CULTURE AND INNOVATION

Culture and Innovation in Organisations

Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument5

Clan5

Hierarchy5

Adhocracy6

Market6

Dimensions of the Organizational Culture6

Innovative and risk takers6

Attention towards Accuracy6

Result Orientation7

People orientation7

Individualism or Isolation7

Team orientation7

Aggressiveness8

Stability8

Two Dimensions of the Organisation Culture8

Internally focused8

Flexibility and Discretion in internally focused Organisation8

Stability and Control in internally focused Organisation9

Externally focused9

Flexibility and Discretion in externally focused Organisation9

Stability and Control in externally focused Organisation10

Qualitative and Quantitative culture10

Properties of Qualitative organisations11

Ceremonies, Rituals and Rites11

Stories and Myths11

Heroes11

Language11

Symbols11

Quantitative Culture12

Analyzing the characteristics of IBM's Organisational Culture12

Consistency12

Adaptability13

Involvement13

Sense of mission13

IBM's Cultural Assessment13

Clan13

Hierarchy14

Adhocracy14

Market14

Assessing the Dimensions of IBM's Culture14

Two Dimensions of the Organisation Culture16

Flexibility and Discretion16

Stability and Control16

Flexibility and Discretion in externally focused Organisation17

Stability and Control in externally focused Organisation17

IBM's Culture (Qualitative Vs Quantitative culture)17

Recommendations for IBM for innovation and competitive advantages18

Culture and Innovation in Organisations

Introduction

The organisational culture encompasses various traits that influence the effectiveness of an organisation. The have been four identified by Denison and Mishra (1995), namely the consistency, adaptability, involvement, and the sense of mission. Whereas, Sinha (2000) advocates the behaviour, values, technology, relationships, goals, objectives, procedures, and structures as the element of the organisational culture. He further declares the organisational culture as the values believes and assumptions.

Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument

The developed framework of competing values is used to construct the profile of organisational culture. Applying the organisational culture assessment instrument the profile of an organisation can be represented by identifying the dominant characteristics of its culture (Cameron et al., 1999). These characteristics are

Clan

The organisation posses the culture, which is sensitive towards customer, concerned for the employees, and flexible towards the internal maintenance of the organisation.

Hierarchy

This characteristic appears when the organisation tends to maintain the internal environment through control and stability.

Adhocracy

This characteristic is dominant when the organisation tends to concentrate on its position with respect to external environment to achieve the higher degree of individuality and flexibility.

Market

This characteristic is found in organisation that tends to focus on its stability and control on the external environment.

Dimensions of the Organizational Culture

There were researches who claimed that the organisations' cultures can be compared considering the following seven dimensions (O?Reilly et al., 1991).



Innovative and risk takers

The organisations that are willing to change with respect to new innovations in technological, managerial and other needs are innovative organisations. These organisations also pose the attribute of experimenting new strategies and approaches towards the betterment of their business. They have no fear to take risks of changes or adoption of new strategies, but they encourage innovation.

Attention towards Accuracy

These organisations focus towards precise strategies to achieve prise results rather than encouraging ambiguity.

Result Orientation

The organisations that are more focused towards the end results or outcomes of the processes rather than concerned about the processes used.

People orientation

These organisations comprise of a culture where the important consideration is the human being and their qualities or skills. The people are valued and respected by such organisations on the basis of their unique talent, education and qualification. People oriented organisations may give its employees role, designations, or positions according to their level or degree ...