Impact Of Organisational Culture On Strategic Leadership .
International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)Impact of Organisational Culture on StrategicLeadership Development with Special Reference toNalco1Leena P. Singh, 2Binita Panda1Department of Business Management, Fakir Mohan University, BalasoreYoung Professional-HR, School & Mass Education Dept. Government of Odisha,BhubaneswarEmail : 1leenapsingh@gmail.com, 2binita cyber@yahoo.com2Abstract : In today’s dynamic businessenvironment leadership development plays acritical role in enabling organisational growthand transformation. Perhaps the most criticalchallenge facing executives and seniorexecutives in global scenario is to develop anew generation of strategic leaders who willcontinue and extend the strategic reach of theorganisations they currently head or about tohead. This process can be referred to as thestrategicleadershipdevelopmentordevelopment of strategists and is becomingneed of the hour. One of the underlyingprinciples of strategic leadership developmentis linking leadership culture to businessstrategy. This paper aims at explaining therole and impact of organisational culture instrategic leadership development. It l cultural variables or elements(Involvement, consistency, adaptability andmission) facilitate the strategic leadershipdevelopment process. The research work is anempirical study done in NALCO. Theauthor(s) attempt to assess the organisationalcultural elements and judge the effectivenessof the existing culture towards thedevelopment of strategic leaders in theorganisation. For the purpose of the studyprimary data has been collected using astructured questionnaire administered amongthe executives in corporate office atBhubaneswar, Orissa .Data are also collectedfrom secondary sources like official websites,annual report etc.Keywords: Strategic Leadership development,Succession planning, Employee Involvement,Organizational Culture.I. INTRODUCTIONAs economies and industries become moreglobal, employees are increasingly dealingwith individuals who are dissimilar to them.Likewise, as organisations increasinglycreate business alliances with organisationswhose cultures are dissimilar, employeesmay work with others who hold differentperceptions of what constitutes effectivefunctioning in an organisation, and whatrelationships exist between organisationalfactors andworkplace ly, executives are being calledupon to be strategic leaders and navigatetheir organisation into an unknown andincreasingly complex future. Shortage ofCEOs and senior managers is a perennialchallenge faced not only by India but bycountries all over the world. The presentposition in India of acute shortages is owingto several reasons : the fast growingeconomy is creating higher demand forsenior managers : attrition at the senior andISSN (Print): 2319–5479, Volume-4, Issue–1, 2015133
International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)middle –levels dries up the reservoir thatprovides senior managers and many seniormanagers decide to take early retirements tobecome entrepreneurs. Previous conceptionsof leadership and organisations asmechanistic and stable no longer apply inthe reality of social, political and economicflux. Recent events in the global financialmarkets highlight how the world is now ahighly integrated and complex system. Amanager’s leadership behaviour is whatmakes the difference between effective andineffectiveorganisation.Effectivenessresults from tapping the potential of humanbeings in a useful way. These tapped leaderswill be the future strategic leaders. Given theimportance of leadership in contemporaryorganisations, it is not surprising thatleadership development gets the largestpercentage allocation from training anddevelopment budgets of most organisations.The role that organisational culture plays inthe development of leaders is crucial butoften overlooked. One reason for this is thatmanagers in charge of leadershipdevelopment efforts are so embedded intheir own cultures that those cultures arepractically invisible to them (Ogbonna &Harris, 2011). Organisational leadersinfluence the behaviour of subordinates sothat they willingly and enthusiastically worktowards the achievement of organisationalobjectives. Strategic leadership is the abilityto lead an organisation towards theachievement of its objectives. In the presentscenario strategic leaders play different rolesto strategically manage the business. Theyhave to play the role of a CEO, the role ofsenior managers, role of Business-levelexecutives, and role of functional andoperational managers. Thus, one of theresponsibilities of the board of directors andtop management of an organisation is tooversee the development of Strategists’ .So,it’s necessary to create a work culture that isstrategy-supportive and facilities the processof strategic leadership development. It is inthis backdrop, the present study has beendesigned to assess the organisational cultureprevailing in Nalco and cultural variableswhich effectively influence the strategicleadership development process in theorganization.II. REVIEW OF EXISTINGLITERATURE1.1.Organizational CultureCorporate culture shapes the way people actand interact and strongly influences howthings get done. It encompasses theorganization's goals, behavioural norms, anddominant ideologies. Oftentimes, twocultures clash because people from differentorganizations perceive things differently.They can blame their counterpart if failureoccurs because they regard the other asincompetent. The best thing managers andCEOs can do to avoid this scenario is tointroduce a different culture for the companyor at least make their employees aware ofwhat they should expect. This will minimizethe adverse effects of mergers on the moraleof the employees and ensure a smootherflow of operations.Organisational culture has been defined asrelatively stable beliefs, attitudes, and valuesthat are held in common amongorganisational members (Williams, Dobson,& Walters, 1993), shared normative beliefsand shared behavioural expectations (Cooke& Szumal, 2000), or a particular set ofvalues, beliefs, and behaviours thatcharacterizes the way individuals and groupsinteract in progressing toward a commongoal. As such, these definitions refer to whatis basically a group-level phenomenon.However, culture alsoencompassesindividual-level phenomena, and morespecifically, reflects how individuals withina given culture try to make sense of how theorganisation operates (Van den Berg &Wilderom, 2004). This sense making thatemployees in organisations engage in refersto how individuals within an organisationgive meaning to what they experience atwork (Weick, 1995), and therefore reflectsISSN (Print): 2319–5479, Volume-4, Issue–1, 2015134
International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)individuals' interpretations of events andsituations in organisations (Peterson &Smith, 2000).Weick, Sutcliffe and Obstfeld (2005) pointout that, individuals’ perceptions ofsituations, and the concomitant sensemaking that individuals engage in are centralto both individual identity and individualchoice of action. Organisational culture,viewed as shared behavioural norms, andbuilt on individual interpretations ofexperience, may be seen as the result ofthese cognitive activities - an individuallevel phenomenon (Fiske & Taylor, 1991)becominganorganisational-levelphenomenon.The role of organisational culture is stronglyassociated with a firm’s competitiveperformance. Many leaders are aware thatperformance comes from interdependentbehaviour like cooperation, knowledgesharing, and mutual assistance. Given theimportance of leadership in contemporaryorganisations, it is not surprising thatleadership development gets the largestpercentage allocation from training anddevelopment budgets of most organisations(Rivera & Paradise, 2006), and is among themost popular areas of human resourcedevelopment (HRD) practice and academicresearch. An examination of the literature inthe fields of organisational culture andleadership finds that the two areas have beenindependently linked to organisationalperformance. For example, researchers haveexamined the links between leadershipstyles and performance.However, despite the implicit and explicitlinking of leadership and culture in manyparts of organisation theory, little criticalresearch attention has been devoted tounderstanding the links between the twoconcepts and the impact that such anassociation might have on organisationalperformance. The absence of criticalliterature exploring the performanceimplications of the links betweenorganisational culture and leadership issurprising given the numerous references tothe importance of the two concepts in thefunctioning of organisations (Schein,1992).Most organisations have stressed leadershipas a key factor in resolving internecineconflicts and leading the organisation tosuccess. Leadership is exhibited in theprocess of influencing members to movetoward organisational success. Namely, it isthe ability to lead members to workvoluntarilyandcooperativelyfororganisation success (Kim et al, 2011).Leadership is a very important factor foraccomplishing organisational goals becauseit can positively affect organisationaleffectiveness thus contributing to theeffective operation of the organisation as awhole. Also, it should be kept in mind thatthe organisational effectiveness of themembers may differ according to the typesof leadership.Organisational culture, as much asleadership can affect not only thecommitment, loyalty, job motivation and jobperformance of members but also hip (Kim et al, 2011). Organisationalculture, which is learned by new members asthe correct way for solving organisationalproblems and defined as the set of basicprinciplesunderlyingorganisationalactivities performed according to certainpatterns, extends its effect to the entirephenomenaacross theorganisation.Especially, a variety of characteristics oforganisational culture, such as socialdesirability of organisational culture, caninfluenceorganisationaleffectiveness(Schein, 1992). In general, organisationalculture is formed as a result of a series ofinteractions between the leader andmembers of the organisation as they try toadjust themselves tothe externalenvironment.The role that organisational culture plays inthe development of leaders is crucial butISSN (Print): 2319–5479, Volume-4, Issue–1, 2015135
International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)often overlooked. One reason for this is thatmanagers in charge of leadershipdevelopment efforts are so embedded intheir own cultures that those cultures arepractically invisible to them (James &Connolly, 2009). But there are ways to get abetter picture of your own culture anddetermine how it might be supporting orhindering the development of leaders.Organisational culture is an organisation’svalues, beliefs, practices, rites, rituals, andstories—all of which combine to make anorganisation unique. These cultural featuresoften derive from the strategic businessdrivers of the organisation— elements suchas quality, innovation, results, speed, andagility (Bal and Quinn, 2001). Thesebusiness drivers affect policies andprocedures throughout the organisation, thuscreating its culture.Companies pursuing internal stability suchas large government bureaucracies are likelyto seek to instil respect for order and rulefollowing as appropriate behaviours in theiremployees in order to facilitate functioningon complex tasks (Leavitt, 2003; Thompson& Wildavsky, 1986). Ouchi (1981)juxtaposed the traditional American andJapanese organizational culture styles andsuggested that management throughcommitment and cohesiveness seems to bethe success formula in Japan.In the USA, on the other hand, tragic eventssuch as September 11th have demonstratedthat the courage, cooperation andcohesiveness of the rescue teams of firefighters and police officers was key for thesuccessful management of this emergencysituation. These examples reinforce the ideathat fostering a specific culture is likely tobe crucial for eliciting a variety of employeebehaviours ranging from high individualachievement to cooperation and help, andfrom strict rule observance to innovation.stories, jargon, rites, and rituals. Corporateculture is a key component in theachievement of an organization's missionand strategies, the improvement oforganizational effectiveness, and themanagement of change (Samuel OluAdeyoyin, 2006). A corporate culture canwork for an organization to improveperformance or against it by creatingbarriers that prevent the attainment of goals.However, it can be corrected by providingguidance on what is expected by conveyinga sense of identity and purpose of unity tomembers, facilitating the generation ofcommitment and shaping behaviour.Specifically, attempts at organizationalchange must consider three key features oforganizational life: the firm's culture, theleadership of the change effort, and theexisting network of power. Organizationalculture facilitates the acceptable solutionsfor knowing the problems, which memberslearn, feel and set the principles,expectations, behavior, patterns, and normsthat promote a high level of achievement(Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1992).What is the significance of highlightingthese ―obvious‖ complexities and potentialconflicts within a corporate culture? Putquite simply – organizational designs areculturally-bound paradigms for solutions;they are operations of cultural frames ofreference that determine how problems aresolvedandrelationshipsdefined(Trompenaars, 1993); they guide strategy fororganizational development. Prof. GeertHofstede conducted perhaps the mostcomprehensive study of how values in theworkplace are influenced by culture. Thesefive Hofstede dimensions can also be foundto correlate with other country and culturalparadigms.Culture can also be expressed through theorganization's myths, heroes, legends,ISSN (Print): 2319–5479, Volume-4, Issue–1, 2015136
International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)PDIIDVMASUAILTOPower Distance IndexIndividualismMasculinityUncertainty Avoidance IndexLong-Term OrientationFig 1: Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions, 1973In an early work on strategic leadership,leadership theory grew to address the largerHosmer (1982) noted that contingencyquestion of how a top-level leadertheories of leadership did not account for ancontributes to organizational performance.organization’s competitive position in theRelying on the constructive developmentindustry. Hosmer proposed that the task oftheory of Kegan (1982), Lewis and Jacobsthe leader was different from that of a(1992) argued that a leader’s capacity tomanager because a leader must constantlyconstruct meaning of the organizationalconsider the organizational strategy inenvironment was more important than otherrelation to the external environment. In thisfactors such as values or leadership style.way, leadership represents a higher order ofThis theory was later linked with Jaques andcapability that involves both developingClement’s (1991) stratified systems theory,strategy and influencing others to follow it.which asserted that the complexity of theHambrick and Mason (1984) built on thisleadership task escalates as one moves upidea and proposed what was then known asthe hierarchy. Taken together, these theoriesupper echelon theory. The central assertionassert that in order to be effective, theof upper echelon theory is that becausedevelopmental capacity of a strategic leaderleaders operate at a strategic level,must be well matched to the complexity oforganizations are reflections of the cognitionthe work (Lewis & Jacobs, 1992). Moreand values of their top managers. Therecently, authors in strategic leadership havespecific knowledge, experience, values, anddescribed strategic leadership in broaderpreferences of top managers will influenceterms. Ireland and Hitt (1999) proposed sixtheirassessmentoftheexternalcomponents of effective strategic leadership:environment, and ultimately the choices theydetermining the organization’s purpose ormakeabout organizationalstrategy.vision; exploiting and maintaining coreTherefore, over time, the organizationcompetencies; developing human capital;comes to reflect the top leader. This theorysustaining an effective organizationalwas adapted and expanded by subsequentculture; emphasizing ethical practices; andauthors, and eventually came to be known asestablishingbalancedorganizationalstrategic leadership theory (Finkelstein &controls. When these elements are in place,Hambrick, 1996). A fundamental premise ofthey argue, the firm’s strategic leadershipstrategic leadership theory is that a leader’sbecomes a source of competitive advantagefield of vision and interpretation offor an organization. In a similar effortinformation is influenced by that leader’sfocused on providing a broader, morevalues, cognitions, and personality (Cannellaintegrative framework to explain how a top& Monroe, 1997). Specific expressions oflevel leader influences organizationalthis underlying premise continue to beoutcomes, Boal and Hooijberg (2000) calledstudied today. For example, Papenhausenfor researchers to look beyond es and work instead to integrateoptimism in top level leaders to beresearch from other fields to describe thecorrelated with their problem definition andprocess whereby strategic leaders affectproblem solving activity. As the theory wasorganizational outcomes. In keeping withrefined by subsequent authors, strategicthis direction they proposed that at its coreISSN (Print): 2319–5479, Volume-4, Issue–1, 2015137
International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)strategic leadership is about a leader’sability to create and maintain threecapacitieswithintheorganization:absorptive capacity (or the capacity tolearn), the capacity to change, and thecapacity for managerial wisdom.1.2.Strategicleadershiporganisational cultureThe strategic leaders give proper direction tothe organisation, the communication systemand the organisational structure. Figure 1represents the three contributions ofstrategic leaders into seven themes whichare as follows:andFig 1: J.L. Thompson, Strategic Management,ITBP,Kent,1997Culture is a system of shared values andbeliefs that produce norms of behaviourvalues and beliefs interact to cause. Culturegives people a sense of how to behave andwhat they ought to be doing. Culture givespeople a sense of how to behave and whatthey ought to be doing. Strategic leader caninfluence the culture of a companysignificantly .In fact every company reflectsthe character and personality of its leader. Ifhe has majored in finance, he might befascinated by financial analysis, targets andput emphasis on improving financial issues.If he has a marketing background he maypropagate street –smart tactics in place oftraditional ways of improving results. Thus,the beliefs and values of leaders have astrong bearing on how employees behaveand react to situations on a daily basis.1.3.Impact of Culture on StrategicLeadership DevelopmentThe fact that organisations may have strongor healthy culture affects their ability toperform strategic management .Cultureaffects not only the way mangers behavewithin an organisation but also the decisionsthey make about the organisationsrelationship with its environment and itsstrategy Culture is a strength that can also beaweakness(D.F.Abell,1990).Whencorporate culture acts as strength ,it canfacilitate communication ,decision makingand control and create cooperation andcommitment .An organisations culture couldbe strong and cohesive when it conducts itsbusiness according to a clear an
toward organisational success. Namely, it is the ability to lead members to work voluntarily and cooperatively for organisation success (Kim et al, 2011). Leadership is a very important factor for accomplishing organisational goals because it can positively affect organisational effectiveness thus contributing to the
Unit 7: Organisational Systems Security Unit code: T/601/7312 QCF Level 3: BTEC Nationals Credit value: 10 Guided learning hours: 60 Aim and purpose The aim of this unit is to enable learners to understand potential threats to IT systems and the organisational issues related to IT security, and know how to keep systems and data secure from theseFile Size: 206KBPage Count: 8Explore furtherUnit 7: Organisational System Security : Unit 7: P1, P2 .unit7organisationalsystemsecurity.bl Unit 7: Organisational Systems Securitywiki.computing.hct.ac.ukLevel 3 BTEC Unit 7 - Organisational Systems Security .wiki.computing.hct.ac.ukUnit 7: Organisational Systems Security Cybersecurity .jadeltawil.wordpress.comUnit 7: Organisational System Security : Unit 7: P6, M3 & D2unit7organisationalsystemsecurity.bl Recommended to you b
Organisational culture Please study Robbins et al. (2009 or 2016) for paragraph and multiple-choice questions. Aspects to study: Definition of organisational culture, Characteristics of organisational culture, Strong and weak cultures, Functions of organisational culture and Learning/
Nov 02, 2018 · of organisational culture and ethical behaviour are evaluated. They rest on different understandings of organisational culture and the processes by which ethics are enhanced. Firstly, the prevailing approach holds that creating a unitary cohesive culture around core moral values is
culture and specific components of job satisfaction. Participants in the study were full-time academic professionals (n 135). The Organisational Culture Profile (OCP) questionnaire was used to collect data on perceptions of organisational culture, while the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was used to collect data on job satisfaction.
behaviour and organisational culture, this study contributes in adding to the body of the Egyptian culture knowledge. Also, to the best of the authors’ knowledge there is no study published that explores the influence of leadership behaviour and organisational culture on staff job satisfaction, commitment and
culture and performance in Ghana, a developing country. All the variable items for organisational culture and Performance were measured using five-point Likert scale and using the Denison’s Organisational Survey Instruments. The data was obtained from nine banks in Ghana constituting about 60% of the Banking Industry’s
company performance is to adapt it, or certain component elements, to achieve organisational objectives. 8 Organisations are rarely characterised by a single type of culture. They tend to develop a dominant organisational culture as they adapt and respond to the environmental challenges and changes.
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