Lundy Cowling

Over time, organizations develop established and expected behavior patterns. A number of organizational culture types have been identified by various researchers.

· Task culture – a definite team culture develops because teams are formed to complete particular jobs and given the power to make decisions. This often produces a distinct level of creativity.

· Role culture – this is often found in large hierarchical organizations, where each individual has a clearly specified function to perform. Employees often work to their job description and they tend to follow the rules rather than be creative.

· Power culture – this is centered on the pre-eminence of one or a small number of individuals within an organization and is more commonly found in small businesses or within constituent parts of a large business.

· Person culture – this is characterized by a loose form of organization where individuals are encouraged to express themselves fully and are allowed to make decisions. This can often be found in small start-up businesses.

These different types of organizational culture are more often found in the private sector. Some researchers have identified other cultures such as bureaucratic culture, where there is top-down decision-making, and collegial culture, where there are committee decision-making structures. These are more often in the public sector, especially in state-owned companies in the developing world and educational institutions worldwide.

FOLLOW-ON QUESTIONS…

1. What basic types of organizational cultures have been identified by researchers?

2. In which organizational culture would you prefer to work? Why?

3. Do dress code, attitudes, personalities, and energy level vary form organization to organization? Why?

4. What are the goals of leading corporations intending to go worldwide?

5. What are some of the possible problems that cultural differences can lead to? What opportunities can they lead to?

Case study «Mission statement»

ISSUE

A mission statement is a statement of the aims, purposes and future activities of an organization. The objective of the mission statement is to define for the company’s stakeholders - its company’s employees, customers and shareholders - what kind of organization it is, what it believes in and in which direction it wants to go.

Here is an example of the mission statement of an international pharmaceutical company:

We aim to be the preferred supplier of pharmaceutical products in the United States and selected international markets, achieving the long-term growth and financial performance of a market leader.

The critical factors that drive our success are:

1. customer focus

2. wide product range

3. continuous process and product improvement

4. short lead times from development to market

5. reduced production costs

6. total quality environment

7. high standards of integrity and ethical conduct.

Now write a mission statement for a real or imaginary service company. First choose or invent the company and its service sector. Then write the text for the statement.

AGENDA

1. The aims of the mission statement

2. The content of the mission statement

3. The wording of the mission statement

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14