Understanding Organizations and HRM

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR
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Organisational Culture
There are some values, traits and behaviours that define an organisation. The different values, traits, and behaviours that define an individual or group of people with some commonality can be termed a culture (Warrick, 2017). Consequently, organisational culture can be defined as the shared beliefs and values within an organisation that guide the leadership and subordinates on how to behave to attain a common goal (Warrick, 2017). The close relationship between culture and behaviour in the performance of an organisation has recently become of great interest for researchers in the domain area of organisational management and behaviour. Leaders in the top-performing organisations recognise that culture is the prerequisite for exemplary customer service, great brand image, and even employee satisfaction (Warrick, 2017). The performance of an organisation is highly dependent on its culture. There is a clear and compelling vision in a culture where leaders demonstrate utmost willingness to support the subordinates. When communication is characterised by transparency, there is a high likelihood of success (Warrick, 2017).
Models to Understand Organisational Culture
The notion that culture is one of the core factors in analyzing various aspects that define an organisation has led to the development of numerous theories or models that help understand organisational culture. Although the numerous models have a varied interpretation of organisational culture, they all borrow some concepts from the culture theory, often used in interpreting the culture in relation to society. As a result, different scholars in the domain area of organisational management have come up with various approaches to understanding organisational culture. Edgar Schein, Charles Handy, Geert Hofstede, and Deal and Kennedy are some of the most famous thinkers to come up with organisational models. The notion that culture from an organisational standpoint can be understood from diverse points of view is the explanation behind the wide range of organisation culture models.
Schein's Model
Edgar Schein is a Swiss-born American psychologist notable in the domain area of organisational development. In 1980, Schein came up with Schein's model of organisational culture which purposes to explain culture from an observer's standpoint, taking into account three levels of abstraction: artefacts, exposed values, and basic underlying assumptions (Dauber et al., 2012 p.4). Artefacts from Schein's interpretation of organisational culture imply the visible and tangible elements that make up an organisation, including the facilities, offices, furniture, as well as the physical interaction of people within and without the organisation. On the other hand, expressed values denote standards, rules, slogans, or the mission statements that are declared as the guiding principles for the company (Dauber et al., 2012 p.4). Basic underlying assumptions are the unseen attributes of the organisational culture that the members of the organisation can hardly identify during their daily interactions. The three levels of abstraction in Schein's model centre on the exposed values, where both unseen and visible behaviours are influenced by the exposed values or rather the guiding principles of an organisation.
Schein's model of organisational culture provides a simplified framework for understanding the organisational culture and the dynamics of culture from an organisation's perspective. The idea of describing culture from an observer's standpoint gives a clear perception of the different domains or abstraction levels of organisational culture. Most if not all organisations of the contemporary era acknowledge the different levels of abstraction proposed by Schein. The visible elements, including dress code, the feel, and the style of an organisation have been adhered to by most organisations as important components of culture. Similarly, leaders of organisations have acknowledged the significance of exposed values as per Schein's model, with many organisations adopting the idea of having organisational philosophy, slogans, and workplace values aligned to their strategic objectives, vision, and mission. Through the interpretation of organisational culture based on the different levels of abstraction, Schein's model has certainly had a massive influence on organisations' leadership and the understanding of cultural dynamics.
Schein's model, however, has some shortcomings. The interpretation of organisational culture from an observer's standpoint, as is the case with the model, only considers the internal attributes that impact culture, disregarding the external environment's influence on organisational culture (Dauber et al., 2012 p.4). Schein's models also have a high level of abstraction that may prove to be complex in interpreting organisational culture as opposed to other proposed models. For example, according to Charles Handy's model, the four elements that define the organisational structure: power, task, role, and people are core in understanding the organisational culture (Cacciattolo, 2014 p.1). Thus, understanding the organisational culture from a structural standpoint rather than using the different levels of abstraction might prove to be more simplified and cover a wider scope of organisational culture. Nonetheless, the different models that can be employed to understand organisational culture often work for organisations regardless of the complexity and abstraction because of the diverse points of view of culture from an organisational perspective.
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