Blog 3 - Organisational culture

Organisational culture is defined as the body of learned behaviour, collection of beliefs, habits and traditions that are shared by a group of people and learned by them. When people work within an organisation they develop their own culture, just like the way that their national identity is developed in societies. Culture often refers to a group of people that follow the same behaviour and beliefs; this gives a sense of identity. Companies who have a stronger culture tend to do better than ones that don’t.

There are certain visible aspects of organisational culture which relate to the social and physical environment. When looking at organisational culture there are two main theories that best relate, these are French and Bell(1990) and Schein(1992). (Mullins 2010) French and Bell’s organisational iceberg said that there are two contrasting aspects to organisations; the first is visible and formal, whereas the second is hidden and refers more to what goes on despite the formal structure.

While Schein suggests that the most visible level of culture was artefacts and creations. This includes language, technology and the behaviour of group members. There are three layers to this theory, the outer layer which are the visible aspects of culture, the middle layer which are deeper aspects of culture and the third layer which is the basic beliefs on which the organisation was built.

From my own experience in the work place I have some examples of some visual aspects of culture within an organisation. Looking at Wembley stadium and the way in which they use visual aspects, they will act very differently around other staff members than when a customer is around. The most important aspects is to always be able to help the customer’s needs and wants, also to never be unprofessional around them. There is a certain way in which everyone will act to be at their most professional at all times, this is very different when there are only staff around. Aside from this there are certain unwritten rules such as opening the door to people and welcoming them into the stadium, this makes the customer feel welcome and they are more likely to enjoy their time within the stadium. As well as having a business attitude within the work place, every staff member is required to dress in the appropriate uniform so they can easily be identified by the public.

Organisational culture can be classified in many different ways. Handy came up with four different types of organisational culture, these are; power culture, person culture, role culture and task culture.

Power culture consists of powerful figures at the centre and few rules and procedures. Decisions are often made quickly as communication is made in person. Mullins (2010) says that a power culture is often found in small businesses as it relies deeply on trust, empathy and personal communication.

Person culture consists of the individuals of an organisation and how they are the main focus. Therefore meaning that there isn’t a hierarchy as the company only exists to serve the interests of those within it. An example of this type of organisation would be a doctor.

Role culture is often decided with rules and regulations. The job title is seen as more important than the individual and therefore power is on the level in the company hierarchy. People in a role culture will work to a job description, these are seen in the public sector as governments.

Task culture is a project based organisation that involves a lot of team work. This type of culture utilises the right resources and people to create a unique business. It is based more on expert power rather than personal power as it is the task that is essential rather than the individual or company rules. There is a lot more flexibility and freedom within this type of culture.

All organisations will take on their own form of culture and adapt it to suit their needs, but most are likely to have a mix of different cultures within different parts of the organisation. Meaning it is hard to classify most organisations with just one type of culture.

In conclusion organisational culture is the beliefs, behaviour and traditions of a group of people within an organisation. There are not many other theories that look into organisational culture other than the two main ones used here. Both are based on a similar concepts but each split them differently into sections. Not all companies will have the same visual aspects as Wembley but they are commonly used in all businesses. All organisations have unique aspects and have a different culture, also it is very hard to put it under one heading and more often than not different parts of an organisation are made up of different cultures.

References

Mullins, L. (2010) Management and organisational behaviour.9^th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Google images (2011) Organisation iceberg [online]. Available from: www.google.co.uk/images [accessed 22 February 2011]