Organisational Cultures and Diversity
TERMS
Organisational Culture – Shared values and beliefs that enable members to understand their roles in and the norms of the organisation.
Family Culture – A culture that is characterised by a strong emphasis on hierarchy and orientation to the person.
Eiffel Tower Culture – A culture that is characterised by strong emphasis on hierarchy and orientation to the task.
Guided Missile Culture – A culture that is characterised by strong emphasis on equality in the workplace and orientation to the task.
Incubator Culture – A culture that is characterised by strong emphasis on equality and orientation to the person.
Groupthink – Consensus reached because of social conformity and pressures on individual members of a group to conform to group norms.
THE NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
A number of important characteristics are associated with an organisations culture:
Observed behavioural regularity, as typified by common language, terminology and rituals.
Norms as reflected by things such as the amount of work to be done and the degree of cooperation between management and employees.
Dominant values that the organisation advocates and expects participants to share, such as high product and service quality, low absenteeism and high efficiency.
A philosophy that is set forth in the MNC’s belief regarding how employees and customers should be treated.
Rules that dictate the dos and don’ts of employee behaviour relating to areas such as productivity, customer relations and intergroup cooperation.
Organisational climate, or the overall atmosphere of the enterprise as reflected by the way that participants interact with each other, conduct themselves with customers and feel about the way they are treated by high level management.
INTERACTION BETWEEN NATIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES
Hofstedes research found that the national culture values of employees have a significant impact on their organisational behaviour, and that the culture values employees bring to the workplace with them are not easily changed by the organisation.
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES IN MNC’S
Organisational cultures of MNC’s are shaped by many factors, including the cultural preferences of the leaders and employees.
In the international arena some MNC’s have subsidiaries that, except for the company logo an reporting procedures, would not be easily recognisable as belonging to the same multinational.
Companies all over the world are finding out first hand that there is more to an international merger or acquisition than just sharing resources and capturing a great market share.
Differences in workplace cultures sometimes temporarily overshadow the overall goal of long term success of the newly formed entity.
With the proper management framework and execution, successful integration of cultures is not only possible, but also the most preferable paradigm in which to operate.
There are three aspects of organisational functioning that seem to be especially important in determining MNC organisational culture:
The general relationship between the employees and their organisation
The hierarchical system of authority that defines the roles of managers and subordinates
The general vies that employees hold about the MNC’s purpose, destiny, goals and their place in them
When examining these dimensions of organisational culture, Trompenaar suggested the use of two continua:
One distinguishes between equity and hierarchy
The other examines orientation to the person and the task
Along these continua Trompennars identified and described four different types of organisational cultures:
Family
Power orientated and headed by a leader who is regarded as a caring parent and one who knows what is best for the personnel.
In this culture, personnel not only respect the individuals who are in charge but look to them for both guidance and approval as well. .
In turn management assumes a paternal relationship with personnel, looks after employees and tries to ensure that they are treated well and have continued employment.
It is characterised by traditions, customs and associations that bind together personnel and make it difficult for outsiders to become members.
When it works well family culture can catalyse and multiply the energies of the personnel and appeal to their deepest feelings and aspirations.
When it works poorly members of the organisations end up supporting a leader who is ineffective and drains their energies and loyalties.
Eiffel Tower
Jobs are well defined, employees know what they are supposed to do and everything is coordinated from the top.
The person holding the top position could be replaced at any time and this would have no effect on the work that the organisation members are doing or on the organisations resources for existence.
Relationships are specific and the status remains with the job.
Each role at each level of the hierarchy is described, rated for its difficulty, complexity and responsibility and has a salary attached to it.
In considering applicants for a role the personnel department will treat everyone equally and neutrally match the persons skills and attitudes with the job requirements andaward the job to the best fit between role and person.
Learning involves the accumulation of skills necessary to fit a role and organisations will use qualifications in desciding how to schedule, deploy and reshuffle personnel to meet their needs.
The organisation will employ such rational procedures as assessment centres, aooraisal systems, training and...