What Is The Nature And Substan Essay — страница 2

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(Rokeach 1973: 5) Attitudes connect beliefs and values with feelings. An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond consistently to a particular thing or idea. Attitudes are developed over time and unlike opinions, are held relatively consistently. At the deepest level, culture in an organisation takes the form of basic assumptions, a solution to an identifiable problem that is taken for granted. These are implicit, deep-rooted assumptions that people share, and which guides their perception, feelings and emotions about things. (Schein, 1981) Basic assumptions are held unconsciously and are very difficult to surface. Basic assumptions are by definition neither confront able nor debatable. Basic assumptions are also very complex interactions between beliefs values and

emotions. Analysing these complex interactions is made more difficult by the fact that cultures change over time. Organisations rarely possess a single homogenous culture. There is often a subculture within parts of the organisations and even countercultures in parts.(Gregory 1983:365) There is also marked difference between espoused culture and the culture-in practise. Thus culture in organisations have to be viewed in terms of multiple, cross-cutting contexts changing through time rather than stable bounded and homogenous.(Argyris & Schon 1978) The question then arises as to whether it is possible to manipulate and mould the culture of an organisation. In large organisations, it is quite difficult for a single individual to change the culture. In General Motors John

DoLorean tried to change the culture by starting a counter-culture. He failed and left to found his own company. (Martin & Siehl 1983) Indeed the work of Schein, Beyer and Trice suggests that organisational change is a complex task involving distinct stages. The current culture has to go an unfreezing mechanism where the current culture is questioned and purged. This process often requires outsider, usually in the form of consultants who are supposed to bring unbiased opinions. The firm then undergoes an experimetation phase where there is considerable conflict and degradation. The resulting changed culture then undergoes a refreezing mechanism where the culture is then slowly assimilated and integrated in the firm. The process usually requires the replacement of senior

managers.(Goodstein & Burke 1991) The degree of malleability of the organisation depends on the type of firm. In industries where speedy reactions and constant change are a necessity for survival, change may be much easier to implement. For example at Microsoft, there is a web of culture and counter-cultures. Indeed every star-programmer tends to bring an element of his culture to the organisation. Some have a culture where names are forbidden and people are know by code names only. Others bring a culture where any practical joke, however costly or disruptive, is tolerated. For example, colleagues vacating their office temporarily can expect unpleasant things like a farm complete with pigs to be there when they return. One could argue that the culture is one that allows new

culture to be integrated. The simpler explanation could be that the culture at Microsoft does not exist. The diverse cultures that one observes are simply the cultures of the individuals that are currently employed at Microsoft. In such an organisation, is culture easy to change? Certainly one can bring elements of ones culture into Microsoft. But apart from Bill Gates himself, it would be difficult to persuade co-workers whom one only knows as Radeon to adopt one culture, no matter how great that culture maybe. Argyris & Schon (1878) Theory in practice, Sans Francisco: Jossey Bass Eldrige & Crombie (1974), A sociology of Organisations, London::Allen & Unwon. Gold (1982) Managing for Success: A comparison of the Public And Private Sectors , Public Administration

Review, Nov-Dec, 568-75 Goodstein and Burke(1991) Creating Successful Organisational change, Organisational Dynamics, spring, 5-17 Gregory (1983) Native-view Paradigms: Multiple Culture and Culture Conflicts in Organisations, Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 359-76 Kunda, G. (1992). Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high-tech corporation. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Lee, S., & Clack, M. E. (1996). Continued organizational transformation: The Harvard College experience. Library Administration & Management, 10(2), 96-104. Martin & Siehl Organisational Culture and Counterculture: An Uneasy Symbiosis, Organisational Dynamics, autumn, 52-64 Morgan (1986) Images of Organisation, Beverly Hills, Calif::Sage. Pacanowsky & O