Culture

Organizational culture refers to the values that are taken for granted. It represents the way we do things are around here. (Handy,2003). It carries a sense of identity, provides unspoken guidelines for how to get along and improve the stability of the social system to which they belong. However McLean and Marshall (2001) differ by defining it as a collection of traditions, beliefs, attitudes and values that constitute a universal setting for everything we do in an organisation.

Deal and Kennedy (1982) argue that culture is the single most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations. They identified four key dimensions of culture which are:

1. Values – the beliefs that lie at the heart of the corporate culture.

2. Heroes – the people who embody values.

3. Rites and rituals – routines of interaction that have strong symbolic qualities.

4. The culture network – the informal communication system or hidden hierarchy of power in the organization.

The two organisations mentioned have also different culture by which they operate.

Working at Hilton hotel for a while made me embrace the culture of the organisation so easily, after been explained what their culture was all about once, Hilton believe in friendliness and great customer service, Once walking into the building, directly from the entrance guest are made to feel at home, very rarely would you see a member of staff without a smile or unwilling to help a customer in need, this leaves you with the question why are staff so willing and more than happy to help?, well Hilton provide great perks and incentives which ends up motivating staff and improving performance.

Table showing In culture

Paradigms	Hiltons Hotel
Stories	This company is a multinational.
Rituals and Routines	The ritual and routines of the employees here are the basis of their customer satisfaction.
Symbols	The hotels are beautifully designed suiting both customers and employees making it a comfortable and a conducive environment to work in
Organisational Structure	As mentioned, the structure of this organisation is a tall one. Therefore there is bureaucracy.
Control systems	As a more bureaucratic system, the control systems are tighter; here employees are punished for making the wrong decisions or choices.

Power culture: entails having a central figure or a head that makes vast amount of decisions, having a leader, in an organisation may build up a level of trust between the leader and co workers under him or her, decisions are made faster than normal because co workers are not consulted this may de motivate staff and may have an effect on their performance. For example, the CEO decides the office should open on Sundays and everyone has to work on this day, this decision has been made with consultation of co workers, and may have a great affect on staff performance.

Role culture: consist of a bureaucratic system according to (handy), work in the organisations is decried by rules set, and not just appointed by the leader, this type of culture has a high level of communication between the different levels of hierarchy.

Tasks culture: this kind of culture is made up of freedom and flexibility, this is common in some organisations and high level of team work, working in teams at work builds stronger communication amongst staff an example of this Fatramz properties, everyone has their own rolls but it’s very flexible, with mutual objectives in the organisation to hit targets, but believe greatly in team work and less of individual rule.

Person culture: this type of culture is based on personal interest that forms an organisation; most of these organisations have members in trade unions, people who fall in to this category a people with professional jobs, i.e. teacher, with everyone basically on the same level.

The problem trying to classify culture around task, power and person culture is that, some people may just not fit in, it’s just like society today, even though there so many different pressure groups form rooms and niche cultures, some people don’t fit, just for the simple reason everyone is different. People come from all parts of the world is it then fair to categorise culture into four, this is the problem of classifying culture into power, role ,person and task

To conclude Schein (1992) says that organisational culture is even more important toady than it has previously been before. Globalisation, increased competition and technological change have created a greater need for innovation, coordination and integration across organisations in order to improve efficiency and meet the expectations of increasingly more sophisticated clients.

globalisation has improved and increased competition, however also has its negative effects 

references 

Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).