A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANISATIONAL ... - Euroasiapub.org

IJRFM Volume 1, Issue 2 (June, 2011) (ISSN 2231-5985)
them, how rewards are distributed, who is promoted, how people are treated, how the
organization responds to its environment and so on.
The concept of organization ideology was first suggested by Roger Harrison as a significant
area of study enabling organization to diagnose their cultural state and design interventions
for developing a desired culture of excellence.
Four organization ideologies or culture orientation have been identified: Power, Role,
Achievement/Task and Support. Although organizations tend to have the presence of
characteristics of all the four cultural orientations, based on the individual and collective
paradigm, through time they develop a dominant ideology. A brief description of the
characteristics of four ideologies/cultural orientations can be stated as follows
• Power oriented organizations can be compared with cob webs wherein all organizational
processes and individual energies are directed towards maintaining and strengthening the
power position of a central figure which could be an individual or a group. Large
organizations tend to develop several power centers.
• Role Orientated culture tends to share some of the characteristics of what is commonly
called bureaucracy .The arbitrary use personal and resource based power of an
individual/group is regulated by delegation of legitimate authority at various levels in the
organization .Specified role is delineated for organization members and their responsibility
and authority defined. Systems, rules and procedures are developed for judicious use of
one’s authority, performance of one’s role and discharging of one’s responsibility as a
result of which functional differentiations takes place often leading to compartmentalization
and problems of co-ordination and controlled. The role oriented culture reinforces stability
and maintenance of the system.
• While Power and Role oriented cultures tend to rely more on extrinsic rewards for
directing the energies and efforts of employees towards growth of the organization, the
task/achievement oriented culture focuses on intrinsic rewards for generating commitment
amongst employees towards task accomplishment and organizational excellence.
Organization structure and processes are designed to facilitate task performance, which is
the requirement of various tasks that determined the allocation of responsibility and
distribution of authority.
• The support culture is driven by the growth related needs of the individuals thereby
unleashing and harnessing the human potential in meeting their expectations and
International Journal of Research in Finance & Marketing 56
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