II Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2010

Today there are many notions of organizational culture. It is connected with at interdisciplinary character, examined by many organizational and managerial disciplines: sociology and psychology of management, sociology and psychology of organization, organizational psychology, management of a personal and etc. Organizational culture as a new area of knowledge came separated from the research of organizational behavior.

System of organizational behavior is a whole structure of management process elements, in which organizational culture is an integrative chain, connecting individual, group and organizational goals to create effective system of management. As a result of half a century research in the West there appeared three basic approaches: evaluative-normative, interactional and mental-psychological. The problems of organizational culture as well as three basic approaches, depicting organizational culture: systematic, active and integrative were examined by the Russian scientists. The following parameters: methods of measuring cultural level, management of cultural changes, staff's motivation, labor satisfaction, the type of  personalities leader's, attitude to the conflict, level of decision making, types of decision, kinds of conflict.

Table 1 presents different approaches; both to home and foreign notions of organizational culture. Let us consider some comparative parameters to definition of organizational culture.

The first parameters of comparison.  It is important to use certain methodical instruments to measure cultural level, because the definition of management culture is a level or stage notion. The importance of such instruments to measure cultural level is determined by: practical needs to estimate (diagnostic, analyses) level of management culture, necessity to reveal weak chains, development of certain measures and its practical realization.

Table 1.

Comparative analyses of foreign and home approaches to the notion of organizational culture

So, methods of measuring cultural level are the ways of estimation particular kind and diversity of cultural management. Normative method for measuring cultural level will be used in evaluative-normative and interactional approaches, because normative basis determines certain models, images, stamps and samples, according to which level of culture is estimated. Normative method provides the use of determining basis like "how something should be done"; "what subsystem or system should be like" and etc. This basis is expressed in laws, standards, codices of behavior, partnership, companies' philosophy, where organizational culture is revealed as a complex of values and norms, convictions and etc, shared by all members of an organization.

Since organizational culture is a complex of knowledge, rules and believes, adopted by members of the organization, method of sporadic evaluation is used to measure the cultural level in mental-psychological approach. This method is characterized by free, impulsive replicas of the staff, employees of other organizations and visitors. Constructive and critical method, allowing to get information about tense sections of unticulture or culture on its primitives level, used in the systematic approach of organizational culture. It allows discovering most acute spots in the system of management and timely required measures. This very method of measuring cultural level is necessarily used, when organizational culture is considered as a system, consisting of many components, because it gives reasonable estimation of its different components.

Method of tracking changes "was-became-had to be pattern" is realized in the active approach, estimating past and present organization's activity and determining initial indexes and, thus, judging changes by them.

Integrative approach supposes combined use of above sited methods of measuring cultural level, since organizational culture is examined in three separated cultural areas (production, economic and social). It allows estimating cultural level by different methods dependent on stages of organization.

The fifth parameter of comparison. Neutral leaders' type will be characterized by evaluative-normative approach of organizational culture. Such a leader has a stable, well-formed outlook system, allowing him to achieve set targets in the organization, but he doesn't take into consideration social-psychological factors, influencing efficiency of organizations activity and determining opportunity of some changes, since he is concentrated on inner phenomenon and facts (he is mental introvert according to Jung's typology).

Leader-dreamer is not being able to make management decision efficiently, solve set problems in the condition of social uncertainty, because he is relies only on his view and comprehension to realize changes in the organization. Therefore, such a  leader type can take an active part in collective's social life, but at the same time can't manage efficiently, in the interactive approach, where organizational culture is considered as one of the ways to realize organizational activity thanks to using language, folk, lore traditions.

Employees' method of action and image of thinking and action's, shaping organization consciousness is focused on mental-psychological approach to comprehension of organizational culture. In this case, effective management will be realized under the supervision of analyst-creator, able for changes, introducing conceptual development of future organization, taking into consideration employees' interests and needs.

Functional-feasible leaders' type will be able to execute changes in organization, considering organizational culture from the point of systematic approach, in particularly, the peculiarities of system's each component.

The active approach of organizational culture. Technologist-manager can build up work structure to execute changes consistently and competently, taking for granted former organizations experience, realized in values, traditions, norms. So, this way creative activity is realized.

Creative leader type will run efficiently, considering organizational culture as integrative category and executing changes in production, economic, social and cultural areas of organizational activity. Such a leader will take into consideration all micro characteristics of organizational culture, because he uses creative approach to manage changes.

As a result of comparison of foreign and home approaches to organizational culture we can make the following conclusions:

1. Evaluative-normative and interactive approaches are co insides in the following parameters: methods of measuring cultural level, staff's motivation, the level of decision making, types of decision, kind's conflict.
   All approaches of foreign scientists coincide in the following parameters: management of cultural changes, labor satisfaction and attitude to the conflict.
   Systematic and active approach coincides in one of the comparative parameters: level of decision making.
2. According to above statements, we can conclude that such comparative parameters as management of cultural changes, labor satisfaction and attitude to the conflict emphasis integrative character of organizational culture.
3. Comparative analyses showed that integrative approach of organizational culture is the most comprehensive, considering different changes in the organizational structure under present conditions.