Page 59 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

2.5 Organisational Culture in the Knowledge Transfer process
Much has been written about the impact of culture on organisation’s effectiveness (e.g. Schein, 1985, 1992; Quinn, 1988). In the following section the contributions of authors from diverse directions and positions are presented, discussed and analysed. Special attention is paid to the role of OC on the process of managerial knowledge and skills transfer.
It is clear that the concept of cultures in an organisational environment is linked to the recognition of the cultural perspective in organisational settings. But what exactly does the organisation’s cultural perspective mean? Borrowed and initiated from anthropology (with no consensus on a leading definition) surprisingly, there is a larger variation in applications within the study of organisations. How significant can be the evaluation of the concept of culture for organisational study? Researchers basic assumptions constructed around both “organisation” and “culture” are leading to different approaches regarding the connection between “organisation” and “culture” (Smircich, 1983).
NC is important in the workplace because of the common beliefs, ideas and attitudes that develop among groups. When an individual with a strong ethnic culture enters the workplace, their past experiences impacts their perception of the environment. Previous research by Kattman (2014) emphasised that NC is often dominant over OC, which, however, can be negated in case of a strong leadership. National cultural values, characteristic of the environment where the organisation operates, may have greater influence on management and leadership style than manager’s personal values and situational variables. This may be a result of isomorphism and the fact that business wants to be successful. According to Woywode (2002) isomorphism suggests that institutional differences tend to diffuse with one another over time, causing the decrease of those differences. Companies across the globe are struggling to increase their competitive edge. The continuous improvement methods and tools may be spreading through benchmarking and communications of company successes. In the past, NCs may have biased company efforts. With company leaders, striving to increase company performance, the OC, driven through business and management practices now appears to take precedence.
Mojic (2003) brings the managerial behaviour in Serbia as a good example of such orientation. Specifically, research data about NC in Serbia confirmed the facts from Hofstede’s study of having High Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance, and
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