Modernism Case

Modernists adopt the organisation culture as shared mental assumptions to operate the organisation as real that contribute to success or failure of organisational performance. This can be explained by the research conducted by John Kotter and James Heskett which illustrates that the performance level can be determined from the organizational culture; organisations with stronger culture will produce better performance. Furthermore, the national cultural have an impact on the company operation and performance as seen in the theory of Geert Hofstede. Due to the national culture, company's operation varies based on country but the distinctive organisational styles can be identified by people. One of the dimensions that Hofstede revealed is the power distance, defined as 'the extent to which the members of a culture are willing to accept an unequal distribution of power, wealth and prestige' (Hatch & Cunliffe 2006, p. 181). Organisations from high power distance culture delegate power to the top level of the hierarchy, causing poor communication, and coordination with bottom level employees (Khatri 2009). Thus, modernists deem power distance as unlimited power and control delegate to managers over subordinates. Also, the agency theory is practiced in the high power distance. Managers have unlimited authority over the employees hence employees are instructed to perform the interest of managers.

On the other hand, the postmodernists are doubtful on whether organisational culture does exist in the world, believing that organisational culture is a tool used by management to let people perceive the assumptions, beliefs and values.

Meyerson and Martin identified organisational culture as fragmentation seeking the shortage of unity of consensus in a culture due to fact that the organisational discourse is constantly changing by people's interpretation (Hatch & Cunliffe 2006). Therefore, postmodernists viewed power and control as an instrument in the organisational culture as management gives authority to manipulate the employees since culture is constructed from the interpretation of people. Consequently, people with power and control are given the choice the interpretation that shapes the organisation and themselves. Besides that, the system of surveillance is involved in the daily operations in the organisation. Employees' behaviour portrays organisational identities and image because employees are monitor by people around them unknowingly.

It can be seen that power and control are assigned to any employees in the organisation to shape the identities of the organisation from the viewpoint of the postmodernists. While in the perspective of modernism, the power and control are delegated to only managers in the organisation who holds high power distance in that country.