Work Culture Grid based on Six P Template

By

Prof. Dileep Kumar M.
Ex-Professor
Symbiosis (SCMHRD, SCDL), IIIT, SCMLD, SBS
Pune
 

Culture development is a strategic intervention in which an organization purposefully channelises all material and human resources to achieve organization vision, mission and goal by developing a value system, which is shared by the majority members. Culture creation is not one-man task. As it lies on deep-rooted beliefs assumptions and practices one cannot evolve a culture simply by introducing new organisational policies. Major factor, which highly influences the culture evolving process, is human resources. Human expectations, human sentiments, willingness, cooperation trust, commitment and collective consciousness, significantly influences the culture creation, development, and sustenance process. Motivational behaviour of members is the indicator of strong culture within the organisation.  To get best out of employees, an organization should create a culture in which individual identify themselves to the organizational approach and philosophy. It should develop a culture of working environment where the employees personally feel connected to the organization and confident about their potentialities. They should capable enough to contribute to the system. The culture of control that permeated to the last decade, to be changed to information sharing and consultation in which, opinions and ideas are shared openly and freely. Here management style play critical role in determining the culture of the organization. Organisation should take initiative to develop cultural goals that in tune with the changes expected by the employees and employers in the organisation.

To create a strong work culture, a paradigm shift from 'culture by chance' to 'culture by choice' to be initiated, where employees give their best of their own accord. Here management style play critical role in determining the culture of the organization. To develop a culture of organisational excellence "SIX 'P' (SP) Model template to be looked into.

This research has developed a template, which include six 'p' factors in the human relationship maintenance. Which include;

Power: The power factor consists of major managerial processes like Delegation Decision-making, Communication and Leadership.

Based on the template on work culture this research has developed a culture typology, which include four quadrants. Each quadrant represents the culture status of the organization based on the reciprocity of the management and expectations of the employees. The attitude and interest of management and members towards each other determine the healthy and unhealthy organization culture. The job satisfaction, job stress, absenteeism, and related behavioral outcomes are the precipitated indicators of work culture exist within the organization.   The characteristics of each quadrant can be detailed as follows.

1. Speculative

A kind of organizational culture in which members are highly speculative about the management's enthusiastic attitude to meet their expectations.

2. Supportive

A kind of organizational culture in which members consider management effort to meet their expectations as genuine effort. Here there is mutual understanding and mutual support.

3. Separative

A kind of organizational culture in which members have low expectation and management have low reciprocity to meet each others expectations. There is greater resentment on the part of employees.

4. Suppressive

A kind of organizational culture in which members have to suppress their needs and expectations as there is low reciprocity from the management. There is greater resentment on the part of employees.

Skeptical

Success of business depends upon motivated work force. Under skeptical work culture management, better aware of the importance of motivated work force to meet their business goals. They are ready to meet employee's needs in order to motivate them to work for the organisation. Task orientation through employee needs satisfaction is the objective behind such managerial reciprocity. Here, management better aware of the importance of the work force to meet the business dead lines. Their objective is to some how motivate the workforce. High management reciprocity is to motivate the work force to get their work done.  While the employees does not perceive management reciprocity as a genuine effort to meet their needs and expectations. Employees are highly skeptical about management policies and practices. Their skeptical attitude is due to the uncertainty prevalent in the industrial scenario. Employees are aware about the fact that any change in the present system necessitates more training and effort at functional level. Employees are fear about the changes at work level after initiation of changes.  The history of the organization, past experiences and style of management, etc., also exert direct influence upon the member's level of expectation. Low-level expectation may due to the uncertainty and anxiety, employees feel from management change initiatives. Employees prefer only the maintenance of the present scenario than initiate any change. Employees perceive the management communication, power sharing, reward initiatives and team approach as a strategy that facilitates to change initiatives. Such type of culture is formed by "deliberate choice" (negative) by the members and it is does not formed by 'culture by choice'.

Supportive

In this form of culture, the members have high expectation form the organisation and organisation shows their genuine effort to meet majority needs of employees. From employers part there is greater reciprocity to this work culture and it has stronger influence upon their behavior. Between management and employees, there is greater trust confidence, acceptance and recognition. The work culture promotes cooperative collective endeavor to task accomplishment. The work is prior to employees because the work is highly rewarding to their personnel goal satisfaction. The employees are getting objective feed back to their performance. The performance appraisal is based on merit than seniority. There is better understanding between management and workers. The work culture promotes greater flexibility to their organisational environment.  The organisation looks upon out put than input. The value system promotes greater freedom and autonomy to employees to experiment new ideas and creative thoughts. The organization believes in collective effort to move forward the organisation with fidelity and accuracy. Between management and workers, there is greater mentor-portage relationship. The organisation believes in sharing information and communication across hierarchical levels. There is justified use of formal and informal communication between management and workers. Members believe in organisations genuine effort to meet majority of their expectations. Here members consider organisation as major supporting factor to maintain their life and enhance their quality of life. The work culture has greater acceptance, as there is no gap between organisation promises and fulfilling the employee's expectation. It generates feeling of integrity, commitment and loyalty towards the organisation.  There is more hope for better productivity and profit to organization. The history of the organisation shares common value system, which is widely held by the members. 

Separative culture

A culture in which both employee and employer have lower level expectation and reciprocity towards each other and towards organisation. The organisational approach is conventional and traditional in nature. The leadership style is authoritative and autocratic in nature. The rules and regulations of the organisation are rigid and communication pattern is formal. The management prefers more task orientation than relationship orientation. There is centralized decision making and lesser extent of delegation of authority to subordinates. Employees and management consider each other as militant and always in conflict with each other. Strained industrial relationship is one of the features of such kind of value system. Role of trade unions are very high as there is no support from management side. Trade union and peer socialization have better influence upon employee behaviour compared to management socialization to inculcate the value system of the organisation. There is high mental and physical separation between employees and employers in their work. As there is strong Separative mentality between the two groups there is no trust and confidence at all. There is high individual orientation than collective orientation. Employees do not have the opportunity to expect anything from management, as there is strong disagreement nature between the two. There is lower reciprocity on the part of management towards expectations of employees.  The culture of such organisation formed by chance rather than choice.

Suppressive

The suppressive culture is an extension of the Separative from of culture in an organisational setting. What make the difference between Separative and Suppressive that the employees have the opportunity to expect from organisation. The leadership of the management is more of benevolent autocratic. Management listen the needs and expectations of the employees but the final decision will be from management part itself.  There is centralized decision making and lesser extent of delegation of authority. The communication pattern is formal. The culture promotes more individual orientation than collective orientation. Career growths of the employees are depends upon management decision. Employees have to suppress their emotions and rights to get better prospects within the organisation. It is a culture form, which indirectly facilitates trade union practices, as there is greater job dissatisfaction and job stress among employees. Trade unions act as alternative supportive system to employees as there is greater disagreement between employees and management. The conflict management style is more of lose-lose and there is lower level of support from management towards innovation and initiation. The higher level needs of the employees are not within such kind of value system. The culture of the organisation is formed by chance rather than choice under such organisational environment,

Conclusion

This work on culture model is to be subjected to further research. This level of work culture model is in the initial stage of analysis and discussion. This work culture model is to be further analyzed with appropriate work variables. The work culture variables taken into account here are based on the six P's viz., Price, Policy, Preferences, Practice, Politics and Power. This model to be further studied incorporating more culture inducing variables, which help in the development of a strong culture within the organisation.  Here management style play critical role in determining the culture of the organization. To create a strong work culture, a paradigm shift from 'culture by chance' to 'culture by choice' to be initiated, which is the 'supportive quadrant', where employees give their best of their own accord.
 

Prof. Dileep Kumar M.
Ex-Professor
Symbiosis (SCMHRD, SCDL), IIIT, SCMLD, SBS
Pune
 

Source: E-mail March 25, 2006

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