of continuous follow ups.

Thorough and constant communication will let employees feel strongly connected to the organisation during the acceptance phase of transition, but also allowing time to individuals to understand and adapt to change will surely turn to be a key factor for the successful achievement of a change project and that involves continuous monitoring and reinforcement of the planned programme (Helen Simms, 2005).

All this resulted owing to his organizational and leadership skills of Sir Steven Brown the newly appointed chief executive of the company. Whatever resources he allocated to this programme were properly monitored and approved by the principal. Actually he gave a new life to Tech de Lords (Pvt) Ltd.

Although very often one could feel that one is short of time, what effective and successful change actually requires is, instead, just time and time.

Organisational analysis

Tech de lords (Pvt) Ltd, underwent lots of phases. In the initial years for a long time it strived hard to survive during the reign of its chief executive of that time Sir Thomas George. As a chief executive he was good in principles, but he was following a closed ended policy and hence a closed cultured environment was prevailing in his time. His successor who was the branch manager at Halifax branch office was an open minded person. His personality was charismatic. He was a born leader with the name of Steven Brown. A handsome looking man in mid forties .He had an open door policy and hence all the staff working under him felt secure as he had kept their moral high and their motivational levels were rising with the passage of time. The overall culture was changed. In fact it was transformed. And because of his open mindedness a proactive approach he became very popular in the business community and pressures in the organization minimized. The people in head office were looking forward for his leadership as they had heard a lot about him from their branch colleagues. There was no doubt an environment of chaos in the head office in the times of the previous chief executive and the company suffered stagnation .But with appointed of the new successor the whole face of the organization changed and so did the culture. It was a transformation, a blend of paradigm 1 and paradigm 2.

The study suggested that the employees of the head office who were already disgruntled and demotivated were very reluctant to blend in this new open ended culture. They had to undergo serious transformation. Change management played its role. Human resources were made more active to curb the effects of this retaliation. They were stagnant because of their own old culture and they were not ready to learn the new and modern technologies of the modern times .They were working like donkeys whereas the change makes them work smart.

Human resource played the most effective role of transition handling and they were successful in their efforts. They made a very thorough intensive plan how to make the transition smooth. As the 300 employees from the head office in Milton Keynes were difficult to handle after all that period of stagnation and demotivation, breathing in closed ended culture. They were given various counselling sessions to reduce their fear and anxiety of losing jobs and face the amalgamation with open heart and mind. The new products launched in project financing both medium term and long term fetched lot of business to the newly taken over bank by the open minded chief executive. The employees of the head office were mixing up with the employees of branch office and manpower reshuffling was taking place at a fast pace.

Conclusion

The Tech de lords (Pvt) Ltd case is summarized by saying that change is the order of the day and no matter what culture the organization is having it has to grow and to achieve its goals even if it has to undergo a change it should go and change its culture and move towards an open ended culture. The two paradigms 1 and 2 of culture have been explained and demonstrated through this report expanded further by the Lewin’s theory of Change Management.

Recommendations:

Change management is strongly recommended as it is the need of the hour and adequate measures should be taken to make the change effective to make the culture open ended in running an organization.