Book Report

LEADERSHIP

Schein's book “Organizational culture and leadership” is one of best books. No other book on organizational change or organizational culture deserved such “attention” from practitioners. That it can be considered the apotheosis of the theorists' impunity with impunity in the areas of practical management, knowable only from inside. Not from the safe distance to which scientific laboratories are removed from the realities of business, and not through the collection of reviews and opinions, the causal relationships of the sociocultural phenomena of the organization are exposed. However, without considering our judgment as the ultimate truth, we are ready to publish other opinions of our colleagues.

This book explains that It is difficult to find modern domestic or foreign work in the field of management, where issues of organizational culture would not be raised. Organizational culture is a phenomenon that deserves self-study, a form of organization's existence and manifestation of its behavior in the internal environment and in relation to the subjects of the external environment. Organizational culture is a subject of study of social psychology, management psychology, organizational behavior, industrial psychology and many other scientific disciplines.

Under the organizational culture refers to a system of collectively shared values, symbols, beliefs, patterns of behavior of members of the organization who have stood the test of time. It is produced and changed in the process of human activity. People interacting with each other over time form and develop norms and mutual expectations that have a strong influence on their future behavior. These processes may also be due to external influence, including targeted ones. From the outside, social and business environment, national and state and ethnic factors influence organizational culture.

The book presents a systematic description of organizational culture in a changing world and the place of a leader in the creation and management of culture. In this deep, multifaceted study, a clear and distinct concept of organizational culture is proposed, its structure is revealed, its role in the successes and failures of organizations is evaluated, and methods of research, creation and transformation of culture are given. Numerous examples from the life of modern American and transnational companies, both real and fictional, will not only facilitate the understanding of theoretical positions, but also help to ensure the flow of new ideas, flexibility and dynamism of your enterprise.

We note, first of all, that the book belongs to the pen of a well-deserved and respected (in scientific circles) person. Schein is a professor at the MIT Sloan Business School, the founder of the “Organizational Psychology” direction and the author of numerous bestsellers. The latter is not surprising, including because the army of theorists and consultants is truly grandeur. Probably, it is the author's data, as soon as they become known to the new reader, stun him as in a concussion, discouraging the ability to think independently and excluding attempts at any criticism. It is precisely the cultivation of intelligibility among fellow practitioners and those who sympathize with them is almost the main goal of our association in the Community (in that part of it, as regards educational efforts). None of the practitioners with deep knowledge , will not argue (that is to argue, and not lead the discussion) with the professor . We have no goal to damage his reputation "by his amateurish statements."

The book is a colander. So sometimes they say about the presentation, where for several fresh and important judgments there is one, but very significant blunder. One of my colleagues admitted that he had to use bookmarks of two colors, since apart from valuable thoughts, it was impossible not to single out "absolutely amazing and amazing."For example, it turns out that the ancestor of organizational psychology is not familiar with the achievem ents of cognitive science, for example, the discoveries of genetics, which are so important for human knowledge and social processes. Practices without degrees and departments practicing in the field of organizational change often have a social role-playing analysis (the result of the synthesis of ethology, genetics, behavioral economics and a number of other human sciences) - an applied and very accurate tool for diagnosing and predicting organizational behavior.

The change management practice knows that managerial stereotypes, so fatal in Shane’s opinion, affecting organizational culture, are a sublimation of the personal depth program model (determines the individual’s social role impending doom) transmitted by the authorities here and now; that organizational culture with Culture has not only a common word, but also enormous differences. In particular, by the way replication of memes ( R. Dawkins ) in these different cases.

This book explains that each company has its own ideal model and its own way to achieve excellence. Such a subtle question, as the timing of the passage of the crises of maturation, the most poorly developed by theorists. No wonder, right? The culture-time continuum is very one-sidedly cognizable by outside observation. What it was: the conviction of the author of this book or a translation error, but the company's culture, business culture, and organization culture are not at all synonymous. These are different things. In change management, we are faced with a widespread lack of understanding that business development and organization development are not the same thing. When a request comes in for help in finding a development director, one has to clarify the “development of what”. Similarly, in Shane, heaped up examples of organizational and executive business behavior, kaizen, and improvisation.

As long as you do not practice the issue, it is not necessary to distinguish shades. But as soon as you get down to business, you will not dodge. You will have to know, have to feel the difference. If you are not completely "unprofitable" to change-management, life itself will teach: show how the process of maturing changes looks, how it happens, how it takes exactly as much time as is needed right here, now. Life will explain that managing change in culture is a little like taxiing, that it does not tolerate acceleration. And no matter how many examples of “as it was in similar companies,” you would be led, this will hardly have an indirect relation to your company. Each company has its own time concepts (quickly, slowly, soon, etc.), although there are regularities that are measurable within the boundaries of the industry, country, business cycle.

Throughout everything that is happening around, it is clear that the patience of creative people watching the processes in science, culture, business and society will soon end, and we will increasingly begin to receive calls from the pages of magazines, blue screens and chairs that it’s time to learn to separate the truth. from lies. The more the conjuncture will go in the direction of fashion for leadership, the more loudly the failures will be discussed of both the people “appointed” by the leaders and the companies for the eternal leadership of those who pretend. Maybe it is this that will help someone stop and understand what leadership, leadership, primacy, and other non-synonyms really are.

Shane as a psychologist, of course, could not help but sit in the favorite puddle of all psychologists. We are very grateful to him for this example, since now we can explain our point of view on it. Shane seems irreconcilable in relation to those who advocate "for easily implemented changes." Plenty to talk, until the parties (or rather, the psychologist) decide what is enough. The main error of Shane passes through his book as a red thread. Its essence is that in order to change the behavior of people, you must first change their thinking. I will not undertake to suggest how much damage to the corporate life of American companies will be inflicted by this idea, whether it is adopted. Emphasis in the postulate: " Anyone who wants to change the culture should determine the desired actions and behavior, and then bring the work processes in line with them " -made to "define", but the approach to implementation and interpretation of this among consultants and practitioners are completely different.

This book explains that a leader is a member of a group who spontaneously advances to the role of an unofficial leader in a specific, specific and, as a rule, sufficiently significant situation to ensure the organization of joint, collective activities of people for the most rapid and successful achievement of a common goal. In the characterization of the very concept of a group activity leader, it is essential to emphasize several circumstances: first, that the leader is not promoted by the group to the appropriate post, but spontaneously takes the leading position with the open or hidden consent of the group; secondly, that a leader is promoted to the role of an unofficial leader, and consequently, a specific group norms and values ​​system that is not exhausted by the system of officially accepted meanings is identified with his personality; thirdly, that the leader is promoted to the appropriate role in conditions not only specific, but also always sufficiently significant for the life of the group situation.

The agents of change, introducing changes to the culture of an organization practically on themselves, themselves becoming a change personally show (and not tell) what it means to coexist side by side, working differently. They attract into their ranks those who are interested to try. They live such "samples" with the staff, they leave people in the quarters for their own assessments, they try again, watching together, collecting the fruits, making conclusions. A change in organizational culture is a consequence from the awareness by people that the new practices, approaches, tools, and views that they have applied turned out to be better than before. Changing culture, rules, value systems is, above all, dissent. In a country with a deeply sad and gloomy experience of eradicating dissent, at the level of the mass unconscious work patterns formed by Soviet psychiatry.

Reference

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.