Can Cultures be Managed within organizations?

Every culture is unique in its own way, through its different habits and characteristics. Organizational culture is similar because it refers to the “rules and customs” as well as beliefs in an organization. (Driskill, 2018) 

Organizational culture is recognized to determine how people behave. it is embedded within the system of the organization and it is a process that evolves over a long time. (Roodt .et al ,2002)

Once the culture of the organization is set, it will be difficult to change. When things go wrong in an organization, culture is looked at to address the issue or to identify what went wrong. (Sinclair, 1993)

TheWeinstein film production company 

The Weinstein company is a Los Angeles based film production company. Weinstein produced many classic movies such as Shakespeare in Love (Breaking News, World News & Multimedia, 2019).The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018 due to the lawsuits and foul publicity against Harvey Weinstein. To clarify, the company co-founder, Harvey, is infamous for sexual assault scandals and rape charges from more than 80 women that worked for him. It was the start of the trending hashtag #METOO. (Gonzalez, 2018.)The METOO movement is a movement against sexual harassment, encouraging victims to speak up.

How to address the challenges using frameworks

Deal and Kennedy’s Four Generic Cultural Types 

This model measure organizations based on risk and feedback and proposed four classifications of culture: 

1. The Tough-Guy Macho Culture. 
2. The Work Hard/Play Hard Culture 
3. The Bet your Company Culture 
4. The Process Culture

The tough or macho culture occurs when employees take high risks and gain fast feedback on their actions. Rewards in this culture may be high because employees will benefit more by obeying to their leader. the work hard/play hard culture usually occurs in sales organizations, which put full effort for high quality customer service and employees, take limited risks but get fast feedback.  Bet-your-company organizational culture occurs when organizations include development of decisions where the end result come out in several years. process culture represents organizations that take no risk at all, limited feedback and employees are worried about current tasks rather than what is the end result. 

Looking at figure 1, it is clear that the Weinstein company adapted the tough guy macho culture because Harvey Weinstein allegedly took high risk by making certain decisions that led to the bankruptcy of the company. Most employees that worked under Harvey were supposedly rewarded by acting in films produced by the Weinstein company. 

Organizational Iceberg framework 

The concept of organizational iceberg captures two contrasting aspects. the first include features with formal characteristics such as the company’s strategy and goals and the second include informal features such as beliefs and values. (Manole, et al ,2011).  

According to figure 2, visible organizational culture represents what an organization is willing to achieve. However, the way the company operates may not be visible to the outside. If the employees don’t share the same ethics and morality, then the company will deteriorate gradually. 

Weinstein was one of the most successful film production companies and they had a clear vision and goal, but what was hidden is the bottom part of the iceberg. It is the part which sank the titanic. Many organizations focus on the visible culture whereas the critical part might be unaddressed. To add, looking at figure 2, perceptions, shared assumption and feelings in the company were not sincere and not addressed in an acceptable manner. In the case of Harvey, he mentioned that he was not aware of himself being the abuser. He assumed that his encounters were normal. (Gonzalez, 2018)

Recommendation

A suitable recommendation to avoid bankruptcy and to have chance to compete again is for the Weinstein company to change people’s perception of them. 

This can happen if the company commences a transparency program which allows direct insight and monitoring to the company’s “bottom part of the iceberg”. Understanding the level of risk and feedback that is appropriate for the organization as looked at in the Deal and Kennedy’s Four Generic Cultural model will allow the company to understand areas that require change. Another approach would be to start equality campaigns that focus on employee rights. The power gap should be reconsidered. Employees should be able to participate in major decisions that occur in the company.

References

Sinclair, A. (1993). Approaches to organisational culture and ethics. Journal of business ethics, 12(1), 63-73.

Roodt, G., Rieger, H. S., & Sempane, M. E. (2002). Job satisfaction in relation to organisational culture. SA Journal of industrial Psychology, 28(2), 23-30.

Driskill, G. W. (2018). Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook. Routledge.

Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/

Gonzalez, S., France, L.R. & Melas, C. 2018, The fallout since the Weinstein scandal first rocked Hollywood, Atlanta.)

Crow, D. 2018, The Weinstein Company officially bankrupt, accusers released from NDAs, Dennis Publishing Ltd, London.)