Organizational culture
“Organization culture comprises the deep, basic assumptions and beliefs, as well as the shared values that define organization membership, as well as the member’s habitual ways of making decisions, and presenting themselves, and their organization to those who come in contact with it.”
Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2008
The dictionary definition of a culture is “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular group of people or a society”. An organisation is made up of individuals and the culture of an organization defines how things are done in an organisation and what behaviour and actions are considered as acceptable or not acceptable. Hofstede defines culture as the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes members of one group or category of people from another(1). Organisational culture is not that different from social culture where the code of conduct for society is laid down based on a deep founded value system and people who relate to such culture fit into that part of the society. Culture therefore gives an organisation a sense of identity - 'who we are ', 'what we stand for ', 'what we do '. Handy classifies an organisations culture into 4 i.e. the power culture where a central figure defines the culture of the organisation, Role culture which is based on bureaucracy, task culture which lays emphasis on culture being derived from job orientation and finally the person culture which states that it is the individual who is the central focus of organisational culture (2).
Organisational culture recognises an organisation as a social system and thus where an organisation does not have a formal culture it cannot be interpreted that there is no organisational culture at all(3). Culture is seen as largest controlling system as not only does it affect the overall organisational behaviour, but also the covert behaviour (4). The fact is that the organisational culture actually has a visible side and an invisible side. The surface
Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2008
The dictionary definition of a culture is “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular group of people or a society”. An organisation is made up of individuals and the culture of an organization defines how things are done in an organisation and what behaviour and actions are considered as acceptable or not acceptable. Hofstede defines culture as the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes members of one group or category of people from another(1). Organisational culture is not that different from social culture where the code of conduct for society is laid down based on a deep founded value system and people who relate to such culture fit into that part of the society. Culture therefore gives an organisation a sense of identity - 'who we are ', 'what we stand for ', 'what we do '. Handy classifies an organisations culture into 4 i.e. the power culture where a central figure defines the culture of the organisation, Role culture which is based on bureaucracy, task culture which lays emphasis on culture being derived from job orientation and finally the person culture which states that it is the individual who is the central focus of organisational culture (2).
Organisational culture recognises an organisation as a social system and thus where an organisation does not have a formal culture it cannot be interpreted that there is no organisational culture at all(3). Culture is seen as largest controlling system as not only does it affect the overall organisational behaviour, but also the covert behaviour (4). The fact is that the organisational culture actually has a visible side and an invisible side. The surface
References: 2. Handy, C. B. Understanding Organizations, fourth edition,Penguin (1993). 5. Schein, E. H. Organizational Culture and Leadership:A Dynamic View, third edition, Jossey-Bass (2004) 6. Johnson, G., Scholes, K 7. Chatman, J. A. and Cha, S. E. ‘Culture of Growth’, Mastering Leadership, Financial Times, 22 November, 2002, pp. 2–3. 8. Harrison, R. and Stokes, H. Diagnosing Organizational Culture, Pfeiffer & Company (1992), p. 1. 10. Schneider, S. C. and Barsoux, J. Managing Across Cultures,second edition, Financial Times Prentice Hall (2003).