Contents 1. Performance management: .................................................................................................... 2 1.1. Motivation: ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.2. Personality & Performance ............................................................................................. 7 1.3. Performance Management & Reward: ......................................................................... 13 1.4. Task Performance: The Goal Setting Theory, ................................................................ 14 1.5. Five Principles of Goal Setting ....................................................................................... 14 1.6. Contextual Performance: Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (hereafter, OCB): ..... 16 2. Group dynamics and team working: ..................................................................................... 17 2.1. Types of Groups: ........................................................................................................... 17 3. Leadership, Power and Authority:- ....................................................................................... 23 4. Employee resourcing:- .......................................................................................................... 31 4.1.1. 'Human Resource Planning - HRP' ................................................................................. 32 4.2. Succession Planning: ..................................................................................................... 32 4.3. Selection and Performance ........................................................................................... 33 4.4. Recruitment and selection:- .......................................................................................... 33 4.5. HR Development (Employee development):- ............................................................... 34 4.6. The learning organisation:- ........................................................................................... 35 4.6.1. How to Achieve the Principles of a Learning Organization ........................................... 36 5. Organisational change: ......................................................................................................... 38 6. Conflict ing organisations: ..................................................................................................... 41 7. Organisational structures:..................................................................................................... 42 8. Organisational culture: ......................................................................................................... 50 The Cultural Web ........................................................................................................................ 51
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HR Exam Prep Plan:
This study framework has been developed in accordance with the Human Resources module teaching and the examination study template in accordance with Prof D XXXX. 1. Performance management: Performance management is about creating a culture that encourages the continuous improvement of business processes and of individuals skills, behaviour and contributions
Summary of key points: In the lectures, Performance management was divided into three subtopics as follows:- Motivation Personality and performance Performance management and reward 1.1. Motivation:
Motivation is defined as forces within the individual that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work (Schermerhorn, et al., 2011, p. 102). There are two main motivation theories (illustrated below):-
Key Reading: http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/scholl/webnotes/Motivation.htm 3 | P a g e
1.1.1. Content theories:- Content theories focus on the question of what arouses, sustains and regulates goal directed behaviour ie, the particular things that motivate people. They offer ways to profile or analyse individuals to identify their needs. Often criticised as being static and descriptive they appear to be linked more to job satisfaction than to work effort. Content motivation theories are divided into intrinsic and extrinsic theories. Extrinsic motivation is a construct that pertains whenever an activity is done in order to attain some separable outcome. Extrinsic motivation thus contrasts with intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing an activity simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than its instrumental value. (Ryan and Deci, 2000) Intrinsic Motivation: According to (Ryan and Deci, 2000) (pp. 56), Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence. When intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external products, pressures or reward. Examples: Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory Herzberg Two Factor Theory ERG Theory Achievement Motivation Theory Motivation Content Intrisic Extrinsic Process
Online Lecture: Hawthorne Experiments
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Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory:
Strengths: Since it is a humanistic content theory model, Maslows Hierarchy of Needs greatest strength is its intuitive nature. Intuitive nature is the awareness of emotions. It is this strength that supports practitioners in using the theory despite the lack of supportive evidence (OConnor & Ybatel, 2007).
Practitioners of the theory, those who put it into practice when working within their organizations, understand this flexible, individualized theory as a dynamic solution to motivating members of an organization.
Weaknesses: The appeal of the model is its simplicity, and its use as a first stab analysis. However, when deeper investigation is required, the interviewer requires skill and understanding. Research on the model remains on-going.
Maslow, himself, warned that the model takes into account only 'basic' needs. Other needs, such the need for aesthetics, exist outside the hierarchy.
Online Lecture: Maslow's Need Hierarchy 5 | P a g e
Maslow regarded culture as one of the influencing factors that can cause a change in the Hierarchy's order, but the model does not take into account cultural differences.
1.1.2. Process theories:-
Process theories attempt to explain and describe how people start, sustain and direct behaviour aimed at the satisfaction of needs or the reduction of inner tension. The major variables in process models are incentive, drive, reinforcement and expectancy.
Examples: Goal Setting Theory Vroom's Expectancy Theory Adam's Equity Theory Porter's Performance Satisfaction Model
Expectancy Theory: According to Management: Concepts, Practices, and Skills, by R. Mondy and Shane Premeaux, expectancy theory attempts to explain behaviour in terms of an individuals goals and choices and the expectation of achieving the objectives. The probability of an individual acting in a particular manner will increase when an employee associates it strongly with a given, attractive outcome. When deciding among behavioural options, individuals select the option with the greatest motivation forces (MF). The motivational force for a behaviour, action, or task is a function of three distinct perceptions: Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valance. The motivational force is the product of the three perceptions:
Online Lecture: Expectancy Theory
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The theory states that motivation depends on three variables: Expectancy probability: based on the perceived effort-performance relationship. It is the expectancy that one's effort will lead to the desired performance and is based on past experience, self-confidence, and the perceived difficulty of the performance goal. Example: If I work harder than everyone else in the plant will I produce more? Instrumentality probability: based on the perceived performance-reward relationship. The instrumentality is the belief that if one does meet performance expectations, he or she will receive a greater reward. Example: If I produce more than anyone else in the plant, will I get a bigger raise or a faster promotion?
Strengths: Expectancy theory provides a framework for thinking about how people make choices based upon expectations. Focusing on expectations allows the theory to account for differences in choices between people despite the actual amount of effort necessary to achieve rewards and the actual value of rewards.
Weaknesses: Expectancy theory implies that individuals will only put effort toward something for a reward. This implication seems to conflict with altruism which describes actions done purely to benefit others without regard for personal rewards. One of the drawbacks of expectancy theory is that perceptions about effort, performance and the value of rewards are difficult to quantify so comparisons between different choices or people using the expectancy theory framework may not be accurate.
Other models (Summary): Alderfer's ERG Theory Existence Needs- They need for basic human needs and security/safety. Relatedness Needs- The need to have high quality relationships MF = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valence 7 | P a g e
Growth Needs- Need for continued self-development and competency
Murray/McClelland's Manifest Need Theory Need for Achievement- Need to perform challenging tasks and meet personal standards for excellence Need for Affiliation- Need to establish and maintain good relationships with others. Need for reassurance and approval from others. Need for Power- Need to exert emotional and behavioral influence over others.
1.2. Personality & Performance Personality is defined as those relatively stable and enduring aspects of an individual that distinguish him/her from other people and at the same time form a basis for our predictions concerning his/her future behavior.
The whole issue of whether a trait exists in all people to a greater or lesser degree is complicated by different views of the trait perspective.
There are two different views as to whether all traits exist in all people:
Personality Idiographic: Personality as an integrated whole (what makes a person unique) that may change over the life-course in response to experience Example: Psychodynamic approaches, e.g. Freuds ego super-ego id triad Nomothetic: Personality as a set of stable and relatively fixed characteristics (traits); traits are common to all people, but vary in degree, allowing people to be divided into types. Example: The Big Five personality traits 8 | P a g e
Idiographic: people have unique personality structures; thus some traits (cardinal traits) are more important in understanding the structure of some people than others
Nomothetic: people's unique personalities can be understood as them having relatively greater or lesser amounts of traits that are consistently across people (e.g., the NEO is nomothetic)
The Idiographic view emphasizes that each person has a unique psychological structure and that some traits are possessed by only one person; and that there are times when it is impossible to compare one person with others. This viewpoint also emphasizes that traits may differ in importance from person to person (cardinal, central and secondary traits). It tends to use case studies, bibliographical information, diaries etc for information gathering.
The Nomothetic view, on the other hand, emphasizes comparability among individuals but sees people as unique in their combination of traits. This viewpoint sees traits as having the same psychological meaning in everyone. The belief is that people differ only in the amount of each trait. It is this which constitutes their uniqueness. This approach tends to use self- report personality questions, factor analysis etc. People differ in their positions along a continuum in the same set of traits.
Nomothetic: The Big Five Model: The Five Factor Model is a model of personality that uses five separate factors to describe an individuals character.
The factors of the Big Five and their constituent traits can be summarized as (OCEAN): Openness to experience Inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious. Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.
Conscientiousness Efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless. A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.
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Extraversion outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved Energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.
Agreeableness Friendly/compassionate vs. cold/unkind A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
Neuroticism Sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident. A tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability.
Further reading: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/13139/1/What-Is-the-Five-Factor- Model-of-Personality.html
Strengths & Weaknesses: The Big Five is a very useful model for assessing non-managerial staff, but it lacks some of the rigour required for assessing people in or destined for managerial and executive roles. The Big Five model gives us an accurate and fast way of assessing the main drivers of someone's personality. But the model by itself is not able to drill down into complex management capabilities or competencies. For this we must refer more to work-related behaviours rather than 'pure' personality. Management performance depends more on the subtle use of discretionary elements of the job, which the Big Five will not measure. The Big Five is a 'broad brush' personality methodology. A different approach is required for management assessment, to gauge the 'components' of people's behaviour and the detailed combinations of working style. The strengths of the Big Five Factor model lie in its speed and ease of use and this makes it a very useful tool for gaining a rapid overview of a person's key drivers. The Big Five Factor model has been very well validated, and while it has shown correlations with performance in jobs, studies indicate that the correlation with particular jobs does not 10 | P a g e
exceed 0.30, which accounts for no more than 15% of the variables. There is a big difference between measuring job suitability, style, etc., and measuring personality per se.
Idoigrahpic Freuds ego super-ego id triad: Sigmund Freuds psychoanalysis has endured because it (1) postulated the primacy of sex and aggressiontwo universally popular themes, (2) attracted a group of followers who were dedicated to spreading psychoanalytic doctrine, and (3) advanced the notion of unconscious motives, which permit varying explanations for the same observations.
Levels of Mental Life Freud saw mental functioning as operating on three levelsunconscious, preconscious, and conscious. Unconscious The unconscious includes drives and instincts that are beyond awareness but that motivate most human behaviors. Freud believed that unconscious drives can become conscious only in disguised or distorted form, such as dream images, slips of the tongue, or neurotic symptoms. Unconscious processes originate from two sources: (1) repression, or the blocking out of anxiety-filled experiences and (2) phylogenetic endowment, or inherited experiences that lie beyond an individuals personal experience.
Preconscious The preconscious contains images that are not in awareness but that can become conscious either quite easily or with some level of difficulty. Conscious: plays a relatively minor role in Freudian theory. Conscious ideas stem from either the perception of external stimuli (our perceptual conscious system) or from the unconscious and preconscious after they have evaded censorship.
Provinces of the Mind: Freud conceptualized three regions of the mindthe id, the ego, and the superego. The Id: completely unconscious, serves the pleasure principle and contains our basic instincts. It operates through the primary process. The Ego 11 | P a g e
(secondary process) is governed by the reality principle and is responsible for reconciling the unrealistic demands of the id and the superego.
The Superego: Serves the idealistic principle, has two subsystemsthe conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience results from punishment for improper behavior whereas the ego-ideal stems from rewards for socially acceptable behavior.
1.2.1. Dynamics of Personality
Dynamics of personality refers to those forces that motivate people. Instincts: Freud grouped all human drives or urges under two primary instinctssex (Eros or the life instinct) and aggression (the death or destructive instinct). The aim of the sexual instinct is pleasure, which can be gained through the erogenous zones, especially the mouth, anus, and genitals. The object of the sexual instinct is any person or thing that brings sexual pleasure. All infants possess primary narcissism, or self- centeredness, but the secondary narcissism of adolescence and adulthood is not universal. Both sadism (receiving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on another) and masochism (receiving sexual pleasure from painful experiences) satisfy both sexual and aggressive drives. The destructive instinct aims to return a person to an inorganic state, but it is ordinarily directed against other people and is called aggression. Anxiety: Only the ego feels anxiety, but the id, superego, and outside world can each be a source of anxiety. Neurotic anxiety stems from the egos relation with the id; moral anxiety is similar to guilt and results from the egos relation with the superego; and realistic anxiety, which is similar to fear, is produced by the egos relation with the real world.
Defense Mechanisms Defense mechanisms operate to protect the ego against the pain of anxiety. Repression: involves forcing unwanted, anxiety-loaded experiences into the unconscious. It is the most basic of all defense mechanisms because it is an active process in each of the others. 12 | P a g e
Reaction Formation: Marked by the repression of one impulse and the ostentatious expression of its exact opposite. Displacement: takes place when people redirect their unwanted urges onto other objects or people in order to disguise the original impulse. Fixation: develop when psychic energy is blocked at one stage of development, making psychological change difficult. Some adults may remain fixated on the anal stage of psychosexual development. Regression: occur whenever a person reverts to earlier, more infantile modes of behavior. Some adults may return to the oral stage as a means of reducing anxiety. Projection: is seeing in others those unacceptable feelings or behaviors that actually reside in ones own unconscious. When carried to extreme, projection can become paranoia, which is characterized by delusions of persecution. Introjection: take place when people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego to reduce feelings of inferiority. Sublimation: involve the elevation of the sexual instincts aim to a higher level, which permits people to make contributions to society and culture.
Stages of Development Freud saw psychosexual development as proceeding from birth to maturity through four overlapping stages. Infantile Period The infantile stage encompasses the first 4 to 5 years of life and is divided into three: Sub-phases: oral, anal, and phallic. During the oral phase, an infant is primarily motivated to receive pleasure through the mouth. During the 2nd year of life, a child goes through an anal phase. If parents are too punitive during the anal phase, the child may adopt an anal triad, consisting of orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy. During the phallic phase, boys and girls begin to have differing psychosexual development. At this time, boys and girls experience the Oedipus complex in which they have sexual feelings for one parent and hostile feelings for the other. The male castration complex, which takes the form of castration anxiety, breaks up the male Oedipus complex and results in a well-formed male superego. For girls, however, the castration complex takes the form of penis envy, precedes the female Oedipus 13 | P a g e
complex, leads to a gradual and incomplete shattering of the female Oedipus complex and results it a weaker and more flexible female superego. Latency Period Freud believed that psychosexual development goes through a latency stagefrom about age 5 years until pubertyin which the sexual instinct is partially suppressed. Genital Period The genital period begins with puberty when adolescents experience a reawakening of the genital aim of Eros. The term genital period should not be confused with phallic period. Maturity Freud hinted at a stage of psychological maturity in which the ego would be in control of the id and superego and in which consciousness would play a more important role in behavior.
Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory Freud erected his theory on the dreams, free associations, slips of the tongue, and neurotic symptoms of his patients during therapy. But he also gathered information from history, literature, and works of art.
Critique of Freud Freud regarded himself as a scientist, but many critics consider his methods to be outdated, unscientific, and permeated with gender bias. On the six criteria of a useful theory, psychoanalysis we rate its ability to generate research as high, its openness to falsification as very low, and its ability to organize data as average. We also rate psychoanalysis as average on its ability to guide action and to be parsimonious. Because it lacks operational definitions, we rate it low on internal consistency.
1.3. Performance Management & Reward: 14 | P a g e
Job performance: observable behaviours and outcomes of intellectual activities that contribute to the organizations goals and can be measured in terms of each individuals contribution (Campbell et al., 1996) Two major sub-dimensions of job performance: Task performance: Required & prescribed, directly related to the technical core of the organization, specific to certain jobs. Contextual performance (aka Organisational Citizenship Behaviour, OCB): Voluntary, similar across jobs, improves social context in the organization (e.g., helping co-workers)
1.4. Task Performance: The Goal Setting Theory, This theory states that goal setting is essentially linked to task performance. It states that specific and challenging goals along with appropriate feedback contribute to higher and better task performance. In simple words, goals indicate and give direction to an employee about what needs to be done and how much efforts are required to be put in. Locke's research showed that there was a relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people's performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals. Telling someone to "Try hard" or "Do your best" is less effective than "Try to get more than 80% correct" or "Concentrate on beating your best time." Likewise, having a goal that's too easy is not a motivating force. Hard goals are more motivating than easy goals, because it's much more of an accomplishment to achieve something that you have to work for. A few years after Locke published his article, another researcher, Dr Gary Latham, studied the effect of goal setting in the workplace. His results supported exactly what Locke had found, and the inseparable link between goal setting and workplace performance was formed. In 1990, Locke and Latham published their seminal work, "A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance." In this book, they reinforced the need to set specific and difficult goals, and they outlined three other characteristics of successful goal setting. 1.5. Five Principles of Goal Setting To motivate, goals must have: 1. Clarity. 2. Challenge. 15 | P a g e
3. Commitment. 4. Feedback. 5. Task complexity. a. Clarity Clear goals are measurable and unambiguous. When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded. You know what's expected, and you can use the specific result as a source of motivation. When a goal is vague or when it's expressed as a general instruction, like "Take initiative" it has limited motivational value. To improve your or your team's performance, set clear goals that use specific and measurable standards. "Reduce job turnover by 15%" or "Respond to employee suggestions within 48 hours" are examples of clear goals. When you use the SMART acronym to help you set goals, you ensure the clarity of the goal by making it Specific, Measurable and Time-bound. b. Challenge One of the most important characteristics of goals is the level of challenge. People are often motivated by achievement, and they'll judge a goal based on the significance of the anticipated accomplishment. When you know that what you do will be well received, there's a natural motivation to do a good job. Rewards typically increase for more difficult goals. If you believe you'll be well compensated or otherwise rewarded for achieving a challenging goal, that will boost your enthusiasm and your drive to get it done. Setting SMART goals that are Relevant links them closely to the rewards given for achieving challenging goals. Relevant goals will further the aims of your organization, and these are the kinds of goals that most employers will be happy to reward. When setting goals, make each goal a challenge. If an assignment is easy and not viewed as very important and if you or your employee doesn't expect the accomplishment to be significant then the effort may not be impressive.
Strengths of the Goal Setting Theory Goal setting theory is a technique used to raise incentives for employees to complete work quickly and effectively. 16 | P a g e
Goal setting leads to better performance by increasing motivation and efforts, but also through increasing and improving the feedback quality. Weaknesses of the Goal Setting Theory At times, the organizational goals are in conflict with the managerial goals. Goal conflict has a detrimental effect on the performance if it motivates incompatible action drift. Very difficult and complex goals stimulate riskier behaviour. If the employee lacks skills and competencies to perform actions essential for goal, then the goal-setting can fail and lead to undermining of performance. There is no evidence to prove that goal-setting improves job satisfaction.
Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (hereafter, OCB) has been studied since the late 1970s. Over the past three decades, interest in these behaviours has increased substantially. Organizational behaviour has been linked to overall organizational effectiveness, thus these types of employee behaviours have important consequences in the workplace. 1.6.1. Practical Implications If contextual performance is a fundamental part of the employee performance criteria, then contextual performance should be considered in all aspects of the employment process, this includes selection, performance appraisal, and rewards. Selection procedures should take into account the predictors of both task and contextual performance. Therefore when conducting performance appraisals, organizations may want to explicate that they take into account facets of both contextual and task performance. Lastly, rewards and incentives should be set up to address employees who perform helping behaviours that contribute to the overall goals of an organization as well as behaviours that contribute strictly to individuals projects.
Job performance vs. Personality:
Big Five trait Prediction of task performance Conscientiousness Positively predicts in a wide variety of jobs (strongest Big 5 predictor across jobs) 17 | P a g e
Extraversion Positively predicts in sales and managerial jobs Agreeableness Positively predicts in service jobs Emotional stability Positively predicts in sales, service and managerial jobs Openness Positively predicts in service jobs (& strongest positive Big 5 predictor of creativity)
2. Group dynamics and team working:
A group is any number of people who a) interact with each other, b) are psychologically aware of each other and c) perceive themselves to be a group" (Buchanan & Huczynski) The literature on groups is voluminous but disjointed: it requires a framework to organise and integrate ideas. Groups form for two reasons: Deliberately set up to perform a task/work function (Formal group) Evolve from interaction among individuals arising out of proximity and attraction (Informal) 2.1. Types of Groups:
Formal: Deliberate or constructed Informal: Spontaneous Primary: Small and close Secondary: Larger and distant Co-acting: Individual independence Counteracting: Competitive Reference: Influences behaviour
Vertical Group structure: Status: Value/importance placed on group members. 18 | P a g e
Key issue: congruence between formal status (given by title/position) and informal status (conferred by group members) Power: Ability to influence others' behaviour, stemming from control over resources/knowledge/ideas. Key issue: congruence between formal power (of position) and informal power (of person). Leadership: Process of directing group to certain behaviours. Key issues: Individual vs. Collective leadership Autocratic vs. Laissez-faire vs. Democratic
Horizontal Group Structure: Task roles: (getting job done) and Maintenance roles (keeping group together) (Bales)
Diversity of group members: more effective in long run (Belbin)
Efficiency: To be effective, a group needs a spread/balance (Belbin)
2.2. Group dynamics and team working:-
Tuckman Group Development stages:
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2.3. Belbin Group Roles: Belbin identified nine team roles and he categorized those roles into three groups: Action Oriented, People Oriented, and Thought Oriented. Each team role is associated with typical behavioural and interpersonal strengths. Belbin also defined characteristic weaknesses that tend to accompany each team role. He called the characteristic weaknesses of team roles the "allowable" weaknesses; as for any behavioral weakness, these are areas to be aware of and potentially improve.
The nine team roles are:
Action Oriented Roles: Shaper (SH) Shapers are people who challenge the team to improve. They are dynamic and usually extroverted people who enjoy stimulating others, questioning norms, and finding the best approaches for solving problems. The Shaper is the one who shakes things up to make sure that all possibilities are considered and that the team does not become complacent. Shapers often see obstacles as exciting challenges and they tend to have the courage to push on when others feel like quitting. 20 | P a g e
Their potential weaknesses may be that they're argumentative, and that they may offend people's feelings.
Implementer (IMP): Implementers are the people who get things done. They turn the team's ideas and concepts into practical actions and plans. They are typically conservative, disciplined people who work systematically and efficiently and are very well organized. These are the people who you can count on to get the job done. On the downside, Implementers may be inflexible and can be somewhat resistant to change.
Completer-Finisher (CF): Completer-Finishers are the people who see that projects are completed thoroughly. They ensure there have been no errors or omissions and they pay attention to the smallest of details. They are very concerned with deadlines and will push the team to make sure the job is completed on time. They are described as perfectionists who are orderly, conscientious, and anxious. However, a Completer-Finisher may worry unnecessarily, and may find it hard to delegate.
2.4. People Oriented Roles:
Coordinator (CO)
Coordinators are the ones who take on the traditional team-leader role and have also been referred to as the chairmen. They guide the team to what they perceive are the objectives. They are often excellent listeners and they are naturally able to recognize the value that each team members brings to the table. They are calm and good-natured and delegate tasks very effectively. Their potential weaknesses are that they may delegate away too much personal responsibility, and may tend to be manipulative.
Team Worker (TW) 21 | P a g e
Team Workers are the people who provide support and make sure that people within the team are working together effectively. These people fill the role of negotiators within the team and they are flexible, diplomatic, and perceptive. These tend to be popular people who are very capable in their own right, but who prioritize team cohesion and helping people getting along. Their weaknesses may be a tendency to be indecisive, and to maintain uncommitted positions during discussions and decision-making.
Resource Investigator (RI)
Resource Investigators are innovative and curious. They explore available options, develop contacts, and negotiate for resources on behalf of the team. They are enthusiastic team members, who identify and work with external stakeholders to help the team accomplish its objective. They are outgoing and are often extroverted, meaning that others are often receptive to them and their ideas. On the downside, they may lose enthusiasm quickly, and are often overly optimistic.
2.5. Thought Oriented Roles:
Plant (PL) The Plant is the creative innovator who comes up with new ideas and approaches. They thrive on praise but criticism is especially hard for them to deal with. Plants are often introverted and prefer to work apart from the team. Because their ideas are so novel, they can be impractical at times. They may also be poor communicators and can tend to ignore given parameters and constraints.
Monitor-Evaluator (ME)
Monitor-Evaluators are best at analyzing and evaluating ideas that other people (often Plants) come up with. These people are shrewd and objective and they carefully weigh the pros and cons of all the options before coming to a decision. 22 | P a g e
Monitor-Evaluators are critical thinkers and very strategic in their approach. They are often perceived as detached or unemotional. Sometimes they are poor motivators who react to events rather than instigating them
Specialist (SP) Specialists are people who have specialized knowledge that is needed to get the job done. They pride themselves on their skills and abilities, and they work to maintain their professional status. Their job within the team is to be an expert in the area, and they commit themselves fully to their field of expertise. This may limit their contribution, and lead to a preoccupation with technicalities at the expense of the bigger picture.
Figure 1: Belbin's Team Roles Action Oriented Roles Shaper Challenges the team to improve. Implementer Puts ideas into action. Completer Finisher Ensures thorough, timely completion. People Oriented Roles Coordinator Acts as a chairperson. Team Worker Encourages cooperation. Resource Investigator Explores outside opportunities. Thought Oriented Roles Plant Presents new ideas and approaches. Monitor-Evaluator Analyzes the options. Specialist Provides specialized skills.
Negative Group Roles: AGGRESSOR: deflates others, shows disapproval, attacks group/task, shows envy BLOCKER: negative and stubbornly resistant, disagrees irrationally, tries to revive dead issues 23 | P a g e
RECOGNITION-SEEKER: seeks to draw attention to themselves through boasting of own achievements SELF-CONFESSOR: uses group as audience for non-group related personal feelings and ideas CLASS CLOWN: makes display of lack of involvement in team activity through cynicism, nonchalance or horseplay DOMINATOR: seeks to assert superiority by asserting status and giving orders or manipulating group members by flattery or deals HELP-SEEKER: craves sympathy of group through expressions of insecurity, confusion or self- deprecation SPECIAL PLEADER: disguises personal interest by claiming to speak on behalf of a wider constituency
2.6. Group processes: Communication patterns - Circle, chain, wheel, 'Y' - influence problem-solving and group satisfaction
Synergy: extent to which group is more than the sum of its individual members, through: Interdependence of skills task efficiency Stimulation idea generation/creativity
3. Leadership, Power and Authority:-
Circle 24 | P a g e
Leadership: Is setting goals and using cognitive and normative forms of power and influence to encourage the achievement of those goals with a high level of commitment
3.1. Types of leadership: There are different types of leadership listed below. However for the purposes of the Exam prep, I have only focused on: 3.2. Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership: Key points: Transactional Leadership (in Management) Maintains the status quo Legitimate authority and bureaucracy Clarifies and controls process, rules. systems Based on mutual dependence and exchange Purpose: to engender compliance Transformational Leadership (of Management) Changes the status quo About transforming the organization Based on creativity and innovation Purpose: to engender commitment
3.3. Transactional leadership Assumptions People are motivated by reward and punishment. Social systems work best with a clear chain of command. When people have agreed to do a job, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their manager. The prime purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells them to do.
Style The transactional leader works through creating clear structures whereby it is clear what is required of their subordinates, and the rewards that they get for following orders. Punishments are not always mentioned, but they are also well-understood and formal systems of discipline are usually in place. 25 | P a g e
The early stage of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby the subordinate is given a salary and other benefits, and the company (and by implication the subordinate's manager) gets authority over the subordinate. When the Transactional Leader allocates work to a subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for it, whether or not they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their failure (just as they are rewarded for succeeding). The transactional leader often uses management by exception, working on the principle that if something is operating to defined (and hence expected) performance then it does not need attention. Exceptions to expectation require praise and reward for exceeding expectation, whilst some kind of corrective action is applied for performance below expectation.
Discussion
Transactional leadership is based in contingency, in that reward or punishment is contingent upon performance. Despite much research that highlights its limitations, Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with many managers. Indeed, in the Leadership vs. Management spectrum, it is very much towards the management end of the scale. The main limitation is the assumption of 'rational man', a person who is largely motivated by money and simple reward, and hence whose behaviour is predictable. The underlying psychology is Behaviourism, including the Classical Conditioning of Pavlov and Skinner's Operant Conditioning. These theories are largely based on controlled laboratory experiments (often with animals) and ignore complex emotional factors and social values. In practice, there is sufficient truth in Behaviorism to sustain Transactional approaches. This is reinforced by the supply-and-demand situation of much employment, coupled with the effects of deeper needs, as in Maslow's Hierarchy. When the demand for a skill outstrips the supply, then Transactional Leadership often is insufficient, and other approaches are more effective.
3.4. Transformational leadership 26 | P a g e
Assumptions People will follow a person who inspires them. A person with vision and passion can achieve great things. The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.
Style Working for a Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to succeed.
Developing the vision Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series of discussions. The important factor is the leader buys into it, hook, line and sinker.
Selling the vision The next step, which in fact never stops, is to constantly sell the vision. This takes energy and commitment, as few people will immediately buy into a radical vision, and some will join the show much more slowly than others. The Transformational Leader thus takes every opportunity and will use whatever works to convince others to climb on board the bandwagon. In order to create followers, the Transformational Leader has to be very careful in creating trust, and their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. In effect, they are selling themselves as well as the vision.
Finding the way forwards In parallel with the selling activity is seeking the way forward. Some Transformational Leaders know the way, and simply want others to follow them. Others do not have a ready strategy, but will happily lead the exploration of possible routes to the Promised Land. The route forwards may not be obvious and may not be plotted in details, but with a clear vision, the direction will always be known. Thus finding the way forward can be an ongoing process of course correction, and the Transformational Leader will accept that there will be 27 | P a g e
failures and blind canyons along the way. As long as they feel progress is being made, they will be happy.
Leading the charge The final stage is to remain up-front and central during the action. Transformational Leaders are always visible and will stand up to be counted rather than hide behind their troops. They show by their attitudes and actions how everyone else should behave. They also make continued efforts to motivate and rally their followers, constantly doing the rounds, listening, soothing and enthusing.
It is their unswerving commitment as much as anything else that keeps people going, particularly through the darker times when some may question whether the vision can ever be achieved. If the people do not believe that they can succeed, then their efforts will flag. The Transformational Leader seeks to infect and reinfect their followers with a high level of commitment to the vision. One of the methods the Transformational Leader uses to sustain motivation is in the use of ceremonies, rituals and other cultural symbolism. Small changes get big hurrahs, pumping up their significance as indicators of real progress.
Overall, they balance their attention between action that creates progress and the mental state of their followers. Perhaps more than other approaches, they are people-oriented and believe that success comes first and last through deep and sustained commitment.
Discussion Whilst the Transformational Leader seeks overtly to transform the organization, there is also a tacit promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way, perhaps to be more like this amazing leader. In some respects, then, the followers are the product of the transformation. Transformational Leaders are often charismatic, but are not as narcissistic as pure Charismatic Leaders, who succeed through a belief in themselves rather than a belief in others. One of the traps of Transformational Leadership is that passion and confidence can easily be mistaken for truth and reality. Whilst it is true that great things have been achieved through enthusiastic leadership, it is also true that many passionate people 28 | P a g e
have led the charge right over the cliff and into a bottomless chasm. Just because someone believes they are right, it does not mean they are right. Paradoxically, the energy that gets people going can also cause them to give up. Transformational Leaders often have large amounts of enthusiasm which, if relentlessly applied, can wear out their followers. Transformational Leaders also tend to see the big picture, but not the details, where the devil often lurks. If they do not have people to take care of this level of information, then they are usually doomed to fail.
Finally, Transformational Leaders, by definition, seek to transform. When the organization does not need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be frustrated. Like wartime leaders, however, given the right situation they come into their own and can be personally responsible for saving entire companies.
Key conclusions: 'Leadership' as the generalised attempt to influence behaviour has little value as a separate concept - indistinguishable from management To have any value, concept of leadership should: refer to a process whereby people are inspired to perform exceptionally refer to a process that involves generating voluntary commitment to goals through the power of ideas and values, rather than coercion or calculation. recognise that process of leadership can (and should) be exercised at all levels of an organisations 29 | P a g e
Leadership is multi-faceted no agreed definition no agreed determinants Leadership as a balanced portfolio? Balanced behaviours Instrumental (Task; Relationships/ Stability) Expressive (Charisma/ Change) Underpinned by key traits: drive, confidence, integrity, situational sensitivity/empathy, adaptability Applied appropriately to situation organisational setting ( task, structure/culture) follower characteristics Sustained by sense-making and managing meanings But who does this - leaders in name or leaders in fact?
3.5. Power (Control & Authority): Control within an organisation is a general process whereby management and other groups are able to initiate and regulate the conduct of activities. A control system is a mechanism intended to ensure that targets are achieved and will continue to be achieved.
3.6. Sources of Power: Power (French and Raven, 1959) TYPE SOURCE Reward power - perception Coercive power - perception Legitimate power - perception Referent power - identification Expert power - perception
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3.6.1. Pfeffer Principles: (1981 Power in Organizations, Marshfield, MA, Pitman)
Power Ambiguous and ubiquitous; relative, not absolute. A person is only powerful in relation to others.
Authority When the distribution of power in a social setting is accepted or legitimised by the other actors.
Politics Action taken to overcome resistance to ones preferred outcomes. A conscious effort to muster and use force to overcome opposition.
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4. Employee resourcing:- Labour Markets: The labour market is not much different from the market for bananas; if demand exceeds the supply the price should increase; if supply exceeded demand, the reverse should happen and the price should fall; at some point demand should equal supply at an equilibrium point. Stoney (quoted by Canning 1984)
Types of Labour Market: Internal External Geographic (Local & National) Primary Secondary Dual (Atkinson:- Flexible firm/ Japanese firms)
Primary Labour Market: High pay Opportunities for training Opportunities for promotion High skills High job security Above average unionization
Secondary Labour Market Low pay Few opportunities for training Little chance of promotion Mainly unskilled Low job security Low unionization High absence High labour turnover
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4.1.1. 'Human Resource Planning - HRP' The on-going process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organization's most valuable asset - its human resources. The objective of human resource (HR) planning is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs, while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. The three key elements of the HR planning process are forecasting labour demand, analysing present labour supply, and balancing projected labour demand and supply.
4.1.2. Aims of HRP Obtain and retain necessary human resources o quantity o quality Optimize use of human resources Anticipate deficits and shortages Workforce development training, multi-skilling/role flexibility, Reduce dependence on external labour supply strategies for retention and development
Labour Turnover Measurements: Turnover index Number of leavers divided by average employees in period x 100 Stability index Number with 1 years service divided by number employed 1 year ago x 100 Survival rate Expressed by leavers as a % of total entrants over a period of time.
4.2. Succession Planning:
An extension of human resource planning Aims to provide the organization with suitable management leadership 33 | P a g e
Aims to fill vacancies created by: promotion, retirement, transfer, wastage, death 4.3. Selection and Performance
4.4. Recruitment and selection:-
4.4.1. Defining Requirements: Job Analysis Job Specification Job Description Person Specification Competency Framework Roberts (1997); Wood and Payne (1998); Farnham and Stevens (2000) Seven-point plan Rodger (1952) Physical make-up; Attainment; General intelligence; Special aptitudes; Interests; Disposition; Circumstances Five-fold grading system 34 | P a g e
4.5. HR Development (Employee development):- . is concerned with the provision of learning, development and training activities in order to improve individual, team and organizational performance. Armstrong (1999) HR development shapes the organisations mission and goals. McCracken and Wallace (2000)
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4.6. The learning organisation:- Peter Senge is a leading writer in the area of learning organizations. According to Peter Senge (1990: 3) learning organizations are: organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. His seminal works, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, and The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization, describe five disciplines that must be mastered when introducing learning into an organization:
1. Systems Thinking the ability to see the big picture, and to distinguish patterns instead of conceptualizing change as isolated events. Systems thinking needs the other four disciplines to enable a learning organization to be realized. There must be a paradigm shift - from being unconnected to interconnected to the whole, and from blaming our problems on something external to a realization that how we operate, our actions, can create problems (Senge 1990,10).
2. Personal Mastery - begins "by becoming committed to lifelong learning," and is the spiritual cornerstone of a learning organization. Personal Mastery involves being more realistic, focusing on becoming the best person possible, and striving for a sense of commitment and excitement in our careers to facilitate the realization of potential (Senge 1990,11).
3. Mental Models - must be managed because they do prevent new powerful insights and organizational practices from becoming implemented. The process begins with self- reflection; unearthing deeply held belief structures and generalizations, and understanding how they dramatically influence the way we operate in our own lives. Until there is realization and a focus on openness, real change can never take place (Senge 1990,12).
4. Building Shared Visions - visions cannot be dictated because they always begin with the personal visions of individual employees, who may not agree with the leader's vision. What is needed is a genuine vision that elicits commitment in good times and bad, and 36 | P a g e
has the power to bind an organization together. As Peter Senge contends, "[b]uilding shared vision fosters a commitment to the long term" (Senge 1990,12).
5. Team Learning - is important because modern organizations operate on the basis of teamwork, which means that organizations cannot learn if team members do not come together and learn. It is a process of developing the ability to create desired results; to have a goal in mind and work together to attain it (Senge 1990,13).
Short Summary: To summarize, a learning organization does away with the mindset that it is only senior management who can and do all the thinking for an entire corporation. Learning organizations challenge all employees to tap into their inner resources and potential, in hopes that they can build their own community based on principles of liberty, humanity, and a collective will to learn.
4.6.1. How to Achieve the Principles of a Learning Organization The first step is to create a timeline to initiate the types of changes necessary to achieve the principles of a learning organization. Timeline: In Order of Appearance Stage One is to create a communications system to facilitate the exchange of information, the basis on which any learning organization is built (Gephart 1996,40). The use of technology has and will continue to alter the workplace by enabling information to flow freely, and to "provide universal access to business and strategic information" (Gephart 1996,41). It is also important in clarifying the more complex concepts into more precise language that is understandable across departments (Kaplan 1996,24). Stage Two is to organize a readiness questionnaire, a tool that assesses the distance between where an organization is and where it would like to be, in terms of the following seven dimensions. "Providing continuous learning, providing strategic leadership, promoting inquiry and dialogue, encouraging collaboration and team learning, creating embedded structures for capturing and sharing learning, empowering people toward a shared vision, and making systems connections" (Gephart 1996,43). The questionnaire is administered to 37 | P a g e
all employees or a sample of them, and is used to develop an assessment profile to design the learning organization initiative (Gephart 1996,43). Stage Three is to commit to developing, maintaining, and facilitating an atmosphere that garners learning. Stage Four is to create a vision of the organization and write a mission statement with the help of all employees (Gephart 1996,44). Stage Five is to use training and awareness programs to develop skills and understanding attitudes that are needed to reach the goals of the mission statement, including the ability to work well with others, become more verbal, and network with people across all departments within the organization (Navran 1993). Stage Six is to "communicate a change in the company's culture by integrating human and technical systems" (Gephart 1996,44). Stage Seven is to initiate the new practices by emphasizing team learning and contributions. As a result, employees will become more interested in self-regulation and management, and be more prepared to meet the challenges of an ever-changing workplace (Gephart 1996,44). Stage Eight is to allow employees to question key business practices and assumptions. Stage Nine is to develop workable expectations for future actions (Navran 1993). Stage Ten is to remember that becoming a learning organization is a long process and that small setbacks should be expected. It is the journey that is the most important thing because it brings everyone together to work as one large team. In addition, it has inherent financial benefits by turning the workplace into a well-run and interesting place to work; a place which truly values its employees.
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5. Organisational change:
Change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at helping employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment
Why organisations need to change: Challenges of growth, especially global markets Challenge of economic downturns and tougher trading conditions Changes in strategy Technological changes Competitive pressures, including mergers and acquisitions Customer pressure, particularly shifting markets To learn new organisation behaviour and skills Government legislation/initiatives.
Key principles of managing organisational change: o The key issue is that the direct and indirect effects of a proposed change on the control of hazards should be identified and assessed. o Due to the greater potential consequences of an accident, major accident hazard sites should aim for higher reliability in their planning and decision making. o Avoid too many simultaneous changes which may result in inadequate attention to some or all. Phase changes whenever possible. o Organisational change should be planned in a thorough, systematic, and realistic way; similar to the processes for managing plant change. o Two aspects of the change need risk assessment: risks and opportunities resulting from the change (where you want to get to) and risks arising from the process of change (how you get there). o Consult with staff (including contractors) before, during and after the change - dont miss serious issues hidden among all the natural concerns. o Ensure that all key tasks and responsibilities are identified and successfully transferred to the new organisation. o Provide training and experienced support/supervision for staff with new or changed roles. 39 | P a g e
o Consider reviews of plans and assessments by independent internal or external experts - be prepared to challenge. o Remember that change can happen even to apparently static organisations e.g. the effects of an ageing workforce.
Types of change: Ackerman (1997) has distinguished between three types of change: Type of Change
Characteristics Developmental May be either planned or emergent; it is first order, or incremental. It is change that enhances or corrects existing aspects of an organisation, often focusing on the improvement of a skill or process. Transitional Seeks to achieve a known desired state that is different from the existing one. It is episodic, planned and second order, or radical. Much of the organisational change literature is based on this type. Transformational Is radical or second order in nature. It requires a shift in assumptions made by the organisation and its members.
Transformation can result in an organisation that differs significantly in terms of structure, processes, culture and strategy. It may, therefore, result in the creation of an organisation that operates in developmental mode - one that continuously learns, adapts and improves.
Rate of change can be: A) Incremental B) Continuous C) Discontinuous
5.1. Planned versus emergent change Sometimes change is deliberate, a product of conscious reasoning and actions - planned change. In contrast, change sometimes unfolds in an apparently spontaneous and unplanned 40 | P a g e
way. This type of change is known as emergent change. Change can be emergent rather than planned in two ways: Managers make a number of decisions apparently unrelated to the change that emerges. The change is therefore not planned. However, these decisions may be based on unspoken, and sometimes unconscious, assumptions about the organisation, its environment and the future (Mintzberg, 1989) and are, therefore, not as unrelated as they first seem. Such implicit assumptions dictate the direction of the seemingly disparate and unrelated decisions, thereby shaping the change process by 'drift' rather than by design. External factors (such as the economy, competitors' behaviour, and political climate) or internal features (such as the relative power of different interest groups, distribution of knowledge, and uncertainty) influence the change in directions outside the control of managers. Even the most carefully planned and executed change programme will have some emergent impacts.
5.2. Episodic versus continuous change Another distinction is between episodic and continuous change. Episodic change, according to Weick and Quinn (1999), is 'infrequent, discontinuous and intentional'. Sometimes termed 'radical' or 'second order' change, episodic change often involves replacement of one strategy or programme with another. Continuous change, in contrast, is 'ongoing, evolving and cumulative'. Also referred to as 'first order' or 'incremental' change, continuous change is characterised by people constantly adapting and editing ideas they acquire from different sources. At a collective level these continuous adjustments made simultaneously across units can create substantial change. The distinction between episodic and continuous change helps clarify thinking about an organisation's future development and evolution in relation to its long-term goals. Few organisations are in a position to decide unilaterally that they will adopt an exclusively continuous change approach. They can, however, capitalise upon many of the principles of continuous change by engendering the flexibility to accommodate and experiment with everyday contingencies, breakdowns, exceptions, opportunities and unintended consequences that punctuate organisational life (Orlikowski, 1996). Using these characteristics proposed changes can be placed along two scales: radical - incremental and core - peripheral (Pennington 2003) Plotting the character of a proposed change along these scales can provide a sense of how difficult the introduction of any particular initiative might be and how much disturbance to the status quo it might generate. 41 | P a g e
Radical changes to an institution's or department's core business will normally generate high levels of disturbance; incremental changes to peripheral activities are often considered to be unexceptional and can be accommodated as a matter of course, especially if the group involved has a successful past record of continuous improvement.
6. Conflict ing organisations:
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7. Organisational structures:
Organisations are structured in a variety of ways, dependant on their objectives and culture. The structure of an organisation will determine the manner in which it operates and its performance. Structure allows the responsibilities for different functions and processes to be clearly allocated to different departments and employees. The wrong organisation structure will hinder the success of the business. Organisational structures should aim to maximize the efficiency and success of the Organisation. An effective organisational structure will facilitate working relationships between various sections of the organisation. It will retain order and command whilst promoting flexibility and creativity. Internal factors such as size, product and skills of the workforce influence the organizational structure. As a business expands the chain of command will lengthen and the spans of control will widen. The higher the level of skill each employee has the more the business will make use of the matrix structure to maximize these skills across the organization.
Span of Control: This term is used to describe the number of employees that each manager/supervisor is responsible for. The span of control is said to be wide if a superior is in charge of many employees and narrow if the superior is in charge of a few employees. Tall Structure:
In its simplest form a tall organisation has many levels of management and supervision. There is a long chain of command running from the top of the organisation eg Chief Executive down to the bottom of the organisation eg shop floor worker. The diagram below neatly captures the concept of a tall structure.
Advantages of the Tall Structure: There is a narrow span of control ie each manager has a small number of employees under their control. This means that employees can be closely supervised. There is a clear management structure. 43 | P a g e
The function of each layer will be clear and distinct. There will be clear lines of responsibility and control. Clear progression and promotion ladder.
Disadvantages of the Tall Structure: The freedom and responsibility of employees (subordinates) is restricted. Decision making could be slowed down as approval may be needed by each of the layers of authority. Communication has to take place through many layers of management. High management costs because managers are generally paid more than subordinates. Each layer will tend to pay its managers more money than the layer below it. Flat Organisational Structure: In contrast to a tall organisation, a flat organisation will have relatively few layers or just one layer of management. This means that the Chain of Command from top to bottom is short and the span of control is wide. Due to the small number of management layers, flat organisations are often small organisations. Advantages of the flat Structure:
More/Greater communication between management and workers. Less bureaucracy and easier decision making. Fewer levels of management which includes benefits such as lower costs as managers are generally paid more than worker.
Disadvantages of the Tall Structure: Workers may have more than one manager/boss. May limit/hinder the growth of the organisation. Structure limited to small organisations such as partnerships, co-operatives and some private limited companies. Function of each department/person could be blurred and merge into the job roles of others. Hierarchical Organisational Structure: In a hierarchical organisation employees are ranked at various levels within the organisation, each level is one above the other. At each stage in the chain, one person has a number of workers directly 44 | P a g e
under them, within their span of control. A tall hierarchical organisation has many levels and a flat hierarchical organisation will only have a few. The chain of command (ie the way authority is organized) is a typical pyramid shape.
Advantages of Hierarchical Organisation: Authority and responsibility and clearly defined Clearly defined promotion path. There are specialists managers and the hierarchical environment encourages the effective use of specialist managers. Employees very loyal to their department within the organisation.
Disadvantages of Hierarchical Organisation The organisation can be bureaucratic and respond slowly to changing customer needs and the market within which the organisation operates Communication across various sections can be poor especially horizontal communication. Departments can make decisions which benefit them rather than the business as a whole especially if there is Inter-departmental rivalry.
Centralised vs. Decentralised Organisations: In a centralised organisation head office (or a few senior managers) will retain the major responsibilities and powers. Conversely decentralised organisations will spread responsibility for specific decisions across various outlets and lower level managers, including branches or units located away from head office/headquarters. An example of a decentralised structure is Tesco the supermarket chain. Each store of Tesco has a store manager who can make certain decisions concerning their store. The store manager is responsible to a regional manager . Organisations may also decide that a combination of centralisation and decentralisation is more effective. For example functions such as accounting and purchasing may be centralised to save costs. Whilst tasks such as recruitment may be decentralised as units away from head office may have staffing needs specific only to them. Certain organisations implement vertical decentralisation which means that they have handed the power to make certain decisions, down the hierarchy of their organisation. Vertical decentralisation increases the input, people at the bottom of the organisation chart have in decision making. 45 | P a g e
Horizontal decentralisation spreads responsibility across the organisation. A good example of this is the implementation of new technology across the whole business. This implementation will be the sole responsibility of technology specialists
Advantages of Centralised Structure for Organisations: Senior managers enjoy greater control over the organisation. The use of standardised procedures can results in cost savings. Decisions can be made to benefit the organisations as a whole. Whereas a decision made by a department manager may benefit their department, but disadvantage other departments. The organisation can benefit from the decision making of experienced senior managers. In uncertain times the organisation will need strong leadership and pull in the same direction. It is believed that strong leadership is often best given from above.
Advantages of Decentralised Structure for Organisations: Senior managers have time to concentrate on the most important decisions (as the other decisions can be undertaken by other people down the organisation structure. Decision making is a form of empowerment. Empowerment can increase motivation and therefore mean that staff output increases. People lower down the chain have a greater understanding of the environment they work in and the people (customers and colleagues) that they interact with. This knowledge skills and experience may enable them to make more effective decisions than senior managers. Empowerment will enable departments and their employees to respond faster to changes and new challenges. Whereas it may take senior managers longer to appreciate that business needs have changed. Empowerment makes it easier for people to accept and make a success of more responsibility.
Matrix organisational structure: A Matrix structure organisation contains teams of people created from various sections of the business. These teams will be created for the purposes of a specific project and will be led by a project manager. Often the team will only exist for the duration of the project and matrix structures are usually deployed to develop new products and services. The advantages of a matrix include Individuals can be chosen according to the needs of the project. 46 | P a g e
The use of a project team which is dynamic and able to view problems in a different way as specialists have been brought together in a new environment. Project managers are directly responsible for completing the project within a specific deadline and budget.
Whilst the disadvantages include A conflict of loyalty between line managers and project managers over the allocation of resources. If teams have a lot of independence can be difficult to monitor. Costs can be increased if more managers (i.e. project managers) are created through the use of project teams.
Gods of Management: ZEUS or Club Culture: Power is concentrated in the hands of one individual, the top boss. Control radiates from the centre's use of personal contacts over procedures. The most powerful person dominates the decision making process. Proximity to the boss is vitally important as he frequently uses his network of friendships and old boys. Decisions are made quickly, but their quality depends almost entirely on Zeus and his inner circle. The Club culture's administration is small as are its costs. Investment banks and brokerage firms reflect organisations with a dominant club culture. APOLLO or Role Culture: A strong role culture places a premium on order and efficiency. Power is hierarchical and clearly defined in the company's job descriptions. Decision making occurs at the top of the bureaucracy. An apollonian response to a change in the environment generally starts by ignoring changes in circumstances, and by relying on the existing set of routines. Life insurance companies reflect an Apollonian organisation.
ATHENS or Task Culture: 47 | P a g e
Power is derived from the expertise required to complete a task or project. The work, itself, is the leading principle of coordination. Decision making occurs through meritocracies. Employees move frequently from one project or group to another. Task culture fosters a high level of adaptation and innovation by emphasising talent, youth and team problem-solving, although excessive individual independence can lead to irresponsibility. Task cultures are expensive organisations that require highly paid experts driven to analyse organisational problems in depth. High cost drives organisations to construct routines and adopt a greater Apollonian work mode. Task cultures are often short lived. Ad agencies and consultancies reflect a dominant Athenian culture.
DIONYSIUS or Existential Culture: Organisations exist for individuals to achieve their goals. Employees see themselves as independent professionals who have temporarily lent their services or skills to the organisation. Management is considered an unnecessary counterweight and given the lowest status. Decision making occurs by consent of the professionals. The Dionysius culture can lead to poisonous, ideological wars among its professionals. Universities and professional service firms reflect the dominant Dionysian culture.
Handy had no preference for any of the four archetypes since they co-exit in most organisations. To reflect his point of view, he named the four cultures after ancient Greek gods who were worshipped simultaneously. The Handy model helps consultants and managers become aware of the different cultures within the client organisation. Effective interventions must aim at striking a balance between the four cultures while remaining faithful to an organisation's dominant culture.
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Left side of iceberg = employee inputs (and employer needs). Right side of iceberg = rewards given by employer (and employee needs). Above the water level: factors mostly visible and agreed by both sides. Work | Pay = visible written employment contract. Black arrows = mostly visible and clear market influences on the work and pay. Red arrows = iceberg rises with success and maturity, experience, etc., (bringing invisible perceived factors into the visible agreed contract).
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Below the water level: factors mostly perceived differently by both sides, or hidden, and not agreed. Left side of iceberg = examples of employee inputs, which equate to employer expectations - informal, perceived and unwritten. Right side of iceberg = rewards examples and employee's expectations. Blue arrows = influences on employee and employer affecting perceptions, mostly invisible or misunderstood by the other side. 8. Organisational culture: Attempts to define organizational culture have adopted a number of different approaches. Some focus on manifestations the heroes and villains, rites, rituals, myths and legends that populate organizations. Culture is also socially constructed and reflects meanings that are constituted in interaction and that form commonly accepted definitions of the situation.
Culture is symbolic and is described by telling stories about how we feel about the organization. A symbol stands for something more than itself and can be many things, but the point is that a symbol is invested with meaning by us and expresses forms of understanding derived from our past collective experiences. The sociological view is that organizations exist in the minds of the members. Stories about culture show how it acts as a sense - making device.
Culture is unifying and refers to the processes that bind the organization together. Culture is then consensual and not conflictual. The idea of corporate culture reinforces the unifying strengths of central goals and creates a sense of common responsibility.
Culture is holistic and refers to the essence the reality of the organization; what it is like to work there, how people deal with each other and what behaviours are expected.
All of the above elements are interlocking; culture is rooted deep in unconscious sources but is represented in superficial practices and behaviour codes. Because organizations are social organisms and not mechanisms, the whole is present in the parts and symbolic events become microcosms of the whole.
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Classifying culture:
One way of exploring cultures is to classify them into types.
1. Role Cultures are highly formalized, bound with regulations and paperwork and authority and hierarchy dominate relations.
2. Task Cultures are the opposite, the preserve a strong sense of the basic mission of the organization and teamwork is the basis on which jobs are designed.
3. Power Cultures have a single power source, which may be an individual or a corporate group. Control of rewards is a major source of power.
Handy points out that these types are usually tied to a particular structure and design of organization. A role culture has a typical pyramid structure. A task culture has flexible matrix structures. A power culture has web like communications structure. The Cultural Web
The Cultural Web identifies six interrelated elements that help to make up what Johnson and Scholes call the "paradigm" the pattern or model of the work environment. By analyzing the factors in each, you can begin to see the bigger picture of your culture: what is working, what isn't working, and what needs to be changed. The six elements are: Stories This refers to the past events and people talked about inside and outside the company. Who and what the company chooses to immortalize says a great deal about what it values, and perceives as great behaviour. Rituals and Routines This refers to the daily behaviour and actions of people that signal acceptable behaviour. This determines what is expected to happen in given situations, and what is valued by management.
Symbols This refers to the visual representations of the company including logos, how plush the offices are, and the formal or informal dress codes. 52 | P a g e
Organizational Structure This includes both the structure defined by the organization chart, and the unwritten lines of power and influence that indicate whose contributions are most valued.
Control Systems This refers to the ways that the organization is controlled. These include financial systems, quality systems, and rewards (including the way they are measured and distributed within the organization.)
Power Structures This refers to the pockets of real power in the company. This may involve one or two key senior executives, a whole group of executives, or even a department. The key is that these people have the greatest amount of influence on decisions, operations, and strategic direction.
These elements are represented graphically as six semi-overlapping circles (see Figure 1 below), which together influence the cultural paradigm.
Source: Johnson, G. and Scholes, K., (2002). Exploring Corporate Strategy, 6th Edition. Pearson Education Ltd.
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Organisational Structure
The Formal and Informal Organisation Structure
Organisations have a formal structure which is the way that the organisation is organised by those with responsibility for managing the organisation. They create the formal structures that enable the organisation to meet its stated objectives.
Often these formal structures will be set out on paper in the form of organisational charts. However, in the course of time an informal structure develops in most organisations, which is based on the reality of day-to-day interactions between the members of the organisation. This informal structure may be different from that which is set out on paper.
Informal structures develop because:
o People find new ways of doing things which they find easier and save them time
o Patterns of interaction are shaped by friendship groups and other relationships
o People forget what the formal structures are
o It is easier to work with informal structures.
Sometimes the informal structure may conflict with the formal one. Where this is the case the organisation may become less efficient at meeting its stated objectives. However, in some cases the informal structure may prove to be more efficient at meeting organisational objectives because the formal structure was badly set out.
Managers need to learn to work with both formal and informal structures. A flexible manager will realise that elements of the informal structure can be formalised i.e. by adapting the formal structure to incorporate improvements which result from the day-to-day working of the informal structure.
All of the organisations that appear in the Times 100 will have some form of formal structure which is usually set out in organisation charts (for example see the Coca-Cola structures in Edition 10). However, these organisations also benefit from informal structures based on friendship groups. When managers nurture these informal groups and mould them into the formal structure this can lead to high levels of motivation for the staff involved.
(The Times 100 Business Case Studies) Organisation Variations in Structure
Weber offer a single model of efficient organisations, the bureaucratic ideal type.
Social scientists came to find a variety, not a single unified type.
Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker (1961), studied British firms in textiles, heavy industry, and electronics industries and found they varied depending on whether the firm operating in a stable or fast changing environment.
Organisations that conformed to traditional bureaucratic model were defined as Mechanistic. In this relatively predicable environment centralised decision-making, specialisation, sharply defined duties, formed rules, and hierarchical control were efficient ways in which to organise activity.
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In contrast Organic systems found in the electronics industry for example, are highly dynamic, with job descriptions and boundaries between functions were more flexible, rules were less formalised, employees exercised more discretion, and hierarchy was less pronounced.
Both management systems are rational in that they may both be explicitly and deliberately created and maintained in order to exploit the human resources in the most efficient manner possible.
Mechanistic: Highly formal, highly complex, centralised, suited to large routine environments, best in relatively stable environments, focus on control, low trust.
Organic: Flexible, adaptable, low complexity, decentralised, low levels of formality, high trust, quick response to change, suitable for uncertain environments.
Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) pursued this theme of the appropriate structure for organisations, looking at the degree to which the stability and predictability of markets and technology varied between firms, e.g. What type of organisations are the most effective under different environmental conditions? They inferred that firms achieve higher levels of performance when managers align organisational properties with environmental properties. Agreeing with Burns they extended the principle to departments within organisations that faced differing levels of change and uncertainty, coining the term contingency theory to describe the idea that a successful firm is contingent on the kind of environment or other conditions in which they function.
Woodward (1965) assessed the effect of technology, specifically, of production technology on organisations, grouping production systems into eleven categories, classifying technologies on the basis of their complexity and level of sophistication: unit and small batch; large batch and mass production, and continuous process production. She found organisations using mass production technology were more bureaucratic and production jobs were more Taylorised and less skilled. Organisations using continuous process technologies were more organic with jobs more skilled with more responsibility.
Woodward, like Burns and Stalker, believed that historical trends favoured a less rigid and alienating form of organisation than mechanised bureaucracy offers.
Pugh (1973) developed the idea that context determines the form of organisation, examining the variables or dimensions on which organisations differ. Six dimensions were selected:
o Specialisation degree to which organisations activities are divided into specialized roles. o Standardisation the degree to which an organisation lays down the standard rules and procedures.
o Standardisation of employment practices the degree to which an organisation has standardisation employment practices.
o Formalisation the degree to which an instructions and procedures are written down.
o Centralisation the degree to which authority to make certain decisions is located at the top of the management hierarchy.
o Configuration the shape of the organisations role structure (for example, whether certain chain of management command is long or short, and the breadth of span of control for managers).
The research found that no two organisations were alike but similarities existed and context and its relationship with size, technology and location of the organisation, is the determining factor, shaping the structure of organisations. 55 | P a g e
To conclude: a universally applicable bureaucratic model of organisations does not exist and that the appropriate structure for a particular organisation is partly contingent on variables such as environmental uncertainty and complexity, technology, and size.
Contingency theory has it critics; Childs (1997) argues that management has a wide discretion in choosing the organisational form that suits it preferences and philosophy. Contingency theory neglects the role of power, choice, historical accident, fashion, ideology, norms, and values in influencing structure, with some difficult to measure, e.g. environmental uncertainty.
Some contempary writer have announced the coming demise of bureaucracy and hierarchy due to the decentalisation and more democratic systems of control, which offer most viable alternative to the confines of bureaucracy and tight authoritarian control.
See appendix for more on Contingency Theory
Human Resources Revision Organisational Structure How organisations may be categorised in terms of their structure and design, and the link between organisational structure, culture and functionality.
Highlights
Taylorism: The rationale of making work more efficient and making jobs better for people.
Scientific management: The principles to make the job simpler and cheaper, or redesigning jobs to make them more challenging and interesting.
Bureaucracy: The continual drive towards rationalisation and efficiency in organisations.
Max Weber: believed that the modernity meant rationality and the spread of a scientific approach to living, of which principles of bureaucracy was the embodiment.
Mintzberg (1979) proposed every organisation has five parts; Technical Core, Top Management, Middle Management, Technical Support and Administrative Support.
Hochschilds (1983) research on emotional labour, shows how recurrent training for flight attendants is aimed at reinforcing the inside-out smile, i.e. the work of creating a particular emotional state in others, often by manipulating your own feelings. This is termed emotional work.
Gabriel (1988) documented the experience of working in a fast-food restaurant, finding that the jobs offered little intrinsic satisfaction and very few people found their jobs enjoyable, where breaking the rules broke the drudgery of work.
George Ritzer (1998) argues that fast-food restaurants such as McDonalds are the new model for rationalization, which built on many ideas found in bureaucratization; McDonalds is an extreme version of the rationalisation process.
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Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker (1961), studied British firms in textiles, heavy industry, and electronics industries and found they varied depending on whether the firm operating in a stable or fast changing environment. (Defining mechanistic and Organic forms)
Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) pursued this theme of the appropriate structure for organisations, looking at the degree to which the stability and predictability of markets and technology varied between firms. Coining the term contingency theory.
Contingency theory is a behavioural theory that claims that there is no single best way to design organizational structures. The best way of organizing e.g. a company, is, however, contingent upon the internal and external situation of the company.
Woodward (1965) assessed the effect of technology, specifically, of production technology on organisations.
Pugh (1973) developed the idea that context determines the form of organisation, examining the variables or dimensions on which organisations differ. The research found that no two organisations were alike but similarities existed and context is the determining factor, shaping the structure of organisations.
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Summary of Key Points
Identity and Purpose of Structure
The established pattern of relationships between the component parts of an organisation, outlining both communication, control and authority patterns.
Structure distinguishes the parts of an organisation and delineates the relationship between them.
The right Structure
o Structure must support strategy. o Structure must be appropriate reflecting the goals and environment of the organisation. o Structure must remain flexible. o Structure must enable communication. o The formal and informal need to be inline.
John Child (2005) - Key distinction between organising and organisation:
Organising is the process of arranging collective effort so that it achieves an outcome potentially superior to that of individuals acting or working alone.
Organising involves some division of labour, with different people or groups concentrating on different activities that have to be integrated / coordinated to achieve a successful result.
Organising requires a degree of control, so as to monitor progress against original intensions.
A form of hierarchy normally develops, with one or more people taking the lead in formulating instructions, providing coordination and controlling results.
The form of organising usually persists in a recognisable form.
Together these forms of organising are commonly termed organisation.
There are three main organising processes:
1. Integrating: ensuring that the various complementary activities undertaken by the organisation are coordinated.
2. Control: setting, implementation, and monitoring of attaining goals.
3. Reward: attempts to motivate employees to contribute to the achievement of organisational goals by attracting people with the requisite skills and knowledge and thereafter engaging their commitment.
Boundary crossing is focused upon achieving internal organisational integration between various roles and units in order to generate creativity and synergy, using networking, outsourcing to sub-contractors, and strategic alliances with other organisations.
In summary organisation is concerned with establishing a set of provisions with which the processes required for collective activity can proceed.
John Child (2005) Basic Structure and Procedures
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Basic structure distributes responsibilities among members of the company, contributing to the successful implementation of objectives by allocating people and resources to necessary tasks and designating responsibility and authority for their control and coordination.
This division of labour has both vertical and horizontal aspects. Vertical aspects set specialization of discretionary decision-making responsibilities through specifying levels in a hierarchy. Horizontal aspects set specialisation of task according to functional speciality, business focus, or geography.
Example: organisational charts, job description, codes of conduct, and committees.
Procedures focus on influencing behaviour through rules and standard to clarify to employees what is expected of them and attempt to ensure consistency and equity in dealing with staff (pay and rewards).
Bureaucracy is designed to install rationality and eliminate emotionality. It can be viewed as organisational structure that is, a rational design for efficiency. From this point of view the discussion about structure is abstract and depersonalised, rather than human focused, considering only task, job division, performance and control.
Therefore here bureaucracy is about how we might design an organisation to make it more rational and efficient.
Organisational Design
Max Weber (1964-1920) German rational systems theorist Study of bureaucracy focused on historical surveys of administrative functions.
The most enduring organisational design framework is the bureaucratic form.
Weber believed that the modernity meant rationality and the spread of a scientific approach to living, of which principles of bureaucracy was the embodiment.
Rationalisation is a process whereby the means chosen to pursue ends can be determined by logical and rational calculation.
The continuous drive towards greater rationalization and efficiency, according to Weber, is clear in every sphere of social, economic, and political life. With this process, relations between people increasingly come to take the form of calculations about the exchange and use of capabilities and resources. On key place this happens is in bureaucracies.
Bureaucracies are enterprises, or political parties, or other organisations in which people discharge functions specified in advance, according to rules. Authority is wielded as tasks are allocated, coordinated and supervised. Tasks are regulated through organisational structure.
Weber starting point is Authority. Authority gives those who have the right or legitimacy to give orders. Claims to legitimacy of authority come from three sources:
1. Legal authority: based on rational grounds the belief in the rules and rights of those in authority to issues commands, e.g. found in bureaucracy.
2. Traditional authority: is based on the traditional grounds the sanctity or sacredness of tradition and legitimacy of status, e.g. that of a monarch or feudal lord.
3. Charismatic authority: based on the charismatic grounds a devotion to the sanctity, heroism, or character of an individual.
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Weber formulated a series of principles / characteristics that underpinned the ideal type bureaucracy:
1. The presence of a clear hierarchy of offices.
2. The specialisation of job roles among the managers and administrators who are the holders of those offices.
3. The importance of impersonal considerations in reaching decisions.
4. The widespread use of formal rules and procedures to govern the conduct of office holders. The most notable feature of bureaucratic organisation concerns the attempt to coordinate and control organisational activities through managerial hierarchies and formal rules.
(Also see Wilson p.261)
Weber considered the pure type of bureaucracy to the most superior form of organisation, stating:
from a purely technical point of view, capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of carrying out imperative control over human beings (Weber, 1947)
Rational: The concept of rationality that underpins the ideal-type bureaucracy holds that organisations will choose the most logical and efficient means for realizing their goals. This is exemplified by the important role played by formal rules and procedures in providing impersonal and objective criteria for determining organisational action.
Bureaucratic principles exercise an important influence over the management of people in organisations. The existence of formal rules and procedures for dealing with issues and problems can contribute to the effectiveness with which human resource management is undertaken.
Organisations use procedures for recruitment and staff selection, managing equal opportunities and diversity issues, handling grievances and disciplinary issues.
The ideal-type of bureaucracy is governed by a formal set of rules and procedures that ensures that operations and activities are carried out in a predictable, uniform and impersonal manner. Personal relationships are excluded from organisational life.
Advantages of Bureaucracy
Using procedures can help legitimate management decision-making as they are made in a fair manner.
Procedures are an important source of consistency in management decision-making.
Example equal opportunities employees are treated fairly and not subjected to detriment on the basis of some aspect of their social characteristics.
(Gilmore)
Bureaucracies technical superiority over other forms of organisation, with precision, speed, lack of ambiguity, knowledge of files, continuity, discretion, unity and uniformity, strict subordination, reduction of friction and reduction of material and personal costs with each raised to an optimum level in a bureaucratic organisation. 60 | P a g e
There are calculable rules so there is calculability in consequences.
Scientific management has a role to play, providing the vehicle for imposing discipline, e.g. Taylors Shop cards specify daily routine for employees.
And business is discharged without regard for the person; the division for labour in administration is put into practice according to purely objective criteria, removing irrational and emotional sentiments.
With rationalisation comes the use of calculative devices and techniques that is, formally rational means, including the division of labour, sets of rules, accounting methods, money, technology, technology, and other means for increasing that rationality.
(Wilson)
Disadvantages of Bureaucracy
Bureaucratic dysfunctionalism how adopting the bureaucratic approach can subvert organisational goals, e.g. goal displacement occurs when managers over- concentrate on following procedures to ensure bureaucratic targets are met. For example target waiting times at hospitals, leading to falls in the standards of cleanliness which are not target based.
Bureaucracy tends to be associated with inflexibility. Formal procedures reduce flexibility of manager to deal with HRM issues as they see fit.
(Gilmore)
Bureaucracy can threaten individual freedom, becoming a iron cage (Weber, 1930).
Weber focused on the ideal bureaucracy (an ideal-type being the purest, most fully developed version or benchmark). Work of Merton (1936), Selnick (1949) and Gouldner (1954) focused on the menace of bureaucracy, questioning the ideal type and discussing whether the opposition between organisational efficiency and the freedom of the individual was possible.
See Wilson p.262 for Gouldners gypsum factory example. (Wilson) Bureaucracy and the Holocaust
Bauman (1989) showed the importance of bureaucratic organisation in the death camps in Nazi Germany, showing the genocide was an extreme application of bureaucratic logic, with a system of rules, uniformity, impersonality, and technical efficiency.
Bauman suggested that rather being specifically a German problem was a result of modernity and bureaucracy. Modernity and bureaucracy created unintended conditions that led to the demise of moral responsibility. However moral responsibility and perception played their part, while the killing involved technical efficiency, uniformity and impersonality, the methods were perceptually stressful for those carrying out the shootings, solved with the introduction of the gas chambers, where the perpetrators need not see, hear, or fell the human consequences of their actions.
TODO: Gender and emotion
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Rationality and the Service Sector
The routinization of human interaction is disconcerting, but explicit rules have become a significant feature of employment contacts in many mass service industries.
Example: Walt Disney or the smile factory, Feeling rules: a friendly smile or courteous phrase.
Staff, do try to resist these feeling rules taking illegitimate breaks etc.
Values and attitudes can be constructed and influenced through training programmes and corporate culture.
Hochschilds (1983) research on emotional labour, shows how recurrent training for flight attendants is aimed at reinforcing the inside-out smile, i.e. the work of creating a particular emotional state in others, often by manipulating your own feelings. This is termed emotional work. She concluded that the attendants became alienated from their feelings, their faces and their moods.
Disadvantage: rationalisation can have untended outcomes. Smiling is not always interpreted as intended and call centres are not setup to bear obscene phone calls.
Increased rationalisation of the workforce is not always negative. Tight scripting, clarity of good work and routines can act as shields against the insults and indignities that the worker might have to accept from the public.
Also customers know how to behave with service workers in order to fit the organisational routines, e.g. self-service at petrol stations, self check in at airports etc.
McDonalds and Taylorism
The routinization to be found at McDonalds hows the a close link with the logic of Taylorism That is, maximising managerial control of work and breaking work down into its constituent tasks, which can be pre-planned.
The key to McDonalds success is its uniformity and predictability: customers know exactly what to expect, served quickly, courteously, and with a smile.
The principles of scientific management, coupled with centralized planning, centrally designed training programmes, approved and supervised suppliers, automated machinery, meticulous specifications and systematic inspections.
Routinization and Taylorism are clearly evident at McDonalds.
McDonalds issues strict rules about safety, hygiene and uniform.
This, then, is the bureaucracy- that is, the set of rules, routinisation, and standardisation that helps constitute this organisation; its structure and its everyday functioning.
Gabriel (1988) documented the experience of working in a fast-food restaurant, finding that the jobs offered little intrinsic satisfaction and very few people found their jobs enjoyable, where breaking the rules broke the drudgery of work.
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McDonaldisation
Ritzer (1998) argues that fast-food restaurants such as McDonalds are the new model for rationalization, which built on many ideas found in bureaucratization; McDonalds is an extreme version of the rationalisation process.
Defining it as a process the principles are working into other sectors.
According to Ritzer, four dimensions lie at the heart of the success of McDonalds.
o McDonalds offers efficiency. o It offers food and service that can be easily quantified and calculated. o It offers predictability. o Control is exerted over human beings, especially through the substitution of non- human technology for human, with technology replacing human labour.
The basic dimensions of McDonaldisation efficiency, calculability, predictability, and increased control through technology.
Ritzer believes that through rules, scripts, regulations, prevent people working in these systems to think intelligently. Central planning and the considerable control that is exerted over franchises, employees, and customers brings us back to a Weberian image of an iron cage of rationalization.
Ritzer believes that McDonalds have influenced even academia, medicine and law, as consumers view the services as consumers looking for low price, convenience, efficiency and absence of hassle.
Changing Organisation Structures
TODO: SBUs and Virtual or Networks
TODO: Competing Networks
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Organisation Chart Types
Functional organisation structure
Geographic-based structure
Product/service-based structure
Matrix structure
Organisational Configuration
Key Points
Mintzberg (1979) proposed every organisation has five parts; Technical Core, Top Management, Middle Management, Technical Support and Administrative Support.
These will vary in size and importance depending on the organisations particular environment, its technology and other factors.
Organisation managers should design the organisation with the five basic parts, so that the adequately perform the subsystem functions of the production, maintenance, adaptation, management and boundary spanning.
A balance should exist to work efficiently.
In real life the five parts are not readily distinguishable and may serve more than one sub- system function.
Managers may be involved in administrative and technical support.
Some may be involved in boundary scanning functions e.g. HR are responsible for interacting with external as well as internal labour markets to find quality employees. R&D will work directly with outside organisations to learn about new technology developments.
Technical Core (Operating Core)
o People who do the basic work.
o It performs the production system functions and actually produces the product and the service output of the organisation.
o Where inputs are transformed into outputs.
o Example: Production department in a manufacturing firm, teachers in a class or medical service activities in a hospital.
Technical Support (Techno structure)
o Technical support employees scan the environment for problems, opportunities and technical developments.
o Responsible for creating innovations in technical core, helping organisations change and adapt.
o Examples: R&D and marketing research.
Administrative Support (Staff Support)
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o Responsible for smooth operation and upkeep of the organisation, including physical and human elements.
o Includes HR activities (Recruitment, compensation, benefits, employee training and development as well as maintenance of buildings and machine repairs.
o Examples: HR and maintenance staff.
Management Top and Middle
o Top
- Responsible for directing and co-ordinating other parts of the organisation.
- Providing: Direction, Strategy, Goals and Policies.
o Middle
- Responsible for implementing and co-ordinating at a department level.
- Traditionally middle management is responsible for mediating between top management and the technical core, such as implementing rules and passing information up and down the hierarchy.
(Organization Theory and Design by Daft, Richard L. Daft, J. Murphy, H. Willmott)
Links
The Times 100 Business Case Studies http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/operations/the-formal-and-informal-organisation- structure.html
Contingency theory is a behavioural theory that claims that there is no single best way to design organizational structures. The best way of organizing e.g. a company, is, however, contingent upon the internal and external situation of the company.
The contingency approach to organizational design tailors the design of the company to the sources of environmental uncertainties faced by the organization. The point is to design an organizational structure that can handle uncertainties in the environment effectively and efficiently.
Therefore, previous theories such as Weber's theory of bureaucracy and Taylor's scientific management approach sometimes fail because they neglect that effective management styles and organizational structures are influenced by various aspects of the environment: the contingency factors. Therefore, there can not be ONE optimal organizational design for every company, because no companies are completely similar, and because every company faces its own set of unique environmental contingencies that result in different levels of environmental uncertainties.
Some important contingencies for companies are listed below:
o Technology o Suppliers and distributors o Consumer interest groups o Customers and competitors o Government o Unions
When making an analysis of the contingencies in the environment, a PESTEL analysis could also be very helpful.
Contingency theory has historically sought to develop generalizations about the formal structures that would fit the use of different technologies. This focus was put forward by Joan Woodward (1958), who argued that technologies directly determine organizational attributes such as span of control, centralization of authority, and the formalization of rules and procedures.
Theorists such as P.R. Lawrence and J. W. Lorsch found that companies operating in less stable environments operated more effectively, if the organizational structure was less formalized, more decentralized and more reliant on mutual adjustment between various departments in the company. Likewise, companies in uncertain environments seemed to be more effective with a greater degree of differentiation between subtasks in the organization, and when the differentiated units were heavily integrated with each other.
On the other hand, companies operating in more stable and certain environments functioned more effectively if the organization was more formalized, centralized in the decision-making and less reliant on mutual adjustment between departments. Likewise, these companies do probably not need a high degree of differentiation of subtasks and integration between units.
Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker found similar results in their research, where organizations operating in more stable environments tend to exhibit a more mechanistic organizational structure, where companies operating in more dynamic and uncertain environments tend to show a more organic organizational structure.
Business leaders should therefore look at the contingencies of the environment, and assess whether or not the organization is capable of handling the uncertainties of the environment, and whether or not the organization is able to process the required amount of information.
The nature and identity of organisational culture/s and how they impact on behaviours.
Highlights
Morgan (1997) Images of Organisations, each chapter using a different metaphor to describe culture.
Drennan (1992) Culture is how things are done around here. It is what is typical of the organisation, the habits, the prevailing attitudes, the grown up pattern of accepted and expected behaviour
Furnham and Gunter (1993) Culture represents the social glue and generates a we feeling, thus counteracting processes of differentiations which are an unavoidable part of organisational life.
Hofstedes (1980) work looks at the relationship between national and organisational cultures, claiming to have uncovered the secrets of entire national cultures.
Ouchi (1981) was a pioneer in introducing interactional leadership theory in has application of Japanese-style management to corporate America.
Schein (1985) claims the term culture, should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shaped by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment.
Lecture notes and Wilson
Introduction
Culture, as a concept, implies a stabilizing force that preserves the status quo but organisations are seldom static. They are created, influenced, and transformed by many, not only by management, and are therefore not as susceptible to manipulation and control as many authors and management consultants might have us believe.
The Concept of Culture
Deal and Kennedy (1982) define culture as; The way we do things round here
Hofstede (1991) defines culture as; The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one organisation from another.
Schein (1985) claims the term should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shaped by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment.
As defined by Schein (1990) as:
a) a pattern of basic assumptions, b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, c) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration, d) which has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, e) is to be taught to new members as the f) correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.
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(Slide 11) The culture of a particular group or organisation can be distinguished at three levels at which the culture manifests itself:
Schein (1985) argues that we can gain some understanding at a superficial level of any culture by analysing artefacts produced and consumed by that culture. These are visible, and can be deciphered or decoded by observations and analysis. To get a better feel for the idea and orientations that have shaped the character and form of these artefacts, we need to understand the deeper value system. A value system is like a code of practice or behaviour; artefacts offer us clues to this deeper value system. Beneath the level of values, there is deeper level of taken- for-granted, unconscious assumptions. Unlike values and beliefs that exist at a conscious level, and which may there be challenged, the cultural forms and our ideas are not open to challenge. The unconscious shapes our norms, such as standards of behaviour, dress, personal interaction, and our values and beliefs. Schien has been criticized, for implying that cultural norms and values act as templates for thought and action, and appear not to be open to change; in fact the unconscious assumptions must be open to change and negotiation. They should be thought of as dynamic and social phenomena that will tend to evolve and change as people attempt to negotiate and bend the rules.
There is a lack of consensus to what culture is and a lack of ability to manage it, however despite that management consultants will sell the idea that it can be managed and strong cultures can be manufactured.
(Wilson)
Lecture Introduction (Handy Video) Presents the idea of multi-cultures in one organisation.
o Organisations talk about culture not cultures and waste time in trying to apply something that is universal applicable across the organisation. Culture is created by the people youve got in different locations, with different types of organisations requiring different types of personalities. Therefore its inevitable of culture clashes between them.
o Bureaucratic and mundane organisations require people with an attention to detail.
o In some parts of the organisation you require people to follow rules to the letter but in other parts people must think outside the box pushing boundaries. Therefore there are differences with the same organisation.
o Very difficult to mange the culture within an organisation.
o You have a broad culture approach across the organisation, which you want the client / customer to see but within it there will be pockets where cultures are different but they are still there.
(Slide 1) What is an organisation Dont forget that the shape of the organisation has been chosen by someone, they dont evolve. Deciding what the social arrangement is going to be e.g. matrix, flat and the extent to which they want to control peoples performance within the organisation, some are more control freakier than others and the extent to which we are working toward collective goals.
Defining an organisation
A social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals. 68 | P a g e
Key aspects
o Social arrangements o Collective goals o Controlled performance
Three separate dimensions that would be more or less important to an organisation depending on their cultural values. In some organisations the conformity is all-important, with other its how you achieve those goals sometimes at the expense of the collective. Again someone has chosen the structure, particularly at its inception. They are reluctant to change it shape and culture particularly e.g. an entrepreneur at the centre of an organisation making the key decision who are reluctant to change, delegating, is difficult for them to accept or the move away from a large company structure / culture to more a task based structure is very difficult as it very bureaucratic.
(Slide 2) Organisational behaviour Theoretical areas, looking at how a number of factors impact on the way organisations behave and the way that culture is created and the way culture effects the way the culture behaves as a whole.
(Slide 3) Interventions and control - The way organisation use cultures, techniques and interventions to control certain activities and behaviours within the workforce. Some cultures are stronger on these intervention activities than others. So the sorts of things used include:
o Training and development o Psychometric assessment trying to get the right people psychological fit with the individual and the type of organisation they are in. o Employee communications where its is one way or two way, some is regarded as top down, team briefings, with no real dialog, which could be argued is more information giving. o Job design o Teambuilding o Re-structuring largely to restructuring is trying to get the organisation to fit in with the environment in which it exists. o Organisation development and change o Culture change often giving the individual the skills and abilities.
The provide a range of interventions we are using in the form of interventions attempting to control:
o Knowledge and skill o Types of people employed o Understanding and compliance o Motivation, commitment, performance o Cohesion, team performance o Response to external uncertainty o Adaptability, conflict levels, resistance o Values, attitudes, beliefs, goals.
(Slide 4) Metaphors for Organisations Morgan (1997) Images of Organisations, each chapter using a different metaphor to describe cultures, e.g. organisations as machines. If you take a bureaucratic organisation (Weber) good way to get things done. The down sides are when people hide behind bureaucracy to not get things done.
o Machine - sees every part of the organisation as a component, with every part having a role to play, every bit is linked to other parts of the machine, so every part must work efficiently otherwise the machine doesnt work. o Organism having the organisation as living beings, which are constantly evolving to cope with changes in the environment. 69 | P a g e
o Brains with everyone in the organisation representing a brain cell, contributing to the overall cogitative ability of the organisation to live and function. o Cultures Morgan talks about culture in the laboratory sense, i.e. growing a culture, which evolving over a period of time. Starting with one person as the initial culture, with the culture evolving as new people come and go. o Political Systems Most organisations have political elements, games you need to play to get things done. o Psychic Prisons mentally and psychologically constrain people, i.e. you are not paid to think just do as youre told or where managers are reluctant for people below them to have good ideas, they think its the manager that should have the good idea. If you recognise that you can use that to your benefit as you are managing the team. o Instruments of Domination where you keep people down or suppress them, make them know who is in control, very authoritarian. o Flux and Transformation where they are in a constant state of evolution.
(Slide 5) Organisational Culture What is culture:
o Drennan (1992) - Culture is how things are done around here. It is what is typical of the organisation, the habits, the prevailing attitudes, the grown up pattern of accepted and expected behaviour
o Also something that gives a sense of cohesiveness in a collective sense.
o Furnham and Gunter (1993) Culture represents the social glue and generates a we feeling, thus counteracting processes of differentiations which are an unavoidable part of organisational life.
(Slide 6) Concept of Culture - when it became important and part of HRM, was around 1980s and 1990s so that it could be managed and get people to get inline with the goals of the organisation (e.g. TQMs) but it was identified decades before back to the 1950s (Ecuishine?).
Example BA in the 1980s: Changing the corporate culture away from something very militaristic, as some were ex-military, loving the structure and uniform, as it made them feel at home, which was fine when it was supported by the public sector and supported by the subsidies, but had to change in the move to privatisation. This lead to years of sustained consolidation and culture change through training courses etc to become more customer focused.
(Slide 7) The Concept of Organisational Culture Every organisational culture is unique and represented by its own Paradigm (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). Looking at the way we can identify a culture:
o Organisational structure, in Handys case, each of the cultures are structurally different. o What Control systems do we have in place, how do we know if people are work or not. o Rituals and Routines we go through i.e. committees that have rituals and routines, or the armed forces that use rituals and routines as part of the socialisation process, breaking you down to build you back up psychologically. o The Stories and Myths about the organisation, o Symbols those are important to organisations. o Where does Power lay.
These are all the indicators that tell about what that organisation is like to live within.
The national side of culture covered in Wilson but worth noting that the impact of national culture on organisations, as you find taking eastern vs western cultures, does influence the way the organisations culture will behave. Difficulties arise when you have international mergers and acquisitions. 70 | P a g e
(Slide 8) Culture and control
(Slide 9) Organisational culture and national culture
Hofstedes (1980) work looks at the relationship between national and organisational cultures, claiming to have uncovered the secrets of entire national cultures. Using employee attitude surveys within IBM subsidiaries in sixty-six countries, Hofstede studied the differences in work-related values by analysing national cultures along five main dimensions:
o Power distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members of organisation and institutions such as families, expect and accept that power will be distributed evenly. Those societies with high power distance scores tend to exhibit more authoritarian management styles.
o Individualism/collectivism In cultures high in individualism, ties between individuals tend to be loose and there is an expectation that individuals are responsible for their own well-being. In collectivist societies, there is a high degree of social solidarity, making it less acceptable to dismiss workers for economic reasons.
o Masculinity/femininity masculine forms of society males are expected to be strong, tough, competitive, and assertive while women are expected to be meek, gentle, modest, caring, and nurturing. IN more feminist societies men and women are expected to demonstrate a degree of modesty and a concern for the quality of life. More feminine organisations would operate using intuition and negotiation while masculine would use assertion and competition.
o Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity. Those with high scores tend to have obvious routines and need to be busy.
o Confucian dynamism the extent to which societies adopt a short-term or long-term approach to life. Those with a short-term approach demand quick results, yet respectful of traditions and social obligation. Those with a long-term approach also respect traditions, but would argue that they have to be adapted to meet modern contexts.
For Hofstede, culture is mental programming, software of the mind, subjective and territorially unique. The inhabitants of a particular nation individually carry a unique national culture, which is itself a common component of a wider culture that contains both global and sub-national constituents.
(Slide 10) Is culture something an organisation has or is? Does it matter? Yes it does matter, as what is different between these two things comes down to whether or extent to which you can control culture. If it something the organisation has then the belief is you can own and control it. If you believe the organisation culture is; there is a kind of evolutionary controllable element to it, that it just develops, in its own way and you can shape it slightly cosmetically, but you can completely dominate and control the culture. (Handy) Problem is organisations believe there is one culture, i.e. the one that they declared.
Culture could be seen as an organisational personality.
Categorising an organisations culture is very difficult. A particular type of structure underlines Handys work, with difficulty in separating the two. Does the structure create the culture or visa versa. Sometimes changing the culture requires changing people, which Handy alludes to, either through transformational change, changing the attitude/behaviour of the person and the other is exchange that is you replace them with a better model, as trying to change the culture around some people can be impossible.
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(Slide 11) Culture Characteristic Schein (2004) doesnt provide concrete labels for an organisations culture. (Alf)
Schein (1985) claims the term should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shaped by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment.
As defined by Schein (1990) as:
a) a pattern of basic assumptions, b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, c) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration, d) which has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, e) is to be taught to new members as the f) correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.
(Slide 11) The culture of a particular group or organisation can be distinguished at three levels at which the culture manifests itself:
Artefacts are the phenomenon that you would see, hear and feel when you encounter a new group with an unfamiliar culture. Artefacts include, visual products; architecture of its physical environment, language, its technology and products, style, clothing, manners of address, myths and stories told about the organisation, values, rituals and ceremonies.
Observed behaviour is also an artefact as are the organisational processes by which such behaviour is made routines. Structured elements such as charters, formal descriptions of how organisations work and organisational charts also fall into the artefact level.
At this level the culture is easy to observe but difficult to decipher.
TODO: Values and Basic Assumptions
Any groups culture can be studies at three levels the level of its artefacts, the level of its espoused beliefs and values, and the level of its basic underlying assumptions. If you do not decipher the pattern of basic assumptions that may be operating, you will not know how to interpret the artefacts correctly or how much credence to give to the espoused values. In other words, the essence of a culture lies in the pattern of basic underlying assumptions, and after you understand those, you can easily understand the other more surface levels and deal appropriately with them. Though the essence of a groups culture is its pattern of shared, basic taken-for-granted assumptions, the culture will manifest itself at the level of observable artefacts and shared espoused values, norms, and rules of behaviour. In analyzing cultures, it is important to recognize that artefacts are easy to observe but difficult to decipher and that espoused beliefs and values may only reflect rationalizations or aspirations. To understand a groups culture, you must attempt to get at its shared basic assumptions and understand the learning process by which such basic assumptions evolve.
Leadership is originally the source of the beliefs and values that get a group moving in the dealing with its internal and external problems. If wha leaders propose works and continues to work, what once were only the leaders assumptions gradually come to be shared assumptions.
(Schein, 2010) 72 | P a g e
(Slide 12) Levels of Culture
Some of the confusion around culture comes from the not differentiating the levels at which it manifests itself, ranging from the tangible overt manifestations that you see and feel to the deeper embedded unconscious, basic assumptions, that Schein defines as the essence of culture.
In between these layers are various espoused beliefs, values, norms and rules of behaviour those members of the culture use as a way of depicting the culture to themselves and others. Values tend to be open for discussion and people can agree to disagree about them.
Basic assumptions are those taken for granted and treated as nonnegotiable.
Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar H. Schein (2010)
Cultures in Organizations: Three Perspectives by Joanne Martin
Martins work focuses on the culture with OZCO, however the focus of researchers is centered around cultural forms, informal practices, formal practices, content themes.
(Slide 18) Cultural Indicators Feedback and Reward
Deal and Kenedy (1982) provides the timescale for feedback and reward and level of risk involved. Probably as scientific as Handys work. Handy based his work on Harrisons (1972) adding the Gods to make it more interesting and good for consultants as it s quick fix to cultural classification but it remains a loose framework, which a frustrating aspect of culture and the way in which we interpret it. It is very difficult to be objective when assessing culture. Once you can see patterns of culture through an organisation, with certain behaviours becoming normalised, then you can say it cultural. (Alf)
(Slide 19) The Four Cultures Deal and Kenedy (1982)
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(Slide 20) The Z Organisation
Ouchi (1981) was a pioneer in introducing interactional leadership theory in has application of Japanese-style management to corporate America. Theory Z, the term Ouchi used for this type of management is an expansion of McGregers Theory Y and supports democratic leadership. Characteristics of Theory Z include consensus decision making, fitting employees to their jobs, job security, slower promotions, examining long-term consequences of management decision making, quality circles, guarantee of lifetime employment, establishment of strong bonds of responsibility between superiors and subordinates, and holistic concern for the workers. Ouchi was able to find components of Japanese-style management in many successful American companies. Theory Z lost favour with many management theorists, as American managers were unable to put the theory into practice, instead continuing to make people do what they wanted them to do. Theory Z neglects some of the variables that influence leadership effectiveness, failing to recognise the dynamics between worker and leader.
Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application By Bessie L. Marquis, Carol Jorgensen Huston
Organisational socialisation is the process by which employees learn about and adapt to their workplace, including new responsibilities and roles and the organisational culture. Schein goes on to describe five elements of this process:
1. Accepting the reality of the organisation (that is, the constraints governing individual behaviour). 2. Dealing with the resistance to change (that is, the problems involved in getting personal view and ideas accepted by others). 3. Learning how to work realistically in the new job, in terms of coping with too much or too little organisation and too much or too little job description (that is, the amount of autonomy and feedback available). 4. Dealing with the boss and understanding the reward (that is, the amount of independence given and what organisation defines as high performance). 5. Locating ones place in the organisation and developing an identity (that is, understanding how an individual fits into the organisation).
The five elements combine together to give an individual a certain orientation towards the organisation.
The knowledge, values and skills that individuals learn from being socialised differ for two reasons. First, individuals are different, holding contrasting values and attitudes and having acquired and developed varying levels of skill. The values, attitudes and skills level of different people will strongly influence the way they each view the new organisation, their new job and new colleagues. Second, the actual experience of induction and socialisation into the organisation will vary according to the prevailing circumstances.
Working in Organisations by Andrew Kakabadse, John Bank, Susan Vinnicombe
o Goals and values o People o Politics o Performance and proficiency o Language o History
Conclusion
Culture is a concept used to describe a company, a rationale for peoples behaviour, and many other features of organisational life.
Culture can be witnessed or researched as observable facts, meanings, norms of behaviour, symbols values, beliefs, structures, and underlying assumptions.
While managers may wish to see culture as a variable, subject to their manipulation and control, and management consultants have been keen to sell the idea that culture can be made stronger and managed, critics have argued that culture cannot be managed. Others have accepted that it may be malleable-but argue that change can be unpredictable, and fraught with difficulties and ethical dilemmas.
Hofstede has looked at relationships between national and organisational cultures. His work has been criticized mainly because of his presuppositions and methodology.
While some management consultants may claim to be able to manage and change culture with positive outcomes, organisational researchers have focused on how best to describe culture (examining the occupational culture, the corporate image, the language, the symbolic order of gender or race, or the metaphors and myths to be found in the organisation), or on the outcomes of culture or culture change.
Human Resources Revision Organisational Culture
The nature and identity of organisational culture/s and how they impact on behaviours.
Highlights
Morgan (1997) Images of Organisations, each chapter using a different metaphor to describe culture.
Drennan (1992) Culture is how things are done around here. It is what is typical of the organisation, the habits, the prevailing attitudes, the grown up pattern of accepted and expected behaviour
Furnham and Gunter (1993) Culture represents the social glue and generates a we feeling, thus counteracting processes of differentiations which are an unavoidable part of organisational life.
Hofstedes (1980) work looks at the relationship between national and organisational cultures, claiming to have uncovered the secrets of entire national cultures.
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Ouchi (1981) was a pioneer in introducing interactional leadership theory in has application of Japanese-style management to corporate America.
Schein (1985) claims the term culture, should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shaped by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment.
Lecture notes and Wilson
Introduction
Culture, as a concept, implies a stabilizing force that preserves the status quo but organisations are seldom static. They are created, influenced, and transformed by many, not only by management, and are therefore not as susceptible to manipulation and control as many authors and management consultants might have us believe.
The Concept of Culture
Deal and Kennedy (1982) define culture as; The way we do things round here
Hofstede (1991) defines culture as; The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one organisation from another.
Schein (1985) claims the term should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shaped by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment.
As defined by Schein (1990) as:
g) a pattern of basic assumptions, h) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, i) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration, j) which has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, k) is to be taught to new members as the l) correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.
(Slide 11) The culture of a particular group or organisation can be distinguished at three levels at which the culture manifests itself:
Schein (1985) argues that we can gain some understanding at a superficial level of any culture by analysing artefacts produced and consumed by that culture. These are visible, and can be deciphered or decoded by observations and analysis. To get a better feel for the idea and orientations that have shaped the character and form of these artefacts, we need to understand the deeper value system. A value system is like a code of practice or behaviour; artefacts offer us clues to this deeper value system. Beneath the level of values, there is deeper level of taken- for-granted, unconscious assumptions. Unlike values and beliefs that exist at a conscious level, and which may there be challenged, the cultural forms and our ideas are not open to challenge. The unconscious shapes our norms, such as standards of behaviour, dress, personal interaction, and our values and beliefs. Schien has been criticized, for implying that cultural norms and values act as templates for thought and action, and appear not to be open to change; in fact the unconscious assumptions must be open to change and negotiation. They should be thought of as dynamic and social phenomena that will tend to evolve and change as people attempt to negotiate and bend the rules. 76 | P a g e
There is a lack of consensus to what culture is and a lack of ability to manage it, however despite that management consultants will sell the idea that it can be managed and strong cultures can be manufactured.
(Wilson)
Lecture Introduction (Handy Video) Presents the idea of multi-cultures in one organisation.
o Organisations talk about culture not cultures and waste time in trying to apply something that is universal applicable across the organisation. Culture is created by the people youve got in different locations, with different types of organisations requiring different types of personalities. Therefore its inevitable of culture clashes between them.
o Bureaucratic and mundane organisations require people with an attention to detail.
o In some parts of the organisation you require people to follow rules to the letter but in other parts people must think outside the box pushing boundaries. Therefore there are differences with the same organisation.
o Very difficult to mange the culture within an organisation.
o You have a broad culture approach across the organisation, which you want the client / customer to see but within it there will be pockets where cultures are different but they are still there.
(Slide 1) What is an organisation Dont forget that the shape of the organisation has been chosen by someone, they dont evolve. Deciding what the social arrangement is going to be e.g. matrix, flat and the extent to which they want to control peoples performance within the organisation, some are more control freakier than others and the extent to which we are working toward collective goals.
Defining an organisation
A social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals.
Key aspects
o Social arrangements o Collective goals o Controlled performance
Three separate dimensions that would be more or less important to an organisation depending on their cultural values. In some organisations the conformity is all-important, with other its how you achieve those goals sometimes at the expense of the collective. Again someone has chosen the structure, particularly at its inception. They are reluctant to change it shape and culture particularly e.g. an entrepreneur at the centre of an organisation making the key decision who are reluctant to change, delegating, is difficult for them to accept or the move away from a large company structure / culture to more a task based structure is very difficult as it very bureaucratic.
(Slide 2) Organisational behaviour Theoretical areas, looking at how a number of factors impact on the way organisations behave and the way that culture is created and the way culture effects the way the culture behaves as a whole.
(Slide 3) Interventions and control - The way organisation use cultures, techniques and interventions to control certain activities and behaviours within the workforce. Some cultures are stronger on these intervention activities than others. So the sorts of things used include: 77 | P a g e
o Training and development o Psychometric assessment trying to get the right people psychological fit with the individual and the type of organisation they are in. o Employee communications where its is one way or two way, some is regarded as top down, team briefings, with no real dialog, which could be argued is more information giving. o Job design o Teambuilding o Re-structuring largely to restructuring is trying to get the organisation to fit in with the environment in which it exists. o Organisation development and change o Culture change often giving the individual the skills and abilities.
The provide a range of interventions we are using in the form of interventions attempting to control:
o Knowledge and skill o Types of people employed o Understanding and compliance o Motivation, commitment, performance o Cohesion, team performance o Response to external uncertainty o Adaptability, conflict levels, resistance o Values, attitudes, beliefs, goals.
(Slide 4) Metaphors for Organisations Morgan (1997) Images of Organisations, each chapter using a different metaphor to describe cultures, e.g. organisations as machines. If you take a bureaucratic organisation (Weber) good way to get things done. The down sides are when people hide behind bureaucracy to not get things done.
o Machine - sees every part of the organisation as a component, with every part having a role to play, every bit is linked to other parts of the machine, so every part must work efficiently otherwise the machine doesnt work. o Organism having the organisation as living beings, which are constantly evolving to cope with changes in the environment. o Brains with everyone in the organisation representing a brain cell, contributing to the overall cogitative ability of the organisation to live and function. o Cultures Morgan talks about culture in the laboratory sense, i.e. growing a culture, which evolving over a period of time. Starting with one person as the initial culture, with the culture evolving as new people come and go. o Political Systems Most organisations have political elements, games you need to play to get things done. o Psychic Prisons mentally and psychologically constrain people, i.e. you are not paid to think just do as youre told or where managers are reluctant for people below them to have good ideas, they think its the manager that should have the good idea. If you recognise that you can use that to your benefit as you are managing the team. o Instruments of Domination where you keep people down or suppress them, make them know who is in control, very authoritarian. o Flux and Transformation where they are in a constant state of evolution.
(Slide 5) Organisational Culture What is culture:
o Drennan (1992) - Culture is how things are done around here. It is what is typical of the organisation, the habits, the prevailing attitudes, the grown up pattern of accepted and expected behaviour
o Also something that gives a sense of cohesiveness in a collective sense.
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o Furnham and Gunter (1993) Culture represents the social glue and generates a we feeling, thus counteracting processes of differentiations which are an unavoidable part of organisational life.
(Slide 6) Concept of Culture - when it became important and part of HRM, was around 1980s and 1990s so that it could be managed and get people to get inline with the goals of the organisation (e.g. TQMs) but it was identified decades before back to the 1950s (Ecuishine?).
Example BA in the 1980s: Changing the corporate culture away from something very militaristic, as some were ex-military, loving the structure and uniform, as it made them feel at home, which was fine when it was supported by the public sector and supported by the subsidies, but had to change in the move to privatisation. This lead to years of sustained consolidation and culture change through training courses etc to become more customer focused.
(Slide 7) The Concept of Organisational Culture Every organisational culture is unique and represented by its own Paradigm (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). Looking at the way we can identify a culture:
o Organisational structure, in Handys case, each of the cultures are structurally different. o What Control systems do we have in place, how do we know if people are work or not. o Rituals and Routines we go through i.e. committees that have rituals and routines, or the armed forces that use rituals and routines as part of the socialisation process, breaking you down to build you back up psychologically. o The Stories and Myths about the organisation, o Symbols those are important to organisations. o Where does Power lay.
These are all the indicators that tell about what that organisation is like to live within.
The national side of culture covered in Wilson but worth noting that the impact of national culture on organisations, as you find taking eastern vs western cultures, does influence the way the organisations culture will behave. Difficulties arise when you have international mergers and acquisitions.
(Slide 8) Culture and control
(Slide 9) Organisational culture and national culture
Hofstedes (1980) work looks at the relationship between national and organisational cultures, claiming to have uncovered the secrets of entire national cultures. Using employee attitude surveys within IBM subsidiaries in sixty-six countries, Hofstede studied the differences in work-related values by analysing national cultures along five main dimensions:
o Power distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members of organisation and institutions such as families, expect and accept that power will be distributed evenly. Those societies with high power distance scores tend to exhibit more authoritarian management styles.
o Individualism/collectivism In cultures high in individualism, ties between individuals tend to be loose and there is an expectation that individuals are responsible for their own well-being. In collectivist societies, there is a high degree of social solidarity, making it less acceptable to dismiss workers for economic reasons.
o Masculinity/femininity masculine forms of society males are expected to be strong, tough, competitive, and assertive while women are expected to be meek, gentle, 79 | P a g e
modest, caring, and nurturing. IN more feminist societies men and women are expected to demonstrate a degree of modesty and a concern for the quality of life. More feminine organisations would operate using intuition and negotiation while masculine would use assertion and competition.
o Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity. Those with high scores tend to have obvious routines and need to be busy.
o Confucian dynamism the extent to which societies adopt a short-term or long-term approach to life. Those with a short-term approach demand quick results, yet respectful of traditions and social obligation. Those with a long-term approach also respect traditions, but would argue that they have to be adapted to meet modern contexts.
For Hofstede, culture is mental programming, software of the mind, subjective and territorially unique. The inhabitants of a particular nation individually carry a unique national culture, which is itself a common component of a wider culture that contains both global and sub-national constituents.
(Slide 10) Is culture something an organisation has or is? Does it matter? Yes it does matter, as what is different between these two things comes down to whether or extent to which you can control culture. If it something the organisation has then the belief is you can own and control it. If you believe the organisation culture is; there is a kind of evolutionary controllable element to it, that it just develops, in its own way and you can shape it slightly cosmetically, but you can completely dominate and control the culture. (Handy) Problem is organisations believe there is one culture, i.e. the one that they declared.
Culture could be seen as an organisational personality.
Categorising an organisations culture is very difficult. A particular type of structure underlines Handys work, with difficulty in separating the two. Does the structure create the culture or visa versa. Sometimes changing the culture requires changing people, which Handy alludes to, either through transformational change, changing the attitude/behaviour of the person and the other is exchange that is you replace them with a better model, as trying to change the culture around some people can be impossible.
(Slide 11) Culture Characteristic Schein (2004) doesnt provide concrete labels for an organisations culture. (Alf)
Schein (1985) claims the term should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shaped by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisations view of itself and its environment.
As defined by Schein (1990) as:
g) a pattern of basic assumptions, h) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, i) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration, j) which has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, k) is to be taught to new members as the l) correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.
(Slide 11) The culture of a particular group or organisation can be distinguished at three levels at which the culture manifests itself:
4. observable artefacts 5. values 6. basic underlying assumptions 80 | P a g e
(Wilson)
Artefacts are the phenomenon that you would see, hear and feel when you encounter a new group with an unfamiliar culture. Artefacts include, visual products; architecture of its physical environment, language, its technology and products, style, clothing, manners of address, myths and stories told about the organisation, values, rituals and ceremonies.
Observed behaviour is also an artefact as are the organisational processes by which such behaviour is made routines. Structured elements such as charters, formal descriptions of how organisations work and organisational charts also fall into the artefact level.
At this level the culture is easy to observe but difficult to decipher.
TODO: Values and Basic Assumptions
Any groups culture can be studies at three levels the level of its artefacts, the level of its espoused beliefs and values, and the level of its basic underlying assumptions. If you do not decipher the pattern of basic assumptions that may be operating, you will not know how to interpret the artefacts correctly or how much credence to give to the espoused values. In other words, the essence of a culture lies in the pattern of basic underlying assumptions, and after you understand those, you can easily understand the other more surface levels and deal appropriately with them. Though the essence of a groups culture is its pattern of shared, basic taken-for-granted assumptions, the culture will manifest itself at the level of observable artefacts and shared espoused values, norms, and rules of behaviour. In analyzing cultures, it is important to recognize that artefacts are easy to observe but difficult to decipher and that espoused beliefs and values may only reflect rationalizations or aspirations. To understand a groups culture, you must attempt to get at its shared basic assumptions and understand the learning process by which such basic assumptions evolve.
Leadership is originally the source of the beliefs and values that get a group moving in the dealing with its internal and external problems. If wha leaders propose works and continues to work, what once were only the leaders assumptions gradually come to be shared assumptions.
(Schein, 2010)
(Slide 12) Levels of Culture
Some of the confusion around culture comes from the not differentiating the levels at which it manifests itself, ranging from the tangible overt manifestations that you see and feel to the deeper embedded unconscious, basic assumptions, that Schein defines as the essence of culture.
In between these layers are various espoused beliefs, values, norms and rules of behaviour those members of the culture use as a way of depicting the culture to themselves and others. Values tend to be open for discussion and people can agree to disagree about them.
Basic assumptions are those taken for granted and treated as nonnegotiable.
Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar H. Schein (2010)
Cultures in Organizations: Three Perspectives by Joanne Martin
Martins work focuses on the culture with OZCO, however the focus of researchers is centered around cultural forms, informal practices, formal practices, content themes.
(Slide 18) Cultural Indicators Feedback and Reward
Deal and Kenedy (1982) provides the timescale for feedback and reward and level of risk involved. Probably as scientific as Handys work. Handy based his work on Harrisons (1972) adding the Gods to make it more interesting and good for consultants as it s quick fix to cultural classification but it remains a loose framework, which a frustrating aspect of culture and the way in which we interpret it. It is very difficult to be objective when assessing culture. Once you can see patterns of culture through an organisation, with certain behaviours becoming normalised, then you can say it cultural. (Alf)
(Slide 19) The Four Cultures Deal and Kenedy (1982)
(Slide 20) The Z Organisation
Ouchi (1981) was a pioneer in introducing interactional leadership theory in has application of Japanese-style management to corporate America. Theory Z, the term Ouchi used for this type of management is an expansion of McGregers Theory Y and supports democratic leadership. Characteristics of Theory Z include consensus decision making, fitting employees to their jobs, job security, slower promotions, examining long-term consequences of management decision making, quality circles, guarantee of lifetime employment, establishment of strong bonds of responsibility between superiors and subordinates, and holistic concern for the workers. Ouchi was able to find components of Japanese-style management in many successful American companies. Theory Z lost favour with many management theorists, as American managers were unable to put the theory into practice, instead continuing to make people do what they wanted them to do. Theory Z neglects some of the variables that influence leadership effectiveness, failing to recognise the dynamics between worker and leader.
Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application By Bessie L. Marquis, Carol Jorgensen Huston
Organisational socialisation is the process by which employees learn about and adapt to their workplace, including new responsibilities and roles and the organisational culture. Schein goes on to describe five elements of this process:
6. Accepting the reality of the organisation (that is, the constraints governing individual behaviour). 7. Dealing with the resistance to change (that is, the problems involved in getting personal view and ideas accepted by others). 8. Learning how to work realistically in the new job, in terms of coping with too much or too little organisation and too much or too little job description (that is, the amount of autonomy and feedback available). 9. Dealing with the boss and understanding the reward (that is, the amount of independence given and what organisation defines as high performance). 10. Locating ones place in the organisation and developing an identity (that is, understanding how an individual fits into the organisation).
The five elements combine together to give an individual a certain orientation towards the organisation.
The knowledge, values and skills that individuals learn from being socialised differ for two reasons. First, individuals are different, holding contrasting values and attitudes and having acquired and developed varying levels of skill. The values, attitudes and skills level of different people will strongly influence the way they each view the new organisation, their new job and new colleagues. Second, the actual experience of induction and socialisation into the organisation will vary according to the prevailing circumstances.
Working in Organisations by Andrew Kakabadse, John Bank, Susan Vinnicombe
o Goals and values o People o Politics o Performance and proficiency o Language o History
Conclusion
Culture is a concept used to describe a company, a rationale for peoples behaviour, and many other features of organisational life.
Culture can be witnessed or researched as observable facts, meanings, norms of behaviour, symbols values, beliefs, structures, and underlying assumptions.
While managers may wish to see culture as a variable, subject to their manipulation and control, and management consultants have been keen to sell the idea that culture can be made stronger and managed, critics have argued that culture cannot be managed. Others 83 | P a g e
have accepted that it may be malleable-but argue that change can be unpredictable, and fraught with difficulties and ethical dilemmas.
Hofstede has looked at relationships between national and organisational cultures. His work has been criticized mainly because of his presuppositions and methodology.
While some management consultants may claim to be able to manage and change culture with positive outcomes, organisational researchers have focused on how best to describe culture (examining the occupational culture, the corporate image, the language, the symbolic order of gender or race, or the metaphors and myths to be found in the organisation), or on the outcomes of culture or culture change.