Identification: Shave Less Incorporated [Hypothetical]
Product: Shave Less Cream [A depilatory that removes facial hair from men and leg and arm hair from women]
Mission: To produce and market a unisex hair removal product that will provide effective hair removal for both men and women with greater skin safety and comfort
Strategic Focus: Oriented toward domestic market exclusively until well established
The management styles of top managers, to be effective, must be compatible with the culture of the organization. Organizational culture is an important organizational concept (one which influences the functioning of other organizational concepts).á Culture is a concept borrowed by organizational theorists from anthropology and increasingly used in the study of organizations.á An organization's culture "is the environment of beliefs, customs, knowledge, practices, and the conventional behavior of a particular social group.á Every organization, every corporation has its distinct character" (Cleland, 1988, p. 49). Organizational culture is important because it unites individuals with a purpose under a "set of principles and standards to live and work by.á It exists at all levels of the organization and is shaped by its various subcultures, as well as by the society in which it exists" (Cleland, 1988, p. 50).á
Certain organizational cultures are more receptive to different approaches to leadership than are others.á Organizational cultures characterized by a rigid bureaucracy, minimal interdepartmental interaction, strong vertical reporting lines, and little tradition of change are receptive to transactional leadership.á In fact, in the absence of change in organizational, resistance or open hostility to transformational leadership may occur.á Organizations with a tradition of openness and change are more suited for transformational leadership (Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1999).
No single approach to leadership likely...