Managing Organizational Culture

This article discusses the importance of organizational culture in an institution and how it affects the work environment. It also analyzes the organizational structures of two companies in Saudi Arabia using Trompenaars' framework for cross-cultural management.

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. Literature Review 2
2.1. Organization Structure 2
2.2. Organization Culture 3
2.3. Trompenaars’ Framework 4
3. Research Design 5
4. Case Study 5
4.1. Identification 5
4.2. Company Profiles 6
5. Discussion and Analysis 6
6. Conclusion 8
References 10
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1. Introduction
Organizational culture has become one of the defining elements of an institution that
makes it different and unique from all the other contemporary organizations. Every
organization shares its own personalized understanding of professional values,
beliefs, ethics, and therefore, enjoys a particular environment, which upholds and
reflects the same (Willar, Trigunarsyah and Coffey 2016). The way of interaction
amongst the process levels of an organization—be it employee-employee or
employee-employer, depends heavily on the work culture of the organization.
Organizational culture guides the actions and performance of a Company— starting
from regular production processes, decision-making, promotion and sale.
Emphasizing on the organizational culture of a Company is of utmost importance in
order to assure smooth flow of work, high efficiency of employees and reduced
technical chaos.
Since, the employees of an organization constitute the most important and relevant
resources for production, it is extremely important to establish an easy and
transparent communication system with them. One of the crucial responsibilities of
entrepreneurs is to successfully communicate the duties to their employees—or what
is expected of them. Not only that, in order to keep up the established
communication, it is important to make the conversation a two-way process—that is,
allow the employees to reflect their ideas and opinions (Ramdhani, Ramdhani and
Ainissyifa 2017). A good rapport can be established with the employees only with
sufficient knowledge about their cultures and beliefs.
2. Literature Review
Organization Structure
According to (Bird and Mendenhall 2016), the structure of an organization reflects
the essence of its culture by portraying the modes and methods of achieving
objectives. Organizational structure particularly refers to the organization’s design,
based on which it performs on a daily basis. The centralization or de-centralization of
power in an organization defines their medium of fulfilling organizational aims and
objectives (D’Innocenzo, Mathieu and Kukenberger 2016. The arrangement of the
roles, positions and responsibilities in an organization direct towards their outlook of
information flow. For example, in a centralized power structure, most vital decision-
making responsibilities would be preserved for the central unit of the organization,
which works as the most powerful unit.
Organization Culture
According to (Kryscynski and Ulrich 2015), with rapid globalization, industrial boom
and advent of free market, employees have gained high mobility all over the world.
Individuals from various different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities are moving
great geographical distances and boundaries in search of pertinent jobs. Similarly,
organizations now have the luxury to hire skilled and talented employees,
appropriate for the required position, from all over the world. This induces a huge
cultural shift, as major chunks of individuals are cross-connecting and networking
across the geography of the world, along with their cultures, values and beliefs.
Therefore, focusing on an organization’s culture is vital in the process of peaceful co-
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existence and optimum efficiency of the mixed cultural group of employees. Not only
is this important on the part of the entrepreneurs, but also helps the employees to
understand their work, their employers and their employer’s code of culture (Grayson
and Hodges 2017). This builds a strong connection between the two parties and
assures optimum effectiveness.
Trompenaars’ Framework
The Trompenaars’ framework for organizational culture is based on the cross-
cultural communication and differences amongst the various cultures that come
together in an industrial or professional setup (Binder 2016). The framework was
originally devised by Frons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, with a
motive of shedding sufficient light and understanding of the ways humans perform
(culturally) in the given setup. This framework emphasizes on the seven dimensions
of culture that govern the actions of human beings, in relevance with time and
environment (Ling, Yen and Yen 2016). The seven cultural dimensions as
suggested by the Trompenaars’ framework are as follows:
Universalism vs. Particularism: Universalism refers to the actions guided by
positions and roles, where as Particularism refers to actions taken on basis of
shared relations.
Individualism vs. Communitarianism: Individualism refers to the tendencies of
working alone whereas Communitarianism refers to the culture of working in a
group.
Neutral vs. Emotional: Neutral culture emphasizes on putting up a
professional attitude by keeping emotions in control, whereas Emotional
culture is freely accepting and acknowledging human emotions.
Specific vs. Diffuse: Specific culture provides a large public space as contrary
to Diffuse culture that reduces public space to private space.
Achievement vs. Ascription: Achievement culture emphasizes on recognition
of employees and duty distribution on the basis of personal achievements and
qualities, whereas, Ascription culture takes in consideration features like age,
class, gender etc.
Sequential vs. Synchronic: Sequential culture encourages the completion of
tasks over a period of time in a systematic order. Synchronic culture
encourages simultaneous completion of tasks with a help of various groups of
workers.
Internal vs. External control: internal control refers to accepting the
environmental changes as they come. External control makes an effort to
change the environmental circumstances.
3. Research Design
This particular research would take up two dominant Companies of Saudi Arabia,
namely Saudi Telecom and Saudi Electricity Co, to understand and analyze the
similarities and differences in their culture, using Trompenaars framework for cross-
cultural management (Mach and Baruch 2015). The research would use both
quantitative as well as qualitative data so as to conduct a detailed research and
investigation procedure for the most accurate results (Palinkas et al. 2015).
Quantitative data refers to the numerical data collected from surveys, questionnaires,
statistics and more. Whereas, qualitative data offers the qualitative aspects like,
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theories, personal interviews, reflections and more. Extensive surveys on the
employees of these two organizations would help us get a look of their culture and
how it is affecting the work atmosphere of the Company. The qualitative approach to
research would emphasize on Trompenaars’ cultural framework to distinguish the
particular elements in the current organizations and analyze them to have an
enhanced understanding.
4. Case Study
Identification
The case study includes a detailed comparison of the two chose Companies of
Saudi Arabia, in order to analyze both with relevance to a cross-cultural approach to
organizational management. Both the Companies have a wide range of employees,
hired from various parts of the world and therefore hold a concoction of various
cultures (Gharamah et al. 2018). Therefore, analyzing these Companies with a
cross-cultural model of analysis would be appropriate in this case.
Company Profiles
The descriptions of the two Companies chosen for this research are as follows:
Saudi Telecom
As the name suggests, Saudi Telecom is a telecommunications based company that
offers a wide range of telecommunication services like, landline connections, mobile
connections, internet and broadband, television connection and more. The company
ran a monopoly over telecommunication services in Saudi Arabia, before the advent
of Bahraini Batelco. Saudi Telecom’s expansion to the international market
incorporates its business in Malaysia and Indonesia, where it earns an approximate
$3.04 billion. The Company’s business network extends to various other countries
like the Persian Gulf, Asia, Africa and Turkey.
Saudi Electricity Co
Saudi Electricity Co is a public sector organization that holds a monopoly over the
electricity generation, distribution and transmission over Saudi Arabia. The
establishment of the Company dates back to 2000, when existing electricity utility
companies merged together to form a single joint stock company, supported by the
orders of the Council of Ministers. However, the Company is moving towards a
generational break-up since 2009, supported by the ECRA, in order to increase
competitiveness and efficiency of all the different subparts.
5. Discussion and Analysis
Saudi Telecom: The Saudi Telecom Company enjoys a functional organizational
structure, where the jobs and responsibilities of the Company is divided amongst
small individual working groups, specialized in particular areas. Under the CEO of
the Company works 5 different teams, specialized in public relations, IT, legal
assistance, technical affairs and security department. Each team is led by a
managing director, who makes sure that the team is functioning effectively and
handles all issues arising during the process. These managers are again answerable
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to their respective heads, thus following a hierarchical structure. The various teams
work together in their respective fields to fulfill the objectives of the organization as a
whole.
The advantage of this structure is that it allows the hiring, grouping and positioning of
the employees according their respective skills and energies, thus providing
enhanced dedication and expertise in the subject (Sharma 2014). One of the major
challenges of this structure is that it may cause a communication gap between the
employees of a particular team and the entrepreneurs of the Company as a whole.
Saudi Electricity Co: Saudi Electricity Company is a public sector organization that
holds a monopoly over the electric utilities in Saudi Arabia. Being a large-scale
company it enjoys a Divisional Structure, which allows a greater autonomy amongst
the different working teams. Most teams work independently, controlling their own
funds and investments, but are still answerable to the organizational head.
One of the advantages of this structure is that it allows more flexibility to a large-
scale organization, where various teams are working at once in their respective
fields. Instead of dragging issues to the top-management every time, the divisions
have the liberty to resolve their issues at a divisional level. The rising challenges of
this structure are related to tax and legal affairs (Nachet and Aoun, 2015). Another
major issue is lack of communication amongst the various organizational
departments that work towards the same objectives.
Comparative Analysis
As analyzed by the Trompenaars’ framework of cross-cultural management, the
Saudi Telecom as well as the Saudi Electricity Company seems to be following a
more Communitarian approach to organizational culture, as both the Company’s
structures divide their work amongst divisional groups specialized in particular areas.
The Saudi Telecom uses a more Achievement approach, where the employees are
recognized and positioned according to their contributions and skills; on the other
hand, Saudi Electricity Company uses a more Ascription approach as its divisional
levels are mostly autonomous and being a public sector enterprise, follows
hierarchies. The Saudi Electricity Company follows a sequential approach, where
each organizational level takes up one objective at a time and works together to
achieve it; on the contrary, Saudi Telecom follows a more Synchronic approach by
allowing the different teams to take up various responsibilities at once and work
towards their achievement together.
Saudi telecom has more internal control as opposed to Saudi Electricity Company,
which has more power over the external environment. Saudi Electricity Company
being a monopoly governmental enterprise enjoys massive powers to control the
generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the entire geographical
territory of Saudi Arabia and beyond.
According to (van Hoorn 2017), as both the Companies are spread beyond their
national territorial barriers and include huge sections of mixed-cultural workforce, it is
important for the entrepreneurs to devise a strong and relevant organizational culture
that would satisfy the diverse cultural needs and requirements of the organizations.
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6. Conclusion
To conclude, organizational culture can be considered one of the most vital elements
in the success of established institutions. Especially in case of large-scale
organizations that have huge multi-cultural workforces, it is absolutely necessary to
emphasize on the cultural unity of the organization, so that all the stakeholders are
well-informed regarding their duties and responsibilities. The Trompenaars’
framework provides seven cultural dimensions, which have been used to critically
analyze the organizational structures of two Companies: Saudi Telecom and Saudi
Electricity Co. Specific similarities and differences have been pointed out on the
basis of the framework, which allows further scope to think about the respective
advantages, challenges and opportunities of the same.
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