Comparison between chapters of Gareth Morgan and Daft views on organisation theory
1 Introduction
In this paper the content of two different chapters of respectively Daft and Gareth Morgan are summarized and then analysed. It firstly starts with a summary of Daft’s chapter “Managing Organizational Culture and Ethics”. Though the main focus is on Daft, there also are treated some aspects that Morgan is mentioning concerning organizational culture. Then Morgan’s metaphor, where the organization is compared to a brain, is summarized. Sometimes examples or information from other sources than these two chapters are used in order to clarify the content of these chapters.
In the analysis the two chapters will be compared. Hereby the brain metaphor will be used as a means to understand various aspects of an organizational culture and the difficulties surrounding changing organizations. Finally the findings are discussed in the conclusions.
2 Summary:“Managing Organizational Culture and Ethics”
2.1 What is organizational culture?
It is very hard to define something intangible as the concept of organizational culture. As defined in Daft the organizational culture exists as the values and norms shared among its members. These values and norms control the way members interpret information, act, make decisions and interact with the environment. Thus to know one’s organizational culture is very important because by changing these controlling values and norms it’s possible to improve the organization’s effectiveness.
As mentioned the culture is formed by norms and values. What exactly are these norms and values?
Values are principles, general criteria or mind sets that people use to determine if certain outcomes, behaviour and situations are desirable or undesirable.
There can be made a distinction between terminal and instrumental values. Terminal values are the ultimate end states or results that one wants to reach. Applied on organizations these values can for instance be excellence, profitability, quality and innovativeness. On the other hand, instrumental values are the desired modes of behaviour the organization encourages as for instance respecting traditions and authority, being creative or being conservative and cautious. The specific norms evolve out of these instrumental values. Daft describes these as “standards or styles of behaviours that are considered acceptable or typical for a group of people”.
An important aspect of these values is that most of them (including those that are considered crucial for the organization) are not written down, but exist in shared norms, beliefs, thoughts and ways of behaviour that are used in interaction between people, the environment and the organization. Over time the members of the organization adopt these values and use them in their interpretations and actions. This collective mind-set, developed out of a combination of the desired final goals (terminal values) and the encouraged way of behaving (instrumental values) via corresponding norms and rules, forms the culture of the specific organization.
2.2 How is an organization’s culture transmitted to its members?
A problem that a lot of countries are facing is the assimilation of foreigners in their culture. The issue is to transmit to them the national culture, often formed by a continuing process over [next page]