Impact of Power on Organizational Culture

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Introduction

Heneman (2007) describes the traditions of a group or organization as the model of shared fundamental statements the grouping acquires as it works out its dilemma of external adjustment and internal dealings, which are good enough to be adapted and entrenched as the blueprint and accepted means of socialization within an organization.

Heneman (2007) also asserts that organizational learning, development, and premeditated change cannot be comprehended devoid of acknowledging culture as the prime cause of opposition to change. If leaders are not conscious of the culture in which they are set in, those cultures will control them. Cultural consideration is not only advantageous, but it is essential for leaders if they are to manage effectively.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is increasingly growing in popularity and is an enticing element to organizational change. For this reason, managers find a pressing need for methods by which culture and culture change can be systematically and reliably evaluated.

The key ranks by which culture manifests itself is rather basic and looks for demonstrations of underlying theories in regard to an organization’s co-relation to its surroundings, authenticity and accuracy, and the character of people in general.

Tannenbaum and Schmidt Model of Leadership

Organizational customs subsist concurrently on three levels; artifacts are at the surface, followed by values and at the nucleus are the fundamental assumptions. Assumptions stand for taken-for-granted viewpoints concerning reality and human character.

Culture thrives through societal interaction, the network of communications that make up a group of people or society. Here, a common language is predominantly important in articulating and signifying a distinct organizational way of life.

Teamwork and Communication

Margerison and McCann (1995) define a team as a group of people carrying out work collectively. Success in the work done is achieved if a good team is chosen. In course of executing duty, the individual members of a group that forms a team should have a common goal towards success.

The qualities of a good team are capable, intelligent, communicative individual with a clear understanding of the problem at hand would like to cooperate in order to solve the problem as a team. The team should achieve the intended goal as a team and not as individual members of the team. According to Levy (2005), this is the right path to success.

There is a connection between teamwork and looking for ideas such as problems and conflict solving ideas. These factors are interconnected and dependent on each other and therefore cannot be separated. In this regard, communication and cooperation are common and present everywhere.

Ideas in the teamwork: every member in the team is important. Ideas in the teamwork involve the collection of ideas from the team members in order to achieve the group goal. Ideas can be collected in the team through brainstorming sessions where participants state their ideas as they are noted down.

Teamwork and conflict resolution: teamwork is an effective means of solving conflicts in an organization. The conflict or problem at hand can be subjected to the views of the participants whose solutions to the problem differ. Conflicts are many and may arise from the steps towards achieving of the given a group goal or the members in the team can disagree on the goal itself.

There is no necessity of the team to solve the problems to be performed by a group of individuals. However, the synchronization of individuals, mutual adaptation and co-operation are necessary for solving problems. In addition, the main goal of teamwork is to solve problems. The diversity of the group members means that there are many different opinions concerning the solutions to the problems as the individuals.

In order to arrive at the best solution, the team settles of the optimal solution to the problem at hand (Mohrman et al., 1995). Conflicts regarding the given solution to the problem are important because it enable the team to come up with a better solution. A never-ending circle in the diagram means that whenever the group is trying to solve the problem, other problems come up.

For an optimal solution to be reached, the group should let go the conflicts and arrive at optimal solution to the problem. Solving problems: this involves ideas that can solve a problem. The solution on the problem is obtained from the ideas obtained from the participants. For the success of teamwork, mutual-cooperation and communication among team members is very important.

For participants to adjust, they need to communicate and cooperate. Without communication and mutual cooperation, teamwork is unsuccessful. The communication used in teamwork can be either verbal or non-verbal. Through teamwork, the management of an organization can establish the goals of the organization regarding specific aspects with the help of teamwork.

Stevens and Campion (1994) add that effective teamwork can be achieved through motivation of the participants. Successful teamwork leads to quality work and better organizational operations with increased success at all levels of the organization (Linden, 2002).

Recognition

This is an important part of the success of a team. The team members usually search for recognition. An organization should positively recognize the members of the various teams in the department. Positive recognition entails recognizing outstanding performance, continued performance, and improved performance.

Positive Feedback

The results of a team are measured against the feedback received. Therefore, without feedback, the team is unable to measure the results of its efforts. With no feedback, confusion will characterize the activities of a team and make them miss their expectations as they produce so many disappointments.

The growth of a team depends on the frequency of feedback concerning the performance of the team. Feedback should be provided on a regular basis. In addition to the above, there is also the provision of opportunities for employees.

Espoused Values

The values an organization upholds can be viewed as its deliberate strategies, aspirations, and philosophies that have intrinsic significance. Organizational groups are glued by evaluative factors entailing social prospects, and standards or the ideals and beliefs that keep people as one.

The leadership strategies adopted by managers in practice tend to lie in between the autocratic and the democratic styles are extremes. The two contingency theorists Schmidt and warren put forward a leadership style that tends to vary along a given continuum.

Depending on the situation at hand hospital management may shift from the autocratic extreme by allowing their respective teams to participate and involve in the decision making process. They can make decisions on issues related to workplace violence even when they are victims. Under this leadership model, the balance between autocracy and democracy is determined forces in the leader, forces in the situation and forces in the follower.

For example, an employee who is a follower may be affected negatively by aggression at the workplace; the management must take stern measures against the perpetrators to avoid the recurrence of the same within the team. Access to support has been identified as an important strategy for coping with workplace violence.

Management support has a direct or moderating effect on psychological distress that occurs under different circumstances. Despite this noble role, hospital management often fails to provide the needed support to the employees who have fallen victim to workplace aggression.

The managers need to receive comprehensive training directed toward supporting staff in an organization. Such formal organization-wide support may curtail or at least minimize a decrease in the employees perceived professional competence.

The provision of management support to employees who have been victims of aggression will be translated in the form of increased quality of patient care. In most cases, the employees’ managers who may have been victims of aggression in the past may lack the necessary expertise to support and manage employees who suffer occupational violence.

Impact of Power on a Firm’s Culture

In one of the few studies conducted in to establish the effect of power on the process of decision making and establishment of a good organizational culture, it was found that participative practices are significant predicators of effective utilization of competence. Power distance affects leadership that in turn affects other aspects of culture in an organization such as sharing of information, making decisions that have far reaching outcomes and satisfaction of employees in their working environment and jobs.

Therefore, these factors should be considered strongly in establishing a strong working culture of any given corporation. Moreover, in another study conducted by Riad (2005), all three components of justice components closely related to power in organizations had an impact on satisfaction. The study analyzed the impact of organizational justice on self assessed performance and job satisfaction of employees in a work environment.

In a 2009 study by Bakhshi, a better working environment, which is a major component of the culture of an organization, was found to be positively related to both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. There is significance in perceived fair treatment as a predictor of the level of job satisfaction for employees.

Moreover, employees place a greater importance on being treated well interpersonally by decision makers than on formal procedures. Riad (2005) further argues that employees in organizations are likely to be less satisfied with unfair perceived outcomes than fair perceived ones and that these issues result in their poor performance.

The level of unfairness is measured by employees on how much they receive as compared to other employees in similar positions in other organizations. Unfairness in workplace results in lack of job satisfaction, lack of commitment of employees to the organization leading to overall poor employee performance.

Impact of Power on an Organization’s Employee Motivation Strategies

Managing employees’ performance is essential in facilitating modern organizations’ effectiveness in business. An effective performance management system therefore should work towards improving the overall performance of corporations. May and Grubbs (2006) noted that this occurs through managing individuals and teams performance to allow the company to attain its business goals/objectives and ambitions.

This is applicable in firms where power distance is small since the management can easily communicate and interact with employees. An efficient performance management system can be established by such management with the system playing these roles:

Ensuring that the staffs/employees understand the significance of their contributions to the company’s objectives and goals.
Ensuring all employees understand the company’s expectations from them while also ascertaining whether the staffs access the required support and have the relevant skills in fulfilling the company’s expectations.
Ensuring effective linking and aligning of the company’s objectives while also facilitating efficient communication across the company.
Facilitating harmonious and cordial relationship between the employees and their line managers on the basis of trust and empowerment.

An effective performance management system should have proper planning of the work and setting of expectations, continually monitor the employees’ performance, develop the employees’ capacity to perform, periodically rate the staff performance and reward the good performers (Lanza, Zeiss & Rierdan, 2006). Effective performance management moreover link highly to employee motivation.

From the employee’s perspective therefore, a good system should motivate employees and enhance their self-esteem, support performance improvement, clarify the job duties/tasks, offer an insight/development opportunities while also clarifying the expectations of the supervisors.

From the manager’s perspective, an effective performance management system should allow them to get insight concerning employees, facilitate efficient communication of the company’s goals, enable fair personnel actions, and help in differentiating excellent and poor performers while also driving the organizational change.

According to Cherry (2012, p.1), the incentive motivation theory (i.e. IMT) for example claims that people get motivated in doing certain things due to external reward. The rewards could be monetary or non-monetary, thereby influencing the employees’ behavior towards better performance.

A performance system that recognizes an employee by rewarding good performance will thus motivate the individual towards even performing better while motivating the poor performers to improve. Based on the humanistic motivation theory (i.e. HMT) also, employees will gain motivation through a good performance management system in the efforts to fulfill their diverse needs (Cherry, 2012, p.1).

This theory relates to Maslow’s theory of needs, where employees may perform better to satisfy their physiological, security, social, esteem or self-actualization needs. A performance system could have different kinds of rewards based on what the HR function deems appropriate. Organizations provide rewards aiming to motivate employees and the line managers to participate actively in managing performance.

Rewarding however does not necessarily refer to bonuses or performance-related pay. Psychological and career rewards are some of the non-financial rewards companies provide to their employees. Career rewards involve career advancement for staffs under the provision of the company’s formal system of performance management (Heneman, 2007, p.19).

Individual’s development and training needs within the company’s performance system and this reward aims to help the underperforming employees or imparting of knowledge/skills needed in fulfilling the employees’ goals towards the improvement of the following performance. Training and development needs similarly are critical in facilitating the promotion chances for employees.

Heneman (2007, p.22) stated that psychological rewards comprise of recognition of good performance or application of the public recognition schemes in publicizing outstanding employee contribution to the company. A company can occur through e-mails, internet or the notice-board displays. The display could be set in public area to enable colleagues, customers, passers-by or visitors to observe which employee has attained something unique.

Perfomance-related pay is another form of reward that promotes a performance culture of striving for the best position at the workplace (i.e. becoming best performer) or achieving personal objectives. If the company manages employees’ performance daily plus a formal annual assessment without affecting the pay level, employees will have little notice of the relevant feedback regarding their performance effectiveness.

Majority of the performance-related pay schemes associate the results of the formal performance assessment with the individual’s pay increase annually. According to Hallet (2003), companies must offer their workforce an effective value proposition, which comprises of all the total reward components.

A total reward system (i.e. TRS) thus has four major components including individual organizational member growth, compelling future, positive workplace/environment and the total pay. Implementing and maintaining a TRS is increasingly advantageous (Hislop & Melby, 2003).

The benefits of a TRS includes increased employee retention, improved staff performance, effective company’s cost/expense control and efficient administration of the TRS due to the centralized administration of all the staff-related issues such as pay, training and pay, among others.

Impact of Power on Employment Culture

Measures have been put in place to ensure maximum utilization of the available skills, energy, and creativity that strengthens employee involvement and increase the productivity of employees. The initiatives have enabled employees to give their best as well as having the ability to sustain their personal lives sufficiently (Hesketh, et al. 2003).

Organizations express their non-compliance to equal employment if they make distinction among candidates through preferences that deny employees equity in the work place. Employee equity is denied as the firm may be bias in recruitment based on race, age, and gender among others.

The human resources practices that indicate unequal employment include accessibility of job-related registration by a certain group, unfounded dismissal from work, lack of employees’ training opportunities and different forms of harassment reduce morale of workers.

Despite enactment of laws to promote equity of employees on the basis of gender, discrimination still exists (Riad, 2005). In most organizations, women are inferior to men in terms of income, rate of employment, and occupational range even when variables like education, occupational status, and age are put into consideration.

A report by catalyst that was conducted in 2005 indicated that women are less likely to get promotions and are stuck in low-paying jobs and secure professions such as healthcare and education. Workplace diversity entails differences among employees working in the same organization. It encompasses race, ethnicity, age, educational background, and personality.

Diversity dictates the process of personal perception and perception of other people in the organization (Edinburgh Business School, 2008). Workplace diversity requires integration of individual differences with new ideas and problem solving strategies. The organization employed programs that maximize interaction and communication at personal levels.

Conclusion

Organizational power is a significant aspect in every firm since it determines the type of leadership depicted and therefore the process of decision making. Power distance is closely related to the type of leadership with the some forms of leadership exhibiting little power distance than others.

In addition, the type of leadership determines the type of culture an organization establishes especially regarding utilization of teamwork and modes of motivating employees such as improved payment methods and increased communication.

Measures have to be put in place to ensure maximum utilization of the available skills, energy, and creativity that strengthens employee involvement and increase the productivity of employees, thereby establishing a strong working culture.

References

Bakhshi, A. (2009). Organizational Justice Perceptions as Predictor of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment. International Journal of Business and Management, 4(9), 145-154.

Edinburgh Business School (EBS 2008). Performance Management: Performance Management and Reward Systems in Context. Human Resource Management Journal, 1(1), 1-23.

Hallet, T. (2003). Symbolic power and organizational culture. Sociological Theory, 21(2), 128-149.

Heneman, R. (2007). Implementing Total Reward Strategies: A Guide to Successfully Planning and Implementing a Total Rewards System. SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series, 501(3), 1-54.

Hesketh, K. et al. (2003). Workplace violence in Alberta and British Columbia hospitals, Health Policy, 63(3), 311-321.

Hislop, E. & Melby, V. (2003). The lived experience of violence in accident and emergency. Journal of Accident and Emergency Nursing, 11, 5-11.

Lanza, L., Zeiss, R. & Rierdan, J. (2006). Non-physical violence: A risk factor for physical violence in health care settings. AAOHN Journal, 54(9), 397-402.

May, D. & Grubbs, L. (2006). The extent, nature and precipitating factors of nurse assault among three groups of registered nurses in a Regional Medical Center. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 28, 11-17.

Riad, S. (2005). The Power of ‘Organizational Culture’ as a Discursive Formation in Merger Integration. Organizational Studies, 26(10), 1529-1554.

Linden, M. (2002). Working across boundaries: Making collaboration work in government and nonprofit organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Stevens, M. & Campion, M. (1994). The knowledge, skill and ability requirements for teamwork: implications for human resource management. Journal of Management, 20(2), 503-530.

Mohrman, S. et al., (1995). Designing Team-Based Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Levy, P. (2005). Teamwork on the Field & at Work. Regional Review, 14(3): 15-15.

Margerison, C. & McCann, D. (1995). Quality in Team Work. Journal for Quality & Participation, 18 (2), 32-32.

Cherry, K. (2012). Theories of Motivation. Web.

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