1.Organisational Culture- AGH

8/13/2019 1.Organisational Culture- AGH

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Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania - Human Resources Management

Organizational Culture

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Learning objectives

1. Critique the organizational culture in your

organization.

2. Explain the role of the organizational

culture in staff development.

3. Discuss organizational change.

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Study questions

What is the role of human resources mana-gement in the organization?

What are some of the current issues inhuman resource managemen?

What is the link between national and orga-nizational culture?

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Study questions (cont.)

How does the organizational culture reflect

on personnel management?

What are adequate staff development tech-

niques for your organizational culture?

How do you drive organizational change?

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What is the role of human resources

management in the organization?

Companys

mission

Objectives

..

.. ..

Strategy

..

..

Human Resources Management (Social Strategy)

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What is the role of human resources

management in the organization?

Objectives

Profit from goods

and services

Mission

Goods production

Services

Human Relationships:Accessories

Social purpose

Personnel manager

(work force)

Human Resources

Department

Administrative aspects Legal aspects Disciplinary aspects Social aspects

Human Resources Management has known a most tremendous evolution for the last three decades.

This evolution will continue, taking into consideration the enrichment of its content and the profile of

people from this area.6


7/25Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania - Human Resources Management

How does the organizational culture

reflect on personnel management?Integration elements:

1. Companys culture (knowledge)

2. Companys philosophy (association)

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How does the organizational culture

reflect on personnel management?

How does the organization

confront various problems:

Difficulties from the

outside

Unusual events


act in order to become a

reference point


(company) succeed in

motivating the employees?

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How do you drive organizational change?

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ACADEMIC STAFF DEVELOPMENT THROUGH

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE OF ENGINEERING SCHOOL

Culture is not inherited but is learned. It does not appear from the genes,

but from the individuals interaction with the environment. Culture differs

from the human nature and from the individuals personality

(Geert Hofstede)

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Engineering School

Development policies Curriculum

Human resources management

Community relationships

Institutional characteristics

Classical university

Academic staff development !

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Main objective: identifying the specific traits of the Engineering Schoolsculture

How does the organisational culture support the reform measures in higher education ?

Which of these values, representations, beliefs can allow the change in education ?

Which of the organisationsvalues, representations, norms, beliefs etc. can be the base for the

societyof knowledge?

Which elements of the facultysorganisational culture are contrary to those dominant in the

other national educational organisations ?

How can we change the organisational culture in order to facilitate both the development of

the society of knowledge and the alignment to the current European educational demands ?

Maintenance of the faculties and their cultures on anachronical coordinates:

limits the educational offer

blocks the changing, development and growth of the organisation

generates negative consequences in the development of the students and of the faculty!

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(i) The research made use of case studying

Direct observation of the university environment and of the educational partners

behaviour;

Questionnaire - two types of questionnaires were applied, to those within and to those

outside the school;

Analysis of documents related to the education process and regarding the schools

current activity.

(ii) The research tried to comprise:

the current cultural dimensions

the factors that can influence the maintaining and changing on various time horizons

the organisational cultures influence on the academic staff development

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The distance from power:

shows the measure to which academics expect and accept that power is distributed inequally. A

great distance from power betrays the predominance and preference for authoritarian

management styles, the managersopinions being listened to in a noncritical manner, by virtue

of the formal authority with which these are invested.

A tendencytowards distancing from powerresulted, with following interpretations:

(1) the organisations members have the feeling that the usage of power can triumph over

justice: anyone wielding the power is just and good!

(2) the questioned employees consider that the management style used is one with emphasis on

authority. Specific to this is the delegation of tasks, rather than that of competences and

responsibilities.

(3) in the communication process formal aspects are predominant, informal discussions

between managers and subordinates being quite rare.

A possible explanation for th is is the small distance from the totali tar ian communist society which

Romania lef t behind in 1989

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Individualism-collectivism:

refers to the predominance of individual interests over the group ones, or to that of group

interests over the individual ones

The score emphasises the orientation towards individualism having following possible

explanations:

1) bonds between faculty members are relatively weak in intensity and occur in small groups, inthe informal sphere.

2) the activitys participative dimension is relatively small, considering that administrative

decisions are of the managers competence, subordinates must execute them, they being

involved in analyses and debates only if their direct leaders consider such intervention is

necessary.

3) in most cases the managers request information and take decisions on their own

4) communication within the collective is reduced to social conversation, even communicationwith students tending towards a minimum.

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Masculinity-femininity:

dimension that refers to the higher social value granted to arrogance within masculine cultures,

or, to the contrary, to sensibility and modesty within feminine cultures.

The score emphasises a tendency towards masculinity with following confirmed value

judgements:

the engineering profession belongs predominantly to men.

professors evaluation criteria differ in feminine and masculine cultures; in a masculine

culture, the professors brightness and academic reputation are dominant factors. (e.g.

Engineering School, Medicine School)

Dominant values in society, for masculine culture are material success and prosperity, money

and things, order and rigor!

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Avoidance of uncertainty

indicatesthe way in whichmembers of a culture are threatened by uncertain/unknown situations.In the Engineering Schools culture, the avoidance of uncertainty is present,the need for rules is

high, is emotional!

The university Rector was a philologist:

The management manner employed was always under doubt and criticised, because it did

not satisfy the avoidance of uncertainty impetuously demanded by the engineers.

This need for observing rules (which is part of every technocrates logic), was often

unheeded, due to the principle that rules are made by people so they have to be changed

in accordance with the people.

Paradoxically, for the engineering collective there were many advantages, even if the

engineers formal logics seemed to infirm them:

early promotions (exceptional cases)

comprising in national and international programmes

greater openness towards using engineering experience at other schools of the university

The top management reflected, more than it was expected, significantly, the classical university,

with its socio-humane parts.

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Set of fundamental values

(i) Order Avoidance of uncertainty and great distance from power are factors that

demand a great need for order;

the engineering training is one that imposes an algorithmisation and a logical

succesion of unfolded activities;

the type of society in which current faculty members were trained (responsibilitiesassumed by the state, no visible social problems, the image of a beneficial order)

(ii) Learning

(iii) Personal success

The Engineering Schools organisational culture is characterised by:- large distance from power;

- mostly individualistic culture;

- tendency towards masculinity;

- high degree of incertitude avoidance.

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Faculty development policy

(1) Is at the disposal of elected leaders! (training and election of leaders with managerial education).

The Engineering Schools development policy tends to be a personal one, different from the

universitys, (the leaders personality, heterogenity of faculties, specific for a classical university)

(2) Need for strict rules in the educational activity, accompanied by correct answers and slogans such

as professors must have answers to any question(symptoms of the culture of routine)

(3) Insufficient attitude and involvement in the building of the students career, in guiding the

youngster towards professionalisation, (effect: abandon and delay in finalising the studies);

(4) lack of communication (resulted from the cultures individualistic dimension)in a world of

integration and globalisation (handicap for the policy and strategies of curricular changes).

(5) the collectivism of a classical university brings into difficulty the communication and relationing

with a faculty characterised by individualism, such as is currently the Engineering School.

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Curriculum (design/development/evaluation)

(1) Influence factors: CNEAA criteria and standards (80%), interest group within the Faculty

Council, university influences;

(2) Syllabusses, true curricular genes, become undying, eternal in the absence of a dynamic

and participative management. They get renewed only very uneasily, especially since this is

specific to a collectivistic culture, contrary to the one currently existing in the faculty.

(3) Need for refreshing the pedagogical and methodical knowledge, because the teaching

process success is to a great extent conditioned by the manner of transmitting knowledge and

by the alternance of teaching methods employed.

F inland is on f irst places at the competences-based evaluation realised at Pisa

(4) The evaluation of students knowledge within the Engineering School is, to a great extent,standardised, based, in most cases, on reproducing and less on combining, applying: written

exams, test bateries, lack of evaluating professional training.

Modern society demands creative, imaginati ve professionals, with abil i ties for communication and

team work, tr aditional evaluation digs at the foundations of r eal performance

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Community relationships

The local community supports the faculty, assuring support for contacts with various

transnational companies, which can create a market of workforce demand

(1) The Engineering School contributes decisively to bringing transnational companies toSibiu (licentiates nursery, curriculum, posibilities of specialising according to needs)

(2) The faculty develops educational laboratories in companies

(3) There still exists an unconvincing, frail, relationship with high schools from Sibiu, which

are not yet convinced and show disinterest for the revigoration of the technical education;

(4) There exists a weak relationship with the Local Development Council, materialised in a

weak promotion of the idea of technical speciality training in secondary education.

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Human resources management

Promotion of human resources is under the sign of masculinity and of certainty

1) A high degree of occupation of the academic staff positions, even an inflation which leads also

to cultural-organisational distorsions, through the canceling and dismissing heroes through

early pensionnings.

2) Positive but individual attitude towards contractual competition (contracts, grants etc.),

bringer of wins, of professional recognition, of outstanding results.

3) Applying of the systems for evaluating individual professional performances. However, often

they analysed the evaluation when the quantitative aspects of evaluation have been

predominant.

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Conclusions:

(i) The Engineering School has a temple-type culture, characterised by:

- large organisational dimensions, over 150 members;

- comprises several (eight) departments that form the temples columns and withinwhich own subcultures appear;

- the values and perspectives (the temples roof) are clear and accessible;

- discipline, respect for procedures, the inner order regulation are the guidelines;

- the individuals perspective is restrained and related to the fulfilment of a specific role;

- the cultures atmosphere is unsatisfactory for ambitious persons who will aspire to

power or will leave the organisation

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(ii) By the accepted risk level, the schools organisational culture is a process-type one,

characterised by slow reactions and reduced risk, having as base the algorithmisation

based on strict rules and procedures;

(iii) The Engineering School combines the elements of a bureaucratic culture with those of a

hierarchical culture:- conservative, cautious leaders

- the employees agreement is obtained by control

- the dominant values are order and formalism

(iv) The Engineering School cultures influence on the academic staff development can refer

to following aspect:employees will assimilate the practices indicated by the organisation, but will keep

the values of the culture from which they come and which characterises them

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(v) Expected evolutions of the Engineering Schools organisational culture:

a reduction of the distance towards power, translated in the plane of changes by

means of the transition from an autocratic leadership to a predominantly

consultative one, with an increase in the confidence in subordinates;

the deviation of the orientation towards the process towards the orientationtowards people,with an increase in the individuals motivation for the organisation

they belong to;

decrease of the uncertainty avoidance degree, by assuming responsibilities and

stimulating individual initiatives, encouraging the decision-making and the risk-

taking;

slow decrease of the masculinity (in countries with a feminine national culture,

tendencies towards masculinity diminish in time).

1.Organisational Culture- AGH

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