Role Culture
This type of culture was first used in the nineteenth century in government departments, then during the twentieth century when companies started to get bigger introduced this type of culture. This type of culture splits the company up into functions then each function is arranged in a hierarchical way. The higher an employee is in the company the more decisions they can make. This means that this type of culture can motivate certain employees but can have a negative effect on other employees depending on the employees in the company.
Task Culture
Task culture is one of the youngest types of business culture, it started to become very important in the first decade of the twenty first century. This is where employees to work in teams to complete a task, this type of culture fits in well with a democratic style of management. The company gives the employees a lot more respect under this type of culture, which helps motivate them, another motivator is that this style of culture allows the employees a lot of autonomy. Employees are encouraged to take on more of a challenge task. The employee’s views are often listened to and taken into account, to help achieve the best overall output.
With this type of culture the employees would need training to be given a more influential role in the company, this may cost the company money, which may not prove beneficial.
Person Culture
This type of culture is usually used in non-profit organisations; the people they are helping are the central figures in the company. Hierarchies do not exist, people cannot be made to leave the company. With this type of culture the employee has complete freedom. This style of management would not work very well in large profit organisations but it may work well with a small profit organisation.
All of these cultures do work well but it depends what the company is trying to achieve and what market the company is in.
Reuters is under a Role Culture, the style of management that goes with a Role Culture is consultative, this is Reuters management style, the company tried democratic management style under this type of culture, this did not work, I asked Mr. Alcantara about the management style and role culture, “Democratic did not help the company, initiative needs to be used but more standards are now set throughout the company, this helps the company and employees focus on what has to be done.”
This type of culture fits in with the company structure, the departments are separated and employees are given control of each department, each department is split up into a hierarchical structure the higher up in the department the employee is the more decisions the employee can make. This makes each department responsible for their mistakes, this means that a lot of trust is given to each department, if one fails to deliver this could affect the whole company. This style of culture can be beneficial to the company, each department is controlled and this speeds up the communication, there is less chance of a break down in information because there is one leader who makes sure there is constant communication between the rest of the company and the customers.