Managing organisational culture Flashcards
How may a culture of a business be demonstrated?
The stories
Rituals
The rewards system
The physical environment
Examples of types of culture
The focus on profit
The focus on safety
Task vs people
What are the four classifications of organisational culture according to Handy?
Power culture
Role culture
Task culture
Person culture
What is power culture according to Handy?
Occurs when there are a few key people at the centre of the organisation, making all the major decisions.
Common in small businesses, especially when founder is still heavily involved and wants close control.
What are the pros and cons of power culture?
Pros:
- Those at centre have overview of everything, quick decision making and consistent approach
Cons:
- As business expands, greater pressure on key managers can lead to slow decision making and stress
What is role culture according to Handy?
Individuals have clear role within the organisation, knowing who to report to and who they are responsible for.
Commonly adopted as a business moves from being a power culture and starts to formalise processes and procedures.
Creates structure and certainty within the business
What is task culture according to Handy?
Individuals identify with the task that they are working on.
Importance of an individual depends on their ability to contribute on a particular project
Culture is common in a business where there are many projects, e.g. advertising agencies
What is person culture according to Handy?
Individuals have their own space, given their own parts of the business to make decisions on and control.
Hospitals and surgeons
Universities and lecturers
Respects the individual’s expertise, high level of trust
What are Hofstede’s 5 national cultures?
- Individualism vs collectivism
- Power distance
- Short-termism vs long-termism
- Masculinity vs femininity
- Uncertainty avoidance
What are the influences on organisational culture?
The history of the business
The present leadership
Society in general
Experience and the performance of the business
Ownership
What are the reasons for changing organisational culture?
If there is a new leader
Society’s values change
Performance of the business suffers
New owners who might have different objectives than old
What are the problems of changing organisational culture?
- Changing culture will change existing assumptions of employees of how things should be done and what matters
- Trying to change people’s beliefs
- Involve extensive training and education
