Can cultures be managed within organisations?

Can cultures be managed within organisations?

The culture of an organisation highly influences its numerous decisions and actions. An organisation’s fundamental ideas, values, attitudes, and views guide the way in which the employees think, feel and act unconsciously (Tharp, 2009). Hence understanding culture is fundamental to the description and investigation of the organisational culture. For this blog post, I will be discussing the organisational culture of Jaguar automobile

   

According to the aspect of culture above, the invisible represents the basic underlying assumptions and the visible part represents the observable artefacts on the Schein’s levels of culture (Schein, 2010). Artefacts are the physical and socially constructed environment of the organisation while basic assumptions guides the employees’ perception, feelings and emotions about the things in the organisation (Manetje, 2009). An organisation’s culture impacts every aspect of how the organisation functions and how work is done (Chartered Institute of Personnel And Development, 2011). In the bid for sustainable performance, ensuring the culture is fit for future is the main concern for many organisations. An organisation’s culture is central to its success rather than factors such as structure, approach or policy. Organisational culture can be defined as a system of shared meaning held by members, differentiating the organisation from other organisations (Manetje, 2009). An organisation’s culture can be considered a strong culture if the core values are held strongly and shared widely by all employees (Manetje, 2009).  Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Twitter, Chevron, and Google are among the organisations known for their strong organisational culture (Patel, 2015). Weak culture is when organisational members do not subscribe to the shared beliefs, values and norms (Manetje, 2009). Companies like Amazon, Jaguar, Kraft Heinz Company, and Xerox are some of the organisations with weak organisational culture. 

In this blog post, different theories and model will be used to explain, understand and implement strategies to manage culture of a real life organisation.

Culture at Jaguar 

The first Jaguar car was produced in 1935 by Sir William Lyons. The company produces a range of cars that are agile, powerful, smooth, seductive, confident, and instinctive (Jaguar.Ca, 2019). The organisation generates thousands of jobs while pursuing automotive superiority and quality in the UK and around the world. The organisation remains at the forefront of the luxury automotive industry.  According to the types of organisational culture, Jaguar possesses a combination of role culture and task centred culture. Role culture of Jaguar is that of hierarchical and bureaucracies. Jaguar puts its strengths in the pillars, roles and areas of expertise of the organisation. At Jaguar, task centred approach is organised in a way that top values are teamwork and collaboration, focused on the fulfilment of objectives (Handy, 1993). Can this organisational culture be considered a strong culture?

Challenges in the Automobile Industry

Jaguar was founded by a British car maker, Ford Halewood. The organisation uses just-in-time principles to ensure that production materials are received, where and when needed in the right quantities (Addy, 2013). Employees knew precisely what was expected of them and where allotted a timeline to carry out a particular operation. The organisation culture lacks respect from the top management and downward. According to one of the employee’s, they were asked to leave their brain outside the gate.  In Jaguar, culture change is required to reclaim the reputation of the brand, as they face industrial action after union rejected the automobile’s pay offer of 14% over a three years period.  The employees are angered by pension cuts and a pay offer that falls short in recognising their role in the success of the organisation (Financial Times, 2014).

Implementation of Culture Change in Jaguar

According to Edgar Schein, organisations do not adopt a culture change in a single day, rather it is a journey as the employees go through various changes, familiarise to the external environment and solve problems (Juneja, 2019).

Change is multifaceted and there is no quick fix but there must be unrelenting support from all variables in that change by continuously managing the process. To implement organisational culture change in Jaguar, the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model will be applied. There are six dimensions on the model, the power distance and individualism will be applied.  By lowering the power distance in the organisation, that employees will be empowered to be creative (Juneja, 2019). This will also establsih excellent practices across the organisation which will act as a standard for improving performance in the organisation. Individualism is needed in Jaguar so that employees with common interest can come together and work in unity as a team (Juneja, 2019). In such a setup, the employees share a healthy relationship and take each other’s opinion and help when required.

Charter Statement

I believe an organisation such as Jaguar should implement a little power distance and also individualism. High level of individualism means the organisation has a high level of creativity. Little power distance and individualism are well suited for Jaguar and can both can be integrated very easily. Power distance in automobile industry is not so important but individualism is important since all employees are expected to carry their own responsibilities.

References

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Financial Times. (2014). Jaguar Land Rover workers threaten industrial action. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/f5b1952a-6bec-11e4-b939-00144feabdc0 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]

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Jaguar. Ca. (2019). Jaguar’s Innovative Leadership Team. Available at https://www.jaguar.ca/en/about-jaguar/jaguar-business/index.html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].

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Patel, S. (2015). 10 Examples of Companies with Fantastic Cultures. Available at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249174 [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].

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Tharp, B. M. (2009). Defining “culture” and “organizational culture”: From anthropology to the office. Interpretation a Journal of Bible and Theology, Harworth.