#39 – The Z organization, William G. Ouchi
William G. Ouchi paper highlights the positive aspects of type “Z” organizations. Being “clan-like” these organizations tend to promote trust between their members and a greater degree of cooperation among staff members than Type “A” organizations. Through offering lifetime job positions and inclusion through social events outside the job area, communication among the different levels of the organization tends to be more fluid and supportive. These business practices have deep cultural origins in both Japan and China where through kinship networks, individuals participate in communal lending systems where members would contribute an amount to the group (the example given is of only 12 members) and in return, in a particular week they would receive the sum of contributions given by other members for that week.
While the individuals who received loans at the beginning of the lending circle, benefited from an interest free loan for a longer extent of time than other individuals and individuals did not benefit from the arrangement to the same degree, this form of lending continues to perpetuate itself. Lending is seen as a sign of cooperation and trust by community members and is encouraged as a way of increasingly linkages between community members. It is not uncommon for individuals to owe money to a variety of individuals simultaneously, while individuals owe them money in return.
Type “Z” organizations benefit from their “clan-like” structure by having an increased sense of understanding about implicit opinions and viewpoints expressed by members of the organization. This type of bond develops over long periods of time and as a consequence, it faces difficulties when the organization attempts to increase heterogeneity and diversity within the work place. Also, innovation at times, though not always, can be seen as contrary to the organization’s ideology. While the organization promotes managers to set themselves independent goals, rapid change can be perceived as contrary to the organizations traditions. Some examples of type “Z” organizations include: the US military, IBM and Eastman Kodak (Ouchi, 2005).
#44 Creating the multicultural organization: The challenge of managing diversity, Taylor Cox, Jr.
Taylor Cox introduces the idea of personnel diversity within an organization’s structure by analyzing the benefits and negative impacts of diversity as well as the difficulties organizations face when attempting to increase diversity in the work place. One of the reactions against increasing diversity in the workplace results from its disturbance of the status quo and the innate preference of individuals to hire people who are similar to themselves. While women today account for the majority of both undergraduate and graduate school graduates, women have still do not account for half of the faculty position at universities or in the business world. In addition, religious or ethnic minorities have also experienced difficulties receiving promotions and climbing up on organizational ladders despite attempts by organizations to recruit minorities and promote a diverse environment.
The benefits of hiring minority workers includes a greater level of creativity and innovation (which can increase by up to ten percent), higher levels of cognitive flexibility (particularly by bilingual staff members), and increased problem solving skills and decision making skills. However, while these benefits are possible, without the proper promotion of diversity, diversity could have a detrimental effect for the organization. Various organizations, including Alcoa (an organization for which Cox worked as a consultant), have attempted to successful diversify the working environment, yet they have met with difficulties such as “(1) misdiagnosis of the problem, (2) wrong solution (that is failure to use a systemic approach), and (3) failure to understand the shape o the learning curve” (Cox, 2005, p. 473). By this Cox implies that organizations tend to focus on recruiting a more diverse work force but they do not integrate them successfully into the organization. In addition, they tend to assume that the change will take place over a short span of time, while in reality, it make take many years for an organization to successfully increase its cultural diversity.
#35 – Defining organizational culture, Edgar H. Schein
What is Culture? The concept of culture has been analyzed and reviewed by a large number of academics over the years and continues to be debated. Through this article, Edgar Schein demonstrates the importance of culture through his prior experiences in working with different companies and the difficulties he faced by not taking into account particular elements within the culture of these institutions. In this article, he provides two brief examples of companies, an “action” and a “multi” company.
In the “action” company workers experienced a combative and argumentative environment as the company believed that ideas needed to be aggressively debated, and only ideas that survived after debating were implemented. As such, despite attempts to increase workers satisfaction with their work environment, the confrontational nature of the culture had promoted an unfriendly and non-collaborative environment. In a “multi” company, despite efforts to bring about change, changes were not implemented. In this company’s culture, managers were protective of their turf and expertise and were unwelcoming of unannounced memos, particularly if the information challenged their standard operating procedures.
Based on his experiences, Schein contended that cultures shared deep and stable beliefs. As a result of the dynamism of the business environment, companies that promoted an adaptable and flexible culture are more likely to survive. Organizational cultures are usually taught by older staff members to new employees, as they are taught not only the official rules but also the nuances and unwritten rules of the organization. Not all group behavior is a cultural manifestation, and large organizations can have a culture and various subcultures (Schein, 2005, p. 366).
Also, not all groups of people or organizations have a culture, as cultures are hard to develop if there is a high turnover rate. Leaders can be influential in the success of an institution by not only creating an organization’s culture, but by constantly helping to shape it, adapt it and modify it in order to ensure the organization’s continued existence (Schein, 2005).
Below are additional notes taken from particular reading:
-“Too much seems to be bureaucratic, or political, or just plain irrational” – pg 360
-“One could argue that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture and that the unique talent of leaders is their ability to understand and work with culture” – pg 361
Two Brief Examples
-Describes two situations: The Action Company, and the Multi Company
-Action Company – combative, argumentative environment. To the manager unless an idea was put to the fire, debated, and managed to survive, it was not an idea worth implementing
-Multi Company – Sending memos did not increase innovation. Managers were protective of their turf and expertise and were unwelcoming of unannounced memos, particularly if the information challenged their standard operating procedures.
Towards a Formal Definition of Culture
-“the concept of culture has been the subject of considerable academic debate in the last five years” – pg 362
-“One of these elements is that culture implies some level of structural stability in the group. When we say that something is “cultural,” we imply that it is not only shared but deep and stable” – pg 363
-“The most useful way to think about culture is to view it as the accumulated shared learning of a give group, covering behavior, emotional, and cognitive elements of the group members’ total psychological functioning.” – pg 363
– “I am not arguing, however, that all groups develop integrated cultures in this sense.” – pg 364
-Two problems groups must deal with: 1) “survival growth and adaptation in their environment” 2) “internal integration that permits daily functioning and the ability to adapt.” – pg 364
-“A group has a culture when it has had enough of a shared history to have formed such a set of shared assumptions.” – pg 364
Culture Formally Defined
-“once shared assumptions exist, however, the culture survives through teaching them to newcomers” – pg 365
-How a group behavior may be or may not be a cultural manifestation – pg 365
-Large organizations can have a culture and various subcultures. – pg 366
-Not all groups of people have cultures. They are hard to develop if there are high turnover rates
-Leaders can create an organization’s culture, help shape it and modify it.
Also Read:
#36 Culture and organizational learning, by Scott D.N. Cook and Dvora Yanow
#41 The fifth discipline: A shift of mind, Peter M. Senge
