Organizational Cultures

Types and Transformations

Diana C. Pheysey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN:
  9780415082914
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134889945
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In recent years global trade and telecommunications have rapidly been spreading the influence of large multinational forms of organization. An integral part of this process has been the rise of 'organizational cultures' unique to particular firms. In a world where such cultures are often in conflict with the societies in which they operate how can we understand the workings of cultural patterns and the kinds of transformations they can create? This concise new introductory text provides succint analysis of organizational cultures and types of change they can set in motion. 'culture' is used in an original way to bring together and make sense of cenrtral issues of organizational behaviour. The author explores the way in which forms of culture can influence styles of management, attitudes toward leadership, the level of motivation in the workplace and `hidden agendas' in group dynamics. Organizational Cultures raises the important issue of whether their can be such a thing as a `right decision' for an organization, and brings into focus the major implications and dangers of the growing numbers of supra-national firms both in terms of internal structure and for the context which they function. Throughout, the author succeeds in weaving together behaviour and organization, thus reconciling the traditional divorce between psychology and sociology in the field. Drawing on case studies from Europe, Asia, Africa, Organizational Cultures provides a truly international insight into forms of organizational behaviour. Detailed chapter objectives and summaries are provided to aid progress and self-assessment.

Chapter 1

Cultures and change

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

1. name Hofstede’s four measures of national cultures
2. explain the Skinner and Winckler model
3. show how change could be related to values
4. examine the argument that cyclical conflict occurs in British industrial relations
5. name Harrison’s four organizational cultures
6. do the recommended exercise and study the case

1 INTRODUCTION

Organizational behaviour can be defined as ‘how enterprises work and how the people associated with them act’. (The phrase ‘associated with’ is used to indicate that employees are not the sole focus of attention, though they do get major consideration.) ‘Organizational behaviour’ can refer both to the academic discipline which studies these things and to what is being studied. When the discipline is meant the abbreviation OB will be used.

OB combines the interests of psychologists, sociologists, political scientists and economists. OB theories differ in the emphasis they give to organizations as such compared, on the one hand, with the individuals and groups of which they are composed and, on the other hand, with the wider society of which they are a part (see Whitley, 1977).

The verb ‘to organize’ means to ‘give orderly structure to’, but it is sometimes difficult to say where one orderly structure ends and another begins. Empedocles, in the fifth century BC, defined God as ‘a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere’. Organization is a bit like that. It is only possible to say what counts as an organization from a particular perspective. The perspective adopted here is the practical one, namely that the law recognizes orderly structures known as ‘corporate bodies’, which can be named and which are authorized to act. It is also possible to see an ‘orderly structure’ in, for example, a ship, with its captain, officers and crew, even though this ship may be part of a fleet which belongs to a company or to a navy. No organization exists in isolation. It is part of other structures, such as economies, societies and nation states. The subject is therefore complex, and so, in sections 2–4 of this chapter, and throughout the book, diagrams and tables are used to simplify. Sometimes the diagram is called a model. It would be well to pause for a moment to ask what can be achieved by putting ideas in squares or circles and calling the result a model. We are familiar with displays in the form of dials which tell us how much fuel is in a tank, or how fast a car is travelling. We know that some happening in the real world, fuel being used or brakes applied, is linked with what the dial shows. We know that when the fuel gauge registers ‘empty’ we had better fill up. We do not know that when our speed exceeds a speed limit we shall be stopped by police, or have an accident, or both. We can ignore the visual display, or we can interpret it in various ways. Some visual displays, such as satellite weather pictures, are of value for only a limited period ahead, since there may be chaotic changes that do not emit warning signals far in advance. People may react to a model of economic activity in ways that interfere with the functioning of the model itself. The kinds of diagrams which appear in this book are not intended to be interpreted as analogues of what is ‘really’ happening in a society or organization. Their purpose is to focus attention on possible ways in which things might be connected, and to suggest that you, the reader, examine your own experience to decide for yourself whether the presentation is a help or a hindrance to you in thinking about the matters depicted. The figures and tables may also be an aid to memory, since the ones in later chapters are linked to those in earlier chapters.

2 CULTURES

This chapter is about one aspect of a society, nation or continent which may also permeate its organizations, namely culture. The term culture is derived from the same stem as the verb ‘to cultivate’. In biology, cells are grown in a culture; in anthropology, culture sometimes refers to the whole way of life in which people grow up. In OB the word is used in a more restricted sense as the values and beliefs which provide people with ‘a programmed way of seeing’ (Hofstede 1980a). A culture is thus a way of seeing that is common to many people. (Usually there are sub-cultures, or ways of seeing by minorities also.) Culture itself is subject to transformation. Managers may deliberately seek to change it. To reshape an organization’s culture they may use a scheme of cultural types. Four types are described in Section 4 below. First, however, we survey the larger scene.

2.1 East-West cultural differences

We begin by drawing attention to some differences between West and East in ideas about knowledge. The West has tended to think, for example, that a cause precedes an effect, and that things happen one after another. In the Orient there is more appreciation of two-way causation. Something can both be caused by, and be the cause of, something else, and the future, the present and the past can affect each other (Redding 1980). The West tends to perceive things in categories, and the East in contexts. For example, the word for man in both Chinese and Japanese has a broader sense than in English in that it takes in the state of transactions with fellow human beings. Western culture tends to be oriented towards mastery over nature, and bases reality or ultimate truth on science and pragmatism. The East seeks harmony with nature and sees reality as based more on revealed truth than on empirical experimentation. The physicist Bohm has a concept that seems close to an oriental perspective. He speaks of reality as a ‘holomovement’, a totality of enfoldment and unfoldment, from which each theory will abstract some aspect that is relevant only in some limited context. ‘To relevate a certain content (is) to lift it into attention so that it stands out in relief (Bohm 1980, his emphasis). Much of what we ‘know’ is subconscious, and only surfaces in consciousness when conditions are ripe. Western scientists know this, but the East pays greater regard to intuition. OB is largely a creation of the West, and this book will reflect this, but an attempt will be made to draw the reader’s attention to other cultural perspectives from time to time.

2.2 National cultures

Every culture has its values. Values are whatever is esteemed, prized or appreciated in that culture. In some nations a large proportion of the population accepts the values of the state religion. Loyalty and obedience are stressed in both Shintoism and Islam, for example. The value that comes nearest to being universally espoused is that of concern for others (love). It is found in the ‘golden rule’ common to Buddhism, Christianity, Classical Paganism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism, the Sikh religion and Zoroastrianism—‘Do to others as you would they should do to you’. The ‘golden rule’ may be widely espoused, but it is not widely practised. A question of interest to OB is the extent to which values are found the world over in a certain type of organization, for example a business firm, or the extent to which ‘local’ organizations adopt values commonly held in their society.

Hofstede (1980a) surveyed 16,000 employees of a large multinational company. The employees, who worked in forty countries, were asked to complete questionnaires.¹ The sample used by Hofstede was sufficiently large for him to analyse his data by age, sex and nationality. Table 1.1 shows, in italics, the names he gave to four patterns he found. Below the name is a country, or some countries, where the pattern is strong, and below that are some things which are prized by the national culture.

The uncertainty avoidance culture likes to be clear about what is allowed and what is not, so that there can be respect for order. West Germany was a high scorer. British members of the sample placed a high value on individualism, competing with each other for position, and wanting independence. In Indonesia, the Philippines and Nigeria, persons of senior status were regarded with awe and were thought to have the right to exercise control over many aspects of their subordinates’ work and lives. There was power distance between higher and lower members of the organization. In Singapore, Taiwan and Kenya there were low scores on what Westerners think of as masculinity. People valued friendship, sharing and involvement at work which Hofstede considers to be feminine values.

Table 1.1 National cultures and associated values

We must not conclude that the entire populations of the countries listed in the figure can be characterized in the ways shown. The Nigerian and Kenyan scores were obtained by Seddon (1985a) using Hofstede’s methods. The important thing about these studies is that employees of the same company replied differently according to which country they worked in.

Hofstede’s national cultures provide ‘compass points’ by which key people in organizations attempt to orient themselves and to pursue their goals. Change can come from the countless actions which national leaders take based on their own perceptions of whether or not they are deviating from their central course. We shall link these ideas to a couple of models of cycles of change drawn from experience in the People’s Republic of China and in Great Britain.

2.3 Values, goals and behaviour

Skinner and Winckler (1980) build their model on the basis of three types of goals. It is possible, however, to reclassify Hofstede’s values under Skinner and Winckler’s headings, and this is done in Table 1.2.

Skinner and Winckler assert that each type of goal is best reached through the use of an appropriate type of power which encourages a certain type of behaviour. The goals with their corresponding forms of power and behaviour are listed below.

See Table

Economic goals are concerned with the supply and demand for goods and services. China has national plans for agriculture, heavy and light industries, and transport. Competition is to achieve the targets set. To prevent dependence, the government aims for self-sufficiency in some sectors, for favourable terms of trade in others. (Goals of competition and independence take different forms in capitalist economies where financial markets operate.)

Table 1.2 Hofstede’s cultural values listed as goals

‘Remunerative’ power is simply the ability to reward people (as producers, consumers, tax-payers, savers etc.). By ‘indifferent’ behaviour Skinner and Winckler imply that people are primarily self-interested, will seek personal benefits, but neither support nor oppose the sources of those benefits.

Ideological goals are linked to moral values. In China, ‘sharing’ as a goal implies Communist solidarity in ‘serving the masses’. In Britain, the monarchy symbolizes shared national traditions. Politicians use normative power to obtain commitment from party members. Charismatic leaders rely on it (see Table 8.1).

The goals described as ‘order’ goals are associated with the roles of the police and the military, and of industrial relations managers. There has to be ‘law and order’ in any society. However, when ‘coercive power’ is used it tends to alienate those subjected to it, that is, it makes them angry or scared.

3 CYCLES OF CHANGE

3.1 Change and the mean

In pursuing economic, ideological or order goals, leaders may find themselves seeking to keep to a centre path, since to deviate from this would lead to deficiencies or excesses. This idea can be traced to Aristotle, who according to Kraemer (1975) laid the philosophical foundations of management. Aristotle lived in Greece from 384 to 322 BC where he was tutor to Alexander the Great. In his Ethics Aristotle says:

Moral excellence is a mean…between two forms of badness, one of excess and the other of defect, and is so described because it aims at hitting the mean point in feelings and in actions. This makes virtue hard of achievement because finding the middle point is never easy. It is not everybody, for instance, who can find the centre of a circle—that calls for a geometrician. Thus, too, it is easy to fly into a passion—anybody can do that—but to be angry with the right person and to the right extent and at the right time and with the right object in the right way—that is not easy, and it is not everybody who can do it.

Aristotle did not think all virtues are means but, for example, courage, self-control, friendliness and modesty all have their attendant excesses and deficiences. It is interesting that a similar idea is present in the writings of the Chinese philosopher Kung Fu Tse (556–479 BC) better known as Confucius, who is said to have had a profound influence on Japanese business. In his Analects, Book Twenty, we read:

Sincerely hold fast the due Mean…the person in authority is beneficent without great expenditure;…he lays tasks on the people without their repining;…he pursues what he desires without being covetous;…he maintains a dignified ease without being proud;…he is majestic without being fierce.

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Case studies and exercises
• Figures and tables
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Cultures and change
• Chapter 2: Cultures and control
• Chapter 3: Cultures and organizational design
• Chapter 4: Cultures and the design of jobs
• Chapter 5: Cultures and motivation
• Chapter 6: Cultures and decision-making
• Chapter 7: Cultures and group behaviour
• Chapter 8: Cultures, leadership and management
• Chapter 9: Cultures and organizational development
• Chapter 10: Organizational behaviour and the discipline
• Case studies and exercises
• Bibliography