The Changing Culture of the Alpha Organisation

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Research, critically analyse and discuss the culture in your organisation and how you think it can be influenced. The Changing Culture of the Alpha Organisation Introduction “Someone came into my office and said things could be done better.” These words were spoken by the then Alpha Director, whilst standing on the back of a ute in 2007 and became the pivotal point at which three very separate and distinct organisations, all with different sets of rules and values, found themselves combined into a single entity; the Alpha Organisation. This essay will examine the historical culture of these organisations and the single culture that evolved from merging them. A further purpose is to consider what influences may positively affect the new culture to benefit not only the organisation, but also the people within it. What is Culture? To examine culture in organisations, we need to firstly define what culture is. A formal definition (Schein 1985) of culture can be described as: 1. a pattern of shared basic assumptions, 2. invented, discovered or developed by a given group, 3. as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, 4. that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, 5. is to be taught to new members of the group as the 6. correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems. According to Geert Hofstede (2009), culture in an organisation can be measured using five dimensions; power distance, individualism, masculinity, certainty and time orientation. In this essay, we will focus on two of these dimensions; power distance and masculinity. Power distance refers to the hierarchical distance between boss and subordinate. A high power distance culture is typified by each member understanding “his or her place” in the system. On the other hand, a low power

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