The Specificity of the Organizational Culture in European Management

• Author: Mariana Aida Cimpeanu, Ionut Sergiu Pirju
• Pages: 290-295

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives

2010

290

The specificity of the Organizational

Culture in European Management

Cîmpeanu Mariana-Aida

1

, Pîrju Ionel Sergiu

2

1

Danubius University of Galati, Faculty of Economic Sciences, aidacimpeanu@univ-danubius.ro

2

”Al. I. Cuza” University of Iasi, Doctoral School of Economics, madolmi@yahoo.com

Abstract: Starting with intensifying globalization and the internationalization of economic r elations,

increased the competitions on the world market, producing a number of restructuring, changes in the

international management and subjecting firms to r eengenering. The emergence of technology has changed

the way of making transactions eliminating the human intervention. The economic organization in these terms

focuses more on knowledge and communication than control and administrative hierarchy. The necessity for

organizational culture research is given that this exerts a strong influence on a company performance and

becomes more pronounced in dynamic conditions i n the external environment. A culture must be accepted by

all company employees and the managers have to identify cultural factors that hinder the development and

transform these factors into values. The leaders are those who manage to create vision of the future that they

wanted and they inf luence and, i n turn, they are influenced by organizational culture. European context is

characterized by a cultural variety and we can not speak of a management model as is the Japanese or the

North American. Europe is characterized by the coexistence of many cultur es which presents similarities and

considerable differences. M akridakis, in his "Single Market Europe” remarked that the EU cannot be treated

as a unicultural organization. Cultural differ ences existing in the EU i s not an obstacle to European

integration; they ca n become the source of many competitive advantages for the EU citizens. Europe is

showing a trend of convergence of his values: decrease of the religious values as a source of moral obligation;

the development of the democrat ic political system; the increase of the social relat ions values. We are able to

conclude that, at the c ultural level of Europe, is chara cterized by great diversity based on a set of common

and similar values, which are major components of European integration.

Keywords: culture; European management; cultural diversity; common cultural values.

1. Definitions of Culture in Management

The concept of culture knows many definitions in Management. Raghu Nath claims that can be put

equal sign between the concept of culture and nation. After Kelly, culture is synonymous with the

concepts of mentality and action.

Kluckhohn C. believes that culture is structured a way structured on thinking, feeling, and riposte in a

human group and transmitted mainly by symbols , which represents his identity, and includes article

who are produced by the group. Heart consists of traditional ideas (derivatives and selected by the

history) and the values attached to them.

In Geert Hofstede's conception, culture is: “the collective programming of the human spirit which

distinguishes the members of a class from the members of another”. Defined as, culture includes value

systems, which are among the essential elements of it. For the human community, culture is like the