Organizational cultures have been a popular topic since the advent of the 1980s. At that time, the management literature began to popularise the claim that the ‘excellence' of an organization is seen in the ways by which its members have learned to act and behave. Using the label ‘culture' for the common, equally divided mental software of people in an organization is an easy way of making popular sociological views0. Yet organization cultures are a phenomenon so to speak, which are very distinct from national cultures.
[...] A further reason why developing online business activity within an organization may increase the important of understanding national cultures is the power distance that a developed online business activity can create within and outside a business organization. Power distance can be defined as the point to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is equally distributed. Institutions are the basic elements of society like the family, school, and the community and organizations are where people work. [...]
[...] As already mentioned, there is evidence that the development of online business activity can weaken the influence of organizational culture on employees by encouraging a ‘solo' work atmosphere. There is also evidence that the culture within an organization has some implications on the society in way in which competition or collectivism can affect consumers at large. However, research carried out by experts in the field have suggested that national and organizational culture are very different phenomena all together and hence the two should never be compared or deemed to affect one another. [...]
[...] Under this theory, the notion that the development of online business activity would lead to a weakening of the influence of organizational culture on employees, becomes a notion of validity. At this junction, it has been established that the development of online business activity promotes a working environment where employees need only work by them selves, without any need to consult and congregate with other employees, thus weakening the influence of organizational culture on employees. Hence, it is likely that such organization or companies will have the tendency to compete promiscuously, not just with other companies, but with relatively powerless customers and consumers, as well as amongst themselves2. [...]
[...] This further suggests that a development of individualism through developing online business activity and the way in which it affects organizational culture has no bearing on national culture, as the two cultures are separate and distinct. Moreover, the models of organizations in people's minds also vary within countries. In whatever country, banks will function more like pyramids, post offices like machines, advertising agencies like markets and orchestras like families. Such differences mean that organizational models differ from country to country and hence, there is no telling how developed online business activity within an organization will affect the influence of organizational culture on employees. [...]
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