Cultural Lens Analysis

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

Organizational culture could almost be considered the roots of a company. The way a company’s employees think, the way the customers feel, and the company’s decisions are made are all based around the culture that the company has laid for itself. An employee’s values, thoughts, and actions should reflect those stated in the company’s mission. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, while both attempting to create a culture that is comfortable and pleasing to their

Following Bolman and Deal’s organizational structure and human resource frames, the third frame could arguably be the most impacting on an organizations employee’s sight and reference regarding their organization’s culture. Symbolic framing views organizations as theaters (Bolman & Deal, 2008; 2015), where its employees are acting out their duties and responsibilities grounded in the organization’s myths, values, ceremonies and rituals (Bolman & Deal, 2008; Henderson, 2015). In this regard, organizations are often judged more on their performance in a theatrical sense, than the product outcomes themselves, as the performance creates alignment in its employees (Smith, 2012). In the structural frame, we understood that organizations obtain efficiency through proper alignment in departmental and communication lines, identifying excess in order to streamlining processes. The human resource frame encouraged us to conceptualize that organizations achieve success by focusing on who is in the right or wrong position and acknowledging the needs of the employees, certifying that both employee and organizational needs should be met to promote organizational success. The symbolic frame challenges us to view the organization from a different perspective, looking deeper into the organization’s culture as the answer for alignment and unity toward a common goal. Symbolic framing aims to capture the hearts and minds of all those involved in the organization, as symbols are often the

• The Symbolic Framework draws on social and cultural anthropology. The organization is thought to be akin to tribes or theater; they are cultures that operate based on ceremonies, rituals, rules, myths, policies, stories, heroes and managerial authority (Bolman and Deal 1991, p. 16). Everyone in the organization is an actor who is basically playing a prescribed role (Bolman and Deal 1991, p. 16).

The symbolic frame focuses on symbols and meanings. Understanding the symbolic frame of an organization can help shape a culture that gives purpose and meaning to work. There is a definite relationship between organizational culture and successful project management. For example, the IMS project at company XYZ failed mainly due to low risk tolerance due to time constraint, weak unit integration within the team and inadequate support for any work related conflict.

“Culture consists of the symbols, rituals, language, and social dramas that highlight organizational life, including myths, stories, and jargon. It includes the shared meanings associated with the symbols, rituals, and language. Culture combines the philosophy of the firm with beliefs, expectations, and values shared by members. It contains the stories and myths about the company's founder and its current leading figures. Organizational culture consists of a set of shared meanings and values held by a set of members in an organization that distinguish the organization from other organizations. An organization's culture determines how it perceives and reacts to the larger environment (Becker, 1982; Schein, 1996). Culture determines the nature

All Organisations posses a distinct form of culture with some having more than a single culture. This culture is usually very difficult to measure, change and most especially change.

The poems “Cinema Eyes” and “Mine Eyes are Lean”, are effective examples of texts that help convey the underlying issue of prejudice toward groups of distinctive cultural backgrounds through the usage of the cultural and postcolonial lenses. The poems written by Ins Choi and Una Marson are both told by two different cultural perspectives that show how these issues can have a larger negative effect on non-territorial cultures. In the poem “Cinema Eyes” by Una Marson, the author expresses how she grew up in a society where a certain culture was seen as much more superior culture, which later negatively affected her love life. Similarly, in the poem “Mine Eyes are Lean”, by Ins Choi, the author expresses how his career in the film industry has

The definition of culture in this context can be deducted from Trompenaars (1998): “The essence of culture is not what is visible on the surface. It is the shared ways groups of people understand and interpret the world.” (p. 3). From this statement we can extract that people with different cultures see and interpret the world in their own way. Thus, to motivate employees with different cultural backgrounds it is necessary to understand the interpretation the employees have of certain norms and values.

There are all kind of feeling that are transpiring throughout my mind when think of the term cultural analysis. In executing the communication concepts of African American cultural, I found that the Chinese and African American cultural are strongly tied to their beliefs and family concepts. I define myself through my culture as being an African American male, thought out religions, education, and family is very essential in my culture. Also, being limited to making lifestyle changes, and the different ways we communicated with each other are how I define myself through my culture. Being African American my perception of my culture is that we as a community are high in health, crime, education, and public housing, which implies welfare, government assists, black on black crime, and drug abuse. Being an African American, other cultures have a better chance at getting better jobs, education, and opportunities in life.

“The truth is never simple. It’s only in the Western world that you think knowledge is something you can acquire quickly and easily. It takes time. The truth never hurries.”

After this, the students talked to each other and they decided that they enjoy it when the teacher reads to them. The teacher read the book and the students followed along with the reading. When the teacher finished reading, she asked various questions that the students had to answer. The students, had to discuss the question and the answer with their group members. The teacher, asked each group to give their answer and, all the students participated in the activity. They had a good teacher and student relationship. The students respected the teacher and she did an awesome job with the lesson. The teacher, talked to us and, explained that when she creates her lessons she tries her best to incorporate group work and class discussions. Her goal is, that her students are engage in the lesson that she created.

I have said before that each of us are so uniquely designed by our creator and our life experiences are so differently processed, that it would be absurd to think one method of counseling would be a good fit every person. Therefore I agree with Ohlschlager & Clinton that it is just wrong to think that every culture could be treated the same across the board. Each culture brings so much to the table it would be a tremendous injustice not to celebrate the differences of each culture.

The Hofstede Centre (n.d.) defines culture as the “collective mental programming of the human mind which distinguishes one group of people from another.” Chipulu, Ojiako, Gardiner, Williams, Mota, Maguire, Shou, Stamai, and Marshall (2014), note that “culture can be at once tangible and observable; latent and unobservable; or even an abstraction altogether” (p. 367). Culture therefore has many dimensions. Some aspects of culture can be observed by analyzing symbols, ceremonies, dress, and other aspects. On the other hand, some aspects are not observable from the outside, but have to be experienced. Looking only from the outside gives us only a glimpse into the culture values. A large part of culture is the unwritten rules of how things are done. This part of culture is not necessarily observable to an outsider. To fully understand the cultural values of an organization, you need to be inside the organization with access to those with years of work experiences.

Morgan used the metaphor organizations as culture to frame the complex relationships that exist within organizations. Examining organizations through metaphor allows one to imagine concepts and ideas through their own experiences. According to Morgan the power of metaphors is their ability to challenge innovative reasoning. Metaphors combine language and thought to develop new non-literal meanings, when applied they shape and enhance our reality. According to Morgan there has been extensive research regarding the metaphor of organizations as culture. Culture became a hot topic following the introduction of Westernization management styles into the Japanese commercial markets (p. 120). Morgan says that “organization itself is a cultural phenomenon” (p. 120). Culture is a system of knowledge, ideology, values, laws and day to day rituals. By considering organizations as culture, we can focus on the concepts related to the values, beliefs, knowledge, and ethos of the organization. As such we can use this metaphor to understand leadership and organizational behavior through the language and symbols that are most meaningful to us personally. Employees who wish to remain in their organization do best if they understand the components of the culture where they are employed.