The Pros And Cons Of Subcultures

2.8. Subcultures.

When organizations grow and mature they do not only develop the overall culture, but they also differentiate themselves into subcultures based on occupation, product lines, functions, geographies, and echelons in the hierarchy (Schein 2009).Rose,1988;Trice & Beyer,1993;Van Maanen & Barley,1985; found that subcultures are more likely to develop in large, complex or bureaucratic organizations because these organizations are more likely to encompass a variety of functions and technologies. Bloor & Dawson, 1994 ; Trice,1993; Van Maanen & Barley 1984 stated that the existence of professional groups in an organization could encourage the formation of subcultures since professionals in an organization tend to hold values that cut

This change in technology has created different structural possibilities of by whom, when and where is work going to be done.

- Privatization and open market situations. In these situations the strategies and sometimes the whole organization structure needs to adapt to the new environment.

These Organizational culture and subculture aspects have an impact on how the organization functions.

Hence the 21th century manager has to understand and manage these influences to ensure that these forces are congruent with the organizations goals and mission. So adapting to these external environments the subunits with their respective subcultures evolve beliefs and assumptions that are congruent from the core assumptions, but they can still differ from the core assumptions of the founder(s). It is not only the responsibility of top management to manage the “corporate culture”, but management at all levels of the organization must understand and commit to their role in evolving, creating and managing the subculture at their level within the organization. Hereby is meant that the functioning of an organization depends on how the different subcultures in that organization align with each other, so that management needs to understand the dynamics of

These members are in agreement and care about both peripheral and pivotal values, which are consistent with the overall organizational core values. Members of this subculture type are committed to particular peripheral values, which are consistent with the dominating culture, differentiates them as a subculture .

- Orthogonal subcultures; Members here hold the dominant cultures value and also hold their own set of distinct but not conflicting values. Since the difference in values between the orthogonal subcultures members and the members of the dominant culture is less important for the functioning and identity of the organization than the pivotal values, the existence of this type of subculture does not interfere with the cohesiveness of the dominating culture.

- Counter culture; The members in this type of culture hold values that conflict with pivotal organizational values which be a treat to the strength of the dominant