Organisational Culture Cannot Be Managed

“Organisations need strong culture”. Consider this statement in relation to how we understand and make sense of culture in the post-bureaucratic era.

Coined as “the way we do things around here” (Deal and Kennedy, 1983, p. 501), culture encompasses how an organisation is run, its “personality”, and the norms, values, beliefs and attitudes (Armstrong, 2010) that reflect the organisation’s mission, aims and goals.

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

Within the field of management, the success and failure of the modern business organisation has been largely depicted by the intricate concept of culture. Organisational culture, a concept borrowed from borrowed mostly from anthropology typically is defined as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions and symbols that define the way in which an organisation conducts and manages its business (Barney 1986). Management is not just an act of change, but the responsibility for and control of a company or similar organisation (Willmott 1983). It is the management of organisational culture that merely drives the

Describing and identifying the importance of abstract terms is a difficult task because their meaning rely more on substance than form. For this and other reasons, individuals as well as organizations tend to overlook or underestimate their importance for a successful career and for the effective functioning of an organization. “Organizational Culture” is one of those terms, we can’t see it, but we can feel and experience it, and it has a profound impact in the way people behave in an organization. It denotes the attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values of the work group or team within the organization, which to an extent affect the organization as a whole.

Delisi (1990) using Schein’s (1984) definition of culture, to examine the relationship between culture and change, defined organisational culture as ‘the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group have invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that has worked well enough in the past to be considered valid, and, therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems’.

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,

Organization’s culture is nothing but the norm in which how the leadership decides to promote its employees and how will be able to divert more attention from employees as followers. Researches state that the leader has to create and manage the organizational behavior, it is considered as the unique talent of the leaders that they are able to understand and mange the work culture. One of the biggest achievements of any leadership is to eliminate the work culture that can destroy the functioning of the firm.

Every business needs to organise its activities and a defined structure enables them do it well. For example, every area of the business knows what they are supposed to do and when to do it. In addition, they know who to report to with the aid of a good structure. On the other hand, organisational culture is something that is not tangible but can be observed in the way people do the things they do and in the way they treat one another and their customers.

Management within an organisation has the ability to re-shape, re-engineer, re-organise and change their organisation and organisational culture, the majority of organisation’s today, have the ability to change their culture, however, at the same time, it is a very difficult and demanding task. This is where the four main functions of managing come into play; planning, controlling, leading and organising. Robbins at al (2009, p.94) defines organisational culture as “a system of shared values, principles, traditions and ways of doing things that influence the way organisational members act.” This essay will further look into how and if an organisation’s culture can be changed, weighed up

Organisational culture shared among all the members, with its values, principles, traditions and methods of working. It determines how an organisation functions, from industry side to individually. It could be an important asset which, if not managed well, can be a critical liability for the organisation. While a healthy and positive organisational culture could increase relationship between employees and employer, and together achieve the maximum performance for the company, a deleterious culture would lead to the downfall of the organisation, and eventually collapse. It is an advantage that requires good management skill, coordination and communication in order for the organisation to utilize it well. Beaudan and Smith (2000) at Ivey Business Journal stated that corporate cultures are mature and complex organisms. One must carefully and smartly shape the culture, and it is wise to nurture corporate culture as an asset, rather than a risk and liability. This essay explains both beneficial and negative sides of organisational culture, along with case studies supported.

Researchers have adopted various frameworks to define the organisational cultures. The models that have been developed by some researchers to describe various indicators of organisational culture are as follows.

“Organisational culture is the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems” (Schein, 1984). This definition elaborates the key characteristics of an organisational culture such as group, problems, perpetuation and interpretation. Deal and Kennedy (1982) provides a shorthand definition of Organisational culture as “the way things get done around here”. Every organisation is unique, some with more distinct cultures than the others. Furthermore, firms with the ‘right’ set of attributes can obtain sustained superior financial performance from their cultures (Barney, 1986). In this essay, we will critically analyse how culture affects an organisation’s business performance and also will elucidate on the concept of cultural evolution by studying various aspects of cultural perpetuation. We will also analyse the role of executives in managing an organisation’s culture and further, these propositions will be discussed with relevant examples.

Usually, to be able to change the culture in an organization, leaders must modify the organization’s structure. However, it is possible to retain the organizational structure while changing the culture if modifications are made to the assigned rules employees (Bianca, 2015). The culture of the organization has a strong effect on the quality of work, as well as how employees feel about their job (Janićijević, 2013).

The classic Phrase by Mckinsey organisation, “the culture is how we do things around here” is taken as reference by many great people. It’s true that culture exist in an organisation which influences the work being done and also affects the success or failure of the project.