Dimensions of Organisational Cultures
1. Specific vs Diffuse
(How Far People Get Involved)
Specific
People who keep their lives and
work separate from each other.
They believe that relationships in
their workplace dont have any sort
of impact on achieving a positive
outcome among workers. They
usually prefer to not bump into
their co-workers outside of work.
Some people in our class prefer to
be confidential when it comes to
their lives outside of class as they
feel that it is unnecessary to leave
themselves vulnerable when
people know them too much. To
them, revealing a lot about
themselves does not lead to
success in obtaining the goal.
Diffuse
People who keep their personal
lives and work are together. They
believe that having a good
relationship in their workplace are
key to achieve a common
objective. Their relationships with
their fellow co-workers would be
the same either at work or at a
social meeting.
While others in our class are much
more open towards sharing a lot
about themselves to create a
relationship between co-workers or
fellow students which in turn would
have everyone get together as a
family towards completing the goal
in their belief.
2. Achievement vs Ascription
(How People View Status)

Achievement
People who believe that what you
do defines for who you are and
they judge on your worth. This
kind of culture values performance
rather than title no matter who you
are and what your background is.
Most of the people in our class are
in this category which believes that
anyone who had shown a great
performance are worth a lot. Those
who perform well are usually
outspoken and are highly
knowledgeable to be able to obtain
much respect.
Ascription
People who believe that you are
valued based on who you are.
Power, position and title plays a
heavy influence in these type of
cultures which the role defines the
behaviour of an individual and
their performance.
Meanwhile some people might still
prefer a title or position to play a
role in determining how great a
person is assuming the role that
they achieved shows their
performance in doing tasks and
objectives. For example, they
prefer to ask a lecturer rather than
students as they have a higher
position.

Does the culture constraint your instructor? How?

I strongly believe that the various cultures in our class will have no
effect on however way my instructor would teach. This is because
every instructor must have gone through extensive training before
they start having actual classes in order to obtain enough
experience in handling students with different personalities and
behaviour.

Does it constraint you as a student? How?

Although sometimes it would be an obstacle when some students

are less willing to cooperate regarding to group assignments,
especially when they feel like they are better off doing alone or not
doing it at all which varies from person to person, I dont think that
these cultures would have much effect to me as a student. The
reason is that we as students, would constantly be exposed to these
sort of cultures that it would be considered a norm for us to the
point where we are able to adapt to our surroundings based on our
personal experiences. These experiences are much needed for us
especially when we one day graduate to become a working class
citizen as the working environment would constantly change
compared to our study life.