Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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purposes. As previously stated, the organisation within which the current
study is undertaken is a public sector company, with Handy’s
conceptualisation providing a contextual understanding of it (see Chapter
V, Section 2b).
It is acknowledged that there is very little critique of Handy's
conceptualisation of the organisational type and culture. While one such
criticism of the work is that the idea of organisational culture is not
necessarily equitable to types of organisations (e.g. in work by Boddy
[2008] types of organisation and organisational culture typologies are kept
separate from each other), the approach to see the two as equitable in
Handy's work has been successfully integrated by business and
management authors, scholars and practitioners (Brown, 1998).
Discussion Box 5: Handy’s Typology, Learning Organisations and Psychosocial Stress Intervention
in the Presented Study
As Chapter V, Section 2b presents, the organisation which took part in the presented study is
clearly represented by the 'Role' culture as described by Charles Handy. These organisations are
described as essentially hierarchical in nature in which many layers of management are present.
Therefore seeking methods to get 'through' these gatekeepers are essential to the reduction of
management resistance. Methods to reduce such resistance include adequately 'selling' the idea,
including the potential impact of the work, to management. Similarly gaining top-level
management buy-in could reduce uncertainty, and building relationships early in the process with
key stakeholders throughout the organisation can 'open doors'. While a learning organisation
(Section 1b) may indeed embrace each of these artefacts, it is argued (Lampel, 1998) that a
typical hierarchical organisation (and therefore one represented by the 'role' culture) cannot be a
learning organisation. Therefore in order to ensure a successful participative (Chapter III, Section