Week 5: Cultural Approaches

This chapter has presented approaches about business practices that popularised the notion of organizational culture.

 

Lund (2003) concluded that job satisfaction is positively related to the organizations which have cultures of flexibility and spontaneity while it is negatively related to control and order. Cultural practices in an organisation can tremendously affect the relationship between workers and employers, as well as the organisation's performances. 

Recent news reported that a considerable numbers of Nepalese migrant labourers are enduring appalling labour abuses in Qatar World Cup infrastructure project (Pattissons, 2013). 

The Guardian investigation reveals that Nepalese workers experience several exploitation in the workplace, such as loss of life, physical injuries, no salary, confiscate their passport, being restricted to free drinking water in dessert heat environment. These brutal working conditions forced those workers to work without pay and left them begging for food in the streets.

(Videos: Qatar: the migrants workers forced to work for no pay in World Cup host country.)

In cultural approaches theory, Peter and Waterman's suggested that to be an 'excellent' organisation, the relationship among employees and management should be positive and respectful, share the same core value of productivity and performance (Miller, 2012). Schein's explanation of organisation culture is developed through physical and social environment, values, and basic assumptions (Schein, 1992).

However, the cultural practices in Qatar is clearly a failure in organisation communication, the negative culture not only produces abusive and unfair values in the workplace, the mistreatment of workers will destruct the public's values and the organization's performances.  

As Peters and Waterman also suggested that having the 'right' organizational culture is a prescription for success. Therefore, the Qatari labour ministry enforces laws to ensure the workers' rights. Law enforces can be seen as 'change' suggested by 'Onion model' to help overcome errors of an organization.

References:

Lund, D 2003, 'Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction', The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 219-236.

Pattisson, P 2013, 'Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves', The Guardian 26 September, viewed 28 September 2013, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves>.

Schein, EH 1992, Organizational culture and leadership, 2nd edn, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.