People of different nations develop their national identity by the use of different language , by having their characteristic appearance , cooking in a proper way with their national spices etc. Same things happen to the employees of companies. They develop the identity of people working in the same company , what is called organisation culture.
There are many different companies in the Wycombe's Eden Centre , in which the visible aspects of organisation culture are easy to see.
Language or jargon of people working within one company is being uniqe as they use words that have a certain meaning for them and not many people will understand it. For example , employees of phone shop like the T-Mobile or the 3-store when speaking to their customer can ask their colleagues about any offer in the way the customer will not understand as he doesn't know their technical jargon. Same situation happens when an employee of The Perfume Shop is being asked by the customer to see if they have Herrera Sexy Man perfume in stock , and he or she just asks the colleauge to check the maroon 212 in stock.
People working for the companies have some obvious unwritten rules and expectations like saying hello to people passing by just to make them visit their shops or explaining their customers why should they buy in their shop. They are also expected to provide their customer as much help as possible to make them feel comfortable.
There are some rituals or habits being a usual thing for people representing different types of organisational culture. For example , in the Tesco , when paying for their products , customers are being asked for coins to make the cashiers work easier when giving the rest of the banknotes received. In phone shops , dealers are often walking around the shop and try to catch their customers. In sport shop , the staff often explains how good their products are using their own sport experience. In a cafe or a restaurant when ordering a food , the waiter often say that there is a better meal deal in the same price to consider.
The communication of the employees in different companies is a highly visible difference as waiters , barmans and chefs in a restaurant try to communicate as good as possible , because they are meant to work as a team , whereas phone shop dealers talk to each other , but not a lot because they want to gain as many customers as possible for their own , because the more customers they personally get , the more money they can earn.
Last but not the least , the way the people dress and their work pace are a uniqe thing for the companies ther work for. In Vision Express , the salesman is wearing smart suit and very often glasses. He or she is walking with a normal speed taking care about everything they do. They try to look clever so that their customers get the feeling that they are being served by the experts that want to work good and take their time to do it. Phone shop dealers often wear a part of their daily outfit that makes them look like the dealer , for example a shirt with a logo , t-shirt , jacket , tie or all together. Their working pace is low. When it comes to barmans , waiters and chefs in a cafe or a restaurant , they all wear similar uniforms , they all work as fast as possible to serve as many customers as they can in the shortest time.
Different types of organisational culture might be classified by a number of ways. Handy described four main types of organisational cultures.
Power culture defines an organisation with a central power source and strong individuals being a force of influence coming from that source through the organisation. There are not many rules and procedures as effectiveness of that organisation relies on trust , empathy and communication within it. For example , Starbucks cafe is a organisation that may be definied with power culutre. There is a store manager in every store , who is a strong individual with the influence from the strong power centre that is the board of the company's directors. That manager influences it's employees so that they work good as a team as they communicate well , trust each other and then gain profit to the company without any examples of big bureaucracy.
Role culture is a way to define a company that is based on bureaucracy , logic and rationality. The company with a role culture depends mainly on the strength of it's experts that are working on making the company better in cases of production , finance , sales etc. The interaction between them is controlled by rules and co-ordinated by their managers. Position is more important than the individual and proclaims the main source of power. The example of a company with the role culture in the Wycombe's Eden Centre is Tesco. Tesco is a big company selling the products of other companies working in co-operation with and it's own made by it's manufacture. Tesco has got it's experts , controlled by the board of directors. Tesco's experts can improve many things , but first they have to ask for permission. They can have ideas for better ways for the company but without agreement with the company's directors , they can't do anything.
Task culture is the kind of work culture that is to be noticed when different companies or strong individuals are working together on single projects. Music festival is one of the most simple examples of project , in preparation of which , the task culture happens. To prepare that kind of event , several companies or small firms must gather together. There must be a company providing food and drinks. Security must be provided by national forces e.g. Police or a private security company. To make the stage , a proper scenery and sound system , another company must be hired. After the festival , they might get together to do some more of that events or never meet again.
Person Culture gather together people doing similar or same types of work. They share the same office space and use one structure to work easier. For example , cardiologist , nurse , gynecologist and dentist are all working in medicine. They can open their own private clinic even in a flat. They can hire one secretary to sign their patients in and take care of the paperwork so that they can share all the costs equally between them and often earn more money than they would in hospital. Usually , they would be using much better equipment than they would in hospital as well.
Language or jargon of people working within one company is being uniqe as they use words that have a certain meaning for them and not many people will understand it. For example , employees of phone shop like the T-Mobile or the 3-store when speaking to their customer can ask their colleagues about any offer in the way the customer will not understand as he doesn't know their technical jargon. Same situation happens when an employee of The Perfume Shop is being asked by the customer to see if they have Herrera Sexy Man perfume in stock , and he or she just asks the colleauge to check the maroon 212 in stock.
People working for the companies have some obvious unwritten rules and expectations like saying hello to people passing by just to make them visit their shops or explaining their customers why should they buy in their shop. They are also expected to provide their customer as much help as possible to make them feel comfortable.
There are some rituals or habits being a usual thing for people representing different types of organisational culture. For example , in the Tesco , when paying for their products , customers are being asked for coins to make the cashiers work easier when giving the rest of the banknotes received. In phone shops , dealers are often walking around the shop and try to catch their customers. In sport shop , the staff often explains how good their products are using their own sport experience. In a cafe or a restaurant when ordering a food , the waiter often say that there is a better meal deal in the same price to consider.
The communication of the employees in different companies is a highly visible difference as waiters , barmans and chefs in a restaurant try to communicate as good as possible , because they are meant to work as a team , whereas phone shop dealers talk to each other , but not a lot because they want to gain as many customers as possible for their own , because the more customers they personally get , the more money they can earn.
Different types of organisational culture might be classified by a number of ways. Handy described four main types of organisational cultures.
Power culture defines an organisation with a central power source and strong individuals being a force of influence coming from that source through the organisation. There are not many rules and procedures as effectiveness of that organisation relies on trust , empathy and communication within it. For example , Starbucks cafe is a organisation that may be definied with power culutre. There is a store manager in every store , who is a strong individual with the influence from the strong power centre that is the board of the company's directors. That manager influences it's employees so that they work good as a team as they communicate well , trust each other and then gain profit to the company without any examples of big bureaucracy.
Role culture is a way to define a company that is based on bureaucracy , logic and rationality. The company with a role culture depends mainly on the strength of it's experts that are working on making the company better in cases of production , finance , sales etc. The interaction between them is controlled by rules and co-ordinated by their managers. Position is more important than the individual and proclaims the main source of power. The example of a company with the role culture in the Wycombe's Eden Centre is Tesco. Tesco is a big company selling the products of other companies working in co-operation with and it's own made by it's manufacture. Tesco has got it's experts , controlled by the board of directors. Tesco's experts can improve many things , but first they have to ask for permission. They can have ideas for better ways for the company but without agreement with the company's directors , they can't do anything.
Task culture is the kind of work culture that is to be noticed when different companies or strong individuals are working together on single projects. Music festival is one of the most simple examples of project , in preparation of which , the task culture happens. To prepare that kind of event , several companies or small firms must gather together. There must be a company providing food and drinks. Security must be provided by national forces e.g. Police or a private security company. To make the stage , a proper scenery and sound system , another company must be hired. After the festival , they might get together to do some more of that events or never meet again.
When trying to classify culture into one of the four types described above , the main problem in my opinion is that in some companies there may be more than one type of organisational culture occuring. For example , in an law firm , when one of the lawyers finds out a new method with solving their main problems , he can't do it without permission of the rest of the firm's lawyers as it may cause the bad reputation for the firm. Then there are both person and role culture occuring in an organisation. To choose one of more than one types occuring it needs to be seen , which one of them is stronger. In that example it's obvious that it would be the person culture as it is a law firm. But it might get more difficult if all of the organisation culture types occur in a big company like Tesco.
In conclusion , culture is the way of identyfing one to a group. There is a thing like organisational culture , when people of different types of companies develop their identity. Handy explained four types of organisational culture , but it may be difficult in some examples to classify only one type for some companies.
Bibliography:
- Mullins , Laurie J. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
- Primary research: walk around the Eden Centre in High Wycombe.
Bibliography:
- Mullins , Laurie J. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
- Primary research: walk around the Eden Centre in High Wycombe.
Another detailed blog, remember to reference every source. Well done
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