This assessment dives into the ongoing scholarly debate about the existence of organizational culture and seeks to unveil its subtle yet profound influence on an organization’s dynamics. Drawing from the perspectives of David (2012) and the philosophical yet pragmatic notion surrounding organizational culture, the assessment explores the psychological and human-behavioral impact that collective organizational culture exerts on an organization, particularly in the realms of health, risk control, and accidents.
The examination goes beyond the initial skepticism of a direct correlation between organizational culture and accidents, emphasizing that the connection operates on a psychological and behavioral level within an organization. The collective organizational culture shapes employee behavior, influencing strategic and tactical decisions made at the departmental level. Without a deep understanding of organizational culture, it becomes challenging to grasp fundamental elements that govern an organization, such as its structure and incentives, echoing the sentiment of business luminary David Ogilvy, who asserted that “Culture is how organization does things” (Simon, 2010).
The assessment contends that organizational culture is not merely a foundational control but the cumulative manifestation of repeated behavioral patterns. Comparing organizational culture to individual personality, it argues that an organization’s culture is akin to what it repeatedly does. The connection between the Hierarchy of Control and organizational culture is examined, challenging the notion that organizational culture is a foundational control. Instead, it asserts that organizational culture subtly influences the hierarchy of control.
The analysis concludes by asserting that every incident, whether positive or negative, is a reflection of organizational behavior. Through case studies like the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, Piper Alpha in the North Sea, and the Longford Gas Plant in Australia, the assessment illustrates how accidents can be understood as outcomes of organizational behavior, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of organizational culture in risk management.
Unveiling the Veiled: Exploring the Subtle Influence of Organizational Culture on Health,
Risk Control, and Accidents
This assessment dives into the ongoing scholarly debate about the existence of organizational culture
and seeks to unveil its subtle yet profound influence on an organization's dynamics. Drawing from the
perspectives of David (2012) and the philosophical yet pragmatic notion surrounding organizational
culture, the assessment explores the psychological and human-behavioral impact that collective
organizational culture exerts on an organization, particularly in the realms of health, risk control, and
accidents.
The examination goes beyond the initial skepticism of a direct correlation between organizational
culture and accidents, emphasizing that the connection operates on a psychological and behavioral level
within an organization. The collective organizational culture shapes employee behavior, influencing
strategic and tactical decisions made at the departmental level. Without a deep understanding of
organizational culture, it becomes challenging to grasp fundamental elements that govern an
organization, such as its structure and incentives, echoing the sentiment of business luminary David
Ogilvy, who asserted that "Culture is how organization does things" (Simon, 2010).
The assessment contends that organizational culture is not merely a foundational control but the
cumulative manifestation of repeated behavioral patterns. Comparing organizational culture to
individual personality, it argues that an organization's culture is akin to what it repeatedly does. The
connection between the Hierarchy of Control and organizational culture is examined, challenging the
notion that organizational culture is a foundational control. Instead, it asserts that organizational culture
subtly influences the hierarchy of control.
The analysis concludes by asserting that every incident, whether positive or negative, is a reflection of
organizational behavior. Through case studies like the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, Piper
Alpha in the North Sea, and the Longford Gas Plant in Australia, the assessment illustrates how accidents
can be understood as outcomes of organizational behavior, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive
understanding of organizational culture in risk management.
First of all it is important to state that scholars around the world are still on a debate whether or not
an organizational culture exists, well, in the most subtle yet a sublime way it is the organizational
culture that manifest as an organization in the end (David, 2012). The very perspective philosophical
yet a pragmatic notion that need to comprehended deeply. In the very initial outlook correlating
organizational culture with health and risk control or to the accidents just seems a hypothetical
notion, and it is mainly because there is no direct correlation or evidence that leads to the
understanding.
This is the reason that the fact that needs to be comprehended here is indeed subtle yet a sublime
factor that is playing more on the psychological or human-behavioral level within an organization. It is
because this behavioral pattern that is spiraling out within an organization or in other words the
employee behavior pattern is largely contributed by a collective organizational culture. That it is
through this collective culture that departments within an organization adapt suitable strategic and
tactical steps. Hence without understanding deeply about the organizational culture that exists
within an organization, it becomes difficult to comprehend the pivotal elements that run an
organization which include the organizational structure and incentive. As the famous Business Author
David Ogilvy said, ‘Culture is how organization does things’ (Simon, 2010).
It is this pattern adapted by each and every organization that makes that organization as a body in the
end, because the pattern that is mentioned here is a repeated path carved over and over again by the
same collective entity called the organization (Slack, 2013). This is the very core reason why
organization and individual personality can be seem in a similar perspective, because an individual or
a person is what he or she repeatedly does, in the same manner an organization culture is what that
has been repeated by the organization as an entity, the same idea proposed by the Ogilvy in the
previous paragraph.
For this reason as the statement stated,” Whilst I find that the Hierarchy is a very helpful tool in
defining Risk or Failure Controls from an engineering or procedural perspective, I have found it less
helpful in defining controls for organizational cultural issues,” becomes a matter of debate since it is
evident that the organizational culture does have an invisible hand over the hierarchy of control.
Although the author here is correlating Hierarchy of Control to the organizational, in the broader view
he is just correlating organizational culture with one of its organ.
So it is important to reason that the organizational culture is not just a foundational control as stated
by the author, but it is the collective manifestation of a behavior that was spouted out from a
repeated pattern of so called organizational behavior. Hence for this reason only it is fair to perceive
that every incident including negative and positive are the display of the so called organizational
behavior. So in the case of accidents happened in Deep Water Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, Piper
Alpha in the North Sea, Longford Gas Plant in Australia, are nothing but the result of it (Bp.com, 2014).