Материал: Management-and-Organization-Behavior

encouraged and certain kinds of behavior forces an individual to formal sanctions. The formal value system is communicated to employees through rules, regulations and policies. But informal value system is very difficult to ascertain. But both exert influence on organizational climate.

In general, organisational climate provides certain stimuli, offers certain opportunities and raises certain expectations among its members; at the same time, it also creates certain constraints, threats, problems and frustrations. Organisational climate influences the perceived ability of the individual employee, which in turn has a decisive effect on his motivation. Perceived ability is influenced by the nature and clarity of the job, the scope of responsibility, degree of freedom, supervisory support and training, safety and other physical working conditions, previous experience and so on.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is the set of assumptions, beliefs, values and norms that are shared by the members of an organization. It may be consciously created by its key members, or it may have simply evolved over time. It represents a key element of the work environment in which employees perform their jobs. A culture may exist across an entire organization, or it may refer to the environment within a single division, branch, plant, or department. The idea of organizational culture is somewhat intangible, for we cannot see it or touch it, but it is present and pervasive. Like the air in a room, it surrounds and affects everything that happens in an organization. Because it is a dynamic systems concept, culture is also affected by almost everything that occurs within an organization. They give an organizational identity to employees – a defining vision of what the organization represents. They are also an important source of stability and continuity to the organization which provides a sense of security to its members.

Characteristics of Cultures

Each organization has its own history, patterns of communication, systems and procedures, mission statements and visions, stories and myths which, in their totality, constitute its distinctive culture. Cultures are also relatively stable in nature. Most organizational cultures have historically been rather implicit rather than explicit. A defining characteristic of most culture is that they are seen as symbolic representations of underlying beliefs and values.

Measuring Organizational Culture

Systematic measurement and comparison of cultures is difficult. Most of the early attempts by researchers relied on examination of stories, symbols, rituals, and ceremonies to obtain clues. Others have used interviews and open ended questionnaires in an attempt to assess employee values and beliefs. In some cases, examination of corporate philosophy statements has provided insights into the espoused cultures (the beliefs and values that the organizations state

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publicly). Another approach is to survey employees directly and seek their perceptions of the organization’s culture. Another interesting method is to become a member of the organization and engage in participant observation.

Characteristics of organizational cultures

-- Distinctive -- Stable

-- Implicit

-- Symbolic

-- Integrated

-- Accepted

-- A reflection of top management

Communicating Culture

If organizations are to consciously create and manage their cultures, they must be able to communicate them to employees, especially the newly hired ones. Individuals are generally more willing to adapt when they want to please others, gain approval, and learn about their new work environment. These cultural communication acts may be lumped under the umbrella of organizational socialization, which is the continuous process of transmitting key elements of an organization’s culture to its employees. Individualization occurs when employees successfully exert influence on the social system around them at work by challenging the culture or deviating from it.

Review Questions

1.Describe the organisational culture that seems to exist in your organisation. What are some of the implicit or explicit norms, values and assumptions?

2.Discuss the bases or forms of departmentalisation in an organisation?

3.Explain various characteristics of Organisational Climate.

4.Distinguish between

a.Horizontal & Vertical dimension of organisational structure. b.Commercial & Non – Commercial dimension of

organisational structure.

c.Traditional & Modern dimension of organisatonal structure.

5.What are the major dimensions of organisational structure?

6.Describe the factors determining organisational structure.

***

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Lesson - 24 : Organisational Change

Objectives

After reading this lesson, you should be able to:

ӹӹExplain Steps In The Change Process;

ӹӹKnow Why Change Is Resisted; And

ӹӹUnderstand Strategies Management Uses To Make The Change Effective;

Lesson Outline

ӹӹPressures for change

ӹӹSources of resistance to change

ӹӹChange process

ӹӹManagement of change

ӹӹReview Questions

Changes are taking place all around without exception. It is but natural that everything changes over time. What remains constant is change itself? Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the manager to appreciate the change, assess its impact on the organization and prepare to adopt it, if necessary. Depending on the magnitude of change, it may impact an individual, a group, structure, process and subsystems. By scanning the environment and deciphering how changes in the environment are likely to widen the gap between desired and actual state of affairs of organization such as productivity, customer and employer satisfactions ,the degree and impact of change could be gauged. Manager can be a change agent by introducing planned changes in the organization.

Meaning and Nature of Change

The term change in the organization context refers to any alteration that occurs in the work environment. Planned changes mean those changes which are effected in a planned manner after assessing the need for change and working out the details as to when and how they will be carried out. A

planned change is also called proactive change. In contrast, reactive change is the one which takes place in random fashion as a crisis situation develops. For proactive or planned change to be initiated, manager shall be sensitive to the environmental changes affecting the organization so that organizational crisis situations can be averted.

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Planned change or pro active change is purposeful or goal

directed. There are two widely recognized goals of the planned change. One, it sets to improve the organizational ability to cope with, or adapt to change

environment. Second, it seeks to change employee knowledge, attitude and behavior. Change in any part of the organization tends to effect the whole organization. Change is a human as well as a technical problem. Whenever there is a change, social equilibrium in the organization is affected. When change occurs in the organization, it requires employees to make new adjustments as the organization seeks new equilibrium.

Pressures for Change

The need for change exists when the manager finds that the goals are not being achieved. Thus, tension points in the organization are identified when the gap between the desired and the actual results is noticed. Such gaps could occur due to certain changes. In other words, these changes are precursors for organizational change, which are explained in the following pages.

Labor market Environment: one important aspect of labour market environment is the changing nature of the work force in terms of aspirations, outlook and various demographic variants. The work force composition is fast changing with increasing proportion of the woman, minorities, physically challenged. For instance, in India the work force diversity, of late is something unseen before. The present generation of work force wants quantification and seeks external reinforcement. Human resource management policies will have to change to attract, maintain a diverse work force. Increasing participation of woman means dual-career couples. So organizations have to change their transfer and promotional policies as well as provide child and elder care facilities. On the whole, there has been an increase in the formal education levels of work force. Modern businesses, therefore, have to redraw their human resources development plans and methods. Training programs need to be fine tuned aiming at upgradation of skills.

Technological developments: Changes in technology bring in their wake corresponding changes in the nature of the work. Computers, telecommunication systems, robotics, and flexible manufacturing systems, flexi time mode are some of the 21st century changes that have brought unimaginable changes at work place with respect to the time, comfort required for the execution of tasks. With changing technologies employees skills become obsolete. Hence, heavy investments become imperative. Modern control techniques substitute direct supervision which leads to wider spans and there by flat organizations. Information technology makes organizations more responsive to consumer demands. Narrow specialization in jobs gives way to work teams whose members perform multiple tasks and actively participates in group decisions.

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Economic conditions: this is an age of discontinuity. To mention a few, oil shocks, accelerated inflation and interest rates, the stock market crashes, currency devaluation, etc., hit some industries and firms much harder than others. Globalization of markets is yet another significant change. The problem with these shocks is that it is impossible to predict what the future shocks will be and from where they come from.

Social Trends: High enrolment ratios are noticed in higher education. Higher education as a sector provides a mass market product. There is a changed composition of student community. Considerable proportion of woman students, part time students, outnumbering regular students has become the order of the day. Universities and colleges which fail to respond to these changes may find the going tough.

Work place diversity: Emergence of global markets, mobility of factors of production across the globe, integration of economic systems imposes certain demands on employees who have to interact with people in other countries and work with persons brought up in different cultures. Business organizations, therefore, have to prepare the work force which could perform and feel at home regardless of the place of work and the composition of work teams.

Competition: Competition is intensifying by the day in every product category. Businesses also in line with the changed realities and compulsions need to address themselves to the global context. Competitors may come from anywhere in the world, at times even from quite unexpected quarters. Heightened competition also means organizations need to defend themselves against traditional competitors and small entrepreneurial firms with innovative changes. Therefore, in order to meet competition, successful organizations in future rely on short production runs, short product cycles and a stream of innovative products. These will demand flexible work processes and schedules that can adapt to rapidly and even radically changing conditions.

Sources of Resistance to Change

Any change is complicated by the fact that it does not produce a direct adjustment.Instead,itoperatesthroughemployeesattitudestoproducearesponse that is conditioned by feelings towards change. The following chart known as Roethlisberger’s x-chart explains how attitudes affect the response to change.

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