1. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
OLC EUROPE
HND BUSINESS
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

2. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Introduction
Organisational culture has been given a lot of attention in recent years.
Culture consists of the shared values of an organisation - the beliefs and norms that affect every aspect of work life, from how people greet each other to how major policy decisions are made.
It refers to the style, and sets of shared beliefs, habits, patterns of behaviour and traditions developed by people within an organisation
The strength of a culture determines how difficult or easy it is to know how to behave in the organisation.

3. Definitions of Culture
The Collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation
It is made up of the enterprise value system, its perceptions of necessity and sum total expected staff attitudes, priorities and behaviour.
The pattern of all those arrangements, material or behavioural, which have been adopted by society (corporation, group, team) as the traditional ways of solving problems of its members.

4. Handy - Gods of Management
Handy suggests that we can classify organisations into a broad range of four cultures.
The formation of `culture' will depend upon a whole host of factors including company history, ownership, organisation structure, technology, critical business incidents and environment, etc.
The four cultures he discusses are Power', `Role', `Task' and 'People'.
Usually the predominant culture reflects the real needs and constraints of the organisation. Handy uses diagrammatic representation to illustrate his ideas:

5. POWER CULTURE
The Person Culture
(The Web)

6. POWER CULTURE Best represented as a web
Often found in small businesses (with some exceptions though)
Effectiveness hinges on trust and empathy
Communication by personal conversation and telepathy
Few rules and procedures

7. POWER CULTURE – Pros and Cons
Advantages
Often very strong and permeate the whole organisation
able to move quickly
can react well to threat or danger
Disadvantages
Can break down if too many activities are linked
can suffer from low morale & high turnover in the middle layers

8. ROLE CULTURE
The Role Culture
(Greek Temple)

9. ROLE CULTURE Structure is represented by a Greek Temple
Strength lies in functions or specialities, not individuals
Interaction is controlled by procedures
Normally coordinated by a narrow band of senior managers
Effectiveness depends on rationality of work allocation
Woks by logic and rationality

10. ROLE CULTURE – Pros and Cons
Advantages
Succeed in stable environments
Provide secure employment
roles and responsibilities are clearly defined
a clear system for processing work exists
Disadvantages
Unsuitable to changing environments
can be boring
does not often have room for personal growth
slow to adapt to things like new technology

11. TASK CULTURE
The Task Culture
(Lattice or Net)

12. TASK CULTURE Best represented as a net Job or Project oriented
Brings together. Resources and people at appropriate levels and allows them to get on with it.
Influence is based more on expert power than on position or personal power
Utilises unifying power of the group

13. TASK CULTURE – Pros and Cons
Advantages of task cultures
extremely adaptable
teams can be easily reformed, abandoned or continued
can work quickly - as each group often has all the decision-making power it requires
Individuals have a large degree of control over their work
Disadvantages
finds producing economies of scale difficult
often cannot produce depth of expertise
control in such organisations is difficult

14. PERSON CULTURE
Person Culture
(Cluster)

15. PERSON CULTURE Best represented as a cluster t galaxy of stars
Unusual, not found in many organisations
People like Consultants belong to this way of thinking but often operate in other cultures

16. PERSON CULTURE – Pros and Cons
Advantages
individuals have a great deal of power
decisions are by mutual consent
the role one plays depends on one's expertise
Disadvantages
Control mechanisms are impossible to implement except by mutual consent
organisations are often powerless to evict such individuals
individuals with this orientation are not easy to manage

17. CULTURE AND ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN
Most organisations start as power cultures
Growth leads to specialisation and formalisation of activities (Role)
A need for greater flexibility, often results in cultural diversity which if resisted can do a lot of damage to an organisation

18. Factors that Influence Culture
History and Ownership
Goals and Objectives
Size
The environment
Technology
The people

19. History and Ownership
Centralised ownership leads towards a power culture with more control of resources
Family firms and owner-dominated organisations tend to be power conscious
Often new organisations are a combination of power and task in the bid to be flexible and adaptable
Rapidly changing technologies suit a power or task culture

20. Goals and Objectives
Goals emphasise product quality and are often suited to a role culture
Organisations seeking growth are suited to a power or task culture

21. The Environment
A rapidly changing environment calls for a task culture
Diversity inclines towards a task culture
Standardisation inclines towards a role culture.
Environmental hostility is best encountered by power cultures

22. SIZE Often the single most important variable
Large organisations tend to be more formalised and tend to be role cultures
Exceptions exist where the decentralisation may make it impossible for a different culture to exist

23. Technology Routine, programmable operations suit role cultures
High cost, expensive technologies are suited to a role culture.
Non-continuous discrete operations often suit power or task culture

24. PEOPLE
The individual working with the organization to a large extent influence the culture of the workplace.
The attitudes, mentalities, interests, perception and even the thought process of the employees affect the organization culture.
It is the mindset of the employees which forms the culture of the place.
Example - Organizations which hire individuals from military background tend to follow a strict culture where all the employees abide by the set guidelines and policies. The employees are hardly late to work.
Organizations with majority of youngsters encourage healthy competition at the workplace and employees are always on the toes to perform better than the fellow workers.