What are the sources of Organisational Culture? What are the implications of organisational culture to management?
Organisational culture is created from the following (1) core values, (2) Organisational Socialisation, (3) Rites, and (4) legends.
- Core
These are the work-related values of the society in which the organisation operates. The core values could not be further sub-divided into the following:
(i) Power Distance.
This is the extent to which individuals accept the unequal distribution of power. Cases if high power distance are epitomised by autocratic management styles.
(ii) Uncertainty Avoidance
This refers to the extent to which individuals feel threatened by ambiguous risky situations.
2. Organisational Socialisation
This, on the other hand, is the process by organisation bring new members into their culture. Strong cultures tend to be characterised by well-developed methods of selecting and moulding employees into the organisation.
Here a combination of modelling, coaching, teaching and enforcement by managers tends to be an effective means of socialisation.
Thus, socialisation is supposed by organisation - wide norms and maybe both explicit and formal and implicit and informal.
3. Rites
Refers to an elaborate, well planned expression carried out through an event. Performance driven organisations tend to use a number of rites of enhancement to:
- Publicly recognise individuals for outstanding performance
- Motivate others towards similar achievements
- Spread good news about the organisation, and
- Emphasise the mutual nature of organisational and employee objectives
4. Legends
A legend is a story of some significant event, typically based on historical fact but exaggerated by functional details. Thus the organisation may be associated with “’legendary quality’ which ultimately helps maintain cohesion and guidelines for employees to follow.
The implications of organisational culture to management
Managers constantly need to ascertain which organisation cultural attributes needs to be preserved. In this respect he should:
- Set the example
- Articulate and reinforce values.
- Not underestimate the power of values, socialisation, rites, and legends.
- Management has the strongest responsibility for creating and transmitting organisational culture. This they achieve through the formulation of policies in their day to day activities, interactions, sentiments, and norms, as perceived throughout the organisation.
- They should explicitly communicate and articulate, maintain and reinforce important organisational sentiments and norms.
- They should also mould the way the employees think, feel, and act within the They must attempt to create a sense of unity without blind conformity and blend individuality with group and organisational concerns.
