People In Organisation
Introduction
This essay attempts to critique the concept of organizational culture (OC) and sub culture and the effect that these have on work groups and teams.
Organizational culture, sub culture and the impact on work groups and teams
OC is a rich description of organizational life (Davies, 2002). Google the trendsetting search engine company has appointed a chief cultural officer whose main job is to maintain the company’s unique culture and to keep the ‘googlers’ happy (Mills, 2007). This unique company culture is demonstrated by symbols such as snack rooms packed with bins full of cereals, café with outdoor seating to enable ‘sunshine daydreaming’, desks which are wooden doors mounted on two sawhorses, rituals like roller hockey matches every two weeks in the parking lot and routines like staff sharing spaces with dogs (Google, 2008). These are only the outward manifestations of Google’s culture but there is a deeper level which characterises the attitudes, beliefs and values of the organization which are essentially person or support based (Handy, 1985) and the focus is on belonging and support. OC impacts the strategies, motivation levels and the structure of an organization.
Schein (1996) describes it as the most powerful and stable force in organizations. He studied the behaviour of prisoners of war (POW) in the Korean conflict. He noticed that many prisoners had collaborated with the prison officers and had made false confessions which were totally unnecessary. He found that the captors had
• manipulated information by not passing on supportive mail or telling one prisoner that the other had already confessed and lecturing on their point of view
• manipulated incentives by reward ...