Culture of an Organisation

The term Organisational culture is not readily defined. It is a loose term and has a different meaning in different situations. I understand the term as; the way an organisation is run. Take the word itself, organisation. Picture it as an organ in the body. Each one provides a different service, it works in different ways, has different shapes and structures, and needs different vitamins and minerals in order to be successful in doing its job. This is the same for an organisation in business. Each organisation will need a different structure or �culture’ to suit itself and the people working in it, in order to be successful. A more informal approach to the term might be �the way we do things around here’.

Organisational culture can be looked at in two ways, as an outcome and as a process. The outcome describes the behaviour people have in an organisation that relates to the way the person performs tasks, treats its employees and customers, solves problems and resolves conflicts, i.e. the way in which the person carries out their job. The process, creates the behaviour people have when carrying out their job. Here, it is defined as the informal values, attitudes and the norms that control the way people behave in an organisation. Each outcome or process will determine the way in which an organisation is run. (managementconsultingcourses.com/lesson35organisationalculture.pdf)

In order to fully understand the organisational culture, I will be looking at four types of well-known cultures (C. Handy); I will look at the club culture in depth, and summarise the role culture, the task culture and the person culture.

Firstly the club culture; an organisation which is run by a club culture can be described structurally as a spider web (C.Handy). It resembles a web by the way in which there is a boss or a leader. The person who plays this role will be in the centre of all the workings of an organisation. Similar to the way a spider web works there will be lines connecting from the centre to the outside. These lines represent responsibility and division of labour. They are all closely connected to the boss. An example of an organisation that uses this kind of culture would be Virgin, run by Sir Richard Branson. He has a close team surrounding him whom he directs and whom in turn direct other managers and so on, exactly like the rings on a spider web. This is a very intimate working environment where everybody is in direct contact with the boss and is addressed by name as opposed to job title. This running of this entire organisation is solely dependant on the boss. If he has a good �business head’ then so will the organisation. The downside is, if the boss is weak or unsuccessful then so too is the organisation. Depending on the boss, this type of organisation is very dynamic. It is responsive to sudden changes and various disruptions. There would be many young energetic people employed here and because everyone is actively communicating with one another they can organise themselves quickly and solve any problems effectively.

The second culture I will talk about is the role culture. This organisation is modelled on past organisations. It uses structured formulas that can be applied to any business and are known to work. There is very little change or innovation in this kind of organisation, which usually attracts experienced professionals. The role culture is managed by various job titles. No matter who the person is or what kind of personality they must fulfil the role of that job title. If they have any ideas of change or need to work in a slightly different way he will most likely be rejected. If an employee decides to leave the job title still remains and he is simply replaced.

The task culture is the most adaptive