International Management – Organisational Cultures And Diversity Notes

Organisational Cultures and Diversity

TERMS

• Organisational Culture – Shared values and beliefs that enable members to understand their roles in and the norms of the organisation.

• Family Culture – A culture that is characterised by a strong emphasis on hierarchy and orientation to the person.

• Eiffel Tower Culture – A culture that is characterised by strong emphasis on hierarchy and orientation to the task.

• Guided Missile Culture – A culture that is characterised by strong emphasis on equality in the workplace and orientation to the task.

• Incubator Culture – A culture that is characterised by strong emphasis on equality and orientation to the person.

• Groupthink – Consensus reached because of social conformity and pressures on individual members of a group to conform to group norms.

THE NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

• A number of important characteristics are associated with an organisations culture:

  • Observed behavioural regularity, as typified by common language, terminology and rituals.

  • Norms as reflected by things such as the amount of work to be done and the degree of cooperation between management and employees.

  • Dominant values that the organisation advocates and expects participants to share, such as high product and service quality, low absenteeism and high efficiency.

  • A philosophy that is set forth in the MNC’s belief regarding how employees and customers should be treated.

  • Rules that dictate the dos and don’ts of employee behaviour relating to areas such as productivity, customer relations and intergroup cooperation.

  • Organisational climate, or the overall atmosphere of the enterprise as reflected by the way that participants interact with each other, conduct themselves with customers and feel about the way they are treated by high level management.

INTERACTION BETWEEN NATIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES

• Hofstedes research found that the national culture values of employees have a significant impact on their organisational behaviour, and that the culture values employees bring to the workplace with them are not easily changed by the organisation.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES IN MNC’S

• Organisational cultures of MNC’s are shaped by many factors, including the cultural preferences of the leaders and employees.

• In the international arena some MNC’s have subsidiaries that, except for the company logo an reporting procedures, would not be easily recognisable as belonging to the same multinational.

• Companies all over the world are finding out first hand that there is more to an international merger or acquisition than just sharing resources and capturing a great market share.

• Differences in workplace cultures sometimes temporarily overshadow the overall goal of long term success of the newly formed entity.

• With the proper management framework and execution, successful integration of cultures is not only possible, but also the most preferable paradigm in which to operate.

• There are three aspects of organisational functioning that seem to be especially important in determining MNC organisational culture:

  • The general relationship between the employees and their organisation

  • The hierarchical system of authority that defines the roles of managers and subordinates

  • The general vies that employees hold about the MNC’s purpose, destiny, goals and their place in them

• When examining these dimensions of organisational culture, Trompenaar suggested the use of two continua:

  • One distinguishes between equity and hierarchy

  • The other examines orientation to the person and the task

• Along these continua Trompennars identified and described four different types of organisational cultures:

  • Family

    • Power orientated and headed by a leader who is regarded as...

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