ORGANIZATION CULTURE

Morgan (1986) from a Sociologist\s perspective, describes it as

1. Essential collection of shared values which provide both exploit and implicit sign posts to
preferred behavior in the organ.

2. “Shared meaning shared understanding and shared sense- making…..”

The dominant culture that develops in an organization is primarily the product of the aims and
methods of its founders, or their successors in senior management combined with their
interactions with a variety of internal and external forces.
3. Share values, beliefs and norms within an organization.
Key Inter-relationships between culture and other aspects of an organization

 Purpose and goals.

 External environment (customers/compet).

 Rules and procedures.

 Use of technology.

 Decision – making mechanisms.

 Employee skills and attitudes.

 Organization policies.

 Organizations structure (jobs and roles).

 Communication channels.

 The purpose and goals of the organization initially trigger the kind of culture that the
founders of their successors want to see (their vision).

 The extent to which they achieve this culture depends as much on the other factors as on
their own leadership and charisma.

 The external environment will play a significant role, since customers, competitors,
suppliers and other external stakeholders will all exert some influence on what the
organizations chosen to do, and how it will do it.
  Internally, the abilities and altitudes of employees, especially managers, will be critical.

 The nature of the technology available and the way it is implemented in the organization
will also play a part in the development of culture.

 The organizational structure, mechanisms and procedures that are a major part of the
organization’s
fabric.

Societal Influences on Organizational Culture

Most influential work on societal culture is by Hofstede (1980, 97). According to him, there are

five key dimensions on which societal culture differs, such as:

1. Individualism vs. collectivism-concerned with the extent to which an individual interests

and goals are emphasized vs. a focus on a large group or collective.

2. Power distance-deals with the extent to which members of the culture accept and expect

that there are differences in the way that power is distributed unequally among members.

3. Masculinity vs. femininity-represent the extent to which members of the culture have

value traits and practices that are stereotypically “masculine” such as assertiveness and

competiveness or stereotypically “feminine” traits such as caring for others and being

modest in presentation of accomplishment.

4. Uncertainty avoidance-concerns the extent to which members of the culture tolerates

uncertainty and ambiguity.

5. Long-term vs. short-term orientation-concerns whether members of the culture emphasize

long term orientations such as purveyance and working hard today for future payoffs or

short term fulfillment of immediate needs.

 Organizational culture is defined (or discerned i.e seen, observed) from patterns of:

1. Artifacts-they are visible manifestations of culture. They include; observable behaviors

of members as well as structures, systems, procedure rules and physical aspects of the

organization.

2. Beliefs-they are generally shared assumptions they include; ideas, knowledge and

superstitions for example, we belief we are superior to our competitors in technological

leadership.

3. Norms-cultural norms regulate behavior. They are rules or standards accepted by an

organization. They specify the reward for appropriate behavior and punishment for

inappropriate behavior.

4. Values-they are special class of beliefs held by members of an organization that pertain

to what is “desirable” or “good”. They are both positive and negative. For example, a

company may value customer relations or shareholder wealth maximization.

Impact of Organizational culture

Culture is crucial for developing the dedication to perform well those characteristics of

successful organizations. Culture has some relationship with performance in the organization.

The impacts include:

1. High record of performance especially organizations with strong cultures are likely to be

associated with good performance because

a. Strong culture provides for a better fit between strategy and culture. The fit is

considered essential for successfully implementing corporate strategy.

 b. Strong culture leads to increased commitment by employees.

2. High degree of participative management and an emphasis on teamwork. Managers share

decision-making, goal-setting and problem-solving activities with employees.

3. High commitment work culture-high levels of employee involvement. This includes

delegation, teamwork across boundaries, empowerment, integration of people and

technology and a shared sense of purpose.

In Conclusion

These performance-related effects of organizational culture can be summed up with four key

ideas:

1. Knowing the culture of an organization allows employees to understand the firm’s history

and current approach. This knowledge provides guidance about expected behaviors in the

future.

2. Organizational culture can serve to establish commitment to corporate philosophy and

values. It provides members with shared feelings of working towards common goals.

3. Organizational culture through its norms, serve as a control mechanism to channel

employee behaviors towards desired and away from undesired behaviors.

4. Certain kinds of organizational cultures may be related to greater effectiveness and

productivity than others.

4 Types of culture in organizations

Types Metaphor Characteristics

Power culture A web Control/power emanates from the centre, very political
 and entrepreneurial resource power & personal power
predominates.
This power serves the figurehead and the leader. A leader
– no real power or influence.
Role culture The Greek Classical structure, bureaucratic nature, roles more
temple important than the people who fill them, position power
predominate and expert power serves the cause of
structure.
Task culture A net The focus is on completing the job, individuals expertise
and contribution are highly valued; except power
predominant but both personal and position power are
important; the group is manifested in high levels of
collaboration.
Personal culture A cluster or A loose collection of individuals usually professionals
galaxy sharing common facilities but pursuing own goals
separately; power is not really an issue, since members are
experts in their own right. This type of culture serves the
individual.

Recognizing a Culture

Sources/Means Examples
Organization mission To be the best and most successful company in the airline
statement industry (Britain airways).
Corporate aims To provide overall superior services and good value for money
in every market segment in which we complete (B. airways)

Simplicity, frugality and avoidance of waste will be elements in

Policy statements
Organizational rituals
Organization logos
our corporate lifestyle (Oxfam).
“We do not discriminate against anyone on any grounds. The
sole criterion for selection for promotion is the suitability of any
applicant for the job. (Marks & senses)
Formal address to staff by managing Director or other senior
manager
Induction programmes for new comers. Retirement
parties/leaving speeches. Reward ceremonies for key sales
staff.
Company logos e.g BMW/ICI/Virgin)

Other logos – Red cross Brand names – Mars, Coke Ms-Dos).

Procedures/Rules Standard operating procedures/software for production line or
clerical routines.

Rules about dress, hairstyles, jewellery etc. Safety procedures.

Management attitudes How far do the senior management achieve consistency of
values throughout the organization? How far do middle

Peer group attitudes
Training staff attitudes
Organization structure
management reinforce or perhaps contradict, official
organization policy/practice.
How far does the employees own work-team confirm to, or
work against the official company procedures.
How far do training staff attitudes reflect official co. policies,
styles and procedures in their induction and other training
courses/activities.
What messages are gen out by the way work is organized and
responsibility shared.

How well, and in what ways, does the structure facilities, or

hinder day-to-day communications between employees?
Technology What is the status of technology in the organization?

How are people expected to deal with it? Who are the
organizations technocrats?

POWER IN ORGANIZATIONS
Definitions
1. Max Weber - as the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position
to carry out his own will despite resistance.

2. Robbins - As the capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B, so that B does
something he/she would not otherwise do.
Power thus refers to a relationship between two people in which one person has the ability to
cause the other to do something which he would otherwise not do.

Categories/Bases of Power

1. Coercive Power

 Power based primarily on fear

 Crudest form of power which uses threats and punishments to achieve its ends

 Individuals exercise coercive power through reliance on their physical strength, verbal
facility or the ability to withhold emotional support from others.

Examples
 a) The threat of sanctions against suppliers, if they do not confirm to a particular policy.

b) The threat of dismissals for non-cooperating staff.

c) Physical demonstration such as mass walk – outs by employees.

2. Reward Power

 This exists when person A has power over person B because A has rewards in his custody
which B wants and values.

 The rewards that A control include a wide variety of possibilities such as pay rises,
promotion, valued job assignments, ‘increased responsibilities, feedback, new equipment and
recognition.

 Put differently, reward power uses rewards to influence people’s compliance to be effective
the rewards must be desired by the target group.

 An example would be where a firm offered financial inducements to a group under pressure
in order to maintain their commitment to the task, but failed in this because the group valued
time off more highly than extra monetary reward.

3. Legitimate Power

 This is what is generally known as authority i.e power conferred on an individual i.e power
conferred on an individual by the organization.

 It is the legal power that a person possesses by virtue of his/her position in an organization.

 The person over whom this proves is wielded knows that the wielder of this power has the
legitimate right to do so in a certain domain.

 It implies the power to act as well as power over resources, and is invariably limited in some
way.

 This is what Marx Weber referred to as rational – legal authority – where authority is derived
from the formal office, or position, of the job- holder, as bounded by the rules and procedures
of the organization.
 This type of authority predominates in the structural form which Weber termed bureaucracy
(particular form of organization structure based on the acceptance of authority arising from
the office of the job holder as bonded by a set of rules and procedures.

 Legitimate power can be derived from 3 sources:

a) Cultural - the prevailing cultural values on age, sex, education will provide people with
legitimate power.

b) Accepted social structure as in the inking class, organization hierarchy or a respected

family.

c) People who are either elected/represent powerful personalities/groups, e.g. Univ.

councils.

4. Expert Power

 This is the power that comes from possessing specialized knowledge and skills.

 It is thus possessed by a person when people seen him/her as having knowledge or

expertise which is greatly valued by them.

 Handy (1993) describes this as: “…… for many, the lest obnoxious tradition people do
not resent being influenced by those whom they regard as the experts.”

 Expert Power is dependent on the expertise being recognized by those concerned thus
“credibility’ is vital otherwise no one will take any notice.

5. Referent Power

 This is what is generally known as personal power, charisma.

 The individual’s power comes from the high regard he/she is held in by others.
  Should that regard falter, or ware them this form of power vanishes. Thus referent Power
is often employed in conjunction with other power sources e.g. marketing managers take
advantage of this Power when they ask celebrities to do advertising for their products.

 In an organizational setting managers possess referent power if they are personally

attractive to subordinates

 Ref. Power requires articulate, dominating, physical imposing or charismatic qualities.

LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS
Definition

Leadership is essentially a process in which one individual or sometimes a small group

individuals, influences the efforts of others towards the achievement of goals in a given set of
circumstances.

Key variables in any leadership situation

The leader the group members

The Leadership
situation

The external environment the groups goals/tasks

The leadership Styles

1. The Democratic style

 Aka participative or consultative leadership decentralizes power and authority.

 Decisions are made thro’ consultations.

2. Autocratic Style

 Also known as authoritative, centralizes power, authority and decision making.

3. Lasses faire case

 The leader tends to avoid power and authority.

 The leader depends largely on the group to establish goals and means for achieving
progress and success.

4. Nomothetic Leadership Style

The leader emphasizes the objectives of the organization and the role of the workers position.

It applies the scientific approach to management.

The workers are strictly controlled through the application of rules and regulations stipulated by
the organization structure.

It is task centered approach to leadership

5. The Ideographic life style.

Is worker- centered.

-Applies the human relations approach to management.

Emphasizes the human dimension of the organization and is sensitive to the workers individual
needs.

6. Transactional life style

-A by-product of the merging of the homothetic and ideographical life styles.

Varies emphasis on each of the 2 styles and when the situation demands.

Theories of Leadership

1. The Trait theories of leadership believed that leaders are born not made.

Gave rise to the great man theory.

Later researchers began to accept that leadership traits are not completely in between, but can
also be acquired through learning and experience.

In 1948, Ralph Stogdil reviewed 124 empirical studies on leader attributes covering 27 recurring
characteristics.

His conclusion on leader’s characteristics.

i) Capacity : Intelligence, alertness, verbal facility originality, judgment.

 ii) Achievement: Scholarship, knowledge, athletics accomplishments.

iii) Responsibility: Dependability, initiative, persistence, aggressiveness, self-

confidence desire to except.

iv) Participation : Activities, sociability, cooperation adaptability, honor.

v) Status – Socio – economic position, popularity.

vi) Situation : Mental level, status, skills, needs and interests of followers’
objectives to be achieved.

Contingency Theory

-Dominated the minds of the researchers in the late

Fred Fiedler – Propelling force in this transformation.

According to Fiedler, the situation in which a leader operates which is the 1st Key variable in the
models can be characterized by 3 factors.

1. Leader – Member relations.

Refers to the degree of confidence, trust and respect followers have for the leader.

2. Task –structure the degree to which the task assignments are clear to both the leader and
the subordinates.

3. Position – power amount of power attached to the leaders position.

Fieldlers model suggests 2 basic leader orientations.

i) Relationship oriented – which is a more lenient, people oriented style.

ii) Task oriented – which is concerned with the accomplishment of the task.

The Group and Exchange theory of Leadership

 According to this theory there must be a positive exchange between the leaders and followers
in order for group goals to be accomplished.

 It is sometimes called leader member exchange (Lmx)

 It states that leaders treat individual subordinates differently.

 A leader develops dyadic (two – persons) relationships between himself/herself and a

subordinate.
 Over time the leader develops closer interpersonal relationships with sum subordinates called
the in group, while keeping his/her distance from other subordinates called the out-group.

 Research shows the existence of in –group and out – group relation with supervisors or
leaders.

 It has also been shown that the in – group members are generally more satisfied and more
influenced than the out-group members.

 It is therefore important for a leader to recognize the dyadic relation and strive to curb its
negative repercussions on workers motivation, satisfaction and performance.

The Path – Goal leadership theory

-Attributed to Martin Evans and Robert House.

-Rests on 2 prOpositions.

1. That the leader behavior will be acceptable and satisfying when subordinates
perceive it to be an immediate source of satiofaction or as being instrumental in obtaining
future satisfaction.

2. The leader behavior will be motivating to the ex that it makes subordinate

satisfaction contingent upon effective performance and to the extent that is complements the
subordinates work environment by providing necessary guidance, clarity of direction and
rewards for effectiveness theory of leadership must recognize at least 4 distinct types of
leader behavior.

i) Directive leadership

In this one, the subordinates are not active participants since the leader provides them with
specific guidance, standards and work plans, including rules and regulations.

ii) Supportive leadership

The leader shows concern for the well being and personal needs of the subordinates.

He is approachable and friendly.

iii) Achievement-oriented Leadership

The leader sets challenging goals and exhibits the confidence that the subordinates will achieve
high standards since they are endowed with the requisite potentials.

iv) Participative Leadership

In this type of leadership, the leader consults with the subordinates and embodies their
suggestions in decision making.

The Charismatic Theory of Leadership

• -also known as transformational leadership theory.

• -says that followers make attributions of heroic or extra-ordinary leadership abilities

when they observe certain behaviours.

• A charismatic leader inspires followers beyond their own self –interests.

• He or she has an extra ordinary effect on the followers.

• Charisma as a instances basis of authority occurs in those instances where a very

magnetic personality

• Has been able to capture a following through belief in mystical, magical, divine, or
simply extra ordinary powers.

• Personal characteristics of charismatic leaders are: extremely high confidence, dominance

and strong convictions in their own beliefs (House)

• According to Conger and Kanungo, charismatic leaders havean idealised goal that they
want to achieve, a strong personal commitment to their goal,they are perceived as
unconventional and they are assertive and self confident.

• Charismatic leadership usually surface in politics, religion or in wartime.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Examples:

 New and unfamiliar equipment.

 Re organization.

 A merger.

 A new pay plan.

 A new performance appraisal program.

 
Models of Change
1. Schein (1980) developed a change process formulated Kurt Lewin (1947).

 This process involves unfreezing existing behavior, introducing the new behavior, and
finally refreezing the new behavior.

 Unfreezing existing – change to – refreeze behavior new behavior. New behavior the
unfreezing stage is primarily a question of giving people a motive to change so that they
see it as desirable as well as perhaps necessary.

 Once the motivation is there people will accept the change.

 The 2nd stage involves explaining what new behavior is required (reg. actions, attitudes,
values etc) and gaining the participation of the individual concerned in working through
the practicalities of charge.

 The final stage involves taking appropriate measures to embed the changes in people’s
thinking and feelings (e.g. by financial rewards, promotion, praise etc).

 The most difficult stage is usually the first one, where one has to overcome the inertia of
comfortable practices and complacency to convince others that change is not only
necessary but desirable too.
2. A managerial model of the change process.

 Conditions favoring the change process in work organization.

 The enterprise is financially. Viable and seen as secure by the employees i.e. jobs are not
under immediate threat, as in the case of deciding business which is the subject of a
takeover by a competitor.

 Scope exists for change to jobs and the organization of work i.e. Changes are going to be
more than cosmetic.

 Management is aware of the value of participative approaches to problems – solving.

 There is a good degree of trust between management and other employees.

 There are effective mechanisms for consultation and negotiation the senior management
is publicity committed to the changes.

 Conditions of employment are reasonable e.g. no serious deficiencies in pay levels

compared with going rates.

 Provision will be made for appropriate action on manning levels, job secondary and pay.
Resistance to change
 Lewin (1951) contributed the interesting idea of a force field theory to that maintains
equilibrium in a situation.

 His argument was that any situation settles down at a –particular point when a state of
equilibrium occurs between opposing forces.

 The latter, consist on one hand of forces for charge and on the other forces. Seeking to
maintain the status quo.

 Change can be achieved either by exerting stronger pressure o0n the forces for change in
order to overcome resistance and thus push through change or by weakening the forces for
the status quo thus permitting change to flood gently in .

 Lewin’s theory can be presented diagrammatically as follows:

Perceived forces resisting change or seeking to maintain the status quo

Group cohesiveness Satisfactory onto current performance

No advantages perceived in

Competitive pressures Availability of new technology Senior management

pressure for change

Perceives forces seeking change

Why employees resist change

1. Parochial Self-interest.

 Changes are always viewed as a threat to one’s Job Security, authority, or power
base.
 2. Misunderstanding and lack of trust

 These two problems represent a circular relationship because a lack of trust

hampers communication

 Among organizational levels which in turn erodes trust.

3. Different assessments.

 Because access to information and technical viewpoints vary, people in

different parts of the organization will perceive a proposed change differently.
4. Low tolerance for change.

 Virtually everyone can be overwhelmed by change at one point or another.

 But some people have a lower threshold for change than others do.

 Even seemingly or work place changes can prompt a conscious or

unconscious fear of failure

 Or inadequacy on the part of low-tolerance employees.

Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to change

1. Education and Communication.

 This particular strategy is appealing because it advocates prevention rather than cure. The
idea here is to help employees understand the true need for a change as well as the logic
behind it.
2. Participation and involvement.

 Personal involvement through participation tends to defuse both rational and

irrational fears about
a work place change.

 By participating in both the resign and implementation of a change, one

acquires a personal stake in its stake.

3. Facilitation and Support.

  When fear and anxiety are responsible for resistance to doings things in a new
and different way, support from management in the form of special training, listening, job
stress counseling and compensatory time off can be helpful.
4. Negotiation and agreement

 Sometimes management can neutralize potential or actual resistance by

exchanging something of value for co-operation e.g, an hourly clerical employee may be put
on a salary in return for learning how to operate a new computerized word processor.
5. Manipulation and Co-optation.

 Manipulation occurs when managers selectively withhold or dispense

information and consciously arrange events to increase the chance that a change will be
successful.

 Co-optation normally involves token participation.

 Those who are co-opted with token participation cannot claim that they have
not been consulted
6. Explicit and Implicit coercion.
 Managers who cannot and will not invest the time required for the other strategies can
force employees to go along with change by threatening them with termination, loss of
pay raises or promotions, transfers etc