C11OH Work - Culture and Organisations - Free Samples to Students

Thesis Statement: Organizational culture comprises of the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique psychological and social behavior within a firm. Particularly, it represents the collective norms, systems and beliefs and principles that guide the members of a particular organization. Thus, this annotated bibliography will provide a list of sources that talk about the concept of organizational culture within firms.

The first source is a book written by Mats Alvensson in 2013 called Understanding Organizational Culture. The book explains the concept of organizational culture as one of the key areas of management and organizational practice. According to Alvensoson (2013), managers are tasked with an important responsibility of managing the ideas and views of their staff. They are also responsible for dealing with technical issues within the organization such as budgeting and information systems. Thus, all forms of management take place within culture. The book also highlights the fact that there has been an increased interest in organizational life and managerial action over the past few decades. Mainly, this interest aims at developing an environment where formal chains of command and bureaucracy are less invasive means of control, and instead values, ideas and beliefs are central in decision making. This source is a relevant and important contribution to the research on organizational culture as it helps the audience to know the importance of culture within a corporation. Furthermore, the book provides clarity on the alternative approaches to organizational culture.

The second source for this research is also a book by Edgar Schein. The name of the book is Organizational Culture and Leadership, and was published in 2010. The book is the fourth edition and covers various aspects of corporate culture dynamics and their relationship to the leadership of the organization. In this series, the author provides a deeper explanation into the theoretical and practical issues that surround the culture of organizations. Over the past few years, organizational culture and leadership have become very complicate topic. Thus, the book seeks to explain the importance of exploring how leadership and culture can be intertwined to bring about organizational change. The book also defines culture and offers various examples on how to think about culture as an abstraction. It also discusses major dimensions along which leaders can analyze culture and review the more salient culture typologies that can be used within the corporate environment. Thus, this book will provide insightful and important information regarding the concept of organizational culture and corporate leadership.

The third source is a journal article published in the Academy of Management Proceedings in 2016. The name of the article is National Culture, Organizational Culture, and Purposeful Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and was written by Yin Lee and Amit Kramer. This article is particularly useful and relevant to the topic of study because it tries to explain the importance of a favorable organizational culture. The article points out the fact that at the firm level, diversity tactics can differ considerably. Thus, companies that tenaciously use such strategies are more likely to possess unique organizational cultures. Therefore, the article is an important resource for the study because it highlights the importance of developing a sound organization culture within the corporate environment. The authors show that developing a diversity strategy within an organization characterized by tight cultures is likely to foster distinctive and unique organizational cultures compared to those ones that are found in loose cultures.

The other journal article that will inform this study was written by Hogan and Leonard (2014) and published by the Journal of Business research. The name of the article is Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model. In this paper, the authors explain that there is a positive relationship between the organizational culture within a firm and the level of innovation. This is especially so for firms in the service industry. Thus, the source is a relevant and important contribution to the research as it provides insightful information on how levels of organizational culture such as norms, beliefs and innovative behaviors contribute to the overall firm performance. The study also provides useful information how an organization can benefit from establishing an organizational culture within service companies that foster innovative behavior. Thus, this paper will be useful in informing the research on organizational culture.

The fifth resource is the book Changing Organizational Culture: The Change Agent's Guidebook. It was written by Marc J. Schabracq and was published by John Wiley & Sons publishers in 2007. Primarily, the book talks about changing organizational cultures. It aims at informing professional and leaders about this concept by giving techniques and pointers for developing effective organizational change within the corporate scene. It is also worth pointing out that the book focuses on the hardcore element of changing culture, by changing the people involved. According to the author, cultural change involves changing the assumptions and goals of the people involved towards behaving accordingly. However, getting people to change their beliefs requires considerable skill, effort and care. Therefore, agents of organizational change must be able to guide the targeted people through with care and skill in order to prevent unwarranted damage that may be harmful for not only the members of staff but the company as a whole. Regardless, the paper highlights the fact that changes in organizational culture are mainly aimed at bringing improvements for everyone within the company. Therefore, a change agent is charged with the responsibility of acting as a catalyst of change within the firm. Being a change agent implies a continuous process of personal growth and ethical awareness. In this regard, this book provides critical information as regards to the process of effecting changes in the organization as regards to organizational culture. Thus, it is an important resource and relevant to the research on organizational culture.

The sixth source for the paper is a book titledOrganizational Culture in Action: A Cultural Analysis Workbook by Driskill and Brenton published in 2011 by Sage Publications. Basically, this source seeks to offer an analysis and reflection on the pervasiveness of organizations in people’s lives. It also provides a cultural analysis of the beliefs and norms of companies. These authors acknowledge that every organization has a distinctive way of doing things. Just like each country has a distinct culture, civilization, unique language, values and norms, each institution is unique in the same way. The book suggests that at a deeper level, company personnel are indoctrinated into unique assumptions and beliefs that act as a foundation for behaving in a given manner. This way, they are able to understand the symbolic significance of certain actions, norms and values to the organization. In turn, the practical knowledge of the culture helps the staff and members of the organization to work in an ethical and responsible way that shapes their interactions with others. It is worth noting that this resource is relevant and important to the topic of study as it informs the reader on the importance of organizational culture as well as provides a cultural analysis of the same.

The seventh resource is Stanford’s book called Corporate Culture: Getting it Right. In this book, Stanford (2010) provides a roadmap for managers who are interested in understanding the importance of and the power of a strong organizational culture on the success of a company. As such, it helps the reader to understand, define, position and measure their organization’s culture, identify and avoid common and costly mistakes that may arise from changes in the organizational culture of an organization. It is worth noting that the book utilizes various case studies on the business culture of companies such as eBay, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Lehman Brothers and Google to explain the concept of organizational culture. It also describes the cultural patterns within firms and offers useful examples that may assist management in shaping a positive corporate culture within their organizations. Additionally, the author addresses all the facets of company culture by providing pragmatic approaches that may come in handy in improving the various aspects of doing business regardless of the type of business they are in. the book also provides an overview on the various methods through which the organizational culture of a company can be measured. It also discusses the topic from the perspective of integration. As such, the author suggests that the way business people talk about organization culture generally reflects the integration perspective. For instance, Apple is commonly described as having created a culture of secrecy whereas Wal-mart has an ‘austere culture founded by old man Walton.

The eighth resource that will inform the study is a 2015 journal article published in the International Journal of Production Economics by Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese. The article is titled Successful lean implementation: Organizational culture and soft lean practices. In a nutshell, lean management refers to the managerial approach that aims at improving the procedures based on a multifaceted system of interconnected socio-technical practices. Over the recent past, there have been debates regarding the function of organizational culture in this management approach. Thus, the book seeks to have a say this debate by investigating whether firms that lucratively implement this managerial approach have a specific organizational culture profile. To this effect, the authors show that a specific organizational culture profile is a major component of successful lean firms. Specifically, when contrasted with less successful lean firms, they exhibit a greater institutional collectivism, human orientation and a future orientation. Thus, this source is a relevant and fundamental contribution to the study as it provides information about the importance of initiating and integrating a suitable organizational culture within an organization.

The ninth resource for the study is a Sage journal article by O’Reilly, Caldwell, Chatman, and Doerr (2014) on The Promise and Problems of Organizational Culture. In their article, the authors try to establish the relationship that exists between the CEO’s attitude towards organizational culture and objective measures of a firm’s performance. The findings of their study indicates that the personality of a company’s CEO significantly affects the firm’s culture and that culture is subsequently related to a wider set of company outcomes such as financial performance, employee attitudes and the reputation of the firm. In this respect, this journal article will play an important role in informing the importance of embracing the organization culture by top management officials on the overall performance and reputation of the firm.

The last article to inform the study is a journal article published in the Production and operations management journal in 2016. In this article, the authors focus on the aspect of operations management and its relation to the organizational culture of an institution. According to the paper, the field of operations management could greatly expand its knowledge of organizational culture and in so doing; it can greatly enhance business operations. However, this will first necessitate a change in the culture of the operations management. For this reason, the article will offer insightful and useful contributions on the topic of organizational culture.

Reference List

Alvesson, M. (2013). Understanding Organizational Culture. 2nd ed. London: Sage publications.

Bortolotti, T., Boscari, S. and Danese, P. (2015). Successful lean implementation: Organizational culture and soft lean practices. International Journal of Production Economics, 160, pp. 182-201

Driskill, W. D. and Brenton, A. L. (2011). Organizational Culture in Action: A Cultural Analysis Workbook. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications

Hogan, S. J. and Leonard, V. C. (2014). Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp. 1609-1621

Lee, Y. and Kramer, A. (2016). National Culture, Organizational Culture, and Purposeful Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016(1), pp. 3-24.

Marshall. D., Meters, R., and Pagell, M. (2016). Changing a Leopard's Spots: A New Research Direction for Organizational Culture in the Operations Management Field. Sage Journals, pp. 1-6.

O’Reilly, C. A., Caldwell, D. F., Chatman, J. A. and Doerr, B. (2014). The Promise and Problems of Organizational Culture. Sage Journals, pp. 1-6.

Schabracq, M. (2007). Changing Organizational Culture: The Change Agent's Guidebook. 1st ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership. 4th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

Stanford, N. (2010). Corporate Culture: Getting It Right.. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons