Visible Culture
The visible aspects of culture that can be seen within an organisation are the elements of it that can be seen by an, ‘outsider’, or someone who is not involved with the company, for example a customer.
Culture within an organisation could be described as an iceberg, where only a small portion of the culture is visible, whilst most of it remains hidden.
French and Bell (1990) developed the ‘ice berg’ theory that outlines the fact that some elements that make up culture are visible, although there are many factors that are harder to identify. They believe that there are two contrasting factors, the visible being formal, identifiable and public, whereas the second is hidden, but has been created because of the visible formal structure, for example the values within a company or their leadership style.
The Waitrose and John Lewis Partnership have a number of visible aspects of culture that are well known by public. The dark green colour that is used within both partnerships is extremely recognisable to the public and therefore it makes up part of their visible aspects of culture. Using one colour between the Partnership creates and shows a proud link that they want to ‘show off’.
Another visible characteristic within the organisation is the formal uniform worn by all ‘Partners’, otherwise known as staff. A uniform not only creates a team-like atmosphere but it also creates a level of professionalism within a company, clearly distinguishing customers and staff. ‘Partners’ are always presentable, professional and approachable and this reflects the company’s goal to provide customers with the best service.
The JLP also ensures that the goals, aims, targets and approaches within the organisation are assessable and visible to the public, by making them available online. By making these goals so visible it shows a level of confidence and determination within the organisation to achieve these goals. This generates a good image of the Partnership to ‘outsiders’.
Four types of Culture
Handy (1993) suggested that there are four different types of cultures that can be seen in different organisations, these include Power culture, Role culture, Task culture and Personal culture. He believes the way an organisation is managed and run has an effect on the culture within.
Power culture would usually be found in smaller businesses and organisations, where there is only one central person with the power to make the important decisions.
It is described as the power culture because the individual in the centre of the organisation has the ability and power to make fast, quick and significant decisions that will affect the company. An organisation with a power type culture is usually run with a large amount of authority, although there may lack systems because there is only one person in control who may not be interested in systems or rules.
Role culture is a type of culture seen in a large number of retail; there are a many different laws, regulations and rules when it comes to retail that must be followed. This type of culture suggests that work and tasks carried out are decided by the different rules and regulations that must be followed, for example abiding by Sunday trading regulations. Role culture can also be seen when power or responsibility is linked to different levels or job roles within a hierarchy, for example a sales assistant many not have the authority to give refunds, whereas a team leader may be able to due to being higher in the job role hierarchy. Individuals who work within this culture will usually work to their job description. Marks and Spencer’s would fall into the role culture category because they divide up roles into many different positions, within a level of hierarchy, for example a sales assistant is at the bottom of the hierarchy and they will work within their section, for example frozen food, there will then be a section co-ordinator who oversees all the work being carried out by sales assistants in their section.
The underlying rule of role culture is that the role is more important than the person carrying out the role.
Task culture is usually seen in the building or construction sector, this is because it is usually found around project-based activities. Task culture involves working as part of a team, to complete the same task or project.
Individuals may not usually work together, but could come together, to achieve and complete the task in hand.
For example, building the Olympic Stadium, many different workers, with different and varied skills have come together in order to build, develop and complete the stadium in time for the Olympics. The culture found amongst the works would be the task type because the task is the key common factor within the team even if nothing else is.
Once the task has been complete the team may separate and continue with other tasks, this creates free and flexible atmosphere within the culture.
Person culture revolves around people as individuals, making them central.
"...people are the main resource of any organisation. Without its members, an organisation is nothing" (Mullins, 2010, pp.3)
An organisation with this type of culture will usually have a main goal to serve the interests of the individuals within it. People who work within this type of culture have usually come together as part of a team in order to form an organisation, but will remain working individually and not together. There is no hierarchy within this kind of organisation because everyone is an equal part working individually. This can commonly be found in organisations such as Doctors.
Like most theories, this theory of only four different, specific, types of culture could be disputed. It may be difficult to place some organisations into just one type of culture, because it may cross between two or more of the types of culture Handy outlined. These four types of culture are very specific and therefore is it likely that some organisations will not be a simple or exact fit.
There is a very broad and varied spectrum of different organisations, and while many of these are likely to be covered by the four types of culture, there will be some that aren’t. This could be due to the management style of the organisation, rules and regulations surrounding it, or the people within it.
To conclude, there are four main types of culture within organisations, power, role, task and person. These are all made up of different specific elements outlining each culture and therefore creating an understanding of where it might be seen. However due to the specifics within the cultures, it could be difficult to place every organisation easily into one of the four categories. Therefore although the types of culture can be related to most kinds of organisations, there may be some that cannot be placed. This does not mean that these are not the main four types of culture, but it would suggest that more flexibility would be needed between the cultures.
Most theories have minor expectations and types of culture would appear to be the same.
References:
- Mullins, L. (2010) Management & organisational behaviour, ninth edition, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
- Simpson, M. (2011) Organisation culture (powerpoint)
- Fig 1 sourced:
- Sall, A. (2010) The Cultural Iceberg [online]. available from: http://thecrossculturalconnector.com/?tag=the-cultural-iceberg [Assessed: 22/10/11]
Well done - a really good blog. Referencing much better too!
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