Organization Theory and Governance for the 21st Century by Sandra Parkes Pershing & Eric K. Austin

Author:Sandra Parkes Pershing & Eric K. Austin [Pershing, Sandra Parkes & Austin, Eric K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Public Affairs & Administration
ISBN: 9781483320960
Google: erqXBAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 26335731
Publisher: CQ Press
Published: 2014-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Techniques and Practices

Several areas of agreement emerge out of the breadth of work on organization culture. One is that an organization’s culture can significantly influence the effectiveness of the organization in positive or negative ways. A second common issue that is consistent and is present in the research is that culture happens. All organizations have a culture, and while that culture can take many forms and have varying degrees of impact on the organization’s performance, mere presence of a culture is a given. The question for administrators is, therefore, how can culture be actively and intentionally managed so as to increase the likelihood that it helps rather than hinders effectiveness? One approach for responding to this question is to frame it as a three-part approach, entailing first the measurement or assessment of culture, then the management or maintenance of culture, and finally strategies for cultural change when necessary.

Measurement

Part of measurement is selecting a model or theory of culture, articulating and operationalizing the variables in the model, and then examining the indicators as they are found in practice in the organization. Drawing on Schein’s model, this would suggest examining observable attributes of culture, primarily at the level of artifacts, but potentially including espoused values, as expressed in mission and value statements as well.

The objective here is to identify facets of the organization and its culture that can be first measured, and in turn managed and changed, with a focus on assessable organizational variables, such as skills, strategy, structure, systems, style, and staff.69 Smircich suggests that inquiry into culture should be focused on learning the consensus meanings developed by members of the organization in relationship to their experiences. This allows for a description of the thematic relationships, or attributes of culture, expressed in this meaning system to be identified.70 Charles Handy, in his exploration of organizational phenomena that contribute to both the successes and downfalls of business organizations, identifies four cultures—power, role, task, and person—which provide an operationalized framework for assessing and understanding organizational culture.71 Each of these cultures implies operationalized expressions of power distribution and function, role structures, and so forth.

Smircich develops an approach to studying organization culture driven by three forms of data collection and corresponding evidence.72 These research strategies include direct observation of the organization and members’ behaviors, reports directly from informants, and the researcher’s direct participation in the organization. Other researchers suggest adding an examination of artifacts, such as reports, policies, and procedures. In total, these approaches provide researchers not with direct access to the culture of the organization but allow the researcher to infer something about the culture that is not directly measurable in and of itself.

Management

With a more systematic and structured assessment of the organization’s culture in place, it’s then possible to give explicit attention to the management of that culture in a way that will support the maintenance of a functional culture. Drawing on a wide range of cultural theorists, Lesley Willcoxson and Bruce Millett suggest that there is a range of organizational features that can be the focus of efforts to simultaneously manage performance and culture.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.