ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational Culture



Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture

Using the idea of culture, management author, Charles Handy proffered that organizational culture is the way in which a group of employees behaves. He emphasized that the term reflected a group's unique way of doing the jobs. Handy provide a fundamental base of information for individuals to assess the culture of their separate organizations. Handy identified four dominant types of culture. However, he made his point clear by saying that such typologies represented oversimplifications, since culture is difficult to capture or describe with any degree of precision (Handy, 1996, pp. 112). His reasoning was that a mix of these would normally be present, although some aspects may dominate others.

According to Handy, the four types of organizational culture are:

Power culture: Spider Web

Role culture: Greek Temple

Task culture: Net or matrix

Person culture: Cluster

Organizational culture and Theories

In general terms, there are various ways in which organizational culture can be categorized. The most well-known theory of types of culture, however, is that of Charles Handy. Each of Hardy's proposed culture types is said to have stemmed 'from a different presupposition about human motivation, thought and learning', and each is said to assume a different basis for power and influence within the organisation. The four types Hardy suggested were the cultures of Power, Role, Task and Person (Stacey, 2005, pp. 175).

Power Culture

A Power culture is defined as an organization where decisions are 'centralized around one key individual' or power source. Power cultures are commonly found in small or medium-sized businesses, where control is had by one individual or source, and thus there are few rules and procedures. An example of organizations utilizing such a culture could be small corner shops and off-licenses, where operational decisions are made through one key individual, likely the owner, and there are no formal procedures or ...