Question

As we discussed in our class the notion of organizational culture, structure and styles of management from the perspectives of Handy’s (1976) and Miles & Snow (1978). These authors provided their frameworks that are different from each other’s. What you have to do: Take an organization with which you are familiar or imaginary organization and evaluate & relate or apply Handy’s and Miles & Snow’s typologies (scientific/logical classification/steps of organizational culture, structure and styles) that they provided in their approaches or framework.

Answer 1

1.Handy's model of organizational Culture:

Handy has divided the organization keeping in view how power and level of coordination are distributed. It can be depicted by the following:

a.Power Culture:

Power distribution is low, the level of cooperation is high.

Here, power is concentrated with a small group of people at the center and the others strongly abide by the rules made by people in power. For e.g- A village Panchayat. The sarpanch or head is responsible for decision making for entire cases or disputes and the rest of the people, irrespective of age, caste, creed abide y his decision.

b.Role Culture:

Power distribution is low and the level of cooperation is low.

Here, power is distributed in a clearly defined hierarchy. Everyone is delegated their own specific tasks. For e.g. Organisational structure of a bank. From the CEO to the clerk, a hierarchy is well defined. Everyone has their specific tasks and targets and they have to fulfill them within a stipulated amount of time. Productive mixing of skills, creative work due to collective efforts may be less here.

c. Task Culture:

It is identified by high power distribution and a high level of cooperation.

Here, task completion is supreme aim. There is no single source of power. Teams are formed with common interests and specializations and they solve problems in innovative, creative and productive ways. For e.g. an aspiring startup model such as Big-Basket. It is struggling to provide home delivery during lockdown because of COVID-19. It can thus collaborate with delivery partners from other e-commerce firms such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc whose delivery agents will be relatively free during this time and this can provide seamlessly to its customers.

d. Person culture:

It is identified by High power distribution and low level of cooperation:

Here, employees have complete independence, they are highly qualified, they themselves mostly control the business and thus, they see themselves superior to the organization. For e.g. Consider a law firm which opened and managed by a group of lawyers. They have shared interests and they have their own rules or procedure. The line is vague as who is the boss.

Miles and Snow Model of Organisational Culture:

It depicts and categorizes the underlying strategies with each organization functions.  Following are the four categories:

a.Prospector: As the name suggests, Such type of organization strives to always be on the top of their game. Their focus is on innovation and product development. For e,g, Xiaomi Mobile. It continuously focuses on launching new products in the market keeping pace with technological development. Here, the focus is less on end result but more on being experimentative, so as to win the market

b. Defender: Such organizations are content with their position in the market and they continue to earn profit from what they have already established. They are often in a mature marketplace where innovation is less. For e.g. business of a famous cloth merchant in a meta market. He just has to open shop daily and serve to customers. There is nearly zero effort of innovation or product development.

c.Analyzer: Such organizations have mixed features of Prospector and defender. Basically, they have two tasks. First to defend the market with the brand equity they have already established. Second, they have to innovate and develop new products so as to compete with another emerging trend. For e,g. Business model of Titan. It is already reaping the benefits of its image formed years ago. It is a well-known and loved brand. Simultaneously, it keeps on innovating by developing new product lines as Titan Mia, Titan Raga, by studying closely the needs of emerging customer segments and thus is in the demand of the young generation as well.

d.Reactor: Such organizations do not have any underlying business strategy. It keeps on changing as per the environmental pressure. They have no specific approach to their business. Such companies usually try to catch up with the market and slowly lag behind. They fail to innovate as per the market demand and ultimately die out For e.g: Xerox, a renowned brand which doomed because they read the market need halfway and could not catch up to the innovating properly. Mismanagement at superior level also caused it. Although it was not a reactor in the begining.