chris jarvis 1 hrm: organisation culture and intervention organisation culture & intervention:...

Chris Jarvis 1

HRM: Organisation Culture and Intervention

Organisation Culture &Intervention:

Process, structure and re-structuring.

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Questions

How are characteristics of organisational culture variously described?

Merits and limitations of descriptions?

Themes and tensions in debates about organisation culture.

Hard structure & technical systems vs. soft humanistic concerns

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Questions

What is "organisational development" (OD?)

What models can be defined and how do these shape understanding of organisational change?

What issues face a "change agent" - someone acting as an OD consultant/player?

What "pearls of wisdom" would you offer someone initiating an OD programme - taking their first steps?

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Soft systemsSoft systemsValuesValuesInteractionsInteractionsCommitmentsCommitmentsMotivationsMotivationsLoyaltiesLoyaltiesPerceptionsPerceptionsLeadership & teamsLeadership & teamsCommunicationCommunication

Hard systemsHard systemsPoliciesPoliciesProceduresProceduresSystemsSystemsPerformancesPerformancesTechnologiesTechnologiesEfficienciesEfficiencies

Change, improve, perform better, re-orientate, lead, trim your sails, be different, differentiate products/services and costs

Change, improve, perform better, re-orientate, lead, trim your sails, be different, differentiate products/services and costs

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Interventions to change soft culture

R.H. Kilmann 1985, in Harvey and Brown, 1992

The organisation itself has an invisible quality - a certain style, a character, a way of doing things - that may be more powerful than the dictates of any one person or any formal system. To understand the soul of the organisation requires that we travel below the charts, rule books, machines, and buildings into the underground world of the corporate culture

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What is a corporate culture?

a system of shared values and beliefs which interact with an organisation’s people, structure and systems to produce behavioural norms - “the way we do things around here”.

e.g Sackmann, 1989: Walck, 1989

Whose norms?Shared or based on dominant power source and/or ideology?

Whose norms?Shared or based on dominant power source and/or ideology?

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Other points on “culture”

Profit vs. not-for-profit organisations (NPOs)

sub-cultures in the organisation which differ or conflict

Is management style & corporate culture a key "success" factor influencingsurvival?modes of membership and commitment?communication and leadership behaviour?problem-analysis and decision-making

for the entire system?for the entire system?

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The influence of “corporate culture”

legitimisation of purpose and control

gives members a sense of what to do, how to behave and what priorities to focus on

helps members bridge the gap between formal directives and how the work actually gets done

enables “supervision and control” thru. mind-set

Compare with precision "engineering" model of organisation structures, work-technology, methods and controls

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Mintzberg: Five Glues

Mutual adjustment

Direct supervision

Standardisation of Systems and procedures

Skills

Results

Acceptance of legitimate authority (power) is assumed. Neo-Weberian bureaucracy.Acceptance of legitimate authority (power) is assumed. Neo-Weberian bureaucracy.

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Observations

No one culture works best for all organisations

Management styles and norms, values and beliefs of organisation members combine to form the corporate culture.

Deal and Kennedy (1983 )

A shared history between members builds a distinct corporate identity or character.

What is the problem with this statement?What is the problem with this statement?

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Mintzberg, in French and Bell, 1995

“..organisational behaviour is a power game in which various players seek to control the organisation’s decisions and actions.”

Pre-requisite sources or bases of power expenditure of energy

political skill Control of

1. a resource 2. technical skill (1-3 must be critical to the organisation) 3. a body of knowledge 4. Legal prerogatives - exclusive rights/privileges to impose

choices 5. Access to those who have power based on 1-4.

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Bases of social power

French and Bell 1959

• Reward Power

• Coercive Power

• Legitimate Power

• Referent Power &

Charismatic Power

• Expert Power

http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/~jarvis/bola/power/power.htmlhttp://sol.brunel.ac.uk/~jarvis/bola/power/power.html

Morgan 1997 - Images of Orgn

•Resource-based •Bureaucracy-based •Decision Control •Know-How •The Contingent Hero •Managing Boundaries •Technological Dependence •Alliances and Networks • “Countervailers” •Symbolism •Gender •Groupthink

Morgan 1997 - Images of Orgn

•Resource-based •Bureaucracy-based •Decision Control •Know-How •The Contingent Hero •Managing Boundaries •Technological Dependence •Alliances and Networks • “Countervailers” •Symbolism •Gender •Groupthink

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Organisational politics

Sub-set of power? Informal power? Illegitimate in nature?

Conflicts of interests

Conflict or competition for scarce resources

Pay-off matrix - how goods & services are to be distributed

between different parties

Stakeholder (claimants, lobbyists) analysis - grievances, power,

ability to resist change, winners-losers,

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OD - dominant paradigm of OD

Normative

Learning, adaptation, empiricist, rationalist not Power-coercive (de-personalise power & politics)

Weak accommodation and avoidance?

OD - used as a pawn

or

"Transcends the negatives of power & politics" ??

French & Bell. "OD programs are unlikely to be successful in organisations with high negative faces of politics & power".

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How can OD interventionists gain and wield power?

Competence

Political access & sensitivity

Sponsorship

Stature & credibility

Resource management

Group support

Beer (1980)Beer (1980)

OD change agents need to know about bargaining, negotiation, power shifts & politics, strategies of influences & the characteristics of power holders

Hard, technical expert

Intuitive, soft, influential behavioural expert.

OD change agents need to know about bargaining, negotiation, power shifts & politics, strategies of influences & the characteristics of power holders

Hard, technical expert

Intuitive, soft, influential behavioural expert.

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Evaluating Structures & Processes

Techniques of:

• Hard & soft systems analysis

• meta-system analysis

• re-engineer key business processes (e.g. BPR)

• Planning processes (power plays)

• Historical ‘evolutionary’ models (Quinn & strategy)

• Pro-active structuring (Mintzberg)

• Hybrid organisations - mechanistic with organismic

• Virtualisation

• Changing units of currency (knowledge)

• Analysis of networking

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Exercise

Consider your organisation

Draw a mind map of considerations to be made when restructuring a significant part of the organisation?

What are the particular factors - from your observation point - that influence your analysis?

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Mintzberg 1970: The structuring of organisations

centralise strategic apex

middleline

Technostructure

Supportstaff

operating core

ideology

evangelise

thin, distribute,devolve?

collaborate

standardise professionalise

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Imperatives, limitations and failures of BPR

Business process re-engineering

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BPR Manifesto

Definition

‘Re-engineering is the fundamental re-thinking and radical re-design of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed.’

BPR Re-engineering the Corporation: A manifesto for business revolution

Michael Hammer & James Champey 1993

BPR Re-engineering the Corporation: A manifesto for business revolution

Michael Hammer & James Champey 1993

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Backgrounds

Hammer - former MIT computer science professor turned management consultant

Problems facing companies not based on organisational structures but process structures (echoes of value chain)

Process structures are legacy structures ñ developed incrementally and hence patched

Re-engineering vs. CQI/kaizen, TQM

Involves re-design & implementation - start with a clean sheet

How?

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The business system

Business processes

Values and Beliefs

Management and measurement systems

Jobs and structures

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Field staff cansend & receive information wherever they are.

Data communication& portable PCs

Field staff need offices - points to receive, store, retrieve & transmit information

Decision making ispart of everyone’s job

Decision support tools ???

Managers make all decisions

New ruleDisruptive

technologyOld rule

The Impact of Technology

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Examining BPR - Commentaries

BPR - difficult to mobilise, energise and sustain in very large, technically complex organisations

Hugh Wilmott (UMIST)‘Will the turkeys vote for Christmas? The re-engineering of human resources.’

Enid Mumford (MBS)BPR versus socio-technical design - employee perceptions/Morgan’s holographic organisation

Wood et al (Salford and MMU) BPR as re-tinkering - need to imagine new processes & strategies

Mintzbergexcesses of BPR practices (BBC Radio 4)

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Practice examination question

1. Why do organisation development interventions frequently fail to live up to expectations?

2. Evaluate the merits and difficulties associated with cultural intervention strategies.

chris jarvis 1 hrm: organisation culture and intervention organisation culture & intervention:...

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