Organisation Culture [week 4]

Organisational Culture is a determinant of staff satisfaction, intention to stay and whether staff recommends their organisation to others as a good place to work. Organisation culture is the way employees see and do things within the company. ‘’Through tradition, history and structure, they build up their own culture’’. [Wikipedia] Culture therefore gives a company a sense of identity for example who they are, what they stand for, what they do. It determines, through the organisation's legends, rituals, beliefs, meanings, values, norms and language.

There are three layers of culture within an organisation the outer layer is what people primarily associate with culture: the visual reality of behaviour, clothes, food, language, housing, etc. The middle layer refers to the norms and values which a community holds: what is considered right and wrong (norms) or good and bad (values). Norms are often external and reinforced by social control. Values tend to be more internal than norms. Society doesn't have many means of controlling their enforcement. Values and norms structure the way people in a particular culture behave. But they are not visible, despite their influence on what happens at the observable surface.


The inner layer is the deepest: the level of implicit culture. Understanding the core of the culture onion is the key to successfully working with others cultures. The core consists of basic assumptions, series of rules and methods to deal with the regular problems that it faces. These methods of problem-solving have become so basic that, like breathing, we no longer think about how we do it. For an outsider these basic assumptions are very difficult to recognise.


Visible aspects of culture at McDonald's

There are visible aspects of culture at McDonald's that everyone can see when they walk through the doors for example staff wear a uniform including black t-shirt, black trouser, cap with a logo on it and a netted hat and managers wear a white shirt. The other thing you can notice as a customer is that all employees are taught to smile all the time this is also part of their culture because it is something that all employees have to at all times, it is part of the culture of the company. Employees that work at McDonald's all are entitled to a free meal when they are on a shift therefore most of the employees eat food of the same menu every time they are at work. They have to work as part of a team as all staff have to communicate and tell the manager what food they need to order for customers this is again a very visible part of their culture.


As I worked at McDonald's I know that the language that was spoken at work was different to that customers knew. There where different names for products on the menu that staff used e.g. big Mac was a Mac and a chicken sandwich was a Sarni. This language was used to make it easier for staff to communicate and only staff understood and spoke this jargon. Employees are treated well, fairly and there is friendly atmosphere, this is indicated in the behaviour of staff and results in good customer service. This is why McDonald's management have a good understanding of the importance of all the cultural aspects.


Hidden aspects of culture at McDonald’s
There are hidden aspects such as the good and bad norms and values for example a good values that the employees had were when they washed their hands every 30 minutes also when they changed gloves every 15 minutes. This was an internal value that all staff followed and wasn't always visible to others. An example of a norm at McDonald's would be to put a wet floor sign out when the floor is wet or set timers on food that needs to be thrown away after 30 minutes, anything that is reinforced by social control is a norm. There are many other hidden aspects of culture but the ones above are the most obvious.


Charles Handy (1993) believes there are four types of culture. Charles Handy popularised a typology of organisations and cultures. Handy also uses four Greek gods to illustrate his basic approaches and the organisational cultures.


Power 'ZEUS' Culture:There is one source of power and influence. This is most likely to be the owner of the organisation, who strives to maintain absolute control over employees. There are few procedures and rules of a formal kind. [soi.org].
A good example of this would be my family business which is a car garage.My brother’s is the owner and tells the rest exactly what, when, and how to do things. There are no set rules other than the ones he makes.
Role 'APOLLO' Culture:In this version of culture, people describe their job by its duties, not by its purpose. It is a bureaucratic organisation, where the structure determines the authority and responsibility of individuals and there is a strong emphasis on hierarchy and status [soi.org].
A good example would be Nando’s; their employees are given job titles with set tasks and activities to do. They have a set of regulations in place to manage activity and service.
Person 'DIONYSUS' Culture: This is characterised by the fact that it exists to satisfy the requirements of the particular individual(s) involved in the organisation. The person culture is to be found in a small, highly participatory organisation where individuals undertake all the duties themselves [soi.org].
An example would be T-Mobile who are very focused on making it the best place to work for its employees. The pay is very competitive with other companies and the management team is very supportive. Therefore they have people culture.
Task 'ATHENA' Culture: This is a 'can-do' attitude, often created by the project teams or matrix structures in an organic manner, respective to change [soi.org].
An example would be ParKo Textile is famous with its high quality organic cotton based products. Their main aim is to achieve their set targets which are to have competitive prices, produce best organic cotton with fast delivery times.


Problems of trying to classify culture into one of the four types
Finding the right balance and achieving the right balance is hard between Schein’s different types of culture involves countering the excesses that all four cultures can easily develop — respectively, autocracy, bureaucracy, and disintegration. A successful mix will also embrace individualistic Dionysus.


Another factor is that different operating units within the organisation require different structures. Some units or functions will be operating in a steady-state environment, where there are very few changes and the future is reasonably predictable, whereas others are subject to a great deal of change not just in what they do but also in how they do it. Consequently, it is desirable to have different approaches to managing and different "cultures’ in different units therefore organisations need to be able to have the right mix of the cultures within their company.

The other problem would be that everyone is different, one individual may have the skills required for the job but may not get the job because the company may feel they don't fit into the culture of the organisation and other may fit the culture and get the job but not necessarily have the skills required. Therefore this method can be unfair on some individuals.


Microsoft demonstrates strong culture because they have great leaders who inspire. They pull in talented and high-performing staff members and develop them. They are a very successful well known organisation who is known to get things done right most of the time. This shows they have very strong culture present within the organisation in order to make it a success.
[microsoft.com/mallbusiness/resources/management/pay-benefits/5-steps-to-a-strong-company-culture.aspx#stepstoastrongcompanyculture]


Conclusion
Culture is a fundamental characteristic of any organisation. Finding the right fit for any organisation will be hard but will help with the success of the company. Also not everyone within the organisation will fit the culture that already exists but they may be able to do the job well. Therefore organisations need to be careful not to rely on culture entirely for a successful team. Different people fit different cultures and work well with their own type therefore an organisation needs to be able to recognise this in order to be a success.

References:
(Anon.), (n.d), (s.l), (s.n) (online). Available from: http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/Culture.htm. [Accessed on 03rd December 2009]
(Anon.), (2009), (s.l), [online] Available from: http://www.soi.org/reading/change/culture.shtml [Accessed on 03rd December 2009]
Farmer, M. [2008] People and organisations. Essex
(Anon.), (2009), (s.l), [online] Available from: http://www.mcdonalds/culture.co.uk. [Accessed on 08th December 2009]
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/students/mcdonalds_does_good/diversity_at_mcdonalds.html
(Anon.), (2009), (s.l), [online] Available from: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/headlines/jiawu-010509.aspx [Accessed on 10th December 2009]