Is an Understanding of Culture Beneficial to Organisations - Essay Example

?Running Head: Culture and Organizations Culture and Organizations [Institute’s Culture and Organizations For many decades, culture has remained an imperative element in the business world where organizations (Cooper & Rousseau, 1997) that have valued cultural values in their target markets, as well as inside their organizations have achieved greater success. Therefore, the paper advocates and supports the statement that yes; understanding of culture is beneficial to organizations. To justify it with evidence-base knowledge, the paper will include examples of different organizations that will be helpful in emphasizing the need of cultural understanding for success of organizations. Days when organizations used to succeed even after overlooking cultural aspect are past us and either the hard way or the easy way (Punnett, 2010), organizations now understand that they no longer operate in closed systems nor do they have the same bargaining power (Martin, 1992). Customers and employees of today are not only more informed and educated but they also have much more options (Bond & Hwang, 1986; Luthans & Doh, 2008). Therefore, it is imperative for businesses to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the term organizational culture in which they are operating or else their workforce would not think twice before rejecting them ruthlessly (Punnett, 2010). In this regard, it is very imperative that organizational leaders must be aware about their own organizational culture that is a mixture of assumptions, values, artefacts, beliefs, principles, and customs in an organization (Alvesson, 2002). In addition, it is also important to understand that organizational culture takes time to spread or disseminate in the organizational culture, and at the same time, success of that culture relies heavily on the way culture disseminates downward or upward in an organization. One of the major reasons of such assumption is due to the fact that at many times, only inefficient dissemination of effective organizational culture results in failure (Brenton & Driskill, 2010), and thus, while it is important for organizations to have an understanding of its organization culture, it is also vital to ensure efficient implementation that is often missed out by the leaders in an organization. The fact is that we are living in a globalized world and never before in the human history has so many people from diverse cultures, traditions, customs, nationalities, ethnicities, races, colours, creeds and religions been brought together (Mullins, 2007). The only possible way to operate and succeed within this diverse globalized business environment is to gain an understanding of the local cultures and develop respectful attitudes towards them in own organizational culture (Luthans & Doh, 2008). There are several arguments in favor of organizations needing to understand culture but all of them, in one or the other, focus on the magnitude, on these differences and their implications on the workplace (Bond & Hwang, 1986). Perhaps, Hofstede conducted one of the most credible researches in this regard, highlighting these cultural differences amongst different countries in four dimensions related to workplace (Hofstede, 2001). These dimensions are of individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity vs. femininity but only the former two are discussed here (Luthans & Doh, 2008; Edfelt, 2009). The notion of individualism talks about the inclination of individuals to put their family members on priority in comparison to needs of the society; while on the other hand, collectivism is the notion that involves alignment of one’s needs in accordance with needs of the society (Mead & Andrews, 2009). In collectivism, it is more about societal exchange and social advantage in an interdependent manner rather than in isolation (Edfelt, 2009). Moreover, it has been observed that individuals in collectivism rely on their associations, as well as on decisions made by the group members. Unlike individualism in which individuals enjoy dominance and privacy, collectivism often even involves interference in private settings and practices of individuals (Gudykunst, 2003). Studies have indicated that the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Canada and Netherlands are some of the countries that rank higher in practices of individualism, whereas, China, India, and Japan is more about collectivism where the level of individualism is very low (Scollon & Scollon, 2001). For instance, experts (Moran, et.al. 2007; Briscoe, 2008) have given example of employers from the United Kingdom that most often face issues when they try to deal with Arab or Asian employees in western ways that is by providing them with separate cubicles and encouraging individual competition. On the other hand, such Arab and Asian employees perform better and give productive outcomes when they are provided with a workplace setting that gives a collective feeling. In this regard, one can understand that one thing can be motivational for an individual of ‘A’ culture and can act as demotivation for individual coming from ‘B’ culture (Punnett, 2010; Bond & Hwang, 1986). In the year 1986, Bond and Hwang indicated that in nation states where there is a higher level of power distances, there have been observations indicating major reliance of employees on their employers in presence of a centralized organizational culture. Such organizational cultures have a low level of employee empowerment resulting in low levels of intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation that are very imperative for organizational performance. Other studies have indicated that Arab countries dominate by having higher levels of power distance, whereas, American and European countries come after Arab nation states (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). In this regard, experts (Watson, 2006) have argued that Arab and Asian countries, such as Japan, India, Malaysia, China, etc will not welcome introduction of Western style of organizational culture and leadership that includes employee empowerment, equality, and decentralized organizational structures (Thomas, 2008). One of the major reasons of this non-welcoming attitude towards western style is due to the mind-set of people from abovementioned region that is satisfied with unequal distribution of wealth and power in the society (Bond & Hwang, 1986). Consider the example of how American bosses made failed to understand the Japanese culture. When an American multinational was not performing well, they decided to layoff some employees from their Japanese division (Abel & Bruno, 2007). They contacted the head of operations within Japan to accomplish this task asking him to fire at least one person from his in the first stage. The Japanese manager did acknowledge the orders but looked confused and bewildered (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The bosses at the head quarters did not hear anything from the Japanese Head of Operations for several days, after which they received a letter of resignation of the Japanese Head of Operations citing that he could not make up his mind as to how should go from his team so he decided that he would take the fall. Most Japanese enjoy the concept of lifetime employment and consider their bosses as their fathers (Bond & Hwang, 1986). Consider the example of McDonalds and its entry into India. Understanding the fact that a vast majority within the Indian market considers it immoral to consume beef, the company changed its menu to highlight vegetarian and chicken items. The same ensured that the local consumers could look at McDonalds and not see an insensitive foreign exploiter but a trusted brand name who is equally concerned about the traditions and customs of India as the Indians (Punnett, 2010). Therefore, it is imperative for the survival of the organizations to understand the local and national culture and use them to their advantage. Failure to do the same would mean several indirect and direct losses to the organization, which might end up threatening the very survival of the organization. References Abel, A., & Bruno, S. S. (2007). Global Business Management: a cross-cultural perspective. Surrey, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Alvesson, M. (2002). Understanding organizational culture: Organizational Culture Series. SAGE Publications Ltd. Bond, M. H. & Hwang, K.-K. 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