The Perspectives Of Organizational Culture

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

"Culture" is no longer a unfamiliar concept to people. It has always been considered by scholars as such a complicated concept that hundreds of studies have been carried to dwell on the topics of culture defining . According to Alvesson (2002:3), culture is used in different ways as collectively shared forms of ideas and cognition, as symbols and meanings. As values and ideologies, as rules and norms, as emotions and expressiveness, as behavior patterns, structures and practices, etc. O. Sullivan in his book "Understanding ways: Communicating between cultures" (1994) defined culture in a much simpler way as he suggested culture is the ways a person or a group of people concur to be. Emphasizing on the social sense of culture, Fernando (1996) stated that culture is all the things people have, think and do as a member of a society.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that since culture is a complex concept, it contains a lot of elements. Nevertheless, it is not easy to identify those factors. Levine (1993) had an idea which then became popular that culture is like an iceberg. The iceberg has some sections are visible while a larger part is harder to be seen. In a similar way, we can observe, recognize and identify some aspects of culture but the rest which occupy a larger part can only be imagined, reckoned or apprehended.

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(Levine - 1993)

In a nutshell, culture can be view as a system of what a group of people have in common or share with each other. Its elements vary from the way they eat to how they value and believe things.

Organizational culture

As hard as culture to define, organizational culture concept has been developed for ages. Siehl and Martin (1984:227) compared organizational culture with the glues that stick members of an organization together via sharing patterns of meaning. In a similar way, Williams (1993) proposed that it is the common and relatively stable set of beliefs, attitudes and values that exists within the organization. Meanwhile, Schein (2004) focused on the functions of organizational culture by describing it as the pattern of basic valid assumption that a certain group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to deal with problems like external adaptation and internal integration, which would be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel regarding those problems.

As mentioned above, the concept of culture is strongly related to the sense of groups and community, then organizational culture can be referred as the fundamental framework within an organization.

The perspectives of organizational culture

There are different approaches to diagnose the core of organizational culture. Many researchers have proposed descriptive models of organizational culture. This paper attempts to cover three of influential theory in the fields, namely the work of Geert Hofstede, Edgar Schein, Daniel Denison.

Hofstede’s model

Hofstede (2005) examined cultural differences on IBM's employees in over 40 different countries by comparing, combining and analyzing survey data concerning work-related values. He found that differences in the behavior of IBM employees from international subsidiaries could be explained by using five dimensions of cultures: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity and long-term versus short-term orientation. Hofstede’s classification has helped to understand the major influence of national culture on organizational culture

His cross-national IBM studies also showed that shared perceptions of daily practices should be considered as the core of organizational culture. And while top leaders shape organizational culture by their values and beliefs, it is shared practices that affect ordinary members and help the whole mechanism function. Through this process, the belief and values of leaders have become the ordinary members’ practices.

Schein’s model

In Schein (2004) model, organizational culture has three levels, the artifacts on the surface, the values and behavioral norms and the beliefs and assumptions at the deepest level. If Hofstede proposed that shared practices form the core of organizational culture, Schein suggested that what people think to be reality or in other words, their beliefs and assumption that matter the most in shaping the culture of an organization. He claimed that assumptions can influence what member of a culture perceive and how they think and feel. In the middle of the Schein model, norms and values which are the social principles, goals and standards define what the member of the organization cares about and the unwritten rules that all the members are expected to follow under certain situations. More tangible, more visible than the two above, artifacts are the members’ expression of the values, norms as well as assumptions such as rituals, ceremonies, artworks etc.

According to Schein (2004:246), there are two types of mechanisms that leaders of a organization can embed their beliefs, values and assumptions, the primary mechanisms and the secondary articulation and reinforcement mechanisms. If leaders are aware of those tools and be consistent with their own behavior, they can form the climate of the organization.

Denison’s model

Another influential model of organizational culture which clearly describe how organizations work is suggested by Denison (1990). He classifies organizational culture into four major points: mission – the long term direction of the company, consistency – the basic values of the organization, adaptability – the ability to transfer market demand into actions, and involvement – the development of staff capability and responsibility. Denison’s research and survey have indicated if an organizational score high in these four key points, they are likely to have high level of competency.

Orientations and outcomes of an organization would depends on the one or two points they excel at. For example:

External Focus (Adaptability + Mission): An organization with strong sense of market demand and clear goals. An external focus company is expected to achieve high revenue, sales growth, and market share.

Internal Focus (Involvement + Consistency): An organization with a strong and consistent system of internal integration, which results in high employee satisfaction and product quality.

Flexibility (Adaptability + Involvement): An organization with quick response to the market and high focus on its employees, hence, creativity and innovation are strongly encouraged.

Organizational culture in practice

Starbucks

Starbucks originally was of company specifying in importing and roasting coffee. Later, thanks to the management of Howard Schultz, Starbucks witness its outstanding success. There is no doubt that a part of this success is contributed by the company unique culture. Both its part-time and full-time employees are offered health care and stock benefits. They become very proud of the company they work for, which is the reason why Starbucks has an impressive low rate of turnover. There are two major points that lead to Schultz’s

Employees are partners – Starbucks is in a partnership with its employees. According to Martin Coles, chief operating officer of Starbucks Corporation, speaking in a conference about social values integration, the spirit of partnership drives a deep sense of connection between the communities, from the coffee farm, to the employees in 15,000 Starbuck stores all over the world in the communities. The partners are encouraged to be involved in the company, and to contribute ideas about building the business and improving the product.

Leaders transmit the culture – Managers are responsible for transferring the culture of the company to employees, with diversity and inclusion integrated

Wal-mart Stores

Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-mart, one of largest retailers in the world has developed a unique organizational culture for the chain grocery stores by setting basic principles for his employees. These principles are believed to be the golden key to the outstanding success of Wal-mart. According to the homepage of Wal-mart China, those principles are:

Respect for the Individual: the idea of every individual is listened and respected. Newbies are welcomed and helped by managers during their training with constructive feedback. They are also encouraged to raise questions and concerns.

Service to the Customer, with customer-oriental policies like "Ten-Foot Attitude" or "Satisfaction Guaranteed", the employees must ensure that the customers will have the best shopping experience at the stores.

Strive for Excellence: customer satisfaction is top priority for any employees. They will gather at early of the day to review sales of the day before and draft for that day’s goals. Also, they have to follow the "Sundown rule" what are in queries in the morning rule required to be answered before the sun goes down.

Those principles above has helped Sam Walton in shaping the unique culture of Wal-mart. Following his steps, in the company, senior managers as well as employees follow the core values in their everyday practices. By that way, the original distinctive culture of Wal-mart has been preserved and reproduced all over the web of its stores and distribution center until now.

Best Buy

In the past, the working culture of Best Buy, one of the top USA retailers of electronic products, was very demanding as it requires employees to spend long hours at work. If one employee was willing to sacrifice his personal life for the work performance, he would be highly praised with reward and recognition.

However, in 2003, an innovative workplace program called 'Results Only Work Environment' (ROWE) was introduced to the employees of Best Buy. Under ROWE, it does not matter to the managers when and where the employees work, just as long as the assigned targets are achieved. Time clock and appearance at office are not important. The core idea this program is that by allowing people to choose to work when they are motivated or focused, the productivity will be achieved better. According to a research carried by India IBS center for management research, the ROWE program has resulted in lower voluntary turnover, higher productivity and employee engagement.

AussieCo.

AussieCo was mentioned in Brown’s work "Organizational culture" (1998:96) as a failed model of organizational culture which cannot transfer their values to the employees. AussiCo, located in Melbourne, Australia is a company specifying in computer mechanical hardware. The company reached success in 1980 but later continuously lost its share of market in the 1990s due to management failure in market analyzing and unqualified staff. The employees of AussieCo were from many different nations and mostly unqualified. In manufacturing process, employees were required to be achieve numerical targets, however, they get nothing for the attainment of those targets. There were also a serious lack of communication between departments and between senior managers and ordinary workers.

Consequently, such weak organizational culture and working practices resulted in the poor performance and the lack of commitment to the company of the employees.