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HR Management
Assessment 2
MODULE MN7181
People and Organisations: Principles and Practice in Global Contexts
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Part 2. Student self-assessment
2.1 Checking and proof reading
Proof reading:
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Quality of submission
Please assess the following two aspects of EXCELLENT GOOD ADEQUATE POOR INADEQUATE
your work as: BELOW 40
70+ 60+ 50+ 40+
Introduction/Conclusion (effectiveness)
Arguments (structuring and coherence)
Evidence (supporting argument,
referencing)
Application of Theory (relevance)
Focus (addressing task set)
Signposting (use of vocabulary)
Criticality (quality of academic writing)
2
Paragraphing & Layout (presentation)
Citations (accuracy)
References (accuracy)
Distinction
What grade do you think the work is Merit Pass Refer Fail
70+
worth? 60+ 50+ -50
MN7181
People and Organisations: Principles and
Practice in Global Contexts: Essay 70%
Academic Year 2018-2019
Excellent
70+
3
Use of examples, theory linked
with practice
Weighting 40%
Weighting 40%
4
2nd marker comments
Agreed Mark
Signatures: Date
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Paper Information
Pages : 24
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Table of Contents
Description ................................................................................................................................. 8
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 9
5. Levels of Culture.............................................................................................................. 16
Reference ................................................................................................................................. 22
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Description
This assignment is based on organizational culture in Global HRM. This assignment offers a
complete awareness about the specific subject area and it delivers very significant
understanding base in both practical and theoretic mode.
Therefore in the first part of the assignment the history of culture and its current states has been
discussed as a one learning outcome of the assignment. A framework of analysing
organizational culture has been defined. After that the concepts of cultures which could
influence organizational culture has been explained.
After a complete understanding on culture of the organizations, the assignment has been
extended to understand the effect of change management that supports individual and
organizational performance. The perception behind organisational values, the values to an
individual and as well the effect of manger’s personal values in working with team members
has been enlightened suitably.
The connection between organizational culture and change management has been understood
and therefore it was identified how organizational culture can make an impact to the
organizational HR process and then it was measured how organizational culture can affect
individual behaviour.
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1. Introduction
The word “Culture” has a lengthy history. Some people use the word to specify someone is
very ‘cultured’. The learning of culture is one of the most significant concepts in social
sciences. In the perspective of organization or companies, when we try of develop the right
kind of culture, we believe that culture is concerned with certain values which are followed in
any organizations. Each society, community and an organization has its culture which
recommends instructions or rules, ways and means for the living, socialisation and
development of its members as a whole. This procedure of socialisation and community growth
as well as personal growth is governed and conditioned by the current culture.
Rajkumar and Chandel (2010) explains that the culture has two important components.
The Material Culture – Human made objects such as buildings, vehicles, tools,
machine, roads, technologies and all physical elements.
Non Material Culture – Tradition, Creativity, customs, Concepts, knowledge, verbal,
art, beliefs, Principles, values, virtues, Design, habits, rituals, practices, norms,
morality, tastes, attitudes and outlook.
According to Rajkumar and Chandel (2010), the materiel culture signifies the civilisation and
the non-materiel represents culture.
Malinowski (1960) says “The vital fact of culture as we live it and experience it, as we can
observe it systematically, is the organization of human beings into permanent groups. Such
groups are connected by some contract, some traditional law or tradition”. According to
Herskovits (1958), he feels that “culture is learned, that it allows human to adapt himself to his
natural and social setting, that it is greatly variable, that it is manifested in institutions, thought
patterns and materiel objects”,
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Hall (1959) says culture is “The way of life of a people. The sum of their learned behaviour
patterns, attitudes and material things. It is not inborn, but learned, the various facets of a
culture are interrelated”.
Grounded on the above explanations, culture is the complex study that includes art, knowledge,
customs, belief, attitudes, law, habits, values, and rituals acquired, learned and adapted by a
cluster of people or members of a society which binds them as an articulate whole. People
living in a society, imbibe these and are guided by them. Halverson (1993) explains that though
people frequently associate culture with nationality, the theory of culture is actually much
broader. Nearly any country, there are separate cultural groups based on such changes as race,
ethnicity, religion and gender. All of these cultural groups has sufficient important differences
from the dominant society to have its own distinct way of life.
It is known fact that culture helps organisation develop. According to Pareek (2006), there are
three cultures that are responsible for the development of the organisation. Those are societal
culture, Political culture and Organizational culture shown in figure 2.1. Society and
organisation have their values, attitudes, rituals and sanctions. Pareek also says these three
cultures are interrelated to each other and their relationships are shown in figure 2.2
Figure 2.1
As shown below in the figure 2.2 these three cultures are interconnected. The dotted line show
influence, but not a direct causal relationship of the variables. Though social culture is steadier
and long lasting, it is significantly influenced by political culture and influences development
less directly. Likewise, organizational culture is determined by societal culture, although the
former also influences the latter. However Pareek feels political culture is the most important
of the three for development. Societal culture is significant in influencing the strategy of
development. And finally, organizational culture can be seen as an enabling variable which
helps in developing behavioural norms, which helps development.
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Figure 2.2
Paradigm of culture and development
Organisational Political
Social Culture
Culture Culture
Organisational
Enabling Developmental Appropriate
Development
Environment Strategy Behavioural
Norms
3. Organisational Culture
Organizational culture represents the fundamental belief and value structure of an organization.
It is a process of common values, beliefs and attitudes that progress in an organization and
guides the behaviour and work culture of its employees. These values, beliefs and attitudes are
practised by most of the employees of the organization. Employees are taught on how to behave
generally in an organisation based on the culture rules and guidelines. These norms, values,
beliefs and attitudes carefully taught to newcomers and they also eagerly learn them.
Organisational culture is the most important factors in terms of employee commitment,
responsible, motivation and engagement in the organisation. It involves the learning and
transmitting of knowledge, beliefs and patterns of behaviours over a period. .
To Mobley (2005, 12) the feeling of every member of organisation towards every aspect of
corporate life when counted together is organizational culture. Therefore organizational culture
covers all the core values, beliefs and shared assumptions that helps to get employees
committed and motivated. Organizational culture according to Mobley (2005).
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According to Schein (1992) the organizational culture is “a pattern of basic assumptions -
invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of
external adaptation and internal integration- that has worked well enough to be considered
valuable and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and
feel in relation to those problems”. There are better and worse cultures, stronger or weaker
cultures, and that the right kind of culture will influence how effective the organizations are.
Further, Schein agree that the generally used words linking to culture highlights one of its
serious aspects. That is the impression that these things are shared or held in mutual in groups.
As per Schein, the commonly used concepts relating to organizational culture are
Figure 3.1
Concepts relating to organizational culture
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• The special competencies group members display m
Embedded Skills accomplishing certain tasks, the ability to make
certain things that gets passed on from generation to
generation without necessarily being articulated m
writing
Robbins, Judge, and Sanghi (2009) says it is so much significant to understand the role of
culture as it has big impact on organizational culture. According to Chatman and Caldwell
(1991) there are seven key features that capture the core of an organization’s culture. They are
Innovation and risk taking, Attention to detail, Outcome orientation, People orientation, Team
Orientation, Aggressiveness and Stability.
Martin (1992) witnesses that when individuals join an organization, first they observe the dress
code, stories people talk about the organization, formal rules and procedures, codes of
behaviour, rituals, tasks, pay systems and jargons only understood by the insiders and these are
some of the manifestations of organizational culture. When members interpret the meanings of
these manifestations, perceptions, memories, beliefs, experiences, and values will vary, so
interpretations will be understood differently. The patterns of these interpretations enacts,
establish organizational culture.
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4. Organisational Culture and HR Management
Human Resource Management has a significant role to play in organizational culture since it
contains the individuals who work for the organization, who embrace and grow particular
cultures within the organization. Therefore, any desired change to the culture of the
organization has to be done through the people and by the people (Bae & Lawler, 2000). This
indicates that HR management and organizational culture are related to each other, and it will
be appropriate to treat the constructs in like manner Human resource management policies,
which are influenced by organizational culture, also significantly impact the employees.
Human resource decisions are significant because when an organization employs workers that
blend with their culture, these would improve shared social knowledge among employees and
organizational goals; such shared social knowledge guides employees in making the right
decision when confronted with usual situations (Ouchi, 1983). A mutual relationship exists
between HRM policies and organizational culture, wherein four human resource strategy areas;
staffing, training, evaluation and compensation of employees, have important effects on
organizational culture (Earl, 2002).
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4.2 Organizational culture and Training cum Development
Creativity and innovation also can generate the performance of employees and simplified
by organizational culture which training and development activities deliver. Tushman and
O’Reilly (2002) says “Organizational culture lies at the heart of organizational norms that
reflects the influence of organizational culture on creativity and innovation. It also play an
important role in creating such an environment that enables learning and innovative
response to challenges, competitive threats or new opportunities”. Therefore, “Creating
and influencing an adaptive culture is one of a manager’s most important jobs and which
training and development programmes avail the opportunities”. (Daft, 2010).
Organizational growth has certain factors that improve sustainability on the basis of
efficiency. The developments in productivity lead to employee commitment as norms,
values and objectives benefit in enlightening culture of an organization. The performance
of employees progresses by establishment of steady strong culture of an organization. The
employee performance is the backbone of the organization as it leads to the development
and growth of organization. Thus, the faithfulness of employee depends upon knowledge
and awareness of culture that progresses behaviour of organization, (Brooks, 2006).
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Nevertheless, in order to achieve business goals and objectives of organization, strategies
have to be developed based upon organizational performance. Richardo (2006) says “The
performance measurement system helps in improving organization association to achieve
goals and objectives at an effective manner”. “The strategic planning grounded upon
development of goals and objectives support organization to focus non-financial,
otherwise known as intangible assets, while quality, performance and services linked with
customers have financial nature”, (Kaplan and Norton, 2011). The measurement of
performance based upon financial and non-financial performance leads to
competitiveness, (Chenhall, 2005).
5. Levels of Culture
Schein (1992) says ‘culture implies that rituals, climate, values and behaviours bind together
in to a coherent whole. This patterning or integration is the essence of what we mean by
‘organizational culture’. Schein has projected three levels of variables in an organisational
culture.
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Figure 4.1
Schein’s Modal – Three levels of Culture
Experts opinions are that in the global world, diversity is crucial to maximize
organizational efficiency. Is it the variety of demographic structures that characterize
an organisation’s labour force, in terms of gender, race, religion, culture, national,
sexual orientation and age? Or do we refer to the more inherent or intrinsic differences
that exist between individuals?
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It is factual that in any organisation today, we are bounded by people who often think
and work in a different way. It begins when people observe themselves and others and
the differences therein, which directly influence people’s communications within the
organization. The challenge for organizations is to manage the employees’ diversity to
benefit from it, to make it beneficial. The researchers have been enlightening on the
benefits that diversify organisational culture.
Broader service – A diverse group of skills and experiences such as languages, cultural
understanding permits an organisation to provide service to customers on a global base.
IBM is one organization that created numerous minority task forces directing on groups.
In the following years these task forces expanded IBM’s multicultural markets growing
from Ten million dollars to three hundred million dollars in revenue in just 3 years.
Although the benefits of diversity are evident, this route is not devoid of challenges for
the organization.
Unconscious bias is one of the highest important barriers for an organization on the
path to acceptance of diversity. Simply because it is unconscious makes it all the more
challenging to overcome. Each employee comes with his /her own set of unconscious
biases.
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Communication is another significant challenge in organizations often resulting from
basic differences in the style of communication as well as different meanings associated
with non-verbal signals. For example, high-context cultures such as India, Japan and
China, depend on implicit communication whereas low context cultures such as USA
rely mainly on explicit verbal communication. Such changes, when not understood, they
often lead to miscommunication among workforce.
Resistance to change – Any change is often met with NO, it is a human trend. There
are employees who reject to accept the fact that the social and cultural makeup of their
workplace is changing. The “we’ve always done it this way” mentality sometimes
reserves new ideas and inhibits development.
All the above challenges, while real, can be overcome by a proper Change management
process and practise. Building awareness among employees and skills through training
programmes and coaching sessions across all levels of the organisation could also
support the change. Finally the top management, the manager and the leaders need to
be good role models, showing their support for diversity and change, respecting
employees from all equally.
The existing trend of globalisation and technological growth specify the things to come in the
future. Globalisation and open economies made the world a global community. The changes in
one part of the world are making an impact on other parts of the world unconsciously. Rivalry
has become severer and demands change in the decision making development. The speedy
growth in Information communication technology development makes things out-dated
rapidly. The early employees joining an organisation is also changing. They are better
informed, more qualified, more intelligent and knowledgeable in using the modern tools and
technologies. With the fast improvements of technology less people can do the same job. At
the meantime, there is a tendency where organizations lacking capable people to make timely
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decisions. Pareek says that the twenty first century, people at all levels will show leadership
abilities and act as leaders.
As per Parkin (2009) “Leading, managing and implementing change successfully, whether at
individual, team, department or organization levels, is often seen as the pinnacle of
achievement in professional and managerial practice. It is concurrently problematic, thrilling,
fearful, taxing and nourishing but does not occur easy. At the most fundamental level, any idea
of innovation in a complex organization presents an immense challenge”.
Advanced and creative methods of training and development are mandatory to bring a change
and except the organizations make themselves to take this task in their own pace, they are likely
to fall behind. Innovative and creative methods will pave the way for change and development,
active contribution, continuous updating of competencies and excellence products and services.
For this purpose, a focus on the vision and inspiring participation of all in practicing the values
leads to studying of societal culture and thereby growth and change of organisational culture
for competitive advantage in the global business.
After the analysis of the culture for change and study of the circumstances in the organization
based on its vision, values and culture steps to be taken to select the appropriate change
strategies. Sometimes change projects fail because proper care is not taken to assess the
possibility and consequences of a change, or to assess alternative change strategies before
setting the project in motion. Generating substitute change strategies and selecting the best
strategy to suit the required change project is a very significant step. Deciding on change
priorities and understanding its consequences and avoiding the risks involved m it is also given
thought of. Gallacher (1999) says “in order to shared change management to work, an
organisation must have supporting structures and cultures to make mutual understanding and
participation possible”.
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11. Conclusion
This assignment has shown a significant, positive and meaningful relationship between HRM
practices and organizational culture. HRM practices become the means whereby organizational
culture is shaped and sustained. Developing new culture requires that HRM professionals are
well ahead of the cultural change with advanced and exciting HRM practices. HRM has been
proposed by others to be a potentially powerful lever for shaping and changing the culture of
an organization to make the organization more effective (Schien, 1983; Ulrich, 1997).
In the final section relationship between culture and change management has been understood
and accordingly it was identified how organizational culture can affect organizational change
process and then it was assessed how organizational culture can affect individual and
organizational changes. Also ultimately it is discussed model of change process, resistant to
changes and successful method to implementation of changes.
MN7181 MODULE - People and Organisations: Principles and Practice in Global Contexts.
Most of us can anticipate to spend many years of our lives employed in organisations of
numerous kinds, being managed or managing others. I am one of those who like to manage
people and network with them. The above module enhanced my marketability and gave me the
appropriate professional skills and knowledge that employers in today’s marketplace are
looking for. The module gave me the opportunity to gain a comprehensive background in the
functions of HR from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
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