This takes investment, because you need to plan and train your employees accordingly. Even regional differences within some nations can be significant. A healthy organisational culture can be reflected in culturally diverse ways. The goal is utility in the service of your goals and values, not uniformity in how the values are expressed or the goals are achieved.
Cultural Health vs. Cultural Uniformity This question comes up in Europe quite a lot when we are called in to help with organisational culture. National and Regional Differences in Organisational Culture Beyond questions of differences among functional areas, more and more the discussion centers around the role that national culture plays in organisational culture. In the U. In France, the answer might start with a 5-minute report on the weather!
Ask a German and an Italian to describe teamwork, and you will probably get very different answers. German teams tend to be characterized by clear hierarchical structure, emotional reserve, and expressions of respect for leaders.
In Italy, a team often is highly social, with members who are emotionally expressive and interactive relationally. They actually touch each other! Within national cultures, values are generally seen as stable over time. National values, because they reflect the traditions of the nation-state over time, will change slightly from generation to generation, but the overall values will remain the same. For example, a German who comes from a culture of punctuality and travels for business in Italy will notice a national cultural difference in how Italians view time more leisurely and relaxed as compared to their own national culture.
An interesting thing about living in the United States is the regional differences that make each part of the country unique. When I used the word in conversations with my friends and family members in Minnesota, they did not understand what I meant. All national cultures consist of regional subcultures A subgroup of a national culture in which the characteristics of that subgroup are distinguished from those of another subgroup.
Dianne moves from Texas for a job opportunity in Georgia. She lives in Georgia for 25 years and feels that it is her home state. However, her neighbors and co-workers do not think that she is a Georgian. Dianne experiences a regional cultural shift that she did not know existed until her move. Although she considers herself a Georgian, she is constantly reminded that she is not a southerner.
At a conscious and unconscious level, her regional cultural experiences will dictate her thoughts about herself and others. She may develop the following assumptions and beliefs as a result of the regional cultural influences:. What are regional differences and similarities that you have experienced or have been a part of? The following is a chart to help you identify regional similarities and cultures.
Then, for each cultural expression listed, write down the regional similarities and differences you notice about each region you have chosen to identify. Table 2. When you walk into a Target Store, what do you see? What does it look like? What kinds of items do they sell? What do you see when you walk into a Wal-Mart? What types of people shop at Wal-Mart? Who works there?
Shoppers have different experiences walking into a Target versus a Wal-Mart store because even though they are both retailers, their buildings are different, the types of products they carry vary from each other, the workers wear different clothes, the layout of a Wal-Mart store is very different from the layout of a Target store, and the behaviors expressed by workers in each organization are unique to each retailer.
These elements give the organization its distinct culture that separates it from the other. In recent years, the fast pace of mergers and acquisitions has changed the way businesses now meld. The focus in mergers has shifted away from blending cultures and has moved toward meeting specific business objectives. Some experts believe that if the right business plan and agenda are in place during a merger, a strong corporate culture will develop naturally.
If an organization's culture is going to improve the organization's overall performance, the culture must provide a strategic competitive advantage, and beliefs and values must be widely shared and firmly upheld. A strong culture can bring benefits such as enhanced trust and cooperation, fewer disagreements and more-efficient decision-making.
Culture also provides an informal control mechanism, a strong sense of identification with the organization and shared understanding among employees about what is important.
Employees whose organizations have strongly defined cultures can also justify their behaviors at work because those behaviors fit the culture. Company leaders play an instrumental role in shaping and sustaining organizational culture. If the executives themselves do not fit into an organization's culture, they often fail in their jobs or quit due to poor fit. Consequently, when organizations hire C-suite executives, these individuals should have both the requisite skills and the ability to fit into the company culture.
An employer must begin with a thorough understanding of what culture is in a general sense and what their organization's specific culture is. At the deepest level, an organization's culture is based on values derived from basic assumptions about the following:.
Culture is a nebulous concept and is often an undefined aspect of an organization. Although extensive academic literature exists relating to the topic of organizational culture, there is no generally accepted definition of culture.
Instead, the literature expresses many different views as to what organizational culture is. Organizational culture can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including leadership behaviors, communication styles, internally distributed messages and corporate celebrations. Given that culture comprises so many elements, it is not surprising that terms for describing specific cultures vary widely. Some commonly used terms for describing cultures include aggressive, customer-focused, innovative, fun, ethical, research-driven, technology-driven, process-oriented, hierarchical, family-friendly and risk-taking.
Because culture is difficult to define, organizations may have trouble maintaining consistency in their messages about culture. Employees may also find it difficult to identify and communicate about perceived cultural inconsistencies.
Organizational leaders often speak about the unusual natures of their company cultures, seeing their domains as special places to work. But organizations such as Disney and Nordstrom, which are well-known for their unique cultures, are rare.
Most company cultures are not that different from one another. Even organizations in disparate industries such as manufacturing and health care tend to share a common core of cultural values.
For example, most private-sector companies want to grow and increase revenues. Most strive to be team-oriented and to demonstrate concern for others. Most are driven, rather than relaxed, because they are competing for dollars and market share. Some of the cultural characteristics that distinguish most organizations include the following. At the heart of organizations' cultures are commonly shared values. None is right or wrong, but organizations need to decide which values they will emphasize.
These common values include:. The degree of hierarchy is the extent to which the organization values traditional channels of authority. The three distinct levels of hierarchy are "high"—having a well-defined organizational structure and an expectation that people will work through official channels; "moderate"—having a defined structure but an acceptance that people often work outside formal channels; and "low" —having loosely defined job descriptions and accepting that people challenge authority.
An organization with a high level of hierarchy tends to be more formal and moves more slowly than an organization with a low level of hierarchy. The degree of urgency defines how quickly the organization wants or needs to drive decision-making and innovation.
Some organizations choose their degree of urgency, but others have it thrust on them by the marketplace. A culture with high levels of urgency has a need to push projects through quickly and a high need to respond to a changing marketplace. A moderate level of urgency moves projects at a reasonable pace. A low level of urgency means people work slowly and consistently, valuing quality over efficiency. An organization with high urgency tends to be fast-paced and supports a decisive management style.
An organization with low urgency tends to be more methodical and supports a more considered management style. Organizations usually have a dominant way of valuing people and tasks. An organization with a strong people orientation tends to put people first when making decisions and believes that people drive the organization's performance and productivity.
An organization with a strong task orientation tends to put tasks and processes first when making decisions and believes that efficiency and quality drive organization performance and productivity. Some organizations may get to choose their people and task orientations. But others may have to fit their orientation to the nature of their industry, historical issues or operational processes. Every organization puts an emphasis on certain functional areas. Examples of functional orientations may include marketing, operations, research and development, engineering or service.
A hospitality company may focus on operations or service, depending on its historical choices and its definition in the marketplace. Employees from different functions in the company may think that their functional areas are the ones that drive the organization. Organizational leaders must understand what most employees perceive to be the company's functional orientation.
Any organization can have a mix of subcultures in addition to the dominant culture. Subcultures exist among groups or individuals who may have their own rituals and traditions that, although not shared by the rest of the organization, can deepen and underscore the organization's core values. Subcultures can also cause serious problems. For example, regional cultures often differ from the overall culture that top leadership tries to instill.
Perhaps aggressiveness that is common in one area may not mesh with a culture emphasizing team building. Or an organization with a culture built around equality may have trouble if the national culture emphasizes hierarchy and expects people to bow to authority.
Employers must recognize those differences and address them directly. An organizational culture tends to emerge over time, shaped by the organization's leadership and by actions and values perceived to have contributed to earlier successes.
0コメント