whether we know what is best for them
If we compare the cultures of different
organisations in one and the same country in
terms of the average values of their employees,
the average value differences prove to be
relatively small, especially when organisations
have more than, say, forty employees. The
larger the group from the same national
culture, the more that national culture will be
expressed in that group. If we deal with e.g. a
single Frenchman, what we will notice are his
individual qualities. If we have to deal with a
large number of French people at the same
time, the specific qualities of each will be less
noticeable and we will especially observe what
they have in common. As you would expect,
people from a different national culture than
the French culture can see this more clearly
than another Frenchman when observing the
same French group, because what is French will
be experienced by this Frenchman as normal.
Nevertheless there can be large differences
in organisational culture within one nation.
In addition to the national culture of its
employees, there are a whole range of other
factors which exert influence on the culture
of an organisation. Such factors are the size
and complexity of the organisation, the type
of activities the people in the organisation are
involved in, expectations of stake holders and
the requirements imposed by the authorities,
just to mention a few.
Organisational culture is also determined by
the personalities of the employees, yet the
culture is not the sum of all those individual
personalities. Reality is different at the
individual level from what is found at the group
level. If you assemble a group of ten intelligent
employees that does not mean that you have
automatically created an intelligent group.
They may distrust each other to such degree
that they are unable to work together. Or some
are jealous about the preferential treatment a
couple of their direct colleagues get from their
boss, creating internal frictions.
Not everybody has the same influence on the
culture. Some may have no real influence,
while especially a successful and charismatic
founder may have a deep and long lasting
effect on the culture of his or her “baby” even
after the founder passed away.
Characterisations of culture such as introvert,
aggressive and formal, which are used to
classify individuals, should be mistrusted.
Obviously, you might find introvert behaviour
in one organisation, while more aggressive
behaviour in another organisation. Insofar
as these behavioural characteristics are a
reflection of cultural characteristics not being
caused by the average personality prevalent
in an organisation, it is preferable to use
different labels. Thus, introvert behaviour can
be a reflection of a means oriented and closed
culture, aggressive behaviour of a goal and
work oriented culture.
Another important determinant factor of
organisational culture is the history of an
organisation. When people come together
to achieve a common goal, group processes