IntroductionThe rise in non-western organisation's and their successes in the world economy (mainly Japanese) has been the main cause for the research into, and the development of the concepts which underline the key aspects of organisational culture i.e:*What is culture?*How can these cultures be catagorised?*How does culture develop?*How culture is effected by internal and external influences?*And how it can effect other aspects of the organisation, including strategy?*What are the aspects of an "effective" organisational culture?*How culture evolves?*How culture can be managed, changed and nurtured?Many theorists in the business strategy field now believe that the success of ...view middle of the document...
Cultural existences will also affect an organisation's ability to adapt to a changing business environment and grow.There are certain economies to be gained from achieving a well defined organisational culture, (Camerer and Vepsalainen 1988) (see appendix A)Categorising Organisational CulturesThere are various methods of categorising the culture of an organisation,Schein (4) argues that culture has three levels;Diagram 1Where Artifacts are:On the surface aspects, ie what is visible heard and felt by employees. Also visible products, ie Language usage, technology, products, creations and style: clothing, manners of address, myths, stories.These factors are easy to observe but difficult to decipher. Schein warns that symbols are ambiguous and therefore can create Problems in classification.Espoused Values are:Initially started by founder, leader and then assimilated. Original values reflect the group learning process, what first begins as shared values become shared assumptions. They can be identified by viewing the mission of the organisation and the strategies that have been used in the past.Basic Assumptions are:What culture members pay attention to, what they may react emotionally to and what actions to take when certain aspects arrive. Thus, these assumptions are defence mechanisms."Every group must know what its heroic and sinful behaviors are and must achieve consensus on what is a reward and what is a punishment." (Shcein 4) p42The three step approach is used to get access to these deep routed beliefs that are hard to arise, this task must be performed to discuss change - (See page 12)The Organisational Culture Profile (OCP)Developed by O'Reilly, Chatman, and Caldwell (1991) (5), this instrument identifies seven dimensions of organizational culture.*Innovation*Stability*respect for people*outcome orientation*detail orientation*team orientation*aggressivenessTheir studies found that there is a 'person-organisation' fit apparent in many US organisations, ie if an employee's desired cultural values are met in the workplace (eg motivation factors, communication factors etc), the employee is happier and more productive. Support for these seven dimensions comes from Chatman and Jehn, 1994 and Hofstede et al., 1990. Who studied the theory on an international and cross industrial scale respectively.Schein and the OCP give different methodology on how to determine what cultural aspects exist in organisations, but offer no grounds for categorisation of the culture once the results have been obtained.Charles Handy (6) identified four main cultures that are easily identifiable in organisations today, he also analogised them to Greek gods, it is assumed in Handy's theory that culture goes hand in hand with organisational structure. (Detail on Handy's work can be found in appendix B)(8) Diagram 6. Shows the differing factors of each of Handy's groups.Breakdown of Handy's organisational culture typologycharacteristics1Power Culture 2Role culture 3T...
