Introduction
Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts (Zimmermann, 2015). In this report, aspects of Hofstede’s dimensions and Handy’s model are used to study one of the most important organizations in Oman, which is Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). The cultural dimension theory of Geert Hofstede describes the effects of an organization culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a framework derived from factor analysis. Charles Handy is a leading authority on organizational culture where he defined four different types of culture in his model (Power, Role, Task and Person culture).
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It account for more than 70% of the country's crude oil production and nearly all of its natural gas supply. The Company is owned by the Government of Oman with a 60 percent interest, Royal Dutch Shell 34 percent, Total 4 percent and Partex 2 percent (About us, n.d). Engaging efficiently and safely in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Oman are the primary objective of PDO that correspond to their vision which is to be renowned and respected for the excellence of their people and the value they create for Oman and all their stakeholders. PDO operates in a concession area of about 100,000 km2 (one third of Oman’s geographical area), has around 130 producing fields, close to 6,000 producing wells, a workforce of 8,000 and more than 45,000 contractors. This research used some of Hofstede’s dimensions and aspects of Handy’s model such as individualism, collectivism, flexibility and creativity to study and analyze how organizational culture affects the behavior and values …show more content…
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Discussion
Organizational culture, based on aspects of Hofstede’s dimensions and Handy’s model, can be influenced significantly in the following: communication, teamwork and recognition.
The results clearly shows that there is a deficiency in the communication between the employees and managements in some departments at PDO where 50 percent of the respondents stated that serious consideration is rarely given to their suggestions. This fact indicate that the power is distributed unequally between the staff and there is high power distance between some managers and employees. To improve this situation, managers could be a part of the system and support the staff new ideas.
Measuring the preference of individualism versus collectivism in PDO, the survey showed that most of the employees prefer to work in groups rather than individual and a few respondents prefer to do their tasks individually (see appendix . . .). Teamwork at PDO is one of the important pillars that lead to have a successful business because it inspires the employees to come up with new ideas which improve the creativity when doing specific
Based on interviews with management, we found that XTO’s management style encourages innovation. Employees are encouraged to ask for forgiveness and not permission. We’ve learned this semester through lecture and readings, that this management technique empowers employees and gives them the autonomy they like and the freedom to create. Employees that work under this type of management style are not faced with the possibility of loosing their jobs if they make a business decision that turns out to have negative consequences. Employees are free to innovate and take pragmatic risks. The company culture at XTO is described as laid back and relaxed. XTO believes that major oil and gas companies are unable to implement this type of culture due to their size. Since XTO is smaller, the company is able to deploy a much different policy from what the majors employ. As the company rapidly grows, this relaxed practice has become a concern for XTO’s management. The company has recently grown so much that they’ve had to pull back slightly on the relaxed atmosphere. Management has been working with Human Resources to increase the amount of structure within the company. It remains to be seen if this policy will stifle company innovation.
Observation suggest that about one third of the working population enjoy teamwork, one third are indifferent and one third prefer to work solo
Team members now start to notice other strengths and all are contributing and being cohesive. Performing: Co-workers are now confident, motivated and familiar with each other and can work without supervision. Team work of all kinds is laden with pressures, conflicts, barriers and problems. If teams are managed effectively, it can lead to increased gratification, imagination, and innovation. The impact of group behaviour and group dynamics will have a considerable impact on the overall performance of the
The group goals not only create a sense of belonging and identity but also increase commitment to the organisation and to the group itself (Puusa & Tolvanen 2006). Furthermore, through the technique of forming relationships and identifying teams among employees additionally increases work motivation, which automatically leads to higher productivity (Vakola & Nikolaou 2005). In order to implement this theory the organisation must determine the objective to achieve organisational efficacy, accordingly creating specific group
The Importance of Group Work in Today's Organizations. It could be argued that in order to be successful, modern organisations must actively develop strong and cohesive work groups. Why do you need to be a member? Is it true that there is no room for the individual in today’s organisation? The rapid progression and improvement in information and communication technology has led to modern organisations finding new ways to work.
The problem of communication among program’s officers can affect the development an stability of the organization. The lack of communication between officers or professional staff can be reflected in the creation of proposals or implementation of innovative ideas. In addition, the lack of communication allows of different perspectives for the management and use of budget, in which the program officer might believe that is a correct idea to make changes without consulting others. For instance, the program officer consider to make personnel changes without consulting or communicating with others. This can bring a negative impact by changing the personnel with extensive experience in one area and to make them work in another area that they might
Cultural Differences in Hofstede’s Six Dimensions According to Professor Geert Hofstede, dimensionalizing a culture requires a complex analysis of a multitude of categories including differing nations, regions, ethnic groups, religions, organizations, and genders. Hofstede defines culture as "the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another". Throughout his many years of contribution as a social scientist, he has conducted arguably the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture, leading to the establishment of the Six Dimensions of National Culture. From this research model, the dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation, and Indulgence are defined according to their implication on individual countries, which when comparatively examined provide a broad understanding of cultural diversity as it relates to the workplace. Identification and Definition of the Six Dimensions In initially defining each of Hofstede's dimensions, a foundational understanding of the six categories is established, from which a greater understanding of different cultures can be built off of.
The concept of organizational cultures was first raised in 1970s, and soon became a fashionable topic. Organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values and behaviours of the group. Theorists of organizations believe that organizational culture represents the pattern of behaviours, values, and beliefs of an organization. Hence, studies around organizational culture have been seen as great helpful and essential for understanding organizations and their behaviours. Additionally, organizational culture has been considered to be an important determinant of organizational success. Therefore, leaders and managers pay more than more attentions on this topic, focusing on constructing and managing organizational cultures.
Teamwork is one of the important component that is required in any types of business organization . Team is defines as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to the common purpose, performance goal, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”(katzenbach and Smith 1993) . Teamwork offer numbers of advantages like in teamwork work are completed earlier because large task are divided into smaller projects and then it find out an individual who is best for doing the jobs. Tasks that are smaller in size also need less time and brainpower then the work is less sporting to the people who are working. Teamwork also helps in combing the unique skills of people and makes them work efficiently. In a teamwork strength of different people are combined for the benefit of entire team and to produce better product and teamwork also help in building the unity among the group member .In a teamwork relationship play an important role because it helps people to communicate properly with one another whereas friendship helps in creating a job satisfaction. Support system is also important because if support system will be stronger than people will be comfortably depend on each other. These are the advantage of the teamwork but in teamwork there are also disadvantage like in teamwork there is an uneven participation of the members because they depend on other for doing the majority of work this can lead to hatred in the workplace. In a teamwork everyone is not team player, as they cannot perform well while team is working because they want to do there own so they might face problems to get fitted in a certain work culture, which will result in displeasure. In teamwork there is less creativity among th...
When an organization is looking for new creative ideas, they should ask their employees. The employees of the organization have an in depth look and are more understanding to the needs of the organization because it is where they work and are involved. Managers can call on a group of employees and together, they can come up with solutions for the organization. “Group decision making is a type of participatory process in which multiple individuals acting collectively, analyze problems or situations, consider and evaluate alternative courses of action, and select from among the alternatives a solution or solutions” (Group Decision Making, n.d.,para.1).
...l man who enables others to think and do in his way (role model) and his employees work him for unconditional loyalty (e.g. his PA), also, adopt a fair system of rewards and punishments; however, as a leader sometimes he just needs some transformational styles which respect and communicate with followers equally rather than forced them to shut up rudely. As for organizational culture, the article obtains further understanding that some factors attribute to detect cultures existed in an organisation, communication system, for example. As a result, it can be identified that his culture not only can be classified as power but task. Moreover, due to the changeable outside environment, compounded and flexible cultures seems to be a better way for an organisation’s sustainable development. Therefore, leadership is tightly related to organizational culture.
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
Organizations use teamwork because it increases productivity. This concept was used in corporations as early as the 1920s, but it has become increasingly important in recent years as employ...
Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies states that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the de...
Teamwork is one of the important component that is required in any types of business organization . Team is defines as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to the common purpose, performance goal, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”(katzenbach and Smith 1993) . Teamwork offer numbers of advantages like in teamwork work are completed earlier because large task are divided into smaller projects and then it find out an individual who is best for doing the jobs. Tasks that are smaller in size also need less time and brainpower then the work is less sporting to the people who are working. Teamwork also helps in combing the unique skills of people and makes them work efficiently. In a teamwork strength of different people are combined for the benefit of entire team and to produce better product and teamwork also help in building the unity among the group member .In a teamwork relationship play an important role because it helps people to communicate properly with one another whereas friendship helps in creating a job satisfaction. Support system is also important because if support system will be stronger than people will be comfortably depend on each other. These are the advantage of the teamwork but in teamwork there are also disadvantage like in teamwork there is an uneven participation of the members because they depend on other for doing the majority of work this can lead to hatred in the workplace. In a teamwork everyone is not team player, as they cannot perform well while team is working because they want to do their own so they might face problems to get fitted in a certain work culture, which will result in displeasure. In teamwork there is less creativity among th...