Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Organizational Culture EssayThis essay/assignment is a solution topic on Organizational Culture. It reviews the Hofstede Model and Schein Model as well as tries to understand the the dynamics which influences the occupational cultures. This is a sample paper. The definition of culture cadaver quite ambiguous with researchers assessing it utilising different methodologies. The communal understanding of culture is a way of doing things, or the norm by which a society organizes its tasks. However, the terminology tends to be classified more than distinctly when looked upon in the aspect of organizations and their schemes of performing actions. Two of the most prominent researchers on this aspect of organizational behaviour are Geert Hofstede and Edgar Schein. from each one has presented the concept of organizational culture using a paradigm based on the values and thinking exhibited by the workers of an organization, but has assessed different levels of adaptation and integr ating that bind this aspect of culture.According to Hofstede, culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one group from another. Culture in this spirit is a system of collectively held values. On the other hand, Schein has taken a slightly different approach and states culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization that operate unconsciously and define in a basic taken for granted fashion an organizations view of its self and its milieu. The common notion among researchers is that every organization exhibits certain values and norms in the business environment and a company will likely end up portraying two things organizational culture and corporate culture. The former is based on what the company is, while the latter principle is an embodiment of the vision and personality of the company, making up what a company has.Both Schein and Hofstede showed similarities in their pr esentation of the concept of organizational culture by applying a focus on the rational assumptions that shape the ideology of culture and give rise to the norms and values that end up being regarded as the primary character of an organization. However, the anthropological approach pick out by them towards organizational culture varied greatly. Hofstede favoured the etic or dimensional approach, where the description of behaviour is very neutral and can be applied to various cultures. A key reasoning for this is the linkage he presented between the matter cultureprevalent in the business environment that an organization operates in, and its resulting effects on the establishment of the norms that are applied by the organization itself. On the other hand, Schein looked upon organizational behaviour with an emic approach, describing the dimensions that affected companies by viewing it from the aspect of a person within the culture.Hofstede undertook an extensive research process within IBM, to understand the behaviour it and its employees exhibited crossways the many offices it had in the world. His ideology was that organizational behaviour was greatly influenced by national and regional pagan groupings. The conclusion from the research conducted allowed Hofstede to present five characteristics of culture that he believed were exhibited by organizations in one way or form across the world. These included power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity vs. femininity, long vs. short term orientation, and individualism vs. collectivism. Scheins organizational model looked at culture from the standpoint of an beholder and presented three levels to describe the complex workings involved in a company. At the first level were the observable artefacts, pointing to those attributes which could be seen, heard or matte by the observer.The second level was the exposed values, which referred to the professed culture of the organization by its members. At the th ird level lie tacit assumptions, which are made up of the unseen elements of culture of an organization that become the unspoken rules of the company. While Hofstedes model of organization culture relies on the tried and tested ideology of cultural theorists by underlying the determination of culture in an organization from core values and assumptions of a given national culture, Scheins model brings about more functionality to the subject area by delving into a deeper understanding of the factors that influenced the exhibited culture in the organization.Hofstedes IBM study developed linkages between personality and culture, by relating to individuals as components of societies, and organizations a resultant of both. Schein presented the notion of learning as a part of the organizational culture, and one of the building blocks that courted different operators in its assimilation and establishment. In both models, the common factor remains the individuals who form the organization, a nd in many ways are responsible for providing the behavioural traits to the company in order to portray a sense of belonging.The divergence in itsinitiation relates to the variance held by Hofstede and Schein, with the former attributing the national culture being the driving force, while the latter focuses on the various actors who bring in a exercise in the creation of the organizational entity as the contributors to the culture of that establishment. While personality will play a part in the integrating between the original and acquired culture, the need for understanding the dynamics which influence the occupational cultures is important in order to become aware of the human factor and its role in the process.ReferencesHofstede, G. McCrae, R. (2004) Personality and Culture Revisited Linking Traits and Dimensions of Culture, Cross-Cultural Research, Volume 38, No. 1, pp. 52 88 Schein, E. (1996) Culture The Missing Concept in Organization Studies, administrative Science Quart erly, Volume 41, Issue 2, pp. 229 240