Organisational culture
As the main issue for consideration concerning the S. A. Bairamoglou is the concept of organisational culture in the company, it is necessary to concentrate the attention on the details that may be of paramount importance for analysis. As the organisation is a complex issue consisting of numerous matters required for its normal operation and maintenance, all these matters can influence greatly the organisational culture.
As suggested by Schein (2004, p. 1), the culture is a complex unit, moreover, when being incorporated into an organisation affecting the groups of people. The dynamic nature of the organisational culture allows us to assume that the most important task in this particular stage is to choose the most appropriate culture (which is done by the leader/president/owner), incorporate it into the organisation and manage the processes relating to it. Moreover, the organisational culture is regarded as an integral part of successful leadership (Schein, 2004, p. 1) which involves the understanding and management of the organisational culture as well as structure.
It depends upon the company’s strategic management, which aspects of the organisational culture to incorporate into the business in order to acquire the desired effect. If the company is engaged into the change process and change management is the predominant aspect of the company, the organisational culture should incorporate some change environment along with some innovations and experimental models. When the company is new and the employees should become a part of the complete mechanisms, the interpersonal relations should be brought to the point.
As a rule, decision-making, communication, and many other components are brought to consideration, while every aspect of the organisational culture requires a thorough consideration from the global cultural perspective (Schein, 2004, p. 7). In addition, the more aspects should be analysed and changed in order to make the company meet some new or additional requirements and expectations, the more difficult the task is and the more time it may take to reorganise the company’s culture.
When a specific organisational culture is applied to a certain business, it is necessary to establish the most relevant and appropriate issues. Thus, such concepts as “structural stability, depth, breadth, and patterning or integration” (Schein, 2004, p. 7) can be regarded as those which bring some critical changes into the organisational culture. When the culture of a certain organisation is stable, it means that the organisation is stable as well as the environment and, perhaps, interpersonal relations between the representatives of different divisions within a company. Stability comprises wealth of the organisational culture and impossibility to break the structure even by breaking the chain between the employees.
The depth of the organisational culture is the stability of the culture as well because it is embedded into the company’s structure. The breadth includes the groups within the company as formal groups as well as informal ones can be analysed with regard to the cultural approach. As the concept covers all the employees starting with the owner/president/head and moving to the part-time workers; all of them are a part of the organisational culture in terms of common goals, measures that should be taken in order to achieve these goals, certain requirements to follow, and other formal and informal elements of the organisational culture.
The last concept that should be considered with regard to the concept of organisational culture is the patterning or integration. When all the concepts are brought together, the cultural elements become obvious, whereas being hidden deep in the company’s structure, they are treated as the ones that should take place within the company. Schein (2004) has suggested a definition of the concept of organisational culture as we can understand and perceive it: “Culture somehow implies that rituals, climate, values, and behaviours tie together into a coherent whole; this patterning or integration is the essence of what we mean by ‘culture’” (p. 15). Consequently, the concept of organisational culture can be treated as the combination of different behaviours, problems, desires, and other elements that make the company work.
The options open to the organisation in addressing the issue of organisational culture
As the main problem of the company S. A Bairamoglou is the absence of a well-established organisational structure, the analysis of the concept of the organisational culture can fail as well because all the concepts are bound and some gaps may lead to misinterpretation of the data available and results that would not demonstrate the genuine picture of the company’s performance.
As it was already mentioned, the company under consideration does not have a clear chain of command except for the division of Communications & Distribution and the Production & Quality which have a partial organisational structure. The training programs are not included into the company’s structure either; moreover, the president was running the business and the scope of functions was performed under his guidance which excludes the development of an established standard of procedure.
The company needs a cultural change in order to incorporate certain issues into the organisational culture; these elements are aimed at facilitating the procedures and enhancing the inner hierarchy. As suggested by Cameron & Quinn (2005, p. 17), the cultural concepts of different countries are important with regard to the different national cultures; when the question rises, it should be solved with the help of the individual approach to each and every peculiarity of the national cultural element within the organizational culture.
In this respect, the S. A. Bairamoglou should experience the cultural change in order to facilitate the incorporation of the international standards instead of being stick to the national approach of traditional business operation and maintenance. Though the business was established as a family-based one, it grew in size and personnel and requires a different guidance than that previously provided by its president and founder. As soon as the cultural change takes place in the S. A. Bairamoglou, it can be considered an international company with global perspectives and potential for further growth. The theoretical approach should be chosen to properly analyse the importance of changes that should be provided and measures to be taken.
The various academic models and theories relating to the issue
As suggested by Denison & Mishra (1995, p. 207), the dynamic nature of the culture within the organisation should be of primary importance, moreover when regarding the effectiveness of performance taking into account the organisational culture. As suggested in the Figure 2 (De Witte & Muijen, 1999, p. 498), the organisational culture is a complex issue that has a multidimensional structure and should be analysed with the help of different perspectives.
Though the theoretical models are rarely applied to practical projects, it is necessary to perform the analysis because it will prove or break a certain theoretical framework and refute its application to the business discussed. As suggested by Alvesson (2002), the ‘emancipator’ approach may be used in order to consider the strong and weak points of the organisational culture within certain business (p. 119). This approach presupposes that the culture should be liberated, while the author does not offer to avoid all biased and sharp corners. As the cultural environment within an organisation can be touched upon without being absolutely acquainted with the strategies applied before, it is possible to stay unprejudiced and assess the effectiveness of company’s performance from the point of view of the organisational culture.
Another framework includes a Nexus approach to the analysis of organisational culture in terms of the effectiveness of the company’s performance. The essence of this approach can be viewed in the Figure 1 (Martin, 2002, p. 166). As the approach seems to be a complex one and covering a great number of aspects, it is better to identify each aspect separately while analysing a complex business. When the organisational culture is considered, many difficulties may appear because of the hidden aspect and those that are not likely to be changed with a certain organisational culture. Though the basic aim of the cultural change does not presupposes changing the subcultural issues, it is necessary to provide improvements with the most general issues.
An assessment of the usefulness of theories applied to me as the individual manager involved
As the individual manager involved should follow some requirements which are aimed at improving the effectiveness of company’s performance, it is necessary to asses all possible risks and pitfalls that a manager may encounter while analysing the organisational culture.
Academic assessment. The most appropriate theoretical approach to the analysis of the organisational culture is the one that can fully cover all the issues under consideration. Thus, when the company is an international one, the number of employees is big as well as their national cultures’ differences; the most detailed approach should be applied. As the suggested approaches are different, it is necessary to choose the most embracing one.
Thus, it is suggested that the Nexus approach should be applied to the company S. A. Bairamoglou because of its growth in size and personnel. As the number of employees is increasing, the employees from other countries are hired in order to ensure the normal operation and maintenance of the business. Different cultures should be naturally combined in order to achieve the goals of the company. When the nation, class, industry, race, occupation, and religion are intertwined into the integrity of the company, the organisational culture is sure to be an embodiment of the healthy environment for the staff members and the newcomers.
Personal assessment. I find the less complex approach the most useful in terms of analysing the organisational culture of the S. A. Bairamoglou. The modern world makes little difference between the diversities between differently-oriented cultures. In this respect, the unifying approach is able to cover all applicable issues because the cultural aspect is not related to the differences in cultures. Though the interactions between an individual and organisation are mutually-influential, it is necessary to take into account the number of individuals and their cultures and subcultures and the differences of those.
As soon as the company establishes a certain approach in order to meet the expectations of the employees, some changed may be required. The international companies should develop their management strategies in order to be able to provide their employees with healthy environment and all necessary aspects of the organisational culture. The complexity of the business makes the cultural changes more time-consuming and need more efforts and a combination of approaches. Though the company S. A. Bairamoglou is a large one, the integrity of the company’s culture requires only changes aimed at restructuring of the procedures in the production and distribution process.
Conclusion
As the organisational culture is one of the most complicated and deep issues within every business, it is necessary to analyse the concepts related to each other. Different approaches may be chosen in order to cover all the issues applicable to the consideration of the organisational culture. The more multicultural is the organisation, the more complicated the cultural change management should be and the more multidimensional approach should be chosen to provide appropriate changes.
The company S. A. Bairamoglou is a large one and it is oriented at different tasks, though the changes should be provided in order to lead it away from the traditional approach and establish a more complex organisational culture that would include all requirements of the company related to the number of employees and all possible differences in their cultures. When all changes are incorporated, the company can be considered an international one in terms of the organisational culture appropriate for the international business.
References
Alvesson, Mats, 2002. Understanding organizational culture. London: SAGE.
Cameron, Kim S. & Quinn, Robert E., 2005. Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: based on the competing values framework. Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons.
Denison, Daniel R. & Mishra, Aneil K., 1995. Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness. Organization Science. 6 (2), pp. 204-223. Web.
De Witte, Karel & Muijen, Jaap J. Van, 1999. Organizational culture. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 8 (4), pp. 497-502.
Martin, Joanne, 2002. 5th ed. Organizational culture: mapping the terrain. London: SAGE.
Schein, Edgar H., 2004. 3rd ed. Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons.
Appendices
