In this essay about managing culture in the post-bureaucratic era, I am going to argue how the practices of managing culture have changed in this era and how they differentiate oneself from the bureaucratic era. Furthermore I describe the cultural influences especially in organizations and how the importance of those influences changed over the time. In the first section I am going to explain the content of managing organization culture to get a first insight in the topic and to express the knowledge about the influences of the culture in an organization. In the next chapter I separate between two perspectives of the cultural organizations and explain which of the both are relevant for the assignment question. The next step of my …show more content…
It can be described as a part of an organization or as the organization itself. The first perspective describes the culture as leading the organization to the most positive effectiveness through a good management. On the other hand the second point of view describes the culture as the social interactions of people in an organization (Meek 1988, cited in Knight & Willmott 2007).
After demonstrating the explanation of culture it is important to explain how the practices of the mainstream and the critical perspective of the organizational culture have changed from the bureaucratic era to the post-bureaucratic era.
The bureaucratic era has been the traditional form of organization for more than a century, in simple terms described as hybridity, standardized operations and none flexibility inside the organization. The change to the post-bureaucratic is shown through personal influence, high trust relationships and the importance of the individuality of everyone (McKenna, Garcia-Lorenzo & Bridgeman, 2010). According to Kernaghan (2000) the characteristic of the bureaucratic era is “position power” and of the post bureaucratic “participate leadership”.
With this statement it can be said, that the practices of managing cultures also have changed in this era and that the importance of cultural influences on the organizations are higher than before.
Important to
The term "culture" has been used more and more recently but what exactly does it mean? Some have even regarded culture as "the most central problem of all social science" (Malinowski, 1939). According to Merriam Webster (2016), culture is defined as the arts and other manifestations of human achievements. If culture was as simple as Merriam-Webster defines it then the lives of anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists would be much easier. As we know, culture varies greatly across religion, countries, and some cases in just states; the difference between the north and the south. We can conclude that culture is a set of shared thoughts, values, and cognitions (Geertz, 1973). With culture in itself varying tremendously based on values and location, then surely organizational culture is no simple concept either. The term "organizational culture" has just recently become to be used more (Barley, 1988). Though there may be disagreements on defining culture universally, researchers tend to agree that culture is of vital importance in an organizational context, whether that organization is a company or a government (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa, 1986).
All Organisations posses a distinct form of culture with some having more than a single culture. This culture is usually very difficult to measure, change and most especially change.
I will outline why a strong culture is required for organisations in a post-bureaucratic era. Culture “represents the totality of everyday knowledge that people use habitually to make sense of the world around them through patterns of shared meanings and understandings passed down through language, symbols, and artefacts” (Clegg 3rd Edition, 2011). It is the ‘glue’ that binds the workforce of an organisation in a post-bureaucratic organisation, which is heterarchical, meaning information flows across divisions and is more equally given to people and different managements. I will also
The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,
“Organizational culture consists of a set of shared meanings and values held by a set of members in an organization that distinguish the organization from other organizations” (Baack, 2012). These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Culture plays a huge role in the guiding of the behaviors of employees of an organization. There are three stages of culture that interact with one another to influence the behaviors in the organization. These stages are: observable artifacts, espoused values, and enacted values.
Change in culture and approach: culture should be supportive for team work and participative management practices. There should be ethnocentric perspective involved for considering the needs of customers. Dynamic and flexible culture should be formulated and employees should have collectivist approach than individual approach that is aligned towards achieving organizational goals. Attitude survey of
Within organizations, large and small, there exists a sense of identity among its members that separates it from other organizations. This sense of identity is known as organizational culture. All over, managers seek to influence and change this into something that can be beneficial for the organization. In his article, “The Six Levers for Managing Organizational Culture”, Professor David W. Young defines the different elements that can influence and change the culture within the organization and how the reader can use these “levers” to their advantage. While the author does present a decent explanation for changing the culture of an organization, he leaves many questions unanswered that leaves his argument incomplete.
Culture within an organisation is a system of shared values, beliefs and norms of individuals in the organisation and how the value consensus creates a way in which people behave. The shared values have a strong influence on the individuals in the organisation and dictates how a person acts, dresses and performs in their job. A unique culture is developed and maintained by an organisation which provides guidelines and boundaries, through informal means, for the behaviour of the people within the organisation.
In this essay, I am going to argue that management can use culture as a powerful and effective tool in order to limit or minimise resistance within the organization 's environment. I am going to suggest that the culture provided to employees by managers can significantly impact upon their performance within the organization and therefore reducing the probability of conflicts and subjugation in this post-bureaucratic era. In section one I will demonstrate the difficulties in the transition from a bureaucracy era, which involved hierarchies, rules and division of labour, to post-bureaucracy; which is based on trust, empowerment and personal treatment, by drawing on Josserand, Teo and Clegg 's (2006) writings. In section two I will use Rosen
Peter Anthony (1994) asserts that the pursuit of change in a cultural sense has been considered synonymous with the pursuit of excellence for organisations. It is true that a wide variety of management practitioners view the control of organisational culture as something both possible and necessary for organisational success (Brown 1993). A survey of organisational practices of a range of firms revealed that 94% of the firms had engaged in ‘culture management’ of some sort (IRS 1997). However, despite the apparent popularity of these practices and the strong level of importance placed upon these activities, it can
develop to take advantage of new opportunities. To do this effectively means more than knowing
In the patch one, there is actually emphasis regarding understanding the actual culture ideals in every organization. The investigation papers highlights a few of the key points identified within their research because they have outlined culture approach change from organization in order to organization. Ramachandran, Macintosh & Doherty have centered on Organization Culture like a local trend whereas, it 's generally regarded as Global trend. The two research documents have strengthened their idea with the papers.
In this essay first we need to understand the term culture of an organisation. It is a collaboration of expression of feelings and reactions on different situations. As we know every country has different culture. Therefore, if an Australian born manager working in his home country is going to work in Britain then it can be biggest challenge in his professional career. Because both the countries have differences in their culture (Briody, trotter 2012 ).
From my paradigm questionnaire, it highlights that the researcher is a radical humanist. The report will be conducted through the lenses of a radical humanist while analyzing the organization. The topic when analyzing the organization will be about the culture of the firm. The idea and theories of culture yet it is difficult to define it abstractly (Edgar H. Schein, 2010). Consequently, in the literature review there will be several definitions regarding culture to help understand what it really meant by organizational culture and the importance of culture to any organization. There will be two culture models that will be conducted throughout the report, ‘Iron Cage’ to show the bureaucracy control within the organization and Charles Handy four types of culture for some recommendations to improve the organizations culture and to identify from the paradigm perspective the type of culture adapted to. The analysis of the firm will be shown from a radical humanist perspective as mentioned above, ending with a conclusion for the International School of English (ISE) at the end of this report.
The classic Phrase by Mckinsey organisation, “the culture is how we do things around here” is taken as reference by many great people. It’s true that culture exist in an organisation which influences the work being done and also affects the success or failure of the project.