MARY GRACE D.

CONSTANTINO
MBA 522 – CURRENT ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT

ORGANIZATION CULTURE

I considered myself as lucky enough to live in this world longer until today that we
come across world health crisis or pandemic. Since this issue occur every centennial and it
happened in our time I can tell that way of management before is different from today. Issues
and challenges faced by corporate are far different from previous experiences.

We have samples of early management, some says ―Past is past‖ but without
historical remains there will be no improvement at all. There will be no comparative
advantage in this matter and one of the best examples of management is the construction of
pyramid of Egypt. Imagine how they manage to construct that very magical and historical
wonder of the world. When it comes to historical event of management let’s ruminate the
publication of Adam Smith’s ―wealth of nation‖ in which he argued the benefits of division
of labor ―job specification‖ which is very crucial in today’s corporate world without this
division of labor I wonder if the company today will still be standing after a century. The
building factories where managers word with guided norm and management theories its
effectiveness compared to manufacturing at home.

There are various theories in classical approach from Frederick W. Taylor known as
the father of scientific management; he studied manual work using scientific principles
guidelines in improving production efficiency. The Gilbreth’s primary contribution was
finding hand-and-body motions designing new and appropriate tools and equipment in
optimizing work performance. Fayol develops 14 principles of management from which
many current management concepts and techniques have evolved normally used when
performing functions of management and organizational structures. Weber’s ideal type of
organization is bureaucracy which is actually used by many large organizations today which
starts from hierarchical management, division of labor, formal selection process, career
orientation, formal rules and impersonality.

When it comes to behavioural approach it is believed that people are the most
important asset of organization. There are many theories on motivation, leadership, group
behaviour and development and other issues are traced here.

Quantitative approaches involved statistics, optimization models, information, and

computer simulations to management activities. Managers usually use this approach to
control resources, quality improvement and total quality management.

The contemporary approach helps understand how each unit work well together to
achieve common goal of the organization. This also says that the resources and inputs are
gathered externally that transformed to outputs that is distributed to the environment.
 Upon reading the story shown below I understand how important ―organizational
culture‖ is in corporate world. I thought it is just one of ordinary key takeaways.

Objectives:

1. Contrast the actions of managers according to the omnipotent and symbolic views;
2. Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture; and
3. Describe current issues in organizational culture.

Objective 1. Contrast the actions of managers according to the omnipotent and

symbolic views.

OMNIPOTENT VIEW OF SYMBOLIC VIEW OF MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT
Managers are directly responsible for an
organization’s success or failure
the quality of organization is determined by
the quality of its managers
Managers are held most accountable for an
organization’s performance yet it is difficult
to attribute good or poor performance
directly to their influence in an organization.
Much of organization’s failure and success is
due to external forces outside managers’
control
The ability of managers to affect outcome in
influence and constrained by external factors:
economy; customers; governmental policies;
competitors; industry conditions; technology;
and the actions of previous managers.
Managers symbolize control and influence
through their action.
Omnipotent View sample

When profits are up, managers take the credit and are rewarded with bonuses, stock options,
and the like. When profits are down, top managers are often fired in the belief that ―new
blood‖ will bring improved results. For instance, the CEO of Cott Corporation was fired
because some of its largest customers were threatening to leave and the company’s share
prices had declined sharply. In this view, someone has to be held accountable when
organizations perform poorly regardless of the reasons, and that ―someone‖ is the manager.
Of course, when things go well, managers also get the credit—even if they had little to do
with achieving the positive outcomes.

Symbolic View Sample

This view is labeled ―symbolic‖ because it’s based on the belief that managers symbolize
control and influence. How do they do that? By developing plans, making decisions, and
engaging in other managerial activities to make sense out of random, confusing, and
ambiguous situations. However, the actual part that managers play in organizational success
or failure is limited according to this view.

Objective 2. Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture.

Each one of us has personality. And in corporate word its analogy is the culture of the
company, which depends on how employees act on behalf of the company towards other
stakeholders. This culture could also be the environment, attitude and behaviour of an
organization within the business.

Like in our previous example JetBlue W. L. & Associates know for innovative and quality
was committed to 4 basic principles (1) fairness to one another and everyone you come in
contact with; (2) freedom to encourage, help, and allow other associates to grow in
knowledge, skill, and scope of responsibility; (3) the ability to make your own commitments
and keep them; and (4) consulting other associates before taking actions that could affect the
company’s reputation.
In short Organizational Culture is shared values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing
things that influence the way organizational members act. In most organizations, these shared
values and practices have evolved over time and determine, to a large extent, how ―things are
done around here‖ like values, symbols, rituals, myth, and practices.

Implications: culture is perception; shared; and descriptive.

Remember that all organizations have cultures but not all cultures equally influence
employees’ behaviours and actions. Those strong cultures are those that much influence the
behaviour and actions than those weak cultures. The more employees accept the
organization’s key values and the greater their commitment to those values, the stronger the
culture is. The stronger a culture becomes, the more it affects the way managers plan,
organize, lead, and control.
In your opinion, why is strong organizational culture important?

How do we establish and maintain culture?

This is normally improved goal of company evidence by its mission and vision. There are
certain criteria on how they choose employees not only by qualifications but how these
employees fits to the organization in the long run. The top management have major impact on
the organization’s culture. Managers should walk the talk to gain the loyalty and respect of
employees, but at the end of the day managers have the final decision. They usually establish
and amend norms of an organization. When employees are chosen to fit in the organization
they should maintain and adapt to the company’s culture by socialization. This process helps
employees learn ways of how organizations do things.

How Employees learn culture?

There are 4 common ways to learn organization culture:

1. Stories – this contains narrative of significant events or people including such things
as the organization’s founders, rule breaking, reactions to past mistakes, and so forth
some shares the heroic act of employees that will serve as an inspiration.
2. Rituals - repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the important
values and goals of the organization. This includes where employees should eat how
they mingle with co-employees. Promoting skills and knowledge continuous
improvement and innovation and acquiring skills. Celebrating success of individual,
team, and organization as a whole incentivising employees and giving gifts for a job
well done. Focusing on personal milestone celebrating anniversaries and birthdays
shows employees that they are most valued.
3. Material artefacts and symbols - Material symbols convey to employees who is
important and the kinds of behavior (for example, risk taking, conservative,
authoritarian, participative, individualistic, and so forth) that are expected and
appropriate.
 4. Language - Many organizations and units within organizations use language as a way
to identify and unite members of a culture. By learning this language, members attest
to their acceptance of the culture and their willingness to help preserve it.

How Cultures affects Managers

Managerial Decisions affected by cultures

Planning

• The degree of risk that plans should contain

• Whether plans should be developed by individuals or teams

• The degree of environmental scanning in which management will engage

Organizing

• How much autonomy should be designed into employees’ jobs

• Whether tasks should be done by individuals or in teams

• The degree to which department managers interact with each other

Leading

• The degree to which managers are concerned with increasing employee job satisfaction

• What leadership styles are appropriate

• Whether all disagreements—even constructive ones—should be eliminated

Controlling

• Whether to impose external controls or to allow employees to control their own actions

• What criteria should be emphasized in employee performance evaluations

• What repercussions will occur from exceeding one’s budget

Objective 3. Describe current issues in organizational culture.

1. Creating an Innovative Culture

Every successful company needs culture that supports innovation as you would notice to
different companies of gadgets and appliances.

What does an innovative culture look like? According to Swedish researcher Goran
Ekvall, it would be characterized by the following:

2. Creating a Customer-Responsive Culture

 3. Spirituality and Organizational Culture
Five cultural characteristics of Spirituality and Organizational Culture

Critics of the spirituality movement have focused on two issues: legitimacy (Do
organizations have the right to impose spiritual values on their employees?) and
economics (Are spirituality and profits compatible?).
Another found that organizations that provided their employees with opportunities for
spiritual development outperformed those that didn’t. Others reported that spirituality
in organizations was positively related to creativity, ethics, employee satisfaction, job
involvement, team performance, and organizational commitment

References:

https://hostnezt.com/cssfiles/businessadmin/Management%20by%20Robins%2011th%20ed.p
df

https://www.slideshare.net/sandeepmahto/organizational-culture-and-environment-
35350788?fbclid=IwAR2hw7LbzlCTPNAzWaHXT8J-
vIeH7zRMfwVEvDRVkMdRdGsE9UIe192wAPY

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-company-rites-rituals-66258.html

https://www.slideshare.net/tanvirahmed9849912/chapter-3-management-9-th-edition-by-
robbins-and-coulter