ONWARDS AND UPWARDS !!!!!

This week’s aspect of management, got me in a pickle!
On one aspect I understood the case studies, and thought I understood where the different contexts where coming from, and then I skimmed the chapters in the book and I got all cultured up!
I think I began looking at the concept of culture from my sociological degree mind and then tried to bring it in an aspect of a working organisation I got very frustrated and I could not understand why!

I read the piece “What do you mean” and when they said “Culture is similar to cultivating that being a farmer tending his plants, I nearly threw the book on the floor!!
Because in my mind it is nothing of that sort, after learning sociological definitions of culture for 3 years, that is not one of them!

I understand the context culture contains in organisations but it only is the context that maps the making the organisation. The culture can be it’s make-up like the Irish has a social way of bringing together a team or giving a work team a boost, by throwing a party, another culture would see this as crazy!
The other meaning of culture that I took was the change in the actual traditional way of operating as a organisation, culturally that’s embedded in your thoughts, behaviour, and the analysis of the world around you.

This is given in a very good example in the textbook of how now MODERN CEO’S cannot behave like their old counterparts like the Tudor court because they are meshed into all aspects of the organisations which gives them little power to do what THEY want.
After reading the case study on “Google” I really (in a nice way) did not feel very well!!!! I had already heard many stories of people working in Google and how they make the work area a FANTASTIC place to work in so you never want to go home BLA BLA BLA… so after reading it I was like GET A LIFE IT’S ONLY A JOB!
I thought I can’t say this is my blog no one is going to like this, but again I knew I had similar mind thinkers, when Clegg and co. showed their insight into some of their opinions on how their working environment makes them feel. PHEW!

After taking a break from reading for this reflection, I picked up the paper, and inside was the supplement for the “Innovation Dublin 2012” and low and behold, I found exactly something that brings all these aspects together, the inside cover has a big picture of a beautiful nights sky of Dublin’s Liffey, and surrounding the words DUBLIN CITY it had supportive, international, strong, smart, leadership, competitive, all of these where the buzz words used in the case studies that wanted to create a new culture or build up a new culture within a traditional organisation like Ford or a new one like Google.
It uses new thinking with words like “I’m hugely impressed with the quality of teams coming out of Ireland” one article writes about success stories of start up companies, another article, goes on to talk about “The best innovation comes from collaboration”.
After reading for today’s reflection, and looking at the articles in the supplement I am invigorated to go and see how these people keep so positive and keep their ideas all the time changing, maybe I just have a lazy brain that only wants to work 9-5, better start changing….
Wonder what I shall be like when this module is over 🙂