UNIT III
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND MOTIVATION AT WORK PLACE
DEFINTIONS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
(1) According to Ralph Kilmann organisational culture means " the philosophies, ideologies, values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations attitudes and norms that knit an organisation together and are shared by its employees."
(2) According to John Newstrom and Keith Davis is organisational culture is " the set of assumptions, beliefs, values and norms that are shared by and organisations members."
CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
(1) Individual responsibility- An organisation's culture states the degree of responsibility and the freedom that an employee will have in the organisation.
(2) Innovation and risk-taking - Risk and returns go together more the risk, more are the returns. Every organisation sets different standards for risk-taking and innovation.
(3) People Orientation - An Organisation's culture determines how much the management will focus on people? Some organisations are employee oriented as they give importance on creating good work environment for the employees while others consider employees as work machines.
(4) Attention to detail - Attention to detail means the degree of attention to be given to details in the workplace. The degree of attention given by employees to work is the main element of success The management defines the amount of importance the organisation gives to details. Employees have to follow the degree of attention specified by the management.
(5) Direction - The organisation with the help of its culture defines the objectives and performance expectation.
(6) Integration among units - Organisational culture states the degree to which the units or departments within the organisation will be encouraged to cooperate with each other.
(7) Control - Organisational culture states the rules and regulation that employees have to follow. It makes dear the amount of vision that is used to oversee the employees.
(8) Identity - Culture within an organisation gives clear understanding of the degree to which individual's will identify themselves with the organisation as a whole rather than their particular group.
(9) Reward System - The organisational culture makes clear the way which the rewards will be allocated based on employee performance rather than on the basis of seniority, favouritism, power
Politics etc.
(10) Management Support - The organisational culture makes clear the extent to which managers will communicate employees, and how much they will assist them.
(11) Conflict Tolerance - The culture of an organisation states the extent to which the management will tolerate the conflicts within an organisation and how much criticism will be allowed within the organisation.
TYPES OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
The practices, principles, policies and values of an organization form its culture. The culture of an organization decides the way employees behave amongst themselves as well as the people outside the organization.
(1) Authoritarian and Participative Cultures
(a) Authoritarian Culture
(i) In an authoritarian culture, power is concentrated on the leader and the employees have to obey his orders There is strict discipline in the organisation.
(ii) Employees are punished for disobeying their bosses.
(iii) Employees are not consulted for making decisions.
(iv) The leader never cares for employee's opinions.
(v) He believes that because of his authority he can alone decide what is the best for the organisation.
(b) Participative cultures
(i) In this kind of organisational culture, the employees are consulted and allowed to participate in the formation of policies and decision making.
(ii) It is based on the principle that people are more com to the decisions that are made with their participation then to those decisions that are forced on them.
(iii) In participative culture, information is shared among all the employees, this results in better decisions.
(iv) Participative culture exists in organisation when, members of the organisation are professionals or consider themselves as equal.
(2) Subculture and Dominant Culture
(i) Every department or unit in an organisation may have its own culture, this is called as sub culture. Individuals come from different cultures and backgrounds in an organisation, may result in slight change to the beliefs and principles of the organisation's members. This gives rise to sub-cultures in an organisation.
(ii) A dominant culture takes place when there is connection of all the departments into a whole. This means that all the departments have a common culture. When all the departments are integrated into a unified whole, employees follow a common culture Hence, there is only one dominant culture organisation.
(3) Strong and Weak Culture
(i) In an organisation having strong culture, the employees or members have a clear understanding about its core values, they give importance to those values, follow then properly and share them with all the members. The develop strong loyalty to the organisation. Strong culture reduces absenteeism and turnover of employees. The members highly agree among themselves about what the organisation stands for, this unity among members builds cohesiveness and leads to greater commitment towards organisation.
(ii) The weak culture is totally opposite of strong culture. Here the employees do not give importance to core values, they do not know what their goals are? they have higher rates of absenteeism, turnover, etc. they have negative attitude towards their job.
(4) Soft Culture
(i) This type of culture is generally seen in public sector organisations. But it may take place in any type of organisation.
(ii) It may take place in any organisation where the nature of ownership is not necessarily the determining factor of culture. It takes place in organisations, which have multiple and conflicting
Objective.
(5) Technocratic Culture
It develops in an organisation which aims at providing the highest quality of product and services through the use of latest technology.
(6) Work Centric Nurturing Culture (WCNC)
(i) In WCNC, work is given more importance employees who work hard and provide quality results are rewarded.
(ii) In this type of culture, employees are more focused on rewards, hard work, recognizing merit, establishing clear norms of performance and adequate work load. Formal systems are
Established for achievement of organisation's goals.
FUNCTIONS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Organisational Culture Performs a number of functions they are:
(1) Culture serves as a control mechanism in directing employee behaviour.
(2) Culture influences expectations regarding appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. It serves as code of conduct.
(3) Culture sets standards of performance in an organisation.
(4) Culture gives members and organisational identity or sense of belonging.
(5) Culture facilitates collective commitment by employees to follow rules, philosophy, ideologies, values, expectations, etc. of the organisation.
(6) Culture increases control within the organisation.
(7) Culture helps in guiding employees towards achievement of organisation's goals.
(8) Culture promotes cooperation by providing shared values and assumptions.
(9) Culture facilitates commitment by employees. Strong cultures give members a sense of organisational identity or sense of belonging, this helps in greater commitment by all employees.
(10) Culture is social glue that helps hold an organisation together.
(11) Culture defines the boundary lines between one organisation and another.
(12) Culture enhances the stability of the social system.
BARRIERS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Although, Organisational Culture helps in a number of ways but sometimes, it also creates barriers for the organisation. These barriers are:
(1) Barrier to Change -
(a) Culture becomes a liability when the shared values do not agree with the values that will help in organisational effectiveness.
(b) This happens when an organisation's environment is dynamic.
(c) When an organization's environment changes continuously, an organisation's existing culture may not be appropriate.
(d) Hence, consistency of behaviours is an asset for the organisation when the environment is stable.
(e) But while the environment keeps on changing it may burden the organisation and make it difficult to respond to changes in the environment.
(f) The same culture that worked in the past becomes barrier to change when 'business as usual' is not effective.
(2) Barrier to diversity -
(a) Management of diversity comes in the way of managing organisation's culture in an effective manner.
(b) Appointing new employees who belong to different race, gender, caste, etc. or have other differences can create barriers or problems in culture management.
(c) Organisation's appoint people with diverse backgrounds because they bring different strengths at workplace.
(d) People from diverse backgrounds are expected to fit in the culture of organisation, which is totally different from their own culture.
(e) Organisations having strong cultures put of lot of pressure on employees to conform. They limit the range of values and style that are acceptable. Employees from diverse backgrounds are forced to change.
(f) Hence, strong cultures can be liabilities when they eliminate the unique strengths that people of different background bring in the organisation.
(g) Strong cultures also become liabilities when they become insensitive to people who belong to different backgrounds.
(3) Barrier to Acquisitions and Mergers -
(a) Culture of an organisation can be a barrier to mergers and acquisition of organisations.
(b) Earlier, financial matters alone were considered to decide which company will merge with which company and which company will acquire which company.
(c) In modern times, similarity of culture has become important.
(d) Financial matters are important but whether the acquisition on merger will work depends on how well the cultures of the two organisations match with each other.
(e) When the cultures are different, acquisition or mergers do not work out.
Developing and maintaining effective organisation culture is important for an organisation to achieve competitiveness, productivity, efficiency and growth managers have to create and maintain effective organisational culture.
Every organisation has unique features and goals. Culture is developed as per the goals of the organisation.
Regardless of the industry or size, an organisation's culture should be according to its strategy. The strategy of the organisation should be clearly defined among all the employees, this helps in creating the right culture. Another thing to be considered while developing an effective culture is the ability to innovate and change. Organisation' that encourage innovation and have the ability to change as per the environment are successful in solving problems. The culture should develop trust and co-operation among the members of the organisation. An effective organisation culture should bring about the best performance in the employees. Overall, the organisation should be a good place to work in. Employees should make the maximum use of their potential.
On the basis of the above requirements, along with the specific needs of the organisations, an organisation can create its culture.
- How is culture created?
(1) Culture is mainly learnt. An organisation's existing customs, traditions, and general way of doing things is largely influenced by what it has done before and the success it had got in such behaviours.
(2) An important way of culture creation is following the behaviour of leaders or founders. The members of the organisation adopt the values and assumption of the founders. "Founders" help in establishing the culture of the organisation.
The founders of an organisation
Have a vision of what the organisation should be.
They are not constrained by previous customs for doing things or ideologies.
The small size of new organisation helps the founders in imposing their vision on all organisational members.
The organisational culture develops, from the interaction between the founder's biases and assumptions and what the original members learn from their own experiences.
- How is culture maintained?
After a culture is created, there are some practices within an organisation that help in maintaining it. These practices play an important role in maintaining an organisation's culture, they are:
(1) Selection practices (2) Top management and (3) Socialisation.
(1) Selection Practices-
(a) The main goal of the selection in process is to identify and hire right people for right jobs.
(b) When many candidates are available for a job, the decision of who is to be hired is influenced by the decision maker's judgement of which candidate is suitable for the organisation.
(c) People who have common values and cultures are hired by the organisation.
(d) The selection process gives information about the organisation's culture to the candidates.
(e) Candidates who feel that there aredifferences between their culture and organisation's culture can opt themselves out of the selection process. Hence, the selection process helps in maintaining the culture of the organisation.
(2) Top Management-
(a) The actions of the top management have an important influence on organisation's culture.
(b) What the management says and how it behaves establish norms (rules) of organisation.
(c) Senior managers establish norms regarding
- Risk taking in organisation
- Freedom to be given to subordinates.
- Appropriate dress.
- Criteria for pay —raises and promotions, etc.
(3) Socialisation-
(a)Even if the organisation is good at hiring people, new employees cannot fully learn the organisation's culture, this may be due to the reason that they are not familiar with the organisation's culture.
(b) There are chances that new employees may disturb the beliefs and customs in the organisation Hence, the organisation wants to help employees adopt its culture. This process of adaptation of culture is called Socialisation.
(c) Socialisation consists of three stages:
- Pre-arrival - It covers all the learning that occurs before the member joins the organisation.
- Encounter - In this stage the employee sees what the organisation is really like and comes to know that expectation and reality may differ.
- Metamorphosis - In this stage, relatively long-lasting change take place. The new employee learn the skills needed for hi new roles and makes adjustment to his work groups values and norms.
Motivation is the most important factor affecting human behaviour and performance. The term 'motivation' has been derived from the word motive'. 'motive is an inner state that activates, energizes or moves an individual and channelizes his behaviour towards goals.
Definition of Motivation
Koonts and Weihrich "motivation is a general term applying to the entire class of desires, needs, wishes and similar forces. To say that managers motivate their sub-ordinates is to say that they do those things which they hope will satisfy these drives and desires and induce the subordinates to act in desired manner"
Importance of Motivation
1. Effective use of resources: In business, all physical resources are used through human force. Effective use of these resources depend upon ability and readiness of employees. Team of highly motivated employees help in making optimum use of available resources for achieving objectives.
2. Higher efficiency: Highly motivated employees make full use of their energy and other abilities to raise the existing level of efficiency.
3. Accomplishment of Organisational Goals: Highly motivated employees make goal directed efforts. They are more committed and co-operative for seeking organisational goals.
4. Reduced Employee Turnover and Absenteeism: Highly motivated employees are more loyal and sincere, therefore they remain punctual and regular in their work. These factors help in reducing absenteeism and employee turnover.
5. Healthy Industrial Relation: Effectively motivated employees get more satisfaction and carry high morale which makes them more disciplined. In this case, the possibility of disputes and unrest is reduced and industrial relations improve.
6. Improved Corporate Image: Motivation helps in improving image organisation. Motivated employees give better impression to outside
Dealing with the organisation and its image is improved.
7. Motivation also helps to utilise and develop creative talent of employees.
- MASLOW’S NEED HIERARCHY THEORY
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970): was an American personality theorist and leading exponent of humanistic psychology. In 1940's he proposed a theory of motivation. He suggested there were 5 distinct levels of human need arranged in a hierarchy (see the figure below), starting with basic psychological needs for food and shelter. As one level of need is satisfied another is reached, until by the fifth level the individual is concerned with need for self-actualization.
.
This theory of Maslow is stated as follows:
(1) Maslow's theory is based on human needs
(2) He classified all human needs in a hierarchical manner from the lower to the higher order
(3) He believed that once a given level of need is satisfied, thereafter it does not serve to motivate a man.
(4) The next higher level of need has to be activated to motivate man.
(5) The needs are as follows:
(a) Physiological Needs:
(i) These relate to the survival and maintenance of human life.
(ii) These are the basic or primary needs. For example, air, water, food, sex, rest, shelter, clothing, etc.
(b) Safety or Security Needs:
(i) After physiological needs are satisfied, these needs become important.
(ii) These needs are the needs or self-preservation and economic independence.
(iii) These are the needs for becoming free from danger, threat and deprivation. People need bodily safety, job security, provision for old age, insurance, etc.
(iv) These needs are very important where management policies are uncertain and arbitrary.
An organisation can satisfy these needs through- pension plan, job guarantee, medical scheme, insurance plan, etc.
(c) Social Needs:
(i) Man is a social animal
(ii) Therefore, he wants association, belonging, friendship, love and affection.
(iii) These are the needs of affiliation and affection of one's fellow human beings.
(iv) People form informal groups to seek meaningful association, companionship.
(d) Esteem or Ego Needs:
(i) These are connected or concerned with awareness of self-importance and recognition from others.
(ii) They consist of such things like- self-confidence, self-respect,
Independence, power, prestige, achievement, praise and status.
(e) Self-actualization Needs:
(i) This implies "the desire to become more of what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.
(ii) It involves self-fulfillment or achieving what one considers to be his mission in life.
(iii) It urges an individual to realize his full potential for continued self-development and for
(iv) Being creative in the broadest sense of the word
- Explanation:
Physiological, Safety and Social Needs-are lower level needs.
Ego and Self-actualization Needs - are higher order needs. Needs have a definite sequence of priority. They arise in certain order a preference. Safety needs do not dominate until physiological needs a satisfied.
Man is a wanting animal. He always continues to want something or the other.
He is never satisfied - If one need is satisfied, another takes its place.
Once a need is satisfied it ceases to be a motivating factor.
If lower level needs are satisfied, the individual can be motivated only by satisfying his higher-level needs. Physiological and security needs an unlimited but other needs are limited.
Maslow says - various need levels are interdependent and overlapping. Each higher-level need emerges before the lower level has been completely satisfied.
- Criticism:
(i) The needs may or may not follow a definite hierarchical order.
(ii) The need priority model may not apply at all times in all places.
(iiii) Researchers say man's behaviour is guided by multiplicity of behaviour Maslow's statement that one need is satisfied at one time may not be correct.
(iv) In case of some persons level of motivation may always be lower.
- F. HERZBERG'S MOTIVATION FACTOR
Herzberg two-factor theory is an influential theory of motivation proposed in late 1950's by Frederick Herzberg, an American psychologist Herzberg's theory resulted from a study of job satisfaction in which he found that satisfaction and dissatisfaction with work were caused by different factors.
Satisfaction resulted from 'motivators' like- recognition and increase responsibility.
Dissatisfaction resulted from 'the working environment itself and actors like-poor physical conditions or relatively low pay. Herzberg called these as hygiene factor'.
Herzberg came to the conclusion that neither interesting work nor a good working environment was sufficient by itself-though each was necessary to ensure job satisfaction. Herzberg's work led to an emphasis on Job Enrichment schemes. This theory of Herzberg is stated below:
(1) Psychologist Frederick Herzberg extended the work of Maslow and proposed a new motivation theory called. Herzberg's Motivation Hygiene (Two Factor) Theory.
(2) Herzberg conducted motivational study on 200 accountants and engineers employed in firms in and around Pennsylvania.
(3) He asked them to describe 2 important incidents at their jobs:
(i) When did you feel particularly good about your job?
(ii) When did you feel exceptionally bad about your job?
(4) He used critical incident method of obtaining data.
(5) The replies were very interesting and consistent.
(6) Reported good feelings were associated with job satisfaction.
(7) Reported bad feelings were associated with job dissatisfaction.
(8) Herzberg called job satisfiers as motivators.
(9) Herzberg called job dissatisfiers as hygiene or maintenance factors.
(10) These taken together are called as Herzberg two factor theory of motivation.
- Explanation:
Herzberg says opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction.
Reason:
Removal of dissatisfying features does not make the job satisfying.
He believes in the existence of a continuous sequence in which the elements change gradually (Continuum)
The opposite of satisfaction' is no satisfaction and the opposite of dissatisfaction' is ' no dissatisfaction. According to him today's motivators are tomorrow's hygiene. Reason - hygiene stops influencing the behaviour of persons when they get them. One's hygiene may be the motivator of another.
- Criticism:
People tend to take credit when things go well. They blame failure on external environment.
This theory explains job satisfaction and not motivation.
Job satisfaction is not measured on overall basis. It is likely that a person may dislike his job and still think the job is acceptable.
This theory neglects situational variable to motivate and individual.
The main use of this theory is in planning and controlling of employees.
MC. GREGOR'S THEORY X AND THEROY Y
Mc. Gregor, Douglas (1906-1964): An American psychologist and leading contributor to Organisational Theory from the Human Relations perspective. He classified the assumptions about human nature made by supporters of the rational-economic view as a cynical Theory X. He himself rejected rather in favour of his own theory Y.
Theory 'X’: In the terminology of Mc Gregor this describes the rational-economic view of human nature therefore, require authoritarian management. Mc Gregor rejected this view in favour of Theory "Y.
Theory ‘Y' : In the terminology of Mc Gregor this describes view of human nature in which people would like to be creative in their work and take more responsibility for it. Therefore, they can be responsive to Democratic Management. This theory of Mc Gregor is stated as follows:
McGregor developed a theory of motivation. He formulated 2 sets of assumptions about human behaviour.
- THEORY"X":
This theory X makes negative assumptions about people. Theory X' is based on the following assumptions about human behaviour:
(1) People by nature are lazy (indolent). They like to work as less as possible.
(2) People lack ambition, they do not like responsibility and prefer to be directed by other.
(3) They are self-centered and indifferent to organisational goals.
(4) They are generally easily believing (gullible) and not sharp and bright.
(5) These assumptions require hard approach of close supervision, centralised structure, autocratic leadership and tight controls.
- Explanation:
Managers agreeing to these views about human nature have to say as follows:
(a) Management is responsible for Organising the elements - money, materials, equipment’s, people, in the interest of economic needs.
(b) Relating to people - Management does directing. Motivation controlling and modifying their behaviour to fit the needs of the organisation.
(c) Without active interference of the management - people would be passive and resistant to organisational needs. For this reason - they must be persuaded, rewarded, punished and controlled to make them to put efforts towards the achievement of organisational goals.
- THEORY "Y":
McGregor feels theory X assumptions are not correct, because these assumptions fail to satisfy the higher-level needs. For this reason, he propounded theory Y.
Theory Y is based on the following assumptions:
(1) People by nature are not naturally passive or resistant to organisational goals.
(2) They want to assume responsibility.
(3) They want their organisation to succeed.
(4) People are capable of directing their own behaviour.
(5) They have need for achievement.
- Explanation:
Theory Y assumptions suggest a new approach to management with following features:
(a)Democratic leadership
(b) Participation in decision making
(c) Self control
(d) Management by objectives
(e) Job enrichment
(f) Decentralisation
(g) Employees are treated as responsible and self-motivated individuals.
- Viewpoint of Researchers:
(i) Theory Y may be more valid than theory X.
(ii) An amalgam (mixture) of both the theories may be more effective in practice.
(iii) The central idea of theory Y is- the creation of conditions that members can achieve their own goals best, by directing their efforts towards the success of the organisation.
(iv) Goals of employees should be integrated with organisational goals in such a way that the employees can achieve self-control, sense of achievement and competence.
| Theory X | Theory Y |
1. | Dislike for work | Work is natural |
2. | Avoid responsibility | Accept responsibility |
3. | Lack creativity and resist change | Creativity widely spread |
4. | Focus on lower needs | Focus on higher level needs |
5. | Close supervision and control | Self-direction and self-control |
6. | Autocratic leadership | Democratic leadership |
7. | Negative and pessimistic assumption | Positive and optimistic assumption |
1.This theory was developed by Jeremy Bentham. This theory is based on the principle of reinforcement (rewards orpunishment)
2. Here, carrot means positive reinforcement or rewards and stick means punishment.
3. Bentham view was all people are self-interested and are motivated b desire to avoid pain and find pleasure.
4. The carrot and stick approach came from the old story that the best way to make the donkey move ahead is to put the carrot in front of him or strike him with a stick from behind carrot is given as a reward to him for moving ahead whereas stick is punishment for not moving.
5. At workplace, to motivate the employees some carrots are used in the form of money, promotion, other financial rewards bonus, and other nonfinancial rewards.
6. If needed, stick in the form of punishment, penalties, insult, criticism, fear of termination of job, reduction of bonus, etc. is used to push the employees towards desired behaviour.
7. Many theorists believe that people should be regularly rewarded to motivate them at workplace. However, stick is also important to make people behave in a desirable way. But, it should also be used with care and caution. Hence, carrot and stick approach helps in motivating and regulating employee behaviour.
8. Carrot or stick should be used as per the organisations evaluation of employee performance.
9. If an organisation wants employee to perform well, they should put a reward in front of them (carrot) as an incentive in hope that what is good will be achieved and repeated. Similarly, an organization can create a system of punishment (stick), in various forms, in hope that what's bad will be avoided and not get repeated.
10.This theory has been practicedeverywhere, education, spots workplace, etc.
- Motivating Employees in the Organisation
(1) Recognising individual differences -Every employee has different needs, managers should understand their individual needs, what is important to an employee may be less important to another employee. This helps in individualising goals, level of involvement and rewards to align with individual employee needs.
(2) Linking Rewards to Performance - The manager must link rewards to performance Rewards should be according to the performance of the employee.
(3) Tangible and Specific goals - The goals should be tangible and specific.
(4) Regular Feedback - The employees should be given regular feedback about their performance.