Week Five: Organizational Culture Theory
We now delve deeper into some alternative theories used to explain organizational behavior. Culture is a key metaphor used often in today's world. "Culture," as applied to organizational communication, is "more fluid and capable of explaining behavior that seem[s] to be irrational yet [i]s deeply rooted" (Modaff and DeWine 81). In other words, "culture" encapsulates elements of organizational life that escape classical, humanistic and systems approaches. "[A] culture provides a lens through which its members interpret, interact with, and make sense of reality" (Louis qtd. in Modaff and DeWine 83). It explains how organizational members think, feel, talk and act with relation to the organization(s).
Culture can be thought of in two very distinct ways. The first is as a phenomenon. In this case, "culture is something the organization has" (Smircich qtd. in Modaff and DeWine 85). This means that the culture of an organization changes; it is dependent upon the behaviors, attitudes and practices of its members. However, organizational culture can also be thought of as a root metaphor. This means that culture is "something the organization is" (Smircich qtd. in Modaff and DeWine 87). From this perspective, organizational culture is not so easy to change and often determines how members behave. While it is indisputable that "culture" is something that is shared among members, organizations can have multiple subcultures or countercultures that make up the larger group. This can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, primarily in the realm of communication.
"The Office" is a great example illustrative of the many conflicting cultures existing in one small work-space.
- JOURNAL 5 -
Post an example of a work-related problem generated by conflicting cultures. Think about the different goals, values and work styles that make up the organzations you join.
posted by Jen at Sunday, February 26, 2006
7 Comments:
journal#5 stephanie(Harlem)
the conflict in my office and communication problem between spanish and english speaking cultures. the english workers believes its very unprofessional and offensive to speake spanish around the office communicated and they are the only people in the office, who can understand what they are saying. the cultures was in conflict about when spanish should be communicated just for work related issues. the cultures brought it to the supervisor attention. the supervisor order the spanish cultures to stop speaking in spanish, only if it work related.the supervisor believes it causes conflict and communciation between the worker productivity is slowed up.
in work related issues with communication problems, they should alway place princples before personalities and get the job done first.sometime difference between cultures causing conflict with workers and supervisor stoping the productivity and effienceny of the work load. (HARLEM STEPHANIE BURROWS)
February 27, 2006 3:24 PM
Bessie said,
In my organization I face culture structure everyday. There are some that will not speak to you because of pigmentation and there are others that will not speak unless you are face to face.
As a crossing guard I have to deals with all cultures and in some cases you have to ignore culture conflict such as a car driving by and a child in the car yell out the N word.
In this case I feel sorry for the child, because he is being taught by his mother at an early age that because of his pigmentation he is better than me.
His mother should be teaching him not to judge a person by the color of their skin, or how they look, talk,and dress. She should be teaching him that there are many cultures that are part of your everyday life, and you should judge a person by how they treat you not because they look, talk, and dress different.
March 01, 2006 12:45 PM
Melissa said
In my department we are mostly African American with a few Hispanic. The problem that arrives at my job generated by conflicting cultures is not between co-workers but between workers and members. Sometime when members come to my job they want a spanish speaking person to help them. We look at them like they have lost their minds. You cannot go to a place and demand to speak to someone of your culture or background.
When the members come and asked for this kind of service we tell them no and they will speak to who ever is avaible to help them. We belive that if you work for the NYC education system then they should be able to know how to speak english. We think if you live in a state that speak mostly english than you should be able to adapted to were you are. Not everywhere you go you will be able to find someone to speak spanish.
March 01, 2006 1:12 PM
Wonderful comments, everyone! I am impressed with the myriad uses of "culture." When discussing cultural conflicts with relation to organizations, it is important to remember that "culture" can arise from the specific ethnicity, nationality or language of the worker, or it can arise from "created" workplace environment, such as strict, relaxed, etc. Culture in all of these form can dramatically impact communication among individual workers, groups of workers, workers and managers, or workers and the public.
I'll give an example from an episode of "Scrubs." One day a new intern, Eliot, told a supervising doctor of a mistake made by a long-time nurse, Carol. For days (or weeks?) after, Carol prevented Eliot from doing her job. And, actually, it was not just Carol, it was the entire nursing station who sided with Carol, creating a subculture, department or "click." The conflict resulted in many instances of miscommunication. And, although the show presented them as humorous, the real-world results could have been fatal (for one or more patients). Carol "lost" Eliot's charts; "misplaced" her prescription notes; "sent" her on false calls, etc.
In this example, there was more than one type of cultural conflict at play. This is often the case for the real-world as well. Carol was latina, while Eliot was caucasian. Carol paid her own way through medical school; Eliot's rich parents paid hers. Carol worked at the hospital for many years; Eliot worked there for a few days. Carol was a nurse; Eliot was a doctor. Ok, you get the point. Culture is so pervasive that it may be difficult to see its daily affect on our thinking. And, this, of course, will impact our communication abilities.
March 03, 2006 4:40 PM
- Gretha said -
In my present job there are many different cultures. Today I will discuss a Indian culture where the women serves the men and is considered lower than her husband. Well this did not go well with me in the United States. I am the person responsible to give out the pay checks on paydays. In order every one comes to me to collect their checks, with the exception of one Indian man. He is so into the culture that the woman has to serve him, that he decides that I have to take his check to him.
This west Indian woman is not part of that culture, so this has generated a big problem. The reality is I have no plans to hand deliver his check to him. In sight of this he does not like me.
March 25, 2006 12:55 AM
There are many cultures at my job, none of which seem to have a problem with each other. I like the fact that we all learned to communicate with each other to a point.
We do give each culture a day out of the year to show their back ground and history.
This allows each person to see into the others back ground, I view it more as a festivel.
People walk around proud to display the heratiage. Each goup is happy with the out come of their day.
Tonya Woodruff
May 10, 2006 8:09 PM
In the group that I belong to we have about seventy people in the group and we all come from a different country. My friend Janie is from Ireland and that if she wants to get married, she must marry an irish man. That is her culture. She believes that she is entitle to her own choice but her parent believe differently.Maureen
May 24, 2006 2:17 PM
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