Organizational culture is a phenomenon in management used to define the shared values and beliefs that people in an organization have. An organization’s culture hence plays an important role in determining how various groups or individuals interact in the organization (Martin, 2001, p. 5). Formalization is also an area in management which defines just how structured duties and responsibilities are within an organization. It also describes the way activities undertaken by the staff are structured (Robbins & Judge, 2010, p. 367). Organization culture and formalization both seek to achieve the same thing- uniformity and consistency in the way things are done. In this decade where emphasis is being placed on human relations and management styles, I believe that organizational culture acts as a substitute for formalization.
An organization’s culture gives its management an opportunity to control how its employees work by having a specific interaction style and values for the employees to follow. The organization culture however, does not emphasis on specific tasks but rather is concerned with behavior (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008, p. 86). The general assumption here is that once employees behave and act in a certain way, their respect for authority shall come out automatically. This way the culture soon replaces formalization in the organization.
The recent emphasis on a humanistic approach on how organizations are managed is also another reason why organization culture is becoming a substitute for formalization. This is because most managers are of the opinion that practicing a form of supervision is a good way of increasing productivity and consequently their efficiency. Formalization on its part is seen as being an aspect of the classical approach of management which is rather impersonal. Research has helped in establishing that impersonality reduces the motivation of employees and reduces productivity (Schein, 2001, p. 49). Hence managers prefer to use the organization culture to determine how employees behave rather than formalization.
The substitution of formalization by organization culture may be considered by some as a bad thing but in my opinion this is a step in the right direction. This is because the organization culture gives employees an opportunity to incorporate their ideas in their operations rather than formalization which limits contributions from the employees. Hence the substitution of formalization by organizational culture helps in increasing creativity an innovation in an organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2010). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational Culture Leadership. New York: Jossey- Bass.
Martin, J. (2001). Organizational Culture: Mapping the Terrain. New York: Sage Publications.
Kinicki, A. & Kreitner, R. (2008). Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices. London: Mc-Graw Hill
