In our current environment of global communication, rapid change and instant access to information can be important to an organization’s survival. The topics of leadership and organizational culture have always attracted interest from academics and practitioners. Much of the interest is based on claims that both leadership and culture are linked to organizational performance. However, “little critical research has been done to understand the links between the two concepts”. To our knowledge, research regarding organization cultures in Greece is limited. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to present a critical bibliography in the field of leadership and Organizational Culture. In order to do that, we had to research the effect of several factors, and employees’ perceptions of organizational culture. The primary objective of this study is to model the interaction between organizational culture and change, showing the ways in which a leader’s knowledge of organizational culture affects the process of change. A critical examination of the literature in the fields of organizational culture and leadership finds that the two areas have been linked to organizational performance. Researchers have examined the links between leadership styles and performance and also between organizational culture and performance. Furthermore, numerous aspects of the organizational culture literature allude to the role of leaders in ‘creating’ particular types of culture. Equally, the literature on leadership suggests that the ability to work within a culture is a prerequisite to effectiveness. Despite the linking of culture and leadership in many parts of organization theory, little critical research has been done to understanding the links between the two concepts and the impact that such an association might have on managerial effectiveness. The absence of critical literature is vast given the numerous references to the importance of the two concepts in the functioning of organizations. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the links between different types of organizational culture and managerial effectiveness. The central objectives of this article are to illustrate the basic notions of Management Strategy and Organizational Culture. In particular: 1) We highlight terms such as “Organizational Culture”, which as necessary to managers and entrepreneurs in order to create new values, especially in times of economic change; 2) We develop a holistic framework, which centers on the interdependencies within leadership and organizational Culture; 3) We aim at giving managers and researchers a “language” for some terms that can create reflection and dialogue on the subject. This paper will focus on how to achieve a functional strategy for a business strategic change. Thus, the aim of this article is to find some parallels between the change literature and the leadership literature.
Culture is the sum of the beliefs that shape norms of behavior and dictate the ways things get done in an organization. Ιt’s not like a skin that an organization can discard as it selects a new organizational culture that is perceived to have strategic fit with its commercial strategy. Hofstede thinks that culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group from another. Others consider culture as a system of shared values. Understanding culture can be useful in two ways. First, cultural insight provides awareness of the extent to which organization members are willing to accept change and a cultural assessment is likely to determine the root cause of the problems that need stronger performance. Culture is the sum of the beliefs that shape behavior and dictate the ways things get done. A parallel definition of culture emphasizes on the meaning of events that are occurring in the workplace, and how they influence how ways of doing things are introduced. An organization with the best strategy in the world, but a culture that won’t allow it to make that strategy happen is doomed from the beginning.
Assessment of Organizational Culture Evidence showed that the assessment of the organizational culture may help assisting the establishment of the changes, either structural or technological. In 21st century, as more and more universities enter into new arrangements, the need to assess organizational cultures becomes crucial. This term has proved difficult to define, but several of its important components are agreed on by most researchers. These include the norms, assumptions and beliefs shared by organizational members, as mentioned earlier. Due to the abstract nature of these elements, there is a challenge for external researchers who want to assess organizational culture. It is even difficult for members of an organization to describe their own culture. Furthermore, organization culture was found to be strongly associated with organizational leadership corporate performance, knowledge acquisition and organizational learning.
Typology of Organizational Culture. There are many attempts to classify organizations according to their type of organizational culture. The difficulty in identifying a typology of organizational cultures is acknowledged, since it’s difficult to categorize beliefs of individuals. According to Hofstede, the behavior of an individual in the work place is influenced by three cultures: national, occupational and organizational. The first one involves the values that have been given by the family. The second is formed during school and professional life. While national culture is difficult to change during lifetime, the other two cultures may change. The most notable efforts in that field were made by Cameron and Quinn. They found that many studies of organizational cultures share many common characteristics and so there is a considerable overlap in studies. Cameron and Quinn also mentioned that it is possible to identify a desired culture and to specify strategies and activities designed to produce change, but without the change process becoming personalized, without individuals being willing to engage in new behaviors, without an alteration in the managerial competencies demonstrated in the organization, the organization’s fundamental culture will not change.
A corporate leader who encourages continuous learning and favors change helps to define an organizational culture that is flexible. Rather than fearing condemnation for suggesting different directions, employees in this kind of environment will feel free to express their innovative opinions, leading to higher productivity. Strategic leaders have the best perspective where knowledge is concerned to see the dynamics of the culture, what should remain and what needs alteration.
Cultural change was also discussed by Weber, who attributed it to charismatic interventions of a unique and idiosyncratic sort. Furthermore, Weber thinks that a top executive’s role as the main source of information is conferred by their important role in shaping culture. Finally, any management team involved in cultural change efforts requires an understanding of what the new cultural assumptions and behaviors of both management and staff should be to support the successful implementation of an organizational strategy.
Thus, implementing Organizational Change is one of the most crucial, but least understood skills of leaders nowadays. After the literature review, we feel that some of the negative responses to changes are caused by leaders’ not understanding the importance of communicating a change message. More generally, we have drown several significant theoretical and practical implications from this paper. Overall, the linkages found in this study among specific leadership behaviors, organizational culture suggest that it may be possible to develop more theories about proximal determinants of organizational cultures dealing with change. This paper also implies the need to expand research to other aspects of organizational change. It is necessary to explore whether organizational culture impacts the character of the change process and to what extent. It is also necessary to identify if and how the culture impacts the efficiency of the change process and its success. From this paper an assumption also emerges that there may be a feedback effect of organizational change strategy on organizational culture.
Conclusion As mentioned before, the evidence in this study suggests that leadership is associated with organizational culture, primarily through the processes of articulating a vision, and to a lesser extent through the setting of high performance expectations and providing individual support to workers.
Closing this paper, we must admit that it has significant limitations. The first is in the nature of this paper, which is explorative and theoretical. The paper has resulted in hypotheses regarding the relations between organizational culture and strategy which are yet to be empirically proven. Without empirical testing the findings of this paper are not entirely valid. Also, the paper is limited to investigating organizational culture impact on just one aspect of organizational change management – change management strategy. It does not examine the impact of culture on other aspects of organizational change that would complete the picture.
References
- Bass, B. M. and B. J. Avolio, 1994, “Improving Organizational Effectiveness through Transformational Leadership,” Sage, Thousand Oaks CA.
- Cameron, K.S. and R.E Quinn, 2006, Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture Based on the Competing Values Framework, The Jossey-Bass Business and Management Series.
- Herscovitch, L. and J. P. Meyer, 2002, “Commitment to organizational change: Extension of a three-component model”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87,474–487.
- Hofstede, G., 2001, Culture Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. SAGE Huy, Q. N., 2002,
- Malby, B, 2006, How does leadership make a difference to organizational culture and effectiveness, Northern Leadership Academy.[schema type=»book» name=»THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE» description=»In this paper, we present the impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture. At first, we present the notion of culture. There are many attempts to describe “organizational culture”, many of which are presented in this paper. After an assessment of organizational culture, the role of leader is pinpointed. We favor the view that strategic leadership needs to be transformational if it is to serve the organization. Afterwards, the notion of change is focused on. Changing a culture is a large-scale undertaking and all of the organizational tools for changing minds will need to be put in play. To change or to manage corporate culture one has to be able to define and therefore pinpoint exactly what it is one is trying to change. The evidence in this study suggests that leadership is associated with organizational culture, primarily through the processes of articulating a vision and to a lesser extent through the setting of expectations. » author=»Karina Berdznishvili» publisher=»Басаранович Екатерина» pubdate=»2016-12-15″ edition=»euroasia-science_6(27)_23.06.2016″ ebook=»yes» ]