Читать книгу Cultural Reflection in Management - Lukasz Sulkowski - Страница 26

The proposed model of organisational cultures I used in my research is based on three dichotomous dimensions borrowed from G. Hofstede and other researchers. Although Hofstede proposed studying organisational cultures according to other dimensions of values than in cultures of whole societies, there are numerous authors who think his model is more general, and so apply it to organisational cultures too. It seems that three out of five dimensions proposed by Hofstede can be used as a basis for such multidimensional models and typology. I am also in favour of this approach, as I believe that three of the dimensions included in Hofstede’s model are of a universal character, whether they concern individuals, organisational cultures or social cultures. The model, based on the combination of the dimensions of individualism/collectivism, power distance and tolerance for uncertainty, sets these three dimensions in the area of fundamental, ‘existential’ assumptions of individuals and human communities (Tab. 15). The dimension of individualism/collectivism determines the basic assumptions about the degree of attachment to a social group¹¹⁴. The dimension of power distance reflects a universal feature of human nature that can be found in all communities in the form of the attitude towards power in a ←67 | 68→social structure. And finally, the tolerance for uncertainty can be derived from a skill characteristic only of people, which is planning for the future, together with an intuitive evaluation of the probability of their success. There is no agreement among researchers as to the dimensions of organisational culture, but regardless of their opinions, most can see the relationships between the dimensions of ←68 | 69→culture proposed by G. Hofstede, such as individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, and corporate culture¹¹⁵.

Tab. 15: Three dimensions of G. Hofstede, on the level of individuals, organisational culture and social culture. Source: Own work.

From among the many dimensions of values, I distinguished three which appear in numerous concepts and research into the influence of culture on organisation (proposed by G. Hofstede, A. A. Trompenaars and C. Hampden-Turner, R. D. Lewis, and E. Marx). Together, they form consistent configurations of cultures, and are linked with other subsystems (strategy and structure). All values studied largely diversify organisational cultures. The model of organisational culture developed includes as few of the most important diversifying values (dimensions) as possible. Naturally, it is possible to create typologies of other dimensions, including (more or less) values. Some of the dimensions of values assumed by other concepts were not included in this model at all. It was therefore assumed that they do not concern the level of culture or are of a secondary ←69 | 70→character. Dimensions distinguished here were recognised as primary, so it is also possible to derive secondary dimensions from them, used in other concepts and research. In most cases, secondary dimensions can be derived from the primary with an analysis of the given dimension’s semantic contents. The three distinguished values are as follows bellow.