Power And Culture Within Organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Power And Culture Within Organisations - Essay Example According to Edgar Schein (1985), organizational culture is that pattern of basic assumptions that are shared, and that a group learns in its endeavour to solve problems of internal integration and external adaptation. Further, these shared assumptions should have well worked in the past and are therefore qualify to be taught to the organization’s new members as a right way to think, perceive and feel with respect to these problems. These values and norms are the ones that control the way people act and interact with one another and with people outside the organization including other stakeholders. In the actual sense, an organization’s culture is actually its personality according to McNamara (2000). In this sense, different organizations have different organizational cultures more like people have different personalities. An organization may have a weak or strong culture generally (Parker, 2000). A strong culture exists where members of staff respond to stimulus as a result of their respect and appreciation for organizational values. In such a case, people tend to act in a given way since they believe that is the right way to act. A weak culture on the other hand is in place when staff members have little commitment to the organization’s values and therefore must be controlled through the application of bureaucracy and/or extensive procedures. According to Kennedy and Deal (1982), organizational culture is the way things are â€Å"here† done. In one of their research, the two measured organizations using two parameters – risk or uncertainty and feedback or response. According to the findings of this study, Kennedy and Deal noted that organizations may be distinctly classified into four with respected to culture. The four cultures include the process culture, the bet your company culture, the play hard/work hard culture, and the tough-guy macho culture. The process

Sources of Power Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sources of Power Paper - Essay Example The motive of public leadership is to set a vision and motivate people to follow it with the purpose of ensuring unity. These leaders create a positive environment and promote shared standards and high performances filled with team spirit and trust. They also aim to drive successful actions and results collectively. The United States of America has a total of 435 constituencies and each have their own public leader. The federal government in the USA is not supposed to intervene in the policies of the constituencies set by the public leaders. These leaders may take help from the Congress who provides them with members to help them with their problems. The major role of the Congress is to provide service to the constituents by assisting them in providing members to win elections. These constituencies have their own voting and elections in which only the people of that constituency will be able to vote. Public leaders of constituencies can be elected by their constituents and their laws can be limited to their constituencies only (Rehfield, 2005). Constituencies in the United States of America are also known as electoral districts. These electoral districts were seen important in the American politics as they influenced the presidential elections. This was mainly because of certain groups that were not allowed to vote before the civil rights act such as the minorities. Electoral districts allowed the blacks to choose their own public leaders through constituency elections. The systems of these constituencies could be decided and created by the public leaders as far as they followed the American constitution. In 1963, the election system of Georgia was called unconstitutional and invalid as it violated the constitutional amendments. In America, the constituencies can have their own leaders and policies thus they can set rules according to their constituencies’ features and needs. This is because of the power which is assigned to them by the constitution and position. The source of their power is their position, their personal powers and through their people. Before the civil rights act, the blacks were discriminated from voting and participating in elections. The electoral districts have given the blacks representation from constituencies where they are in majority (Rehfield, 2005). In the same way, the rural areas have gained representation and participation in presidential elections. However, there are still constituencies where indirect discrimination exists against blacks such as the policy to allow voting to those who have driving licenses knowing that blacks couldn’t afford them. The public leaders elected in the electoral constituencies have constitutional powers. These elected members become the members of the House of Representatives. They are given the powers to create laws and policies for their constituencies. They also participate in the House of Representatives and present their views for their constituency. The pu blic leaders are assigned those powers that are not in the hands of the federal or state government. Some of the aspects are left for the constituency leaders who set laws according to their region’s needs and demands. They play an important role in bringing their constituents together and motivating them towards a single goal. The positional power is not based on the person’s conduct or behavior, but only on the number of votes that he achieved to gain that position. The US Supreme Court has concluded that the federal government cannot intervene in the lawmaking of the constituencies’ leaders unless they are unconstitutional. The public leaders also have personal power which is derived from their own expertise and knowledge. They are given the powers because of their skills and abilities to deal with them such as