Business practices
Management is the fundamental function of any firm because it is responsible for the growth and development of an organization. Thus, the manager ought to be experienced, skilled, and highly motivated within their individual capacity to undertake their roles and responsibility as defined by the company. To ensure managers are effective suitable management practices have to be implemented in the long run. Management practices are the working innovation and strategies employed by senior executives to enhance the performance of an organization. However, organizations have to undergo organizational changes as a means to develop new practices that can aid the organization in achieving its objectives and goals. As such, the paper aims to discuss how a CEO can redesign an organization using management practices relating to culture.
Culture
A firm’s culture describes how employees behave in a company. The culture consists of values and beliefs defined by the management and enforced through various forms and methods. In the current society, companies that demonstrate a strong culture tend to be successful in the market. Furthermore, today’s society requires individuals, groups, and organizations to demonstrate values reflecting diversity and inclusivity. Thus, businesses have to adopt practices that reflect a culture of inclusivity and diversity of employees, which can appeal to the consumers. Thus, the new design of the management practices will be based on a culture of tolerance and inclusivity.
Nevertheless, introducing a new culture in an organization can be difficult, as elaborated by Ghinea & BrĂtianu (2012). Thus, numerous frameworks or models have been developed by researchers to aid managers in designing how an organization should operate and practice. However, the type of model or framework to be adopted in the designing processes depends on the management practices. In the case of this study- culture has been identified as the core of the management practice design to be implemented. Therefore, a culture-based model will be used to facilitate the design of the organization. Edgar Schein’s Model of organizational culture has been used as the base model in designing management practices in most organizations. The model provides a framework that can assist the CEO in designing an organization centered on cultural values and beliefs that are identified with the needs of modern society.
Edgar Schein theory
Edgar Schein is perceived as among the leading researchers in culture in the early 1980s when cultural theory emerged. The latter proposed a theory to explain the element of culture within an organizational setting (Coghlan, 2021). Edgar Schein’s theory considers culture as a metaphor for an organization. Edgar’s theory is classified as a functional perspective, implying that culture serves a fundamental role within a company. The first function is to create a conducive working environment among employees, and the second is enabling the firm to adapt to external needs. According to Edgar Schein’s theory, there is no distinction between talking about an organization or a group (Darling, J2017). Culture occurs between a small or larger group of people who have similar interests or values. Such a culture can be manifested within an organization or community-based setting. The way members of an organization act concerning norms, values, and ethics defines the existing culture in that given institution or firm. In essence, the culture is thus a way to describe the “nature” of an organization.
Moreover, Edgar Schein provided a detailed definition of a group and organizational culture. A pattern of shared basic assumptions, which a group learns to solve the problems of internal integration and external adaption that has worked properly enough to be considered valid and considered to be trained to new recruits. As a functionalist, Edgar Schein considered culture as an element that encapsulates the existence of an entire organization. Coherently, the Edgar Schein model categorizes culture into three categories: artifact, espoused values, and basic assumptions. Artifacts are the characteristics that define the physical traits of an organization both within and outside. The visible traits include logo, interior design, employees’ dress codes, and others. The artefact provides the image of how the company wants to be perceived by the public. Based on Edgar Schein’s model, the new company should demonstrate a tolerant and appealing culture to both the employees and consumers. In the current society where tolerance and diversity is critical component of the new company. This means developing an organization centered on a culture that fosters tolerance and acceptance of people from diverse groups.
Espoused values are organization norms and values that define its functionalities. The management of the company outlines which values should be incorporated in the organization. This means that the new CEO is responsible for overseeing the re-organization of core values that will ensure a culture of diversity and tolerance in the company. Such values should be evident or highlighted in specific areas such as the company’s websites brochures and annual reports. The espoused values outline the codes and ethical standards with which the employee will be required to work with. Espoused values create a culture that allows employees to be creative and productive. This is similar to the cultural change introduced by Satya Nadella at Microsoft. Nadella changed the culture of Microsoft by “taking back” the company to its “early root,” where it was focused on providing products that other companies used to develop the technology. This new culture prompted Microsoft employees to focus on developing software tools, which can benefit other organizations. This enabled Microsoft to design new portfolios for consumers, which increased its profitability in the proceeding years. Overall, the approaches proposed by Edgar Schein model of artefact and espoused can be adopted by the CEO to introduce to improve the culture in the organization.
Hofstede
In the 1970s, Hofstede analysed a large survey database about people’s values and related sentiments in over fifty countries working for IMB, a multi-national corporation. The data collected from the survey enabled Hofstede to introduce what he termed as the “six dimension” of national culture (Minkov & Kaasa, 2020). The latter defined dimension as an element of culture, which can be examined or evaluated with respect to other cultures. The dimension proposed by Hofstede includes individualism and collectivism, pragmatic and normative, masculinity and feminity, power distance, indulgence and restraint, and uncertainty avoidance. According to Hofstede’s theory, power distance is a disposition of culture that elaborates how the less powerful individual in society accepts inequality emanating from power as normal.
Hofstede’s theory suggests that inequality exists in every culture; however, the level of intolerance or tolerance varies from one culture to another (Huang & Crotts, 2019). This means that the junior employees are expected to tolerate the inequality of power held by senior executives in an organizational setting. Such a culture can be harmful to the overall functionality of an organization because tolerance of inequality can demotivate employees from attaining full potential or becoming proactive and productive. Therefore, adopting the “power distance” dimension when redesigning an organization can result in negative implications in the long run. Specifically, “encouraging” a culture of normalizing inequality among junior and senior employees results in a toxic and discriminatory work environment, which can harm the organization’s overall performance. Edgar Schein cautions that organizations do not adopt a new culture within a short period.
This is attributed to the gradual change, and employees undergoing various changes to adapt to a new culture or environment. Therefore, the guidelines of the Edgar Schein model will be used to design a new management practice based on culture. Hence, the three-level of or organization culture will involve: artefact as the first stage; it requires the adoption of physically observable policies, such as encouraging casual dress code; redesign of office spaces; redefining the mission and vision of the company. The second stage will incorporate espoused values, which will focus on creating a new culture that enhances partnership and networking, creativity and innovation, learning, and openness among employees (Khandelwal & Mohendra, 2010). Underlying beliefs is the last phase, which incorporates proposing and implementing assumptions on how employees can relate and work. The underlying belief will show how the organized culture has been changed since employee beliefs are the strongest indicators of organizational culture. Overall the new organizational change on management practices will follow the steps outlined by Edgar Schein’s Model of organisational culture that include artefacts, espoused values, completing with basic underlying assumptions.
Reference
Coghlan, D. (2021). Edgar Schein on change: Insights into the creation of a model. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 57(1), 11-19.
Darling, J. (2017). A conversation with Edgar Schein: Aligning strategy, culture, and leadership. People & Strategy, 40(2), 64-68.
Ghinea, V. M., & BrĂtianu, C. (2012). ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE MODELING. Management & Marketing, 7(2).
Huang, S. S., & Crotts, J. (2019). Relationships between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and tourist satisfaction: A cross-country cross-sample examination. Tourism management, 72, 232-241.
Minkov, M., & Kaasa, A. (2020). A test of Hofstede’s model of culture following his own approach. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management.
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