Organizational culture refers to the values and norms that people in an organization share which regulates the way they interact with each other and the people outside the organization. Organizational change is an ongoing process aimed at re-aligning an organization’s systems and processes with the factors inside and outside the environment of the organization (Smeltzer, 6). It is important to have a change because it contributes to the success of the organization. However, changes in culture can lead to tensions between organizational and individual interests, and thus a way to implement a culture is to connect it to organizational membership. Hofstede’s theories on culture are:
Power distance
This looks at the culture’s belief on how institutional and organizational power should be distributed and how the decisions of the leaders should be viewed. According to this, people in high power distance cultures are to a large extent more comfortable with a better status gap than low power distance cultures that accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This is mostly predicted by climate, population, and distribution of wealth. In Australia, there is cooperative interaction across power levels which leads to greater equality in government, organizations and within families, thus creating a more stable cultural environment where people relate as equals no matter their formal positions. The Philippines have a power distance index of 94 which indicates that the members of the organizations and institutions are less powerful and that power is distributed unequally, where power is acknowledged according to their hierarchical positions (Smeltzer, 17).
Collectiveness versus individualism
Individualism describes the extent to which a culture relies on and has loyalty to a person, and collectivism is the extent to which a culture relies on the group. The main predictors in this are economic development and climate, where wealthy cultures and cultures in colder climates tend to be individualistic and poor cultures and cultures in warmer climates tend to be collectivistic. According to analysis, Australia reflects a high level of individualism where one is expected to stand for them with an index of 90, which is reinforced in Australians daily lives and needs to be considered when traveling and doing business there. Also, privacy is considered the cultural norm. The Philippines have an index of 32 which means that a person in an organization is supposed to act as a member of the organization and work collectively (Schein 59).
Masculinity
Masculinity refers to the distribution of roles between the genders and the expectations that cultures have of their roles in society. Masculine cultures, for example, the Philippines, value competitiveness and ambition in their organizations, while Australia, whose index is 61 they places more value on relationships and quality of life.
Uncertainty avoidance
This is the degree to which a culture feels in danger because of confusing, uncertain situations and tries to keep away from them by establishing more structure (Schein 57). Australia has an index of 51; thus have strict laws and measures and offers structured circumstances and employees tend to remain longer. The Philippines, with an index of 44, avoid uncertainty, and that organizations are not too keen on uncertainty and risks offering unstructured situations which are unknown, surprising, and different from usual to the people in the organization.
Works Cited
L.R. Smeltzer, “An Analysis of Strategies for Announcing Organization-Wide Change,” Group and Organization Studies, 16(1991): 5-24.
E. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985. 45-67.