Organizational Culture: the Case of Turkish Construction Industry Essay

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0969-9988.htm Organizational culture: the case of Turkish construction industry Ela Oney-YazÄ ±cÄ ±, Heyecan Giritli, Gulfer Topcu-Oraz and Emrah Acar Department of Architecture, Division of Project and Construction Management, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey Abstract Purpose – The main stimulus of this study is to examine the cultural proï ¬ le of construction organizations within the context of Turkish construction industry. Design/methodology/approach – This study is a part of a cross-cultural research, initiated by CIB W112 (Working Commission W112 of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction), concurrently ongoing in 15 different countries. Data were collected from 107 contracting and 27 architectural ï ¬ rms, by means of a questionnaire based on OCAI (Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument), a well-known and widely used measurement tool developed by Cameron and Quinn (1999). Findings – The ï ¬ ndings show that the Turkish construction industry has been dominated by ï ¬ rms with a mixture of clan and hierarchy cultures. In addition, the analysis reported here indicates cultural differences at organizational level in terms of ï ¬ rm type, size, and age. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the understanding of organizational culture in the construction industry by providing empirical evidence from the Turkish construction industry. As future research direction, it highlights the need of a cross-cultural comparison among different countries, and an investigation of the effects of cultural proï ¬ les of the organizational members on organizational culture. Keywords Organizational culture, Construction industry, Turkey Paper type Research paper Turkish construction industry 519 Introduction Understanding of organizational culture is fundamental to examine what goes on in organizations, how to run them and how to improve them (Schein, 1992). Organizational culture is deï ¬ ned as the shared assumptions, beliefs and â€Å"normal behaviors† (norms) present in an  organization. Most organizational scholars and observers recognize that organizational culture has a powerful effect on the performance and long-term effectiveness of organizations. Cameron and Quinn (1999) propose that what differentiates successful ï ¬ rms from others is their organizational culture. With the worldwide globalization trends, special attention has been given to the study of organizations and their cultures. Empirical studies of organizational culture have been carried out across various countries and industries (Hofstede, 1997; Trompenaars and Hampton-Turner, 1998; Cameron and Quinn, 1999; see among others). In comparison there seems to be a limited number of published studies related The funding for this study was provided by the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey and is gratefully acknowledged. After reviewing research on organizational culture, Ankrah and Langford (2005) have concluded that there is a need to become more aware of the importance of this phenomenon and its impact on organizational performance in the construction industry. The main reasons for the growing importance of the organizational culture can be explained by the internationalization of the construction markets (Low and Shi, 2001), and the fragmented nature of the industry (Hillebrant, 2000). It is a well-known fact that international construction ï ¬ rms have faced many problems due to conï ¬â€šicts, confrontations, misunderstandings, and the differences in ways of doing business with other cultures (Gould and Joyce, 2000). On the other hand, the adversarial relations between different project participants are assumed to be inï ¬â€šuenced by the cultural orientations of the stakeholders (Phua and Rowlinson, 2003). Thus, the study of cultural issues should be addressed when considering the globalization of construction markets. Additionally, it is a common belief that organizations that have developed within similar environments usually have similar cultures and related mindsets with regard to ways of doing business. For this reason, the research reported in this paper, aims to contribute to an understanding of organizational culture in the construction industry using data from a developing country, such as Turkey, where there is no study in this ï ¬ eld. Findings of the study may also have implications for other cultures with a similar make-up. Background study Despite different deï ¬ nitions of organizational culture, there is a consensus among organizational researchers that it refers to the shared meanings or assumptions, beliefs and understandings held by a group. More comprehensively, Schein (1992) deï ¬ ned organizational culture as: [. . .] a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.  ´ Similarly, Deshpande and Webster (1989, p. 4) proposed that organizational culture is: [. . .] the pattern of shared values and beliefs that help individuals understand organizational functioning and thus provide them with norms for behaviors in the organization. There is an extensive body of knowledge in the literature that deals with organizational culture. Many researchers have proposed a variety of dimensions and attributes of organizational culture. Among them, Hofstede has been very inï ¬â€šuential in studies of organizational culture. Drawing on a large sample of 116,000 employees of IBM in 72 countries, Hofstede identiï ¬ ed four dimensions of culture. These four dimensions used to differentiate between cultures are: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity and individualism/collectivism. Beyond these, Hofstede (1997) also identiï ¬ ed the process/results oriented, employee/job oriented, parochial/professional, open/closed system, loose/tight control and normative/pragmatic dimensions of culture. These dimensions have been commonly adapted and applied in studies of organizational culture  (Sà ¸dergaard, 1996). Other comprehensive studies into organizational culture have been carried out, notably by Trompenaars and Hampton-Turner (1993), who conducted an extensive research into the attitudes of 15,000 managers over a ten-year period in 28 different countries. They proposed ï ¬ ve cultural dimensions: (1) universalism/particularism; (2) collectivism/individualism; (3) neutral/affective relationships; (4) diffuse/speciï ¬ c relationships; and (5) achievement/ascription. When dealing with a multitude of dimensions, typologies are usually considered as an alternative to provide a simpliï ¬ ed means of assessing cultures. In this regard, typologies are commonly used in the studies of organizational culture. Notable contributors to these typologies include Handy (1993, 1995) who identiï ¬ ed the club, role, task and person typologies, and Quinn (1988) who identiï ¬ ed the market, hierarchy, adhocracy and clan typologies of culture. Since the culture is regarded as a crucial factor in the long-term effectiveness of organizations, it becomes important to be able to measure organizational culture. Accordingly, a range of tools designed to measure organizational culture have been developed and applied in industrial, educational, and health care settings over the last two decades. All these tools examine employee perceptions and opinions about their working environment (the so-called â€Å"climate† of an organization) but only a few, such as the Competing Values Framework and the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI), try to examine the values and beliefs that inform those views (Scott et al., 2003). The majority of the existing studies in the Construction Management ï ¬ eld mostly attempt to appropriate the theoretical models and measurement tools of the management literature. For instance, Maloney and Federle (1991, 1993) introduced the competing values framework for analyzing the cultural elements in American engineering and construction organizations. Focusing on the relationship between the organizational culture and effectiveness, Zhang and Liu (2006) examined the organizational culture proï ¬ les of construction enterprises in China by means of OCI and Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), the measurement tool of the Competing Values Framework developed by Cameron and Quinn (1999). Rowlinson (2001), using Handy’s organizational culture and Hofstede’s national culture frameworks, investigated the cultural aspects of  organizational change in the construction industry. Ankrah and Langford (2005) proposed a new measurement tool after analyzing all cultural dimensions and typologies developed in the literature and highlighted the cultural variability between organizations in the project coalition. Literature review shows that despite the growing importance of organizational culture in construction research, there are few cross-cultural, empirical studies. This may be due to the difï ¬ culties of conducting research in several countries. The study reported in this paper forms a part of a cross-cultural research, initiated by CIB W112 on â€Å"Culture in Construction†, concurrently ongoing in 15 different countries. The aim of the research project is to develop an international â€Å"Inventory of Culture in Construction†. It continues to stimulate new participants from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and America. Research methodology Measurement of culture represents difï ¬ culties, particularly in respect of the identiï ¬ cation of cultural groups and boundaries. This is further complicated by the nature of the construction industry in which projects are temporary and participants are subject to the values and beliefs of their employing organization, professional groups and project organizations. There is an ongoing debate concerning the study of culture among construction management scholars. However, it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the methodological aspects of studying culture in the construction industry. In order to be compatible with the studies conducted in other countries participating in the CIB W112 research, Cameron and Quinn’s (1999) â€Å"Competing Values Framework† (CVF) as well as their measurement tool named â€Å"Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument† (OCAI) are adopted as the conceptual paradigm for analysis in this study. The CVF was originally proposed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) to understand organizational effectiveness, and was later applied to explore different  issues relative to organizations (Al-Khalifa and Aspinwall, 2001). The CVF is based on two major dimensions. The ï ¬ rst dimension emphasizes the organizational focus (internal versus external), whereas the second one distinguishes between the stability and control and the ï ¬â€šexibility and discretion. These two dimensions form four quadrants (see Figure 1), each representing a major type of organizational culture: (1) clan; (2) adhocracy; (3) market; and (4) hierarchy. Figure 1. The competing values framework Theoretically, these four cultural typologies exist simultaneously in all organizations; therefore, archetypes may be used to describe the pattern of the organizational culture (Paperone, 2003). Sampling and data collection Unit of analysis for this study were the contracting and architectural ï ¬ rms operating in the Turkish Construction Industry. A number of 351 ï ¬ rms were contacted, and 134 of them participated in the study giving a response rate of 38.18 per cent. The ï ¬ rms were selected by judgmental sampling procedure. The judgment criteria used for selection were: . origin of nationality, with emphasis on local ï ¬ rms; . size based on number of employees, with emphasis placed on medium and large ï ¬ rms; and . industry position based on market share, with the focus on the 12 largest ï ¬ rms. Sample consisted of a total of 826 respondents (74.9 per cent male, 25.1 per cent female) including both managerial and non-managerial professionals. The questionnaire comprised two parts. Part I included questions regarding the demographic characteristics of the ï ¬ rms and respondents, which are presented in Table I. Although the analysis conducted in this study was at ï ¬ rm level, the characteristics of the respondents are also provided in Table I to reï ¬â€šect a better proï ¬ le Frequency Characteristics of the ï ¬ rms (N  ¼ 134) Number of ï ¬ rms: Contracting Architectural Firm age (years): ,15 16-25 .25 Size of ï ¬ rms (number of full-time employees): Small Medium Large Characteristics of the respondents (N  ¼ 826) Number of respondents: Contracting Architectural Gender: Female Male Age of respondents (years): 30 and under 31-40 41-50 51 and above Percentage  of the sample. As is seen in Table I, contracting ï ¬ rms are representing the 79.9 per cent of t he sampled organizations and 87.5 per cent of the respondents. For the purpose of this study, organizations with less than 50 employees were classiï ¬ ed as small (46 per cent), those with 51-150 as medium (28 per cent), and those with more than 150 as large (25 per cent). The contracting ï ¬ rms in the survey were generally medium and large-sized whereas the architectural ï ¬ rms were small in size. Searching for the cultural orientations of the ï ¬ rms, Part II was adopted from the â€Å"Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)† developed by Cameron and Quinn (1999). OCAI consists of six different questions which are relevant to the key dimensions of organizational culture: (1) dominant characteristics; (2) organizational leadership; (3) management of employees; (4) organizational glue; (5) strategic emphases; and (6) criteria for success. Each question has four alternative statements representing different cultural orientations making a total of 24 questions. All respondents were asked to rate their organizations’ culture on a ï ¬ ve-point Likert scale. In this scoring system, for each of the ï ¬ ve response categories (completely true, mostly true, partly true, slightly true, never true) a score of 1-5 was assigned, with the highest score of 5 being assigned to â€Å"completely true†. The overall cultural proï ¬ le of an organization was then derived by calculating the  average score of all respondents from the same ï ¬ rm. Reliability coefï ¬ cients (Cronbach alpha) were calculated for each of the different culture types being assessed by the instrument. Coefï ¬ cients were 0.89 for the clan and adhocracy cultures, and 0.86 for the market and hierarchy cultures, which indicate the fairness of all culture types. Results and discussion A cultural proï ¬ le score for each organization was obtained by averaging the respondent’s rating for each cultural type across the six dimensions. This provided an indication of the cultural orientation of sampled ï ¬ rms based on the four cultural types. The average scores for all the participating ï ¬ rms are shown in Table II. As is seen from the table, the dominant culture of the sample is clan culture. Respondents identiï ¬ ed hierarchy type as the next most dominant in their organizations. These predominant cultures were followed by adhocracy and market, respectively. The sampled ï ¬ rms tend to have values consistent with employee focus or clan culture and internal process or hierarchy culture. The values consistent with external orientation and results focus are emphasized to a lesser extent. This ï ¬ nding contributes to our understanding of the alignment between national and organizational cultures. According to Hofstede’s (1980, 2001) model of national culture, Turkey has been described as being high on the collectivism and power distance value dimensions. This suggests that organizational cultures in Turkish ï ¬ rms are characterized by both unequal (or hierarchical) and harmonious, family-like (clan) relationships.

Juveniles rights to a jury Essay

There are very few states in the United States that extend the right to a jury of their peers for juveniles. Why shouldn’t juveniles be able to stand a trial with a jury of their peers? By law, minors are incapable of representing themselves or making decisions that are based on the current law presiding for the circumstances. Which basically means that juveniles are only children, children that don’t really know what responsibility or breaking the law is yet. Plus a juvenile’s record is private so if they stood in front of a jury then it wouldn’t be so private now would it? Also, juveniles aren’t convicted for the offenses they engage in, they are convicted for the delinquent actions as a minor. The two exceptions, that I myself have found, are either if the crime is serious enough to try the juvenile as an adult or, as said earlier, the state allows juveniles a trial in which a jury is present. I chose this reason because many people do not understand that juveniles are children, not adults. These days parents treat their children as adults so the children commit crimes as if they were an adult. That being said, people need to realize that juveniles are exactly that. Although they have been taught things about the community, the world, laws, right/wrong, and so forth, they haven’t actually lived to understand all these things so why should they be tried by a jury of peers that don’t understand that fact? This brings me to the next question, why do I believe there are differences in the adult and juvenile justice system and why do I believe so? The answer is basically what I’ve just stated in this whole discussion. Juveniles are children, children who hasn’t actually lived enough in this world to â€Å"know†. Adults â€Å"know better†. So does it make any sense to try people in the court of law whom don’t know any better the s ame as a person who does know?

Investigate Foreign Exchange Markets Research Paper

Investigate Foreign Exchange Markets - Research Paper Example The basic function of the foreign exchange market is to help in conversion of one currency to another. The fundamental thing here is to help achieve the goal of transferring of the purchasing power between two countries. This is made possible by the credit instruments. During the transfer process the foreign exchange market does the payments internationally. Another important function is the credit function which its role is to provide credit. This takes place both locally and internationally and it promotes foreign trade. The other function of foreign exchange market is the hedging process.The exchange rates in prices of one currency compared to another may vary and there might result to a loss or a gain. In that case, the party involved usually takes a high risk if there are huge amounts of net claims or liabilities which are to be met in foreign money. Exchange risks like such should be avoided or minimized if possible. The foreign exchange market provides the facilities of hedgin g to cub some of this problem encountered in the process. The forward market contributes in a big way to make it possible to hedge an exchange an exchange position. A forward contract goes for three months and it entails buying and selling of foreign exchange against another currencies during specific period. The primary market is where the securities are made and in this market is where firms sell new stocks and bonds to the public for the very first time. Initial public offering (IPO) is the same as the primary market. This is the pattern used in IPO: the company consults an underwriting firm to determine the legal and financial details of public offering. Then a registration statement is achieved from the authorities. The governing body must approve the statement which has got details on the price, benefits, and restrictions and this is issued to the people who are buying the securities (Machiraju, 2012). The purchasing power

The Marketing Mix of Mini Cheddar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Marketing Mix of Mini Cheddar - Essay Example The good results of the company were because of the good strategy of the company price and product quality. However, the company needed to improve on promotion and the place as it caused the company some problems. The study through the questionnaire pointed out that the company needed to do more on its strategies to improve it marketing strategy and meet good customer base. Introduction The source of the information on this part was from Kenilson who is the author of the book, â€Å"Marketing (Daewin, 2011)† .Cheddars are products of baked Cheddar cheese, which are flavored with the British savory biscuits with granular crumby texture. Cheddars in the present market are sold under the McVitie’s. Mini cheddars came in as a result of diversification of the products by theMcvities’ as the sales of their unique products started to wane. They products became increasingly popular in the 1970s, which led to the introduction of new flavors in the market The flavors intro duced in include the Marmite, BBQ Beef, Pickle and Mature Cheddar. The new variety of crispier lined Mini Cheddars called Crinkly were also launched .The company strategy is to be the market leader in a competitive market to ensure their sales are higher and have a great customer base. Product quality and price plays a crucial role in the marketing strategy of the company. The company has customers in all categories which range from children to adults. The company products are unique and are of high quality. The company prices are reasonable and affordable to their cu8stomers.However, the questionnaire administered indicated that there is the need to improve on the strategy of promotion and the location of the company’s outlet (http://www.minicheddarusa.com/AboutUS MinicheddarHistory.php). Methodology In the process of administering the questionnaire I had four members in my team, Mary, Paul, and me. As a team we decided to sit down and decide to design the best questionnaire which we will carry research on the cheese brand and establish the concept of Marketing Mix. We came up with 20 closed questionnaires in order to come up with valid results from the respondents. Lastly, we administered the questionnaires on about 100 respondents in Upper Tilley Shopping mall and we managed to receive 80 feedbacks concerning the study. Results and the analysis of the Mini Cheddar The findings on the administered questionnaire were presented in percentage form. Majority of the correspondence to the questionnaire knew what Mini Cheddars and it represented 80% of the population. On the other hand, the number of those who did not know this product completely was 20% of the total samples in the questionnaire. The questions were entirely based on the 4P Marketing Mix strategy. Products The cheese products from the company is meant for several categories of people who include the children and adults and in order to meet the needs of these diverse groups of people the compa ny products should be of high quality. On the question on what the consumers look at in buying the Mini Cheddar products, many correspondents to the questionnaire said that they look at quality, which 35% of the total questionnaires administered. 20% of the questionnaires liked the taste of the products, thus making them to buy the product. Still on the product, most of the customers who responded to the questionna

Financial Performance of The BEST Pty Ltd Research Paper

Financial Performance of The BEST Pty Ltd - Research Paper Example The culprit can be seen to be the ballooning of expenses. It should be noted that depreciation and amortization registers 165% growth while other selling and administration expense records higher growth of 178%. To make matters worse, finance costs more than tripled at 355% from 2003 to 2007. Turning to the balance sheet accounts of the business organization, it should be noted that the mounting finance costs can be traced to the ballooning of assets which is unmatched by the growth in equity. This indicates that the company's acquisition of asset is financed by the more costly liabilities. Logically, when Best resort to its creditors to finance the acquisition of its assets, it incurs the obligation to pay interest at specific intervals thus boosting its finance cost. The company's cash account grew weakly at 18% during the seven-year period. Table 2 highlights the financial ratios of Best from 2003 to 2007 utilizing the selected data provided. In terms of profitability, the year 2007 saw a decline both in return to assets and return to ordinary shareholders. It should be noted that this decline indicates the company's inability to create net income which adds to shareholder wealth and value to its assets. From the high return of shareholder's equity ratio of .25 in 2006, this slumped to .12 in 2007 meaning that for every dollar invested in the company's stocks, a shareholder gets 12 cents in 2007 compared to the 25 cents in 2006. Asset turnover also declined from 0.53 to 0.47 signaling lower asset utilization and possibly an inability to maximize the company's resources. Profit margin ratio is also in decline from .18 to 0.09. The decrease in profitability ratios from the good performance in 2006 can be an indication of company's difficulty of providing profits to its stakeholders. Consistent with the observation above, the company's debt to asset ratio has steadily increased from 2003 to 2007. In fact, during 207 debts finance 65% of the company's assets leaving only 35% to Best's stockholders. Logically, this will mean that the company is paying off higher interest expenses which is also reflected in its dwindling times interest earned ratio. Conclusion The trend analysis and financial ratio analysis brings out problems in profitability together with the company's riskier resource structure which leads to mounting financial costs. It is recommended that the company particular focus in improving in these aspects through more efficient resource management and managing costs effectively. However, since the analysis is only grounded in the selected financial data at hand, it should also be stressed that it does not show the complete picture. For one, the performance of Best should be benchmarked with its competitors in order to know where it stands. The slower performance in 2007 could also be brought be external factors which are beyond the business organization. Thus, understanding the trends in the business environment will also be important as well. In assessing and evaluating the performance of a company, quantitative and qualitative information should always be utilized hand in hand.

Racial Communitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Racial Communitarianism - Essay Example This is a post-post-modernist development in the sense that it engulfs not only traditions of libertarianism, modernity of civil society and peculiar amalgamation of both these to bring forth something anew as good governance but also its quest for a balanced form of State and social ethos. Racial Communitarianism thus reflects a search and global movement for equal respect and opportunities to people of all races in the pursuance of their duties as human beings and citizens of a global civil society. Rights will then be natural corollary of duties so performed professionally. Communitarianism is also an attempt to work towards fighting various apparently fascist tendencies of libertarianism such as overarching power channels and structures like the Security Council of the United Nations and the all powerful stature of the President of United States despite inherent checks and balances in the political system. Communitarianism is, indeed, an emerging movement to go beyond the shackles of a sovereign nation-state. It is moving ahead into the realms of a global civil society tackling a number of its issues and problems on its own without always looking up to the State for all its solution. Standing on one's own feet, preserving one's self-respect, economic and multicultural empowerment alongwith individual based and logically viable soc

National music of China, Indonesia and Brazil Essay

National music of China, Indonesia and Brazil - Essay Example This "National music of China, Indonesia and Brazil" essay outlines the historical reasons for the national music's uprising. The idea of nationalism was first based on divisions between the German, Italian or French style, most which was seen in the image of the nation. However, this became more prevalent in the 1800s and 1900s, specifically because of the national agenda and political approach. Many leaders were searching for an identity which closed the doors to trade and other aspects of country interference, specifically to gain power over those within the country. Others were trying to shape the image of the nation, specifically so it would produce pride among those in the nation and increase the cultural and production. This led to the main aspects of national pride which were reflected in the music. The concept of patriotism which was pushed by the political leaders and society was followed by several composers experimenting with music and trying to find different ways of exp ressing what was occurring within the society. Composers such as Bartok were renowned for going into the fields and moving into the early fields of ethnomusicology. Folk songs from villages would be recorded then transferred into the classical styles within the nation. Other regions of the world followed this format, specifically with the folk music, combined with the contemporary idioms that were within each of the countries. Countries were able to keep their identity and heritage while associating the different concepts to modern and contemporary styles. This was followed with the continuous nationalism that experimented with modern sounds but announced that the movement of technique was specifically for a region. For instance, the concept of Impression, led by Ravel, was based on the French contemporary aspects in society. These several movements then redefined the approach to nationalism and the way in which it was associated with culture and society (Grosby, Leoussi, 55: 2007). Defining Contemporary Nationalism There are several elements which create a sense of nationalism in society and the contemporary approach which is a part of the music created. This is not only based on the idea of folk music and the presentation of one type of music presenting a country. The definition of nationalism has transcended into defining a country by the sounds which belong to a specific country and create an understanding of the artists which are in this region. This began with the contemporary approach to the modern compositions, which included the French Impressionism. While this wasn’t French, different techniques and theories led several to the belief that it belonged to this region. The ideal wasn’t only associated with the definitions of what it meant to be national through folk music, but also included the several techniques used. Instrumentation, distinct sounds, approaches to the culture and creating a sense of diversity within a given region