Blog 1: Can cultures be managed within organizations?

At present, organizational culture has become a meaningful and important research point in the field of organizational analysis. Organizational culture essentially means the business’s mind and the connotation of organizational culture belonging to the business which equals to the economic organization. Peters and Waterman (1982) pointed that a rich organizational culture symbolize an outstanding management. But there is still a doubt about if the cultures in organization can be managed. Therefore, this question about whether the culture in organization can be managed or not attracts more and more researchers to study.   

Culture is formed by the unspoken rules which can influence people’s behavior when nobody watching them in particular. For example, if a group of people starts a kind of behavior together and make it a reasonable and success behavior, they would do it again and again. So, this repetition of behavior can become a kind of culture. 

As I know, some people held the view that organizational culture cannot be managed, whose point is logically contradictory and empirically defective. Bate (1994) noted that the basic method of managing culture could be divided into two types: conform (maintain the current order) and transform (change the current pattern). In spite of some changes carried out by the organizations turned into changing behaviors and hence were not enough to change the cultures, which merely shows the methods of managing cultures are not working, it cannot be inferred that the cultures cannot be managed. In addition, many studies can show that organizational culture can be changed in a successful way. According to Ogbonna (1993), it can be inferred that if the employees’ behaviors or awareness are not suitable, the manager must change them by implicating the factors identified. It can be shown that culture changing is a feasible way. 

Organizational culture can be the essential factor for a business to be successful to a great extent. A good organizational cultures brings following advantages which is helpful for organization build a good image, promote its development, create a harmony working atmosphere and encourage its staff to make progresses. In contrast, culture also becomes the key element in destroying the company somewhile. The strategy of racial anti-bias educating for Starbucks is a typical example. On 12 April 2018, the employer from the Starbucks in Philadelphia called the police and claimed that two young African-American man, Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, broke in the Starbucks and refused to leave. According to police, two man were just waiting for their friends and wanted to use the toilet, but the employer claimed that if the clients wants to use the toilet, they must pay for something in Starbucks. At last, the police released them 8 hours later without accusing them. The event aroused may protesters gathered in front of the gate of the Starbucks in Philadelphia to protest racial discrimination. Later, Starbucks announced that they will close more than 8000 cafe shops temporarily on 29^thmarch in order to educate their employee to build the awareness of being racial anti-bias and broadcast the organizational culture of anti-discrimination. So, this the power of organizational culture which is enough to ruin a business. And it can be shown that the cultures in organization can be managed.

After discussing the cultures can be managed within organizations, it should explore how to manage the cultures and what elements can influence the cultures within organizations. Firstly, the corporation needs to focus on the current cultures and to analyze whether the current culture is suitable for the development of itself. If not, the managers should take measure to change the culture or manipulate secretly. But in many cases, the staffs may not understand and don not support the leaders, the cultures within organizations can not be managed easily, it may experience a hard, long and even tough process (Park et al, 2004). Therefore, it can be an effective way to take advantage of knowledge management system which is conducive to manage the cultures.

Besides, the success relies on the leaders’ abilities and behaviors. The leaders should make correct decisions according to the situation. Their understanding about the cultures within organizations is the key factor affect the success of culture management. First, the leaders should not seek quick success and instant benefits. A good organizational culture should cater to the reality just like ”When water flows, a channel is formed”. Secondly, the leaders should have right orientations. Sometimes, because of the lack of professionals’ guide, some wrong orientations may arise, which may wastes resources and time. Although, the way to manage the cultures within organizations is not easy, it is a feasible process.

Reference 

• Bate, S. 1994, Strategies for Cultural Change, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford. 
• Ogbonna, E. (1993) ‘Managing Organizational Culture: Fantasy or Reality?’, Human Resource Management Journal, 3(2): 42–54.
• Park JE, et al. (2004) Novel functional dissection of the localization-specific roles of budding yeast polo kinase Cdc5p. Mol Cell Biol 24(22):9873-86
• Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. New York Harper & Row.