Understanding Organizational Structure and Culture

This article discusses the effect of organizational structure and culture on projects in project management literature. It highlights the relationship between organizational culture and structure and how they affect each other. The article emphasizes that the co-operation of culture and organization has been seen to be always rich and complicated. With the effective process of smart interaction, the different organizational members can develop and then re-develop the distinct type of organizational cultures.

Running head: UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
Understanding organizational structure and culture
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1UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
Conducting critical review of the effect of present day organizational structure
and culture over the projects in project management literature:
The “organizational culture and structure” are considered among the modern day concepts.
This have the greatest predictive and explanatory power. This is to understand the forms and reasons
for the behavior of people in the business. Nevertheless, these two ideas are frequently used in
various researches as the independent variables while evaluating various phenomenon in
organizations. The organizational culture is seen as an intrinsic factor regarding organizational
behavior. This is inasmuch as it provides directions to the way the people much behave in
organizations. This is through operating from inside and finding the attitudes, norms, values and
assumptions. With the help of this, the organization members can guide themselves for the daily task
at their business. Again, the organizational structure is seen as an extrinsic factor influencing the
behavior of people from outside. This is through various formal limitations that are set as per the
labor division, the grouping of units, coordination and authority distribution. Thus the individual
behavior for any company is outcomes of the effect of the structure and culture and also impact on
other factors. Hence, the study of the mutual effect of structure and organizational culture is vital for
the comprehensive analysis of member behavior of organizations. To understanding the scenario the
following article is chosen.
Article Name: “Understanding organizations through culture and structure: relational and other
lessons from the African-American organization”
Author Name: Nicotera, A.M., Clinkscales, M.J. and Walker, F.R.,
Date of publish: 2003.
Retrieved from: University of Roehampton Library

2UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
The article highlights that the co-operation of culture and organization has been seen to be
always rich and complicated. With the effective process of smart interaction, the different
organizational members can develop and then re-develop the distinct type of organizational cultures.
Again, at the same time, different entities of organization are saturated and implemented under the
cultural milieu. Culture has been defined widely by scholars at various social disciplines through
concentration on practices, attitudes, morals, ceremonies, rituals, customs, beliefs, values, and
norms. At the deepest level, the culture embodies the way in which any individual can apprehend the
world. Culture drives the measures in which the employees can apprehend the truth of the interactive
functioning. In this way, it can derive the organizational culture created or adapted. It drives the
ways how people can arrange oneself structurally in accomplishing the necessary coordination to
organize.
On the other hand, the authors mention that the corporate culture involves the resources and
rules that are to be drawn on in social practices of the organizational lives. As the patterns of human
interaction prove to be compatible with and support the cultural and organizational structures,
organizational communication activities become smooth. The implementation of structure
irrespective of the other types of contradictory structures can be drawn on the practice of human
social-cultural disintegration of the organizational measures. The structure theory looks for the
reconciling of a couple of primary tensions. Secondly, here is the tension occurring between the
change and stability of the social structures. The organizational structure is also useful and hinders
the success rate. Besides, the structure is also useful to find how well one concentrates on the ways
on the projects can. Apart from this, it is also effective to investigate how simple it has been to share

3UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
various resources between different businesses, as one attack the wider cultural issues one can have a
positive impact on the various organizational limitations and also to the success.
It is understood from the article that organizational structure and culture are the most popular
and researched areas under the organizational field. Their ideas can affect each other and thus, as
they match, they are able to possess stronger impact. This is intended towards the business
performance. However, there can be serious issues and tensions that can impact the functioning and
the outcomes. Thus it is vital to evaluate the ways in which the structure and culture can affect each
other, which is done in the current article. It must remind that operationalizing of organizational
structure and culture could be possible as the Handy’s and Trompenaar’s classifications related to
organizational culture can compared to Mintzberg’s models regarding organizational structure.
Besides, it is seen that at these classifications, there are both the structures and cultures that is found
to be differing from each other as per the similar criteria. This is regarded as the criterion of
distribution of various kinds of power present in any business. It also includes various type of
criterion that are related to the orientation. This is been towards the people and tasks. Due to this, the
hypothesis to match the individual kinds of organizational models and cultures of the structure of
any organization can be deployed. The “Eiffel tower” or the role culture can indicate to the
deployment of smart bureaucratic model. It also includes the power culture that has been
corresponding to deployment of the effective model of organizational structure. It is along with the
incubators culture or people culture. It indicates to the deployment of adhocracy mode.
The current debate done above can be done to solve the issues for the future as it set up for
facilitating the achievements of goals. It understood from the view of the authors that organizational
culture could affect the deployment and designing of the effective organizational structure. With
those attitudes, norms along with values and assumptions, the culture is able to create and frame of

4UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
reference. This is utilized by the people who design organizational structures. It would help to
motivate the employees to work together and follow the organizations aims and work together as a
team. The organizational culture can comprise of the commonly shared beliefs implemented by the
leader of the organization. Next, it is reinforced and communicated with a different process. Apart
from this, is can be concluded that cultural context can notably facilitate the chosen structure in the
phase of implementation. Again, it is also witnessed that the organizational culture can legitimate
different decision and various behavior imposed over the management and employees. This is
through the efficient organizational structure within appropriate contexts of various valid norms.
Again, this organizational structure can also institutionalize the culture and reflect the attitudes,
norms and values. Apart from this, the organizational structure is able to strengthen and also alter the
current organizational culture. Thus, the effective relationship existing between the structure and
culture is seen to be twofold. Thus it is helpful to shape the understanding the employee
understanding, behaviors and perceptions.

5UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
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