Organizational Culture

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  • 22 Mar, 2021
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Organizational Culture

how you will be able to apply the below 8 posts to your personal and/or professional life.

  • What are the key things you learned from these 8 posts
  • How can they relate to the workplace?
  • How they can aid your personal and professional development?
  • Remember to be specific and give examples.

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Post1

The definition of culture as the values, beliefs, and assumptions that guide how employees interact and behave is myopic. This is because it considers culture as something that is owned by the organisation. From my perspective, culture is what a firm is. Culture creates a psychosocial environment which, in most cases, hinders the formulation and implementation of winning business strategies.

Adherence to the culture of the organisation often inspires a business to adopt the internal perspective. It becomes difficult for them to see and absorb external threats and opportunities (Ellson, 2004). The insights and ideas of the strategy formulators of key decision makers are limited by the fact that the organisation simply wants to conserve its culture. This makes it difficult for the organisation to develop good strategies that would otherwise have helped it gain a competitive advantage in the highly competitive corporate world (Janicijevic, 2012).

Additionally, culture is a huge hindrance when trying to implement change to a firm’s existing trajectory (Schein, 2006; Ogbonna and Harris, 2000). Culture makes organisations obstinate and less adaptive. As such, the organisational environment becomes less attractive for decision makers since the staff may easily unite against the impending strategy change (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000). Culture also makes the staff overly focused on the existing assumptions and beliefs, an aspect that hinders communication of change (Omeike, 2015).

Hence, although many organisations believe that having a strong culture is essential for their long-term success, it is a hindrance to the development and implementation of new strategies.

 

  • Ellson, T. 2004. Organizational Culture and Positioning: the Link to Strategy. Culture and Positioning as Determinants of Strategy, 58-80. doi:10.1057/9780230509818_4
  • Janicijevic, N. 2012. The influence of organizational culture on organizational preferences towards the choice of organizational change strategy. Ekonomski anali, 57(193), 25-51. doi:10.2298/eka1293025j
  • Ogbonna, E., and Harris, L. C. 2000. Leadership style, organizational culture and performance: empirical evidence from UK companies. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(4), 766-788. doi:10.1080/09585190050075114
  • Omeike, S. 2015. Strategy as Interaction: The Dynamics between Strategy Execution Effectiveness and Organizational Interactions During Strategy Implementation. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2676390
  • Schein, E. H. 2006. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Post 2

 

Organisations face various challenges while trying to manage subcultures. Firstly, there is the challenge of identifying the subcultures. It is constantly hard for the management to pinpoint the existence of subcultures in the organisation as they believe that the employees are inclined to the main culture(Geraghty and Bishop, 2019).The existence of subcultures is not always. The organisation, therefore, needs to spend a considerable amount of time in studying its employees to determine if they are working in accordance with its culture or gratifying their subcultures(Watson, 2017).

Secondly, there might be conflicting subcultures in the organisation, making it difficult for management to manage them(Eko, 2018).In case of the existence of the conflicting subcultures, the management faces a challenge of uniting them as it would mean that both sides would be working towards their subculture.

Seemingly, it is challenging for the management to set a core vision for the organisation and device mechanisms by which the differing subcultures will operate (Ryan, 2016). It is difficult to identify the parameters under which the differing subcultures should operate to achieve the core vision of the organisation as they are always conflicting and diversifying with time(Ryan, 2016).

Apparently, the dynamicity of subcultures makes it challenging to manage them. The subcultures in the organisation keep changing from time to time. Consequently, managing them becomes difficult as what is being supported today might be rejected tomorrow(Clark, 2010).Thus, it is difficult for the management of the organisation to get aligned to the subcultures.

Conclusively, managing subcultures is challenging as they may exist within the leaders of the organisation (Clark, 2010).

Clark, M. J. (2010). Issues in the Workplace Because of Difference of Culture. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/issues-workplace-because-difference-culture-2952.html

Eko. (2018). How to effectively manage organisational subculture? Retrieved from https://www.ekoapp.com/en/blog/how-to-manage-subcultures/

Emerson, T. (2018). How to Manage Subcultures in Your Organization – Workforce. Retrieved from https://www.workforce.com/2018/06/11/how-to-manage-subcultures-organization/

Geraghty, J., & Bishop, D. (2019). Identifying and managing subcultures. Retrieved from https://www.alchemyassistant.com/topics/xRfqYZvwNBqifWmN.html

Ryan, L. (2016). The Five Most Common Culture Problems — And Their Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/08/13/the-five-most-common-culture-problems-and-their-solutions/#7c6615ae9bed

Watson, J. (2017). When Are Subcultures in Your Organization a Problem? Retrieved from https://talentvanguard.com/2017/10/29/when-are-subcultures-in-your-organization-a-problem/

Post 3 

Four types of organisational cultures exist in different organisations according to Harrison (Naoum 2001); power, task, role and person culture depending on various factors such as the number of employees. Power culture exists mostly in smaller organisations such as Fashion and publishing firms (James 1999). Decisions are quickly made for instance in case of an emergency. Power culture is efficient due to the fact that employees know whom to take instructions from. There is no duplication of roles. Furthermore, the owner of the business is aware of everything happening in the organisation. However, there exist disadvantages such as inadequate consultation which can lead to poor decision making. There exist weak relationships between the managers and the employees. Employees feel less satisfied because they are less involved in key activities (Parker and Bradley 2000).

A person culture entails individuals at the centre of the company implying that there is no structure in the organisation and if it exists it is of minimal help to individuals. It is very efficient where an organisation works with specialists such as architects and consultants (Parker & Bradley 2000). Advantages include workers doing what they are best in as well as it is rare for the organisation to evict an individual. Furthermore, individuals who work in this type of organisation are specialists and therefore need little supervision. Limitations include underdeveloped relationship between employees, alternative employment is easy to obtain since they are specialist which makes exercising power difficult and decision making is a challenge considering the preferences of individuals (Naoum 2001).

On the other hand, task culture is job or project oriented thus mostly used by organisations that use project-based structural designs. Advantages range from building a team spirit, using resources responsibly, quick decision making, creating easy working relationships to mutual respect based on ability rather than age or status. Disadvantages include challenges in controlling the employees because the managers are usually less involved in day to day activities and low morale among employees because the job may not be satisfying especially if the company runs out of resources (Coetzee and Martins 2007).

Lastly, role culture is practised in organisation where each individual is expected to play a specific task so as to come up with the required end product (Coetzee and Martins 2007). Advantages include job stability and security. Furthermore, skilled decision making is possible as well as strong working relationships between employees. Performance in this case is easily rewarded.  (James 1999). However, it has low ability in recognising need for change as well as adaptability therefore not suitable on a flexible economy (Pugh and Hickson 2007).

  • Coetzee, M. and Martins, N., 2007. Organisational Culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: An exploratory study in South African engineering company. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(2), pp.20-32
  • James, D. 1999. Team and Personal Development.Kent: Institute of Financial Services.
  • Naoum, S. 2001.People and Organisational Management in Construction. Reston, VA: Thomas Telford Books.
  • Parker, R. and Bradley, L., 2000. Organisational Culture in the Public Sector: evidence from six organisations. Journal of Public Sector Management, 13(2), pp. 125-141
  • Pugh, D. Hickson,D. 2007. Great Writers on Organisations.Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Post 4

Amazon’s bad reputation emanating from its decision to subject employees to poor working conditions has had little effects on the customers’ perception and growth. This is mostly because apart from the employees complaining of appalling working conditions, they produce quality products. The quality products influence the customers to purchase from the company, thus contributing to its growth (Cate, 2017). Furthermore, Amazon’s management has curtailed any efforts for its employees to form unions. Lack of unions has played a great role in depressing the voice of the employees over the brutalities they are being subjected to(Gunther, 2012). Hence, customers hardly get details on the poor working conditions making it difficult for them to form a negative perception of the company.

Seemingly, the management, led by the CEO – Jeff Bezos, has exerted efforts to market their products by directly speaking to the consumers. This marketing strategy played a vital role in building the tarnished company’s reputation, thus influencing the consumers’ purchase decision leading to rapid growth(Daisey, 2017).

What’s more, the company’s management has played a significant role in eliminating the negative reviews that people have written online. The primary objective of removing the reviews is to make the company’s name clean as customers’ perception is heavily influenced by the reviews (Coffee, 2013).Hence, the perceptions of the employees have remained positive leading to growth.

Despite the management’s effort to prevent the effects of the bad reputation, some customers have been influenced negatively by the poor working conditions employees are being subjected to, more specifically those who have relatives working in the company (Greenwald, 2015). This has led to a reduced number of consumers especially in the UK, hence affecting the growth of the company.

References

Post 5

For question one, I opine that market orientation similar to having innovation culture in the company. Effective market orientation that is customer and competitor focus would only be possible through adoption and development of innovative culture in the company(Christiansen, Yildiz and Yildiz, 2014, p.6).Companies that have demonstrated sustainable competitive advantage in the market tend embrace organization culture of technical, behavioural and management innovation in marketing process as compared to dynamic capability(Kotter, 2012, p.17). For example, incorporation of technological solution in marketing process such as use of Customer relation-management system (CRM) would contribute to increase sustainable customers’ value. CRMs platform provide marketing department with ability to have real-time engagement with customers in issues such product use and suggestion of ways of improvement(Fjermestad and Robertson, 2015, p.133). Customization of products through differentiation would be achievable through innovative culture that encourage product development and market department to produce services that focus meet expectation of different market segments (Varadarajan, 2018, p.11).Therefore , outward focused innovation culture that perceive business current and future customers as important organization stakeholder will lead to collaboration , for example , providing product education to customers as compared revenue motivated marketing strategy.

For question two, I believe organizations with effective market orientation strategy can avoid strategic drift. Such avoidance is possible because of competitor orientation aspect that enable a company to understand marketing conditions and develop high performance products, which meet changes in customer expectation. Additionally, marketing orientation ensure constructive engagement with business customer which helps in enhancement of brand image. This will be effective in attending to customer complaint regarding product and other value added services. Therefore, I believe that organization that have sustainable marketing orientation are well position in avoiding strategic drift and achieve long term growth in profitability and innovation capacity(Hensmans, Johnson and Yip, 2013, p. 18).

  • Fjermestad, J., & Robertson JR, N. C., 2015. Electronic Customer Relationship Management. Hoboken, Taylor and Francis.
  • Kotter, J. P. ,2012. Leading change. Boston, Mass, Harvard Business Review Press.
  • Varadarajan, R., 2018. Innovation and strategy. Bingley, UK : Emerald Publishing Limited,
  • Christiansen, B., Yildiz, S., & Yildiz, E., 2014. Transcultural marketing for incremental and radical innovation.

 

Post 6

Supporting the Strategy

In a bid to enhance support for the business, focusing on self-development centered approaches is one aspect that attention can be turned to build the motivation of the team contributing ideas to the development. It is also importantthat as a leader collaboration among team members is encouraged. By initiating the collaboration, it is expectedthat decision-making will comprise of the employees making informed reactions to strategies to push the company forward. According to McEwan, Ruissen, Eys, Zumbo and Beauchamp (2017, p. 6), inclusion in the development of an organization builds the morale of employees to focus on the outcome. As the leader in the company I also envision setting organization-individual aligned goals to ensure that each person has a role to play in the development of individual creations and organization goals. Apergis and Georgellis, 2017, p. 46), explain that it is inspirational to employees when they are allowed to engage in the formulation of strategies.

Employees Remaining Loyal

Through employeeengagement,and by having meetings,Iexpect to build better relationships to have their plans incorporated into those of the company. As Pieterse, Canielsand Homan (2012, p. 799), explain that for the success of the businessto be sustained, employees need to be consulted and have their contribution incepted into the organization. Aside from that, with the introduction of compensation packages, Ihope to attract the team to focuson building the output of quality products to increase the market share of the business. As Jiang (2010, p. 225) notes, motivation and inspiring employees through rewards reduces turnovers as the workforce gets contented with the reward plans. Waite, Evans, and Kersh (2012, p. 152), add that businesses have to encourage their members to work hard and achieve their goals as the company is doing the same.

  • McEwan, D., Ruissen, G.R., Eys, M.A., Zumbo, B.D., & Beauchamp, M.R. 2017. The effectiveness of teamwork training on teamwork behaviors and team performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled interventions. PLoS ONE.12(1). 1-23. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169604 [Accessed on 19 February 2019]
  • Pieterse, J.H., Caniels, M.C.J., & Homan, T. 2012. Professional discourses and resistance to change. Journal of Organizational Change Management.Vol. 25, Iss: 6. 798-818.
  • Waite, E., Evans, K., & Kersh, N. 2012. Employee-Driven Innovation Amongst ‘Routine’ Employees in the UK: The Role of Organizational ‘Strategies’ and Individual ‘Tactics’. Employee-Driven Innovation, 149-164. doi:10.1057/9781137014764_8 [Accessed on 19 February 2019]

 

Post 7

The management style of an organization has a significant impact on strategy formulation and implementation. Apart from the authoritarian, democratic and laissez faire styles of management described in the post, there are other management styles that influence management decisions and strategy implementation.

One of the other management styles is transformational style which entails working towards change through the influence of followers. According to Barry (1991), transformational leaders work hard to transform the needs of employees and help them to redirect their energies and ways of thinking towards a common vision for the organization. They create a vision of what the organization and its management should achieve, and share that vision with others (Martindale, 2011). This style can help managers formulate and implement strategies by focusing on common needs and interests of employees. Transformational leaders communicate their vision and strategies with followers so that they can work together to implement such strategies effectively.

Another management style that help leaders to implement strategies is the transactional management style which focuses on organisation, structure, supervision, and performance in the workplace (Forsyth, 2010). Managers who practice the transactional style of management encourage compliance from followers through punishments and rewards (Bono and Judge, 2010). Thus, managers use strict supervisions and rewards to make employees motivated, leading to effective implementation of the managers’ vision.

 

The paternalistic style of management hinders the implementation of strategies in the organization. This management style requires the leader to show complete concern for his or her workers, and the workers are expected to reciprocate through complete loyalty and trust (Foster, 2002). Thus, employees lack independence and freedom to implement their own ideas. This style prevents strategy implementation by limiting the employees’ opportunity to contribute their ideas into the strategy formulation and implementation process.

 

 

References

  • Barry, D. (1991). Managing the bossless team: Lessons in distributed leadership. Organizational Dynamics, 20 (1), 31–47.
  • Bono, J. E. & Judge, T.A. (2010). Personality and Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology,89, 901-910.
  • Forsyth, D. (2010). Group dynamics(5th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
  • Foster, D.E. (2002). A Method of Comparing Follower Satisfaction with the Authoritarian, Democratic, and Laissez-faire Styles of Leadership. Communication Teacher, 16 (2), 4-6.
  • Martindale, N. (2011). Leadership Styles: How to handle the different personas. Strategic Communication Management, 15 (8), 32–35

 

Post 8

It is indeed true Sports Direct has continued to face intense backlash as to how it conduct its overall operations and treatment of existing staffing personnel.  A  significant portion of media reports have directly termed the organisation as lacking clear objectives focused on ensuring positive employee welfare.  As a result of management’s seemingly; ‘don’t care attitude’ towards its juniour personnel, most of the employees continue to work with imminent fear of what could befall them is certainly unknown.  Certainly so, considering the fact that most of these employees are still willing to work under this inefficient working conditions, only means that they do not have an alternative (Velasquez & Velazquez, 2002). It is upon this understanding that the management has focused on overlooking their respect and dignity but ensure maximisation of wealth for owners. With these poor working conditions, it basically means that the workers cannot freely forward their grievances to senior personnel.

It is of great interest to understand that this does not present an efficient way of conducting a business despite of whether it continues to post significant profits.  A good deal of research indicates that demoralised employees are a product of poor work ethics. Taking into consideration the fact that employees play a significant role in ensuring a company’s success; demoralised staff is a liability to the business since they lack they urge to provide quality customer service (Silva & Barreto, 2012).  On the other hand, poor customer service only means that there would be a direct effect on the levels of revenues posted each period, which has a direct negative impact on the overall growth of shareholder’s wealth. To curb this growing menace, Sports Direct should at least come up with an updated Code of Conduct that clearly defines the rights and culture of its workplace.

References List

  • Silva, L.S. & Barreto, S.M., 2012. Stressful working conditions and poor self-rated health among financial services employees. Revista de Saúde Pública, 46, pp.407-416.
  • Velasquez, M.G. and Velazquez, M., 2002. Business ethics: Concepts and cases(Vol. 111). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

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