Meško Štok, Zlatka

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Managing, Communications, and OrganizationalCulture: An Acknowledged Framework for ManagersZlatka Meško ŠtokUniversity of PrimorskaSloveniaDue to changes on the market and competition companies haveto adopt original solutions, which are almost impossible to ac-complish using common knowledge. The process of globalisationwould be even faster if people across the globe spoke the samelanguage, accepted equal values, recognised and mastered equalphenomena, if they were equally technologically equipped. Bigchanges are emerging in the economic field and that has a greatimpact on the traditional processes in education, knowledge andeYciency. Organizational culture is representing the ideology ofan enterprise and a way of its manifestation. Exposed are the ques-tions of hierarchic values of the employees in an individual com-pany, the evaluation of the image profile of the company and itsenvironment, the evaluation of the climate, including the content-ment at work, and the evaluation of the interaction between anorganization and the environment.introductionPeople are our greatest riches. A right person to a right position. Theseare the slogans that we listen to for years. Nevertheless, in some com-panies all over the state, and also in the regions, in politics, in manage-ment and in other fields, big diVerences are about to happen. These arecausing ineYciency and failure. What are the reasons, how to choose theemployees, what the human potential is, how to choose the leaders thatwill stimulate creative working climate and culture in the organisation –these are the questions which occur every day.‘People cannot be forced to be creative they can only be motivated forit’ (Bizjak 1998). In management this slogan should be considered. Un-fortunately, the other idea is more often applied: be authoritative, sub-ordinate workers should be afraid of you if you wish them to obey. Theconsequences are a less successful and eYcient work, as well as less con-tented workers. It should be in the enterprise’s best interest to encour-age the contemporary methods of leadership, and to take care of a goodworking climate. Management has an immediate influence on develop-387Zlatka Meško Štoking the relationships in the enterprise in one way or another. In the longrun only the model organisation can survive. The quality of the organi-sation depends upon its values. Therefore we have to emphasize the im-portance of conformity between the organization’s management valuesand the values of the employees. The manager who in his own organisa-tion encourages the culture andmanagement based onmorals and ethicscan acquire valid collaborators (Tavcˇar 1998). The manager who abusesthe culture will gather backers, renegades. The manager who ignores theculture will gather The manager, who changes and alters the values, de-mands obedient workers by his side, and gangs up conformists, cyclists.This means that the manger who encourages the culture and the lead-ership based on morals and ethics, can shape the moral business policyand consequently appropriate leadership based on trust and respect.the significance of the new approachto the organisation’s researchThe researchers in the field of management and social sciences (soci-ology, psychology, political sciences) have developed numerous usefulmethods to observe people in the organisation. Each of these approachesoVers only a partial explanation, for each explores only a single aspectof human behaviour in the organisation. The most appropriate for theresearch of organisational behaviour is the cultural approach which con-siders the vast variety and complexity of life in the organisation. Theculture in the organisation will be defined by the following main charac-teristics (Trice et al. 1993):• The collectivism. The culture is based on the interaction betweendiVerent individuals, and presents the mutually agreed values. Themembers that do not approve or endorse the dominant convictions,values, norms, are punished or excluded.• The emotional pervasion. The person’s aYliation to ideologies andcultural forms derive mainly from his emotional needs, and notfrom rational persuasion.• The historic foundation. To develop certain common culture it is re-quired that people should spend some time together, share com-mon problems and solve them. In such a way people in a certain cul-tural group exchange diVerent ideas and cultural experiences thatslowly become part of their lives. In spite of the tendency to forgethistorical remainders due to current preoccupations, those still havea strong influence on the behaviour of people in the organisation.388Managing, Communications, and Organizational Culture• The strong symbolism. The symbols present a specific kind of culturein its most general form. They are the basic and smallest units ofcultural expression (the objects – natural and manufactured, theenvironment, the employed) (Musek 1993).• The dynamics. The culture is continuously changing for various rea-sons. One of them is the obstruction of communication betweenthe members of the culture, because they are not always acquaintedwith all expectations. This leads to discrepancies at the level of indi-vidualism that cause people to be innovative and creative. Becauseof this the organisation has to adjust all the time to new groups andcustoms, and has to confront new opportunities and demands ina changeable environment. When hiring people from other envi-ronments or even from other regions or states with new technologythe organization gains the so called ‘cultural cargo’ which bringschanges into it.• The fusion. The culture is not represented only by isolated stringsof ideas, it also incorporates vagueness, contradiction and confu-sion. The more complex are the circumstances the people are con-fronting, the bigger fusion is reflected by the culture.• The organisational climate is one of the most important character-istics of organisational culture. It represents a certain general atmo-sphere in the organisation, a quality of relationships between em-ployees, and a manner of dealing with customers and other externalcollaborators.Those organisations that give their own members a feeling of self-esteem, participation, confidence and eYciency, give them the oppor-tunity to develop feelings of safety and self-confidence. The leaders re-spond to the employees’ needs thoughtfully, they tolerate personal re-sponsibility and perceive the changes as an opportunity for development.The opposite is done by organisations which obstruct their own mem-bers and get alienated from them. The employees in such organizationsfeel deceived, powerless, suspicious, they cannot maintain control overthe situations which occur in the confrontation with problems inside oroutside the organisation.subcultures in the organisationSubcultures have some similar elements as cultures. The level of diversitybetween subcultural elements varies. The members of a culture usuallybelong tomore than one subculture in the organisation (Trice et al. 1993).389Zlatka Meško ŠtokThe organisational structure divides people into working units, in aframe in which each of them has a diVerent status. A social cohesive-ness which strengthens cognitive and emotional bonds between mem-bers, contributes to the increase of the diVerences between subcultures.The diVerences may lead to the circumstances in which the membersof one subculture can easily see the members of the other as dangerousand hostile. This causes conflicts within the organisation. This conflict isoften disruptive, but can also have positive aspects. Mostly, it can causecreation of various innovative ideas. In a critical circumstances, whenthe organisation must suddenly choose among various subcultural per-suasions, values, and norms, the diVerences between the subcultures be-come more evident, which can bring to a subcultural conflict.There are three main factors, which cause the creation of subcultures(Trice at al. 1993):• Social interaction. The members of the organisation participate inthe interaction with some people more frequently than with others.The factors which influence the interaction between the membersof the organisation are: the size of the enterprise, its geographicaldispersion, the number of departments in the organisation, the dis-tribution of work, the authoritative hierarchy, the working currents,the technological process, the channels for vertical and horizontalcommunication, physical location of workers, rules and regulations,the diVerentiation of occupations, and the demographic character-istics of employees.• Exchange of experiences. Business partners, collaborators, and em-ployees exchange experiences among themselves, which stimulatesthe collective thinking. When people work and live in the vicinity,they can communicate more often about how they see the worldaround themselves, and how they deal with problems.• Similar personal characteristics. The development of diVerent ide-ologies in the group encourages similar personality characteristicsas well as cultural diVerences. Similar personality characteristicsalso form the foundation for the formulation of group identity, self-image, and reference group.some elements of organisational cultureOrganisations have to continually confront problems raised by the envi-ronment. One of these problems derives from the fact that environment390Managing, Communications, and Organizational Culturealters perpetually, which is also due to changes in the organisation. Theother source of uncertainty is the complexity of the environment and ex-ternal forces, which exert pressure on the organisation, e. g. competitors,customers, suppliers, banks and others. We have to distinguish betweenthe subjective and the objective perception of the environment by themembers of the organisation. The researches demonstrate that the sub-jective perception of the environment is distorted due to numerous fac-tors, e. g. previous experiences, values, and motivations, which aVect themanner in which the individual chooses and organises the informationfrom the environment. We will define only some factors of the organisa-tional culture. These are:• values,• organisational climate,• image profile of the enterprise.The main characteristics of values is their component part: they al-ways apply to things which are either positively or negatively (no-value,anti-value) valued and appreciated (Musek 1993). Rus (1997) summarisesdiVerent definitions from which he concludes that the values are general,relatively stable, desirable, and organised hierarchically. They have thefunction to direct, and they are expressed in a selective behaviour.DiVerent authors define values diVerently. An extensive inter-culturalresearch of values has been performed by Schwartz (Musek 1993) with hisown scale of 56 values. The results of his researches show that 11 value cat-egories occur at an inter-cultural level, and refer to values as the manag-ing principles in life. The research carried out by Musek (1993) included31 values. The most highly appreciated were: love, health, freedom, truth,happiness in the family, honesty, peace, children, etc. The least appreci-ated values were: religion, culture, money, comfortable life, reputation,and political success. It would be interesting to repeat the research andto place it in present time, because due to the time of transition greatchanges occurred in evaluating the values of diVerent cultures, customs,regions, or states. Younger people are directed more towards hedonis-tic and potential values, whereas older people are more directed towardsmoral and fulfilling values.It is necessary to point out that for some people the most importantvalues are those which they were deprived of in their life.For every group, company or organisation a distinctive social-psycho-logical climate is designated. The social climate can be described as an391Zlatka Meško Štokatmosphere in an organisation which aVects all its activities. Organisa-tional climate depends on internal characteristics such as: objectives,norms, consciousness, aYliation, loyalty, coordination of functions,size of the company, characteristics of the employees, relations betweenthem, and the way of managing. But it depends also on external charac-teristics – on climate in the environment surrounding the organisation.For the operation of the organisation a clear definition of roles isneeded with a belonging status of obligations and authorisation. The sizeof the enterprise aVects the organisation of management, the organisa-tional network, and the identification with the organisation. The statusof the individual in the organisational structure and the size of the rele-vant working environment are also significant.The conflicts and the frustrations are also a significant factor, whichhas a great impact on the organizational climate. The functional mannerof regulating the conflicts is the main factor that influences the success ofthe organisation. The preliminary condition for this is the identificationof the conflict.One of the important aspects of subjective indicators of climate in theorganisation is the satisfaction with work. The following factors aVect thesatisfaction at work: achievement, acknowledgment and attention fromothers, the nature of work, responsibility and promotion. Negative sen-sations were caused by the following factors: politics and administra-tion of the company, salary, personal relations, the relations with the su-perior, and working conditions. The factors of dissatisfaction (Lipicˇnikand Potrcˇ 1998) do not stimulate people’s eYciency, but eliminate un-pleasantness (hygienists), and dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction with workis initially increased by the lack of possibility for promotion with respectto the specificity of diVerent age periods in a professional career. Motiva-tion plays an important role in satisfying the employees. Its foundation isin the expectation that a larger eVort will gain a larger achievement, andthat a larger achievement will certainly gain a higher reward. If a correctcorrelation is not restored between the achievements and the rewards,the individual will become dissatisfied and unmotivated. The followingis very important for an eVective rewarding (Rus 1997):• the reward has to be important for a person,• rewards have to be distributed justly,• rewards are concrete, visible,• rewards are flexible, and depend upon the achievements.392Managing, Communications, and Organizational CultureThe vision or philosophy besides the politics of a company has a deci-sive importance in the formulation of both the company’s image and theorganisational culture. The culture aVects the image of the company, andthe image is reflected mostly in the way employees deal with customersand business partners in the external environment. An appropriate ap-pearance of the company is reflected in workers’ eVorts at tidiness, thesettlement of the oYces and production sites, and the implementationof the company’s mission in all elements. This is what business partnersand the public perceive when the enterprise is operating on the market.The image of the company is reflected in confidence, the professionalism,kindness of employees, behaviour of professional workers, and especiallyin knowledge and capabilities of managers, who know how to guide peo-ple, and above all how ‘to work’ with people.conclusionKnowledge is extremely important for the development of an organi-sation as it is the key generator that can establish a competitive com-pany. The eYciency of turning knowledge into a company’s advantagedepends on the organisational culture. From a mutual adjustment be-tween the concepts of treatment (Knowledge management) and knowl-edge, and the organisational culture depends whether the culture willcontribute to a successful implementation of concept management orwhether it will hinder it. Individuals decide for themselves whether toconsider the meaning and significance of knowledge when solving ev-eryday problems at work. This demands a definite behaviour involvingspecific values, and the support of the entire management in the organ-isation. The organisation must adjust to the changed environment. Thequality of the organisation is reflected in the personality, working charac-teristics and knowledge of managers and employees, in the distributionof work, values, encouragements, dedication of the leaders, and in theway of communication.People believe that they have suYcient knowledge and experiences toeYciently organise their work without the cooperation of a special expertmanager. They do not realize that they miss a specific overlook, an inte-grated view upon all factors and sources, and that they do not perceiveall activities and measures which must be considered in a contemporarybusiness.Managers and leaders in a company will have to continuously acquireknowledge, because it is under the influence of knowledge that the image393Zlatka Meško Štokof the classical organisation can thoroughly change. New approaches aretherefore required in order to discover the values and the culture of anorganization. Managers need knowledge to develop the instruments toguide the progress, acquisition, application and evaluation of knowledgein order to provide competitive advantages for their company.referencesBizjak, F. 1998. Vodenje z zaupanjem in spoštovanjem. In Izzivi manage-menta: . posvetovanje organizatorjev dela; Portorož, .–. april ,152–61. Kranj: Moderna organizacija.Lipicˇnik, B., and M. Potrcˇ. 1998. Ravnanje z ljudmi pri delu. Ljubljana:Gospodarski vestnik.Musek, J. 1993. Osebnost in vrednote. Ljubljana: Educy.Rus, V. S. 1997. Socialna in societalna psihologija. Ljubljana: Filozofskafakulteta.Tavcˇar, M. I. 1998. Povezanost poslovne etike, kulture in olike. In Izzivimanagementa: . posvetovanje organizatorjev dela; Portorož, .–. april, 424–31. Kranj: Moderna organizacija.Trice, H. M., and J. M. Beyer. 1993. The cultures of work organisations. En-glewood CliVs, nj: Prentice-Hall.394

Managing, communications, and organizational culture

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Managing, communications, and organizational culture

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