Human Resources Managing Organisational Culture

The values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization make up the organizations culture. Organizational culture is the summation total of an organization's past and current suppositions, incidents, viewpoint, and values that hold it together, and is articulated in its self-image, inner workings, connections with the outside world, and future prospects.

In dealing with the management of organisational culture, it is firstly essential to recognize as fully as possible the characteristics of the existing or new target culture to include the myths, symbols, rituals, values and assumptions that strengthen the culture. Organisational culture is not something that can be viewed very easily it is consequently quite hard to replace it. Usually when certain leaders form a company, their values are converted into the actions of the members of that organisation. When other leaders take over, it may not be as easy to alter those perspectives right away. Sometimes some of their actions; like rewards may transform the ways workers go about their day-to-day activities but it may be hard to change their culture.

Companies that wish to manage cultures should encourage participation of other members of the organisation in the development activities, decision making and input to the organisation. This will make the workers feel as though they are valuable members of the organisation and they will be motivated to work harder. Lastly, the company should go out of its way to facilitate better communication between members of the organisation. This can be achieved through teamwork integration. It will go a long way in maintaining systems that help the company to stay ahead of its competitors.

Aims - Objectives

The purpose of this paper is to define culture management is and its conceptual underpinnings and then look to see how cultural management is important to the successes of a company. The different approaches to implementing culture management in practice will be looked at and practical ways of implementing culture management will also be discussed. Strategies for using HRM to improve company culture will be discussed in the UK, China and India in order to determine how HRM can be used to make the transition from doing business in the UK to doing business in China and India.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Aims - Objectives

Introduction

Literature Review

Culture as a Broad Concept

Managing Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture in the UK

Managing Organizational Culture in the UK

Organizational Culture in China

Managing Organizational Culture in China

Organizational Culture in India

Managing Organizational Culture in India

Cultural Comparisons

19 UK and India

20 UK and China

Analysis and Discussion

How to Improve Corporate Culture

Theories of Culture

Edgar Schein Theory

Hofstede's Theory

Charles Handy's Culture Theory

Trompenaars's Culture Theory

Cultural Relativism

How to Improve Corporate Culture in the UK

How to Improve Corporate Culture in China

How to improve Corporate Culture in India

Conclusion

Recommendations

References

Introduction

Organizational culture is the workplace environment formulated from the association of the workers in the workplace. "Organizational culture is defined by all of the life experiences, strengths, weaknesses, education, upbringing, and so forth of the employees" (Organizational Culture: Corporate Culture in Organizations, 2012). While executive leaders play a large role in defining organizational culture by their actions and leadership, all employees contribute to the organizational culture. The values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization make up the organizations culture. Organizational culture is the summation total of an organization's past and current suppositions, incidents, viewpoint, and values that hold it together, and is articulated in its self-image, inner workings, connections with the outside world, and future prospects (Organizational Culture, 2012).

It is founded on collective attitudes, beliefs, and customs, express or implied contracts, and written and unwritten rules that the organization expands over time and that have worked well enough to be considered valid. Also called corporate culture, it manifests in the ways the organization performs its business, treats its workers, customers, and the wider society, the degree to which autonomy and freedom is permitted in decision making, developing new ideas, and personal appearance, how authority and information flow through its hierarchy, and the strength of worker commitment towards collective objectives. It is phrased strong or weak to the extent it is diffused throughout the organization. It affects the organization's output and performance, and provides strategies on customer care and service; product excellence and security; attendance and promptness; and concern for the environment. It expands also to production-methods, marketing and advertising...

While there are many common elements in the large organizations of any country, organizational culture is unique for every organization and one of the hardest things to change (Organizational Culture, 2012).
Although every company and its corporate culture are individual, three important components present in successful management. First, the vision, mission and value definitions of the company owner are clear and concise, permitting workers to better comprehend the focus of the business. Second, workers understand their expected contributions to attain company goals and objectives, based on the leader's mission. Finally, employees should adopt attitudes that support and focus on the company's goals and strategies (Pirraglia, 2012).

Edgar H. Schein developed a model to clarify the basic fundamentals of cultures. Edgar Schein's model looks like the functionalistic models put forward by cultural theorists such as Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars, and can be used to examine all kinds of cultures including corporate and national cultures. The models put forward all suppose that cultures can be clarified and understood by looking at the core principles and suppositions of a given culture (Edgar H. Schein's Model of Organizational Culture, 2010).

This report will look at the relevant literature that exists in regards to organizational culture and how it can be managed via human resource management in the Literature Review section. Organizational culture will be looked at in respect to the UK, China and India. An analysis and discussion on how to improve corporate culture will follow the literature review. Major theories of culture will then be discussed followed by a conclusion and recommendations.

Literature Review

Culture as a Broad Concept

In its very broadest sense, culture serves to outline different groupings of people on the foundation of the extent to which each group is professed and perceives itself to divide similar ways of seeing and interrelating with the animate, inanimate and spiritual world. Cultures are based in history, developing over time as groups establish patterns of behaviour and belief that seem effective in helping them to interpret and interact with the world in which they find themselves. In addition to providing implicit guidelines for behaviour and the channelling of emotion, cultures serve to give people a sense of belonging through collective identity and thus break down the inherent segregation of the individual. It is also significant to comprehend that culture can also define differences amid groups. Culture identifies exacting groups by their resemblances as well as their differences. Even though cultures are self-motivated to the degree that altered circumstances can lead to the amalgamation of new patterns of behaviour or ideologies, characteristically these are overlaid on existing middle assumptions and therefore a culture may exhibit what seem to be multifaceted uncertainties or inconsistencies until such time new behavioural alterations to the environment give rise to a new belief system and set of core assumptions. This can be clearly seen in the case of egalitarianism, a value that is probably associated with a core assumption that life should be lived cooperatively, rather than competitively and commercialisation of labour, they also now show eagerness for job or salary-related status which tends to be linked with spirited behaviour. It may be that over time, as behaviours and values move towards competitiveness, deeply held suppositions about the feasibility of supportive relationships will also shift to highlight the superior viability of competitive associations (Organizational Culture and Performance, n.d.).

Managing Organizational Culture

In dealing with the management of organisational culture, it is firstly essential to recognize as fully as possible the characteristics of the existing or new target culture to include the myths, symbols, rituals, values and assumptions that strengthen the culture. Subsequently, action can be instigated in any of several key points of leverage:

recruitment, selection and replacement -- culture management can be affected by ensuring that appointments strengthen the existing culture/s or support a culture shift; removal and replacement may be used to dramatically change the culture;

socialisation -- induction and subsequent development and training can provide for acculturation to an existing or new culture and also for improved interpersonal communication and teamwork, which is especially critical in fragmented organisational cultures;

performance management/reward systems -- can be used to highlight and encourage desired behaviours which may or may not in turn lead to changed values;

leadership and modelling -- by executives, managers, supervisors can reinforce or assist in the overturning of existing myths, symbols, behaviour and values, and demonstrates the universality and integrity of vision, mission or value statements;

participation -- of all organisation members in cultural reconstruction or maintenance activities and associated input, decision-making and development activities is essential if long-term change in values, and not just behaviours, is to be achieved;

interpersonal communication -- satisfying interpersonal relationships do much to support an existing organisational culture and…