Page 347 - Cultures and Organizations

312 CULTURES IN ORGANIZATIONS

tions is a system of formal rules on which everybody can rely. French books
usually stress the exercise of power and sometimes the defenses of the indi-
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vidual against being crushed by the pyramid. The principle of control is
hierarchical authority; there is a system of rules, but contrary to the German
case, the personal authority of the superiors prevails over the rules.
In China, in the days of Mao and the Cultural Revolution, it was
neither markets nor rules nor hierarchy but indoctrination that was the
attempted principle of control in organizations, in line with a national
tradition that for centuries used comparative examinations as a test of
adequate indoctrination.
Models of organizations in people’s minds vary also within countries.
In any given country, banks will function more like pyramids, post offi ces
like machines, advertising agencies like markets, and orchestras like (auto-
cratically led) families. We expect such differences, but when we cross
national borders, we run into differences in organizational models that
were not expected. More about this subject will follow in Chapter 11.

Culture and Organizational Structure:
Elaborating on Mintzberg

Henry Mintzberg, from Canada, is one of today’s leading authorities on
organizational structure, at least in the English-speaking world. His chief
merit has been to summarize the academic state of the art into a small
number of concepts that are highly practical and easy to understand.
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To Mintzberg, all good things in organizations come in fi ves. Orga-

nizations in general contain up to five distinct parts:
1. The operating core (the people who do the work)

2. The strategic apex (the top management)
3. The middle line (the hierarchy in between)
4. The technostructure (people in staff roles supplying ideas)
5. The support staff (people in staff roles supplying services)

Organizations in general use one or more of five mechanisms for coor-

dinating activities:

1. Mutual adjustment (of people through informal communication)
2. Direct supervision (by a hierarchical superior)
3. Standardization of work processes (specifying the contents of work)