According to Organisational Processes (2010), organisations are located within larger societal cultural contexts and yet almost all organisational cultures are unique.
Cameron and Quinn (2011:38) state that all organisations have a unique culture to organise groups of people as they are different. Moreover, every organisation combines a mix of four different types of organisational cultures under one leading cultural style (Cameron & Quinn, 2011:38).
Cameron and Quinn (2011:39) developed an Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), to assess current and preferred organisational cultures (Tipster, 2013). The framework consists of four competing values that correspond with four types of organisational culture: the clan, the adhocracy, the hierarchy, and the market cultures (Cameron & Quinn, 2011:40). Table 2.2 breaks organisational cultures into four distinct quadrants or cultural types.
Table 2.2 Types of culture Type of
culture
Definition
Adhocracy culture
An organisation that concentrates on external positioning with a high degree of flexibility and individuality.
Market culture An organisation that focuses on external maintenance with a need for stability and control.
Clan culture
An organisation that concentrates on internal maintenance with flexibility, concern for people, and sensitivity for customers.
Hierarchy culture
An organisation that focuses on internal maintenance with a need for stability and control.
Adapted from Featherstone (2017) and Cameron & Quinn (2011).
The focus of this study are the four quadrants in Table 2.2 that relate to the types of organisational culture, as it helps address this study’s primary research objective,
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which is exploring the nature of organisational culture. Thus, understanding the different types of organisational cultures as exposed below:
2.4.1 The adhocracy culture
According to Tharp (2011:5), the adhocracy culture or individualism culture is a dynamic, entrepreneurial, and creative place to work and a place where innovation and risk-taking are embraced by employees and leaders. Quinn and Cameron (2011:26) define adhocracy culture as being focused on energy and creativity. In the adhocracy culture, employees are encouraged to take risks and leaders are innovators or entrepreneurs, where the organisation is held together by experimentation, with the emphasis on individual ingenuity and freedom (Quinn &
Cameron, 2011:27). This means that, employees are allowed to be creative and apply their minds while working.
Tharp (2011:5) asserts that a commitment to experimentation and thinking differently are what unify the organisation and this implies that in this culture, members of the organisation strive to be at the forefront by allowing individual thinking during task completion. However, Schein (2012:42) postulates that the adhocracy culture is based on isolated decision making and the members of the organisation are less included on issues related to the organisation. As indicated, adhocracy culture is an isolated culture. It can, therefore, be said that reaching a common goal as an organisation in such a culture is difficult and usually results in competition, which might affect the organisational outcomes.
In the case of a school as an organisation, the adhocracy culture is expressed by the physical isolation of classrooms; and the tendency of teachers equating professional interaction with teacher evaluation coupled with its negative connotations and increasing demands on and expectations of teachers, which leave them with little time for collegiality (Masuku, 2011:55). This can also be observed when teachers never use a staff room during lunch time to interact with each other and get to know one another, which can also refer to a scenario where teachers rarely observe each other while teaching and where individual teachers differ in their styles and approaches to instructional situations. The aforementioned characteristics demonstrate a culture of adhocracy within the school context.
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Masuku (2011:55) furthermore explains that the adhocracy culture is characterised by professional isolation, where there is no feedback to teachers on their effectiveness from outside the classroom. It is the culture; where the school is not supportive of change and improvement, variations in teaching styles and learner management, habitual patterns of teachers working alone and little attempt by the school to build agreed upon and cohesive professional policies.
2.4.2 The market culture
Based on Quinn and Cameron’s (2011:44) explanation, the market culture is built on the dynamics of achieving concrete results and competition. The focus in this culture is goal-oriented, with tough and demanding leaders. Tharp (2011:5) describes market culture as a “compete market culture” where an organisation and is results- driven organisation focused on completion of the job. Tharp (2011:5) emphasises that such organisations express five qualities, which indicate that: (1) people are competitive and goal-oriented; (2) leaders are demanding, hard-driving, and productive; (3) the emphasis on winning unifies the organisation; (4) reputation and success are common concerns; and (5) long-term focus is on competitive action and achievement of measurable goals and targets.
Efeoglu and Ulum (2017:40) remark that the market culture often leads to poor communication, inconsistent expectations of learners, poor long-term monitoring of learner’s growth, and conflicts over scarce resources. Furthermore, separate and competing groups to which teachers are loyal; groups reflecting different outlooks on learning; poor continuity and progression in learning; and squabbles over resources and territory characterise the market culture (Masuku, 2011:55). Clearly, in the school context, this would mean that teachers and learners work independently and in isolation during teaching and learning setups (Schein, 2012:42). Therefore, it can be said that the market culture is a separated culture. According to Masuku (2011:56), high schools, partly due to their division into specialised subjects and separate groups usually consisting of teachers or learners who specialise together usually typify the features of the market culture.
In a market culture, competition and hopelessness are encouraged, which might inhibit the improvement, growth, and success of the school (Efeoglu & Ulum, 2017:41). Consequently, when learners are supposed to feel welcomed and
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protected, they will be feeling unwelcomed, neglected and in danger (Masuku, 2011:55). These characteristics indicate that the school will find it difficult to reach their common goals or objectives (Efeoglu & Ulum, 2017:41). In a culture where there is negative competition and isolation amongst the members, poor communication increases and inconsistent expectations from both teachers and learners are expected, which makes it difficult and near impossible to improve performance (Masuku, 2011:55). It can be concluded that the market culture can make it difficult to promote school values as members of the school are not working together towards achieving the objectives of the school.
2.4.3 The clan culture
The clan culture or collaboration culture is rooted in collaboration where organisational members share commonalities and consider themselves active and involved part of one big family (Quinn & Cameron, 2011:45). Quinn and Cameron (2011:18) describe clan culture as a culture where people are in an open space and share a lot of themselves, which Tharp (2015:5) avows as being like one big extended family. Supporting the definitions mentioned, Masuku (2011:60) states that a functioning clan culture is characterised by mutual acceptance, trust, openness, support, sharing and recognition.
Tharp (2011:5) points out that in a clan culture, leaders are mentors or even parental figures. It can be asserted that school leaders are responsible for ensuring that all the members of the school feel equally important. Therefore, in this regard, the organisation with a collaborative culture places a premium on teamwork, strong participation, and consensus (Quinn & Cameron, 2011:18). Hofstede and Minkov (2010:383) assert that a collaborative culture is associated with better results.
Carpenter (2015:686) argue that the statement that the clan culture is interactive, whereby teachers and school administrators use their expertise and share what they do in hopes of helping the practice of others. Furthermore, Masuku (2011:57) agrees that a functioning clan culture entails agreement on core values while, at the same time, tolerates and even encourages disagreement within the parameters of the agreed upon values. In this sense, it can be concluded that the clan culture is a typically collaborative culture.
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In the clan culture, values of the school are commonly shared by all the members of the school and include philosophies, ideologies, beliefs, feelings, assumptions, expectations, attitudes, norms, and (Schein, 2012:28). In relation to the school context, Carpenter (2015:684) describes the clan culture in terms of how teachers and school managers think and behave in sharing information about their practice.
Quinn and Cameron (2011:18) affirm that the clan culture is a systematic process where teachers and school managers interdependently analyse their professional practice in improving the achievement of learners. In other words, the individuals in a community are more likely to succeed when their school culture focuses on strengths, collaboration, productivity, communication, relationships, improvement and kindness.