Discuss The Following Organisational Cultures : Power, Role, Task, And Individual

‘Power’ culture (Handy, 1985) is described as a similar infrastructure to that of a spider’s web, where the “boss” is in the centre of an ever widening web of others involved in the organisation. Role culture (Handy, 1985) is best explained as an image of a pyramid of boxes, each box containing a job title and role. The boxes still stand and the structure remains secure, even if one of the individuals fulfilling a role departs. Role cultures are best operated by a manager at the top of the pyramid, as suggested by Ronald White (1988). Role cultures operate best in large organisations where roles are clearly defined, evaluation of their progress is continually assessed and feedback is given. Task culture (Handy, 1985) is predominantly used in a field where team work is of paramount importance to ensure a task is completed. People culture

Throughout this essay organisational culture will be examined, including the two approaches mainstream and critical. What managers can do to shape culture and also an example of when culture has in fact been changed.

With shifts in the product strategy and the recent collaborations came the difficult task of changing aspects of the cultural values of the organisation. The company traditionally embraced what theorists would generally refer to as a role culture. This referred to organisations operating in relatively stable environments with more of a focus on procedure, hierarchy and bureaucracy rather than dynamism (Amstrong, 2000 citing the works of Harrison, 1972; Handy, 1976; Schein, 1985 and Williams et al, 1989). For the organisation to succeed in the more volatile

Task culture is an explanation of businesses which value high importance of the tasks in hand and make every effort of the company to complete tasks set. There is less control and influence from sub ordinates as employees work in team based groups to ensure completion of work. An example of this culture would be seen in more research based businesses where more team working is required with different skills to implement within the business surroundings.

Organizational culture is the stable beliefs, values, and assumptions shared by a group of people. I used to work at a bar and there was a shared understanding between the servers and bartenders. The bartenders were the managers, and each manager had their style of how the bar was ran each night. The servers had their system of who get what section, but they also had to follow the style of each bartender. The instrumental purpose of our organizational culture was influenced by who was managing the bar each night. There were some bartenders who did not like being bothered with questions from the servers and there were some who were nice and helpful. The bartenders that did not care, influenced the servers by letting them choose who had each section, deciding who had to clean and stock, and who was able to leave and at what times.

This type of culture demanded that jobs be filled by experts in specific fields (eg) Sales reps on the hardware side of the business were being filled by qualified builders who could not only sell across the product range but who knew hardware building products and its functions expertly. The same went for the plumbing side of the business where plumbing sales reps were qualified plumbers. My position of Brand Manager demanded someone with a Marketing or Branding background. Those who worked in these specialised roles were, however, governed and controlled by strict rules and procedures co-ordinated by senior management within the branch. The culture at branch level is very indicative of the Role Culture pointed out by Handy/Harrison (1993) in their model of Characterising Culture. Pettinger mentions that the key relationship in Role Culture is based on authority and the superior – subordinate style of relationships. (Pettinger R: Introduction to Management, 4th edition 2007, page 354)

There are many definitions of organisational culture available in the literature, many of which are based on the fact that culture consists of values, beliefs, and assumptions shared by the majority of members of an organisation. These characteristics and shared views are then translated into common and repeated patterns of behaviour. Although it is difficult to come up with a single definition that would cover

An organisation’s culture relates to a set of shared beliefs and values that has been agreedby the entire group and thus representing the company’s unique identity. They reflect theorganisation’s core values which are learned, re-learned and passed on to new members.These include the way people communicate with one another, how information isexchanged, the procedures and processes followed etc. Roger Harrison defined four typesof organisational culture depending on the level of centralisation and formalisation. Thisis indicated in the figure

The Organisational Cultural Model helps you to categorise organisational cultures in a handy and operational way. Consisting of six autonomous dimensions or variables and two semi-autonomous dimensions. Geert's research has shown that organizational cultures differ at six different levels - Means-oriented vs. Goal-oriented , Internally driven vs. Externally driven

An organizational culture is a system of shared beliefs and values that are establised to help motivate and coordinate employees in the achievement of meeting the organization’s goals (Kinicki, 2012, p.229). The four types of organizational cultures are: clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy. By a company choosing what kind of culture and structure they will plan lays out the design of how an organization will function which gives an the organizational identity, it facilitates collective commitment, promotes stability, and shapes the workplace behavior by helping employees to understand the purpose and goals of the company, and how they intend to accomplish their goals (Kinicki, 2012).

British gas has designed the organisation structure as tall structure. It is based on the clients and the number of the staff. Most of the time tall structure has a role culture. British gas has the same because steady organisational process, long decision making. Normally when organisation have a tall structure it is followed by a role culture. A good example is British gas many levels of management hierarchy, where all the staff are given certain roles to play. This role culture expect a proper channel reporting with proper line of command.

Knight 's and Robert 's experimented with various types of forms of control on different companies to determine the employee 's responses to these controls. However, each of these companies failed to apprehend the power organisations should express. Reasons being; employees and management abusing trust and power, employees with short term perspectives and constant pressure on staff. These results revealed the importance of power in relationships, and the need for power being balanced. Therefore, managing and effectively distributing power between staff and management can lead to less conflicts as power in post-bureaucracy is more implicit, because it can pose control based upon some versions of culture management and trust.

Organisational culture is a set of beliefs and values that effects the behaviour and thinking of organisation members and it can be a starting point for mobility or can create an obstacle to progress. Also, these are the basic areas of change and organisational evolution. (Hill & Gareth R Jones,

The power culture is a centralised type of culture where control is from the top. Decisions are made from the top without participation from the workers. It is mostly used by small businesses. This kind of culture may lead the workers to believe that they are not important and can cause workers to keep leaving for other organisations.

As far back as history can be told mankind has struggled between balancing culture, power and politics. Many wars have been fought and many people have placed their lives on the line in order to stand up for what they believe in. The combinations of culture, power and politics have spilled over into the workplace. In today’s business environment individuals have much more to worry about than just completing their assigned tasks. Organizational culture, power and office politics influence day to day operations as well as govern the atmosphere within the organization. The amount of impact that power and politics have in the workplace, directly reflect the organization’s culture formally as well as informally.