viernes, 7 de mayo de 2010

Australia

Today we are going to study the Australian management style through the analysis of the research made by Kevin Baird, Graeme Harrison and Robert Reeve, and its name is “The Culture of Australian Organizations and its Relation with Strategy”. Before to talk about the Australian organizational culture, it is appropriate, first to describe the main features of its national culture, egalitarianism, mateship and individualism are the most important elements of its culture and they are reflected in every social activity and, in the organizational culture of Australian companies. As you know organizational culture is defined as a shared value system that organization´s members practice and promote as the better mean to complement the organization´s strategy.

According to this research Australian organizational culture is characterized by a high level of outcome orientation, this means that Australian managers from different levels value performing approaches oriented to results, achievements and high expectations to undertake. The respect for people is another important characteristic, so aspects such as fairness, social responsibility and respect for individual´s rights are actively promoted in the corporate culture, this issue could be closely related to the national statement of egalitarianism, in Australian organizations all employees have an important role to play regardless their position and the manager recognizes the knowledge and the contribution that employees could offer to the company. The third cultural factor that stands out from the rest is team orientation, this suggest that for employees is quiet comfortable working in teams, everybody expect to contribute in the company´s performance. However the Australian organizational culture lacks innovation and competitiveness, Australians have a post planning culture, and they tend to resolve the issues or concerns at the same moment theses appear, besides the lack of competitiveness could be explained through the association that the latter one has with differentiation, being competitive is linked to the fact of being different and this isn´t well seen in an egalitarian culture, that´s why innovation is discouraged.

This research also states that both organizational culture and organization´s strategy should be aligned in order to achieve higher productivity levels, better performances and deeper employees’ commitment, the research studies different types of organizational cultures which are classified according to their orientation to innovate and accept changes, those organizations who define themselves as prospectors (innovators) can adopt more easily the introduction of new technology and processes in order to get a more sustainable competitiveness in the market.

Finally this research didn´t find any difference between the manufacturing companies’ culture and services companies’ culture because this society has high people awareness and that means respectful treatment to people is expected from all companies regardless their productive sector.

Question based on the Rabbit Proof Fence Movie.
1.       When removed from their families, the children were prepared for “a better life” how is that true or false when considering different perspectives?

From a western perspective the aboriginal children could have a better life through the training received in these programs, it could help them to adapt to the new Australian society, to learn some job that was generally recognized in the community and practice a new religion that was accepted by the dominant group. However from the aborigines’ point of view these actions were an abuse against their rights and against their cultural identity, they already had a quite defined social system and it worked for them, they lived happy together in their territories and their life style was consistent with their values and beliefs, that´s why for them the children’  removing from their families was a devastating episode in the history of aborigines’ society, and it is still recorded in the collective memory of this group.

Images taken from
evatt.labor.net.au


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