Organisational Culture of Dicom

Organizational culture is basic presumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation and eventually assimilated by the group of people who enters the organisation. (Schein, n.d) It is imperative for an organization’s culture to be aligned to its vision and mission. Cultural web which was introduced by Gerry Johnson (1988) could be used as an implement for mapping of organizational culture. This could determine whether its culture is on the same path with its vision and mission. The elements of these cultural web includes ‘stories’, ‘symbols’, ‘rituals & routines’, ‘power structure’, ‘organizational structure’, ‘control system’ and ‘paradigm’. The same tool applies for Dicom Group, the document capture and enterprise content management. Does their culture align with their vision and mission? We shall see.

Plenty cultures are practiced between the employees within Dicom Group. A cultural element that is present is ‘Symbols’ which is clearly portrayed in the language. An example is that the Dicom Group promotes themselves as the ‘Dicom Family’. The employees also tend to say ‘Standards’ to a colleague whom has done well and also for setting a par which rivals would find hard to match. This relates to the motivation-hygiene theory by Herzberg which derives that recognition are motivators because employees find them intrinsically rewarding. (Herzberg, 1959) This definitely improves an employee’s morale. Dicom clearly portrays their mission of respect of which they display in the environment they operate. Besides that, from Handy’s Gods of Management’s theory, Dicom Group has clearly adapted the task culture where there is a close liaison between employees which is able to enhance employee qualities. (Handy, n.d.)

Another culture element about Dicom Group is ‘Stories’ which depicts the glorified story on how the Dicom Group CEO brought all his employees to Switzerland for an all-expense paid weekend of celebration to mark their tenth anniversary. This shows the qualities of a caring leader whom appreciates his employees. He clearly fits the Caring Leadership Model by Dr. Johnson (2011). This culture reflects in Deal & Kennedy’s work hard-play hard culture where high speed action leads to high speed recreation. Dicom Group also illustrates the ‘productivity through people’ theme initiated by Peters & Waterman where employees are treated as a source of quality.

The third culture in Dicom Group is that they are a flat organization. This is related to the ‘Power Structure’ element where displays of seniority are discouraged. The employees work in a distributed ‘Organizational Culture’ which is another cultural web element.