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Managing Changes ? Renewing Organizational Structure and Culture
In their 2005 book, Understanding and Managing: Organizational Behavior, Jennifer George and Gareth Jones define organizational structure as "the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate and work together to achieve an organization's goals." A logical consequence to an organization's structure is the resulting culture, which George and Jones further define as "the set of shared values, beliefs, and norms that influences the way employees think, feel, and behave toward each other and toward people outside the organization." Finding the right structure for one's organization is vital to its strength and longevity. Appropriate structures are commonly found by trial and error; most continue to evolve as the organization enters different stages of its existence. Structures are defined and redefined in accordance with the organization's strengths and weaknesses, maximizing one while attempting to decrease the other. Over the course of change of structural ?eras', so too will the culture change.
Culture is more than just a word; it embodies several ideas: Culture refers to the perspectives, practices and products of a social or professional group. An organization's culture holds within it, its integrity, its ethics, its personality and attitude. Organizational culture is the invisible billboard and silent announcement proclaiming its rules of engagement. Culture is a group's particular ideas about authority, hierarchy and communication styles. Culture is shared values across an organiza ...