What is culture history

What is culture history? Culture’s history is the history of a culture or culture area (Merriam-Webster, n.d., 2018). Culture today is defined as a social order of organization. It is known to mold attitudes and behaviors (Groysberg, Lee, Price, ; Cheng, 2018). The culture of a society consists of shared values, goals, assumptions, and understandings (Naikal ; Chandra, 2013). Acceptance and encouragement as well as the opposites outline culture norms within a group setting. For an organization to flourish a shared purpose, personal values, and needs are important to be unified. (Groysberg, Lee, Price, ; Cheng, 2018). Culture is shared behaviors and values; therefore, culture cannot exist will only one person. Culture’s insight can be made of many different areas such as sociology and anthropology (Glynn, Giorgi, & Lockwood, 2013). Organizational culture is defined as the assortment of norms and values shared by individuals in an organization (Naikal & Chandra, 2013).
Organization culture has changed over the years, especially in a company setting. In the early 20th century, theorists by the name Frederick Winslow Taylor studied work and how it was performed. Taylor also studied how work in general affected workers productivity. Taylor believed that employees did not work as hard as they possibly could. Taylor’s method focused on optimizing the way work was performed and reducing waste (Qin, 2010). In 1909, Frederick Winslow Taylor published “The Principles of Scientific Management” (Eyre, 2010). Taylor’s philosophy was if the work was optimized and the jobs were simplified, productivity would increase (Eyre, 2010). Taylor believed that employees and employers should cooperate more with each other. However, in the early 20th century this was not norms like it is today. During that era, a typical factory manager would have little to no contact with the employees. The employees would be left alone to work and produce goods. Taylor believed that the employees’ main source of motivation was to keep their jobs and the employees were motivated by money. Taylor came up with the philosophy “a fair day’s pay for a far day’s work” (Eyre, 2010). Taylor believed this because there was no purpose or incentive for employees to work as hard as they possibly could. Taylor’s principled recognized a standard management flow and different wage rate system (Zhang, 2009). In Taylors method, an employee who did not work as hard as an employee who produced vastly more products should not get paid the same amount. Taylor developed a scientific method to establish the most efficient way to perform a work-related task. However, in Taylor’s Scientific Management Method, he believed that the was only one correct way to do the job (Eyre, 2010). Now, this is completely different from today’s management methods. Currently, depending on the method, they encourage employees and or individuals to take responsibility and make decisions on their own to solve a problem. Another difference from Taylor’s method and todays practices is teamwork. Taylor believes everyone should work alone. Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory or called Taylorism, takes a task or job and breaks it down into extremely small steps. It shows how the employee can perform their job in the most efficient way. In today’s methods, it is favored to observe the work system as a whole to measure productivity and efficiency (Eyre, 2010). During Taylor’s studies, he determined some employees work more efficiently than other employees. He believed that employers should only seek out efficient people. Taylor concluded that choosing the right employee for a job is a significant part in workplace efficiency (Eyre, 2010). Taylor developed the “Four Principles of Scientific Management.” The principles consist of throwing out old habits and common sense and using the scientific method to perform every task. The second principle is matching employees with positions they are effective in. The third is, supervise employee’s performance and provide feedback on how the employee can perform more efficiently. And finally, the fourth principle is the employer should be using their time to train and plan, which lets the employees to perform their jobs. (Eyre, 2010). Taylor’s method ultimately changed employers’ and employees’ image and increase earnings (Zhang, 2009). At the end of the 20th century, Taylorism was almost phrased out and The New Modern Taylorism took its place.