For management learners globally

Home | Management Concepts | Newsletter | About | Contact | PowerPoints | Management Cliparts |

Organisational Culture Take a quiz: PowerPoint

When we walk into an organisation and get a certain 'feel' for it, whether it is fast moving and responsive, or whether it feels old and backward looking, this 'feeling' is referred to 'organisational culture'. Culture is about how the organisation organises itself, it's rules, procedures and beliefs make up the culture of the company. In this section we are going to briefly look at six types of organisational cultures.

Power Culture

Within a power culture, control is the key element. Power cultures are usually found within a small or medium size organisation. Decisions in an organisation that display a power culture are centralised around one key individual. That person likes control and the power behind it. As group work is not evident in a power culture, the organisation can react quickly to dangers around it as no consultation is involved. However this culture has its problems, lack of consultation can lead to staff feeling undervalued and de-motivated, which can also lead to high staff turnover.

Role Culture

Common in most organisations today is a role culture. In a role culture, organisations are split into various functions and each individual within the function is assigned a particular role. The role culture has the benefit of specialisation. Employees focus on their particular role as assigned to them by their job description and this should increase productivity for the company. This culture is quite logical to organise in a large organisation.

Task Culture

A task culture refers to a team based approach to complete a particular task. They are popular in today's modern business society where the organisation will establish particular 'project teams' to complete a task to date. A task culture clearly offer some benefits. Staff feel motivated because they are empowered to make decisions within their team, they will also feel valued because they may have been selected within that team and given the responsibility to bring the task to a successful end. NASA organise part of their culture around this concept ie putting together teams to oversee a mission.

Person culture

Person cultures are commonly found in charities or non profit organisations. The focus of the organisation is the individual or a particular aim

Forward and backward looking cultures.

Organisations that have an entrepreneurial spirit, always embrace change and listen to staff and customers are said to be forward looking. Forward looking organisations are risk takers and do well because of it. We can argue that Dyson the vacuum cleaner manufacturer embraces this culture. A backward looking culture does not embrace change and is led by systems and procedures. They do not take risk and because of it are usually left with a business not doing so well UK store Marks and Spencers is said to be 'backward looking' ie slow to change.

Diagram: Forms of organisational culture.