Introduction
Northern Plant is a highly successful plant because it consistently meets its quotas and exceeds customer expectations; however, a look inside the plant shows a deep cultural divide between management and employees. The culture is strong in a negative sense because workers would constantly turn their manager’s words and desires back on management. There was a high level of defiance because many workers opposed the system of lean production, which management attempted to implement. Management believed that there was a need for change in the culture and processes in the organization, while employees believed that as long as they met quotas on time, there was no problem. I will examine both management’s and employee’s perspectives of the root cause of the culture and behavior at Northern Plant and will investigate if there is any hope for a cultural change.
Management’s Perspective
Managers at Northern Plant believed that there was a need for change in the way production occurred. They wanted to introduce modern management methods in the plant, but faced many issues when attempting to implement these changes, particularly from employees. Managers attempted to introduce the system by describing the benefits that employees would receive, but they still faced extreme opposition to the idea of lean production. Managers saw a need for change in the culture of the organization because they felt that there were better ways and processes of completing the tasks. Management’s attempts to change the culture of the organization can be explained by Gerry Johnson’s belief about the reasoning behind strategic development in organizations. Johnson (Johnson, 1992) believes that managers have a specific set of beliefs and assu...
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...ntegration between management and employees and the alignment of goals, culture cannot be managed or controlled; therefore, other organizations should carefully consider the extent that culture needs to be controlled in order to have an effective structure.
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The reason this topic was chosen was because the Martins chain as well as the Ukrops chain had specific characteristics/ symbols that could be used to define each chain. The concepts that the Martins takeover exemplified were prime examples of the topics we discussed in class. In class, we discussed the organizational culture and how it affects an organization. The Martins takeover is an excellent example of the ways organizational culture affects an organization. In this case, the Ukrops dominant culture just couldn’t compete with Martins. Even though Ukrops had an outstanding positive culture, this is one example of how the national culture had a tremendous effect on the local culture within the Ukrops chain. When the Ukrops managers thought about how their organization was being affected globally, they made the conscientious decision to sell to Martins. Because organizations depend heavily on foreign markets, the managers of Ukrops decided that Martins would be a much better fit to the community.
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This, in turn, enhances their level of motivation and causes the employees to be more committed to their company. Culture is a sense-making device for organization members. It provides a way for employees to interpret the meaning of organizational events and reinforces the values in the organization. Culture also serves as a control mechanism for
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PPA 660: Organization theory presented me an understanding of why organizations behave in a specific manner as well as why the individuals in those organization behave as they do. While some of the topics discussed in class seemed rudimentary at the time of lecture, such as Fayol’s principles of management and Gulick’s POSDCORB, ultimately I came to realize that this is only because these are the practices I am accustomed to observing. In hindsight, the concepts and ideas presented by Fayol and Gulick in their era were groundbreaking. At the end of the course, I was able to take away concepts of organizational culture, leadership, power, authority, motivation, group behavior and decision-making. The following are specific areas of organizational theory that I consider as my strengths of the topics discussed however, they do not represent my entire understanding of the subject matter.
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Chapter sixteen in our textbook highlights the benefits of organizational culture and what it can do for any company with a strong culture perspective. In fact chapter sixteen-three(a) speaks widely on how a strong culture perspective shapes any organization up well enough to perform better than any of its competitors who do not balance any organizational culture. If not mistaken after viewing SAS institute case they are well on track with facilitating a high performance organization culture. First, SAS institute motivate all employees to become goal alignment in their field of work. This is where they all share the common goal to get their work done. In one of the excerpts taken away from this case, an employee- friendly benefits summary expresses the statement “If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company.” “SAS Institute’s founders set out to create the kind of workplace where employees would enjoy spending time. And even though the workforce continues to grow year after year, it’s still the kind of place where people enjoy working.” Clearly highlighted from this statement that SAS Institute is mainly ran off of a fit perspective. Which argues that a culture is only as good as it fits the industry. Allowing a good blueprint or set up will
Culture can be defined as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to the new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”. Schein (1988). Organizational culture can be defined as a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members. It includes routine behaviors, norms, dominant values, and feelings or climates. The purpose and function of this culture is to help foster internal integration, bring staff members from all levels of the organization closer together, and enhance their performance.
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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).
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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...
According to Hatch and Cunliffe (2006), there are three major perspectives about the study of organization theory (OT): modern, symbolic interpretive, and postmodern. Each of these perspectives comes with its own assumptions and methodologies. Hatch and Cunliffe provided an introduction text about the concepts and characteristics of the three OT perspectives. Tsoukas and Knudsen also compiled a comprehensive handbook summarizing all facets of the meta-theoretical perspectives. In this post the writer will discuss the basic concepts of three perspectives, present Hatch and Cunliffe’s reasons why a multiple perspectives approach to organization theory is important, and compare Tsoukas and Knudsen’s introduction to the Hatch and Cunliffe introduction in their books.
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