Organizational Culture In Iraqi Kurdistan

Concept of organizational culture

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The Iraqi Kurdistan also known as the Southern Kurdistan is the autonomous region of Iraq and it borders the Kurdish regions of Iran. The regional capital of Iraqi Kurdistan is Erbil and democratic government known as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) governs the region.  The mixture within the work culture of the private organizations in Kurdistan and the difference between the culture of government bodies and private organizations makes it inevitable to evaluate the present norms of organizational culture of Kurdistan. According to Toma organizational culture is the behavior that the employees exhibit for each other within the organization and the meaning that internal and external employees attach to those behaviors. Performance enhancement and overall growth of the organization depends upon the employee performance within the organization. Thus, there exists a co relation between performance growth and organizational culture. Sjoberg suggested that key to a good organization performance is the strong cultural base of the organization. Sparrow thus suggested that a strong and positive organizational culture can make an average individual perform brilliantly and motivate an underperformer to perform better.

Thus, keeping in mind the political turmoil and the political problems of the residents of Iraq Kurdistan, it is essential that congenial organizational culture should be present in the new organizations of Iraq Kurdistan so that the country can become developed like UK and USA.  The assignment here focuses primarily on the influence and types of organizational cultures that are present within different organizations irrespective of their countries. Finally, the assignment will highlight the present organizational culture of Iraqi Kurdistan with the help of  relevant academic concepts.

According to Khodr and Zirar organizational culture represents the combined values, principles and attitudes of the people within the organization. Ismail and Jaafar stated that an organization is made up of employees from different cultural, social and religious background. Therefore, these employees have their own rooted cultures and beliefs. Thus in order to avoid any congenial environment within the organization and to avoid conflict of interest it is necessary to maintain one common organizational culture. Further Cooper, Johnson and Holdsworth stated that at present organizational culture includes the types of leadership style followed within the organization, the type of communication language and symbols used between the employees, the work procedures and the work routines and the types of performance measurement techniques used by the leaders to measure the success of the employees and the organization (Kandogan)

Recent research shows that companies with strong organizational culture and effective leadership styles generally tend to have better financial performance and effective growth. However, the cultural characteristics of the organization should align with the objectives and the services of the organization. For instance, a software development company or a social media company like Google Inc should not adopt bureaucratic organizational style and a government concern should not adopt adhocracy culture. In majority of the situations, it has been seen that the organizations adopt reengineering methods, changes in pricing strategies, recruitment and selection and downsizing methods in order to derive long-term gains, however Karim, Khanaqa and Shukur stated that only adoption of a suitable organizational culture would be able to solve the problems of the organizations.

Types of organizational culture

In 1999, Cameron and Quinn developed an organizational culture framework known as the “Competing Values Framework”.  This model was effectively used for analyzing the corporate culture. The framework has two major dimensions for evaluation of the organizational culture. These two dimensions are the horizontal dimension (In/Out) and vertical dimension (Stability / Flexibility).

Sanni and Reilly stated that the horizontal dimension in this framework measures the level to which the organization focuses on internal and external focus. On the contrary, the vertical dimension measures the flexibility and the stability level within the organization. Depending on the two major dimensions the four major types of organizational cultures were identified namely – the clan, adhocracy, hierarchy and market. The following figure shows the ideal model of the Competing values Framework.

Figure 1: Competing Values Framework

(Source: Ybema, Yanow and Sabelis)

The discussion over the different concepts of the model will help to understand the major types of organizational culture and the implications of these cultures over the performance levels of the organizations.

The horizontal dimension shows the degree to which a particular organization will focus internally or externally. The organization in the left side of the above diagram focuses on the internal activities within the organization and the organizations on the right side of the diagram focuses on the external parties like customers, suppliers and external stakeholders. This dimension focuses on the unity, integration and internal activities of the organization.

The vertical dimension focuses on decision-making ability of the organizations. Omer and Friis stated that the decisions within an organization could either be taken by only the upper level management of the company or depending on the changing business scenarios, the employees can also take some of the vital organizational decisions. Thus keeping the situations in mind, the vertical dimension shows two different levels of decision-making. The upper end of the diagram shows flexibility and discretion, which denotes that in the organizations in this dimension; the business decisions are taken by employees in majority of the situations in order to suit the changing needs. On the contrary the lower end of the diagram shows the stability and control which denotes that the organizations in this segment depends on the managers for their decisions.

The four types of organizational culture depending on the two different dimensions are presented below:

This type of organizational culture is characterized by high degree of flexibility and discretion rather than relying completely on stability and control leadership style (Karim, Khanaqa and Shukur). The horizontal dimension of this type of organizational culture suggest that the these types of organizations are primarily focused on the internal activities rather than focusing on the external parties. Thus in these types of organizations free and flexible corporate culture is present. The employees are not bound by strict corporate rules rather they have the freedom to decide and  design their functions. Sanni and Reilly stated that employees in these organizations are motivated by shared goals and shared visions. The organizational structures of these types of organizations are flat. There is a sense of unity among the people working in these organizations and they work together like a family. The employees of Clan organizational culture tend to be honest, motivated, and skillful and have the ability of making situational decisions that would suit to the changing needs of the business.

Cultural dimensions

The leadership style adopted in clan organizations are either parental leadership or situational leadership style. Karim, Khanaqa and Shukur commented that the clan leaders are generally supportive in nature and guides the employees in every changing situation and takes the decisions of the employees as important for the business functions. However, Ybema, Yanow and Sabelis argued that in a clan organizational culture, the focus of the leaders and the employees are primarily on the internal well being of the employees and achievement of the shared goals within the organization. These types of organization do not focus on the well-being of the external parties like the customers and the suppliers and they do not have any fixed set of rules for dealing with the external parties.

Omer and Friis commented that however, majority of the organization and the external parties like the customers prefers clan organizational culture because it is a friendly organizational culture. The clan leaders are generally sensitive to the customers and the stakeholders. Some of the Japanese firms were seen to adopt this culture after the completion of World war II.

These types of organizational cultures are characterized by higher degree of freedom and flexibility. The business functions of these types of organizations involve creative and dynamic decisions making ability. Thus, the employees of these organizations are always ready to take risks, accept the changes readily, and implement the same in their business functions (Kummerow and Kirby). For instance, the organizations dealing in software development, consultancy services, entertainment industry and creative industry are the common organizations that undertake adhocracy as their organizational culture. However, in contrast to clan, adhocracy concentrates on external positioning of the organization’s services along with the high degree of flexibility. The major mottos of these types of organizations are to create a unique strategy and unique vision and use their own creativity to stand out within the crowd. Thus, Khodr and Zirar stated that the employees in these organizations are highly committed to experimentation and innovation is constantly devising ways to improve their present skills. It is also seen that these organizations always provides sufficient training facilities to the employees so that their skills may be enhanced and they may develop their knowledge, become highly independent, and take their own decisions. Thus, it may be concluded that the organizations using this culture often becomes the market leader in the product or service in which the company is dealing.

This is a traditional approach and traditional culture followed in majority of the organizations. The organizations using this culture generally perform duties under a strict chain of command. In the past years before the advent of the new organizational cultures, hierarchy was considered to be the major organizational culture and use of bureaucracy was prevalent within the organizations. Thus, McLeod stated that an organization adopting this culture generally focuses on respecting of the command chain and rules that are being set within the organization. The major characteristics of this organizational culture are formal and structured organizations that are governed by the rules of the senior level management of the organization. These organizations have high internal focus and believe in maintaining stability with the help of controlling activities. The employees in these organizations depend upon the leaders and the senior level managers in terms of any functions and decision-making. McLeod stated that in governmental organizations and large US agencies this type of organizational culture can be seen. The employees in this organization can deliver projects timely because of the high degree of rules and command present within the organization. Sanni and Reilly commented that since the government organizations and the retail chains do not require any innovation of creative ideas within their business segment, hence this type of organizational culture is suitable for them. Adoption of this organizational culture ensures low cost, dependable product and service delivery and smooth scheduling of the work pressure. Kandogan further stated that hierarchy cultural organization have employees who give due respect to the positions and power within the organization. The leadership styles adopted by the hierarchical leaders are generally transactional leadership style. Karim, Khanaqa and Shukur commented that the leaders in this corporate culture are generally co coordinators and organizers who keep close eye on the business situations.

Four types of culture

In this type of organizational culture, the management of the company focuses on control and stability however, the major focus of the management is over the external control polices. Ybema, Yanow and Sabelis stated that a market organization is the type of organization, which is focused on the internal and external transactions in terms of market. Thus the transactions, which are exchanges of values, flow smoothly between the internal and the external parties within the organization under the high degree of control and stability in decision- making. The organizations adopting the market culture are highly result-oriented. They establish a vision and a mission, which will enable the organization to reach the desired vision. Thus. The competitive and goal oriented nature of these organizations help them to succeed in the long run. For achievement of the desired visions and goal, the management of these organizations generally prefer high degree of control and stability within the internal activities of the company. Lahafian the employees of these organizations have the same features like the hierarchical culture, however the employees are generally more focused on the goals and take the help of the leaders and the senior manager is reaching the desired levels.  Thus, adoption of this culture helps in doing the things in a right manner. However, in this type of organizational culture, the manager will have to adopt the financial and non-financial motivational strategies and thus it may seem costly for the organization. Further Kummerow and Kirby stated that since the employees on these organizations are goal oriented hence if the goals and the targets are not defined properly and if there is a lack of cooperation among the employees then the achievement of the objectives is not possible.

On comparing the four major organizational cultures, it has been seen that Clan and market culture types are highly similar to each other and adhocracy and hierarchy cultures shows high degree of differences within the organizational context. Sanni and Reilly highlights that clan cultures have high morale employees and the employees are satisfied with their positions and present state of business. On the contrary, adhocracy cultures are externally focused and hence the internal satisfaction levels of the employees remain unattended. In order to cater to the external needs the adhocracy culture believes in quick formation of teams and abandoned the team as soon as the goal has been achieved. Hence, internal bonding between the employees is absent. Hierarchy cultures have internal focus similar to that of the clan culture but also emphasizes over the centralized management control. Kandogan stated that the hierarchies give importance to the right way of doing things thus it stresses on the adoption of policies, procedures and rules. The major disadvantage of these organizations is there in ability of coping with the unique and changing business operations. The employees of these organizations are generally not given any training to make their own decisions or are not trained in management of changing or creative diverse situations, thus the employees can effectively respond to the regular business operations but cannot solve complex business problems. The following table summarizes the major features of the four types of organizational culture highlighting the major differences between the cultures.

Points of differences	Clan culture	Adhocracy culture	Hierarchy culture	Market culture
Nature of the culture	Friendly	Dynamic	Formal and structured, procedure oriented	Goal oriented
Risks involved	Medium degree of risks involved	High degree of risks involved	No risks involved	High degree of risks involved
functions	Sensitive to customers and internal flexibility	Unique and new products and services	Dependable service delivery, smooth work schedule and low organizational costs	Focus on goal achievement, increment of the market share and market penetration in terms of products and services.
Leadership style	Situational leadership, uniqueness within the employees, teamwork skills, consent of the employees valued	Parental and situational leadership style, individual creativity and independent decision making ability, freedom of work, commitment to innovation and experimentation	Bureaucratic leadership style, maintaining of stability, predictability and efficiency levels, Consistency and uniformity	High motivation, good performances are highly valued, competitive in nature, winning motivation within the employees
Examples of company adopting this culture	Zappos	Faceook	McDonalds	General Electrics

Clan

 Karim, Khanaqa and Shukur opined that leadership styles adopted within an organization also depends on the type of culture prevailing in the organization. Leaders can enhance their personal skills and success by acting appropriately with the changing culture of the organization. For instance, leaders in an adhocracy culture should encourage innovation, creativity and generation of new ideas. Thus in order to encourage these qualities the leaders in adhocracy culture needs to be visionary and highly future-oriented. The leaders of the clan culture should encourage continuous sense of improvements within the employees and not guide them effectively so that they can become independent and take their own situational decisions. Moreover, Omer and Friis commented that clan leaders should also possess effective team building skills since the major focus of the clan culture is on the development of the internal skills within the organization. The leaders in this culture thus encourages effective relationships between the employees mentor the employees so that they can develop congenial working environment(Lahafian).

Jimenez and Kabachnik pointed out that the leaders in the hierarchical culture are generally good organizers and monitors. Here lies the major difference between adhocracy and hierarchy. The adhocracy leaders are mentors and the hierarchy leaders are monitors. In hierarchical monitor ship, a leader organize the situations of the business and provides directions to the employees on how to achieve the services. These leaders can effectively help the employees to understand the job requirements and the job roles. However, in case of change management occurring within these organizations, the leaders and the employees both become inefficient. Finally, the market leaders are the most highly trained and focused leaders among the four types of leaders. They help in maintaining control and stability by setting rules and train the employees to be independent if situation demands. These leaders are highly goal focused and designs the strategies and leadership styles depending upon the fulfillment of the goals. Phelps stated that the major aim of these organizations are to become better than their competitors and in order to do so they train, motivate, inspire, celebrate and place relentless emphasis on customer needs and employee satisfaction levels (Lahafian).

After the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Baathist ruling regime in 2003, economic opportunities in Iraq began to flourish thereby attracting foreign investors and new business operations in Iraq. Pechey and Halligan stated that the Kurdish region of Iraq has been able to attract the highest amount of foreign investment due to its political stability and good infrastructure. Although the KRG formulates the legislations for the companies in Kurdish region, however the autonomy within the working regulations has helped in organizational development of the region. Currently Cooper, Johnson and Holdsworth stated that around 2000 foreign companies are working in the Kurdish region. The advent of the western organizations has given rise to large number of expatriates and foreign business people within the Southern areas of Kurdistan. Most of these expatriates and foreign client working for the organizations in Iraq are generally based in Dubai, visit Kurdistan, take accommodations in safe and secure company campuses for a week, and return to Dubai. Thus, the frequent visits of the foreign clients have given rise to a mixed organizational culture within Kurdistan.

Apart from the private sector organizations, the various government-controlled organizations are also present in Kurdistan namely the “Kurdistan Democratic party”, “Patriotic Union of Kurdistan”,  “ Socialist party of Kurdistan” and the “Iraqi Communist Party”. However, the organizational development in Iraq Kurdistan is hampered due to some of the common challenges like section of effective talent, huge amount of brain drain during the wars, lack of effective training and developmental facilities, low developed educational system, insufficient learning style and ineffective leadership strategies(Lahafian).

In 2013, World Bank ranked Iraq 165 out of 185 countries as per their ranking of organizational business culture suggesting that Iraq is a considerably easy country of doing business. In terms of corruption Iraq was ranked 169 out of 172 as per the Corruption Perception Index. Majority of the organizations in Kurdistan generally speaks Indo – European language that is neither related to Arabic nor related to Turkish language. Thus, Khodr and Zirar suggested that the organizational development in Iraq faces certain types of difficulties. The employees from other nationalities are not able to understand the native language of Kurdistan. The societal culture of Kurdistan is essentially different from that of the developed countries. Kurdish people are minority in position hence their level of freedom and independe3nce are also limited. The society of Iraqi Kurdish develops a communal culture, which suggests that the person of the Kurdish region primarily takes interest in the community activities. Jimenez and Kabachnik) hence suggested that any disagreements between the Kurdish people might give reason to exclusion of the individual from the Kurdish community (Malik).

Majority of the organizations in Kurdistan are government organization. Apart from the Kurdish government other political parties are also present that regulates the services of the organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan. The huge number of wars and the large amount of brain drain has resulted in lack of creative thinking options in Iraq. Denton-Borhaug opined that hierarchical organizational culture is seen within the private as well as the public sector organizations of Kurdistan. As per the Hofstede’s cultural dimension rules, existence of high degree of power distance results in high level of hierarchical organizational culture in a particular country.  In majority of the organizations, high degree of hierarchical culture can be seen. Especially in case of the political and the government organization in Kurdistan centralization is a popular chain of command. The junior level employee of the government organizations in Iraq perform according to the instructions of the senior level management. The instructions of the senior level management are in turn influenced by the decisions and the rules of the ruling parties in the country (Haidari). Thus, the major characteristics of the government organization in Iraqi Kurdistan are high degree of employee loyalty, quick delivery of products and services and low level of training for the employees.

Further, the organizations in Iraq are characterized by collectivist societies rather than individualistic society. According to Brewer and Venaik an individualistic society is the one where the person in supposed to look after their own family and themselves without any intervention in any other families. However, the communal culture of the Iraqi Kurdistan shows that they are not individualistic, rather they are highly collectivists and they focus on helping and co coordinating with each other in order to attain and solve problems.  The employees in the organizations also exhibit collectivist culture. They help each other in fulfillment of their duties. Every employee in the organization takes responsibility of the fellow members. Grønnow stated that in collectivist societies offence on the part of an employee in the organization would lead to cause shame and loss of dignity of the senior level managers who are given the responsibility of guiding and training the employees. Further, the employer-employee relations are perceived in terms of moral terms. Hiring and promotional activities in the organizations takes place based on the seniority and experience of the employees and not based on the creativity of productivity of the employees (Lahafian).

As per the Hofstede’s cultural dimension score, the government organizations in Iraq have recorded the following scores

Power distance: 95

Individualism: 30

Masculinity: 70

Uncertainty avoidance: 85

Long-term orientation: 25

Indulgence: 22

This scores shows that Kurdistan organizations recorded high degree of power distance, which arises from the presence of the hierarchical organizational culture. Karim, Khanaqa and Shukur argued that the presence of the hierarchical culture suggests that the employees within the organization already know their positions in the company and are not expected to show productivity or make any free decisions with respect to any other product or service of the organization that is not related to the position of the employee. Draskovic however pointed that the low score on individualism is a positive indicator. This shows that the Kurdistan organizations show case high degree of collectivism which is opposite to individualism. High degree of collectivism suggests that the employees will get due support of their seniors and their peers while any job performance. However, the organizational heads will also treat any mistakes done by the employees very seriously because that will affect their reputation. The masculinity score is high suggesting that the organizational structures are mainly composed of majority of the male employees. However, Bell added that it is not an uncommon feature in Iraqi society. The Kurdistan population is majorly consisted of Muslim either form Iraq or from different parts of Arab and Dubai. It is a common culture in Muslim societies to prohibit their female counterparts from seeking employment opportunities.  

Omer and Friis stated that the main characteristics of the masculinity organizations in Kurdistan are the hard working nature of the employees. Due to high degree of political turmoil in that country, the employees generally adopts highly decisive and assertive nature and give emphasis on equity, competition and performance in order to grow the organizations quickly and match the organizations of the developed countries like UK and USA. The level of uncertainty avoidance is high. Wang and Liu commented that uncertainty avoidance is the way that the society deals with the fact future in uncertain and it is difficult to know the future.  This score is high in this case thus it suggests that the organizations of Kurdistan maintain rigid rule and regulations and are not in favor of creativity, change and innovation because the employees and the management of the organizations fear for uncertain conditions are relatively very high. Pechey and Halligan stated that high uncertainty avoidance makes the leaders and the managers within the organizations narrow minded and focused only on the rules and regulations of the organization.  In these types of organizational culture, there is an emotional need for rules although if the rules are not sufficient still the employees feel the need for the rules. Innovation and creativity skills require time to thrive and flourish hence in these organizations, time is considered to be equivalent to money which suggests that the time cannot be wasted for engagements in innovation and creativity. Thus it may be noted that Iraqi Kurdistan may develop in terms of organizational development however there are no employee skills development and neither is there any high range of inventions within the country.  Khodr and Zirar in this regard stated that the Iraqis relevantly use their own available resources to form their organizations and recruit their own native people in the positions irrespective of their skills and knowledge. This hinders the growth process of the organizations in Kurdistan. However, Barwari argued that since hierarchical culture is present hence it becomes easier for the international organizations to trade with Iraq because they are assured of timely delivery of the product and services.  The employees of Iraqi organizations with high uncertainty avoidance scores shows resistance to any kind of change management within the organizations and give high degree of importance to the job and financial security.

The long-term orientation describes how every society has to deal with its past while dealing with the challenges of present and past. In case of Iraqi Kurdistan organizations and society the long-term orientation is low which suggests that the employees and the people of Kurdistan prefer to maintain past traditions, norms, and superstitions in order to sustain their organizational growth and culture. Thus, the organizations follow routine structures and high rules that will help them to act as per their religions and traditions without bringing in any change within the society and the culture of the people. However this is not a desirable condition for the growth of private sector organizations because, these situations will hinder any kind of innovation and will not give rise to any organizational development. Moreover, past traditions will not make the organizations competitive among the other international organizations. The organizations are thus not able to focus on long term strategies rather their focus becomes short term (Umeda).

Finally, the last phase of the Hofsted’s model focuses on the level of indulgence. According to Wang and Liu socialization is the key to become successful human beings. Socialization with different people from different countries, cultures and languages will make the individuals in a society broad-minded and more knowledgeable. The level of indulgence defines the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses based on the way they are raised within the society. If the level of control is weak then the people of that society are termed to be indulgent and if the level of control is high then the people of that society is termed to be restraint. Iraqi Kurdistan organizations show low levels which denotes that the Iraqi society is one of the restraint society. Lahafian commented that employees of these kinds of organizations do not belief in formation of teams and groups. They prefer doing their work individually. The employees are also seen in restraining themselves from indulging in any socializing desires. They assume socializing to be a waste of time. In addition, Kummerow and Kirby previously stated that time is equivalent to money for the Kurdish people.  Employees with these kinds of skills and actions generally restrict themselves in the fear that they may tend to break any traditions. Thus, there is a lack of teamwork, congenial working environment and peer reviews in the Kurdish organizations (Pechey and Halligan).

Thus from the assessment of the present organizational culture of Kurdish organizations, it can be effectively stated that Iraqi organizations lack innovativeness and creativity within their work culture which is the major reason for their stagnant growth rate (Al-Bazzaz).

6. Conclusion

 The assessment of the organizational culture using two different models namely, the Hofsted’s cultural dimensions and the Cultural framework shows that hierarchical organizational culture is present within the government organizations of Kurdistan. Further analysis of the nature of leadership and employee skills shows that Bureaucracy leadership style is still prevalent among the governmental organizations of Kurdistan. From this it may be concluded that with the passage of time if the management and the employees within the organizations do not change their way of work culture then they may lack behind in the competition. The employees may lack skills and with absence of proper duty, allocation will suffer from low productivity issues, which will in turn be negative for the organizational goal achievement. Moreover, the presence of high degree of masculinity and low degree of indulgence shows that the populations of Iraq are still following the past traditions. These are the major reasons for low level of education, high concentration of wealth and low degree of recognition. Although the country has overcome the situations of political war, however the country is still not very free from tyranny. Rather the management of different organizations should successfully adopt the adhocracy culture to make the organizations flourish.

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