The Importance of Culture in an Organization
The first thing that crosses to my mind when the word “culture” is mentioned is the way of life of people. Different groups of people do things differently hence have their own different and independent cultures. I have always understood cultural diversity as the beauty of the world and all the people in it. I have however never seen these concepts in the perspective of an organization, and the relationship culture has with the performance of employees in an organization mostly because I have practically lived or worked closely with people of diverse cultures.
The Role of Micro-Cultures in Organizations
Nancy Scheper-Hughes on pages 16 and 17 of her book shines the light on the different subcultures that exist within an organization. She refers to these subcultures as micro-culture. The text also displays the relationship between these micro-cultures and the performance of the employees in the organization. Different departments have different micro-culture which depends on the expectations of the management, the duties assigned to the departments as well as the guidelines and rules put in place by the organization. According to the author Nancy Scheper-Hughes, the conflicts that arise due to micro-cultures affect the performance of the organization. Susan Santos investigates these issues by attacking the management and determining the cause of the conflicts. Santos main concern, however, was UTC Company particularly two units in her department, the customer outlet and the warehouse. The two units had different micro-cultures that seemed to cause constant disagreements. The ethnographic training Santos had in her undergraduate education came in handy for this investigation. Instead of erecting changes on the units like most new managers, she sought a different approach, one that involved understanding the micro-cultures of the two units. An insight into the way the employees worked and related shone a light on the issues at hand and how to solve them without destroying the micro-cultures.
The Conflict between Morality and Objectivity
The aspect of this text that strikes me most as I read through it is the conflict between morality and objectivity. This conflict is exhibited in the diversity of microculture and their significance in the departments of an organization and means of dealing with it. For instance, Santos had options; either to disregard the micro-cultures or set up her own rules on how to deal with the conflict, or understand the micro-cultures to understand the nature of the problem better. Santos, in this case, assumed the role of an anthropologist and sought to understand and describe the culture of the tow units in her department. I think she is objective as she seeks a solution and not dominance in respect to her position in the organization. I understand from her position that the best way to handle diversity is by first understanding it. Santos worked among the employees I to understand the concept of their micro-culture thereby gain an insight into the root problem and formulation of a perfect solution. I realized from the end that the employees respected her more as she associated with them at a personal level rather than exercising her authority over them.
The Nature of the Relationship between Employees and Employers
The initial concept of management was exercising managerial power on the employees without their concept. Santos approach, however, seems more effective as it involves ethnographic. Various questions arise from this text, the most significant being the nature of the relationship between employees and employers, should it be authoritative or yet approached delicately as Santos did.
Work cited
Robbins, Richard H. Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach. , 2017. Print.
