Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture

Gareth Morgan has described organizational culture as: "The set of the set of beliefs, values, and norms, together with symbols like dramatized events and personalities, that represents the unique character of an organization, and provides the context for action in it and by it." Beliefs and values are words that will pop up frequently in other definitions, as well. Norms might be described as traditions, structure of authority, or routines. (http://www.organizationalculture101.com/definition-of-organizational-culture.html).

An organizational culture can sometimes just be how the company ‘feels’ – a positive organizational culture needs to suit the needs, beliefs and feelings of the employees for the organization to work efficiently and creatively.

Power Culture

Within a power culture, control is the key element. Power cultures are usually found within a small or medium size organization. Decisions in an organization that display a power culture are centralized around one key individual. That person likes control and the power behind it and may perhaps be an autocratic manager. As group work is not evident in a power culture, the organization can react quickly to dangers around it as no consultation is involved. However this culture has its problems, lack of consultation can lead to staff feeling undervalued and de-motivated, which can also lead to high staff turnover. As a result employees will be unengaged and creativity will not flourish.

Role Culture

Common in most organizations today is a role culture. In a role culture, organizations are split into various functions and each individual within the function is assigned a particular role. The role culture has the benefit of specialization. Employee’s focus on their particular role as assigned to them by their job description and this should increase productivity for the company. This culture is quite logical to organize in a large organization.

However this culture isn’t very flexible, staff cannot feel benefits of job enlargement and may get bored of the repetitive workload.

Task Culture

A task culture refers to a team based approach to complete a particular task. They are popular in today's modern business society where the organization will establish particular 'project teams' to complete a task to date. A task culture clearly offers some benefits. Staff feel motivated because they are empowered to make decisions within their team, they will also feel valued because they may have been selected within that team and given the responsibility to bring the task to a successful end. NASA organize part of their culture around this concept i.e. putting together teams to oversee a mission.

Person culture

Person cultures are commonly found in charities or non-profit organizations. The focus of the organization is the individual or a particular aim

Forward and backward looking cultures. 


Organizations that have an entrepreneurial spirit, always embrace change and listen to staff and customers are said to be forward looking. Forward-looking organizations are risk takers and do well because of it. We can argue that Dyson the vacuum cleaner manufacturer embraces this culture. A backward looking culture does not embrace change and is led by systems and procedures. They do not take risk and because of it are usually left with a business not doing so well UK store Marks and Spencers is said to be 'backward looking' i.e. slow to change.

(http://www.learnmanagement2.com/culture.htm).

From the various organizational cultures organizations use, I think the culture that provides the most potential for innovation and creativity is the task culture, because employees are put into project groups, there is the opportunity for employees to work with others from other departments, giving them the chance to develop ideas based on a variety of perspectives and experiences from each department, as well as learning interpersonal and cross-departmental skills.