Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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emphasised Handy's four organisational cultures as relating to types of organisation, and that these types should
be taken into account when looking at the correct ways of working with and within these organisations. As can be
seen in Figure 7 above, the structure of the participating organisation strongly resembles that of the ‘Role’ culture,
which depicts a hierarchical bureaucracy. Handy’s depiction of the Role culture argues that it is best depicted via a
Greek temple (see Figure 3), with a number of specialist functions represented by the columns of the temple.
Figure 3: The Role Culture A hierarchical bureaucracy which deals with specialist functions.
When looking at Figures 3 and 6 it becomes clear that there are strong overlaps – the point of the roof of the
temple represents the head of the organisation (i.e. the Chief Executive), and below him are a number of other
senior executives (i.e. the base of the roof). The pillars of the temple represent the specialist functions of the
organisation, which clearly relate to the specialist functions of the six ‘Services’ which constitute the whole of the
organisation. Additionally, as described by Handy there are many individuals with technical expertise within the
organisation and indeed civil service organisations are exemplars of role cultures (Brown, 1998).
While Organisations with a role culture are effective in stable situations, they also exist in a dynamic, everchanging
environment which makes them slow to react to change. This has been a clear problem for the
participating organisation – financial austerity changes to the whole of the country has meant a cut in government
funding to the organisation, and therefore a number of changes to it. For example, many individuals being made