8605-418 Understanding the Organisational Culture and Context

Unit Overview

8605-418 Understanding the Organisational Culture and Contexts is a crucial unit that learners within the ILM Level 4 Module must go through before completing their study. This is an important unit as it focuses on improving the understanding culture and context of the organisation, which is important in boosting alignment to the specific practices and aspects valued within the organisational environment.

Middle managers have an elevated duty within the organisation in linking the executive management to the lower levels of management and the employees. They are further tasked with the duty of making tactical decisions and plans that are to be used at the operational levels within the organisation. Therefore, the main purpose and aim of 8605-418 Understanding the Organisational Culture and Context is to demonstrate and develop an understanding of the role of middle managers that helps them to contextually in the culture and context of the business. The unit is taught in 25 hours of guided learning and is relevant to 6 credit values in the overall completion of the ILM Level 4 Module.

Suitability of the Unit

8605-418 Understanding the Organisational Culture and Context is a unit that is majorly designed to meet the learning needs of practising or potential middle managers within the organisations. The middle managers are provided with the knowledge and skills that they need to implement in ensuring that they suit themselves effectively to playing their duties and responsibilities hence improving the management performance and accomplishing the organisational goals and objectives in their various areas of operations.

It helps them to align their performance to the culture and context of the organisation hence facilitating success within the organisation. However, this unit is significantly versatile and suits the needs of different leaders within the organisation. The executive management is the top leaders within the organisation, and they can use the skills and knowledge presented within this unit to ensure that their performance is aligned with organisational goals and objectives and hence improve their management performance in alignment with the organisational culture and context.

While this unit is designed for middle managers, executive managers need to understand significant aspects of improving performance and evaluating their own managerial performances to boost their competencies. Lower levels of management are also significantly benefited by the unit. Junior managers and team leaders can use these skills to effectively put themselves in place for future leadership positions as well as ensure that they are able to positively impact their leadership abilities and performance in their various areas of responsibilities and operation.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Evaluate the organisation within its broader environment using appropriate environmental and organisational analysis techniques

• Examine the implications of the policies, procedures and legal requirements that are relevant to your area of work

• Evaluate the cultural and ethical behaviour present in the organisation

• Evaluate own cultural and ethical behaviour in relation to the organisation

• Propose how to uphold the ethical standards across the organisation

   

Key Learning Areas

8605-418 Understanding the Organisational Culture and Context focuses on improving the alignment of managerial performance to organisational goals and objectives. As such, it covers three main areas of learning which include:

Responsibilities of Middle Managers in Improving Alignment to Culture and Context

Middle managers have a critical role to play in influencing the performance of the organisation, but this can only be achieved with the understanding of the contributions that they make within the organisation. This area of learning focuses on providing the lien managers with the necessary understanding of the approaches that can be used to evaluate and understand the context of their organisations, including the goals and objectives, which is essential in creating awareness of managerial contribution to the organisation.

Additionally, the managers are guided in understanding the specific responsibilities that they can play in helping the organisation achieve this goal. While this aspect varies depending on the organisations, middle managers are provided with the basic principles to apply in the process. This involves understanding the formal and informal organisational relationships as well as differentiating between management and leadership, which helps to create objectives that are measurable and aligned with overall organisational goals.

Culture and Context

This area of learning presents the objective of the course. It helps the learners to understand the various aspects of culture and context within the organisation that improves their mastery of information and practice within their areas of responsibility. In this area of learning, the learners are provided with an understanding of various tools that they can use to scan their external environment hence put up measures that align the organisation. PESTLE and SWOT analysis are examples of the tools that the learners are introduced to do in preparing them for their contribution to organisational practice.

Additionally, the learners are helped to appreciate the organisational culture, methods and values which shape specific practices in these areas. This understanding is critical in building guiding principles that help to perform well in their areas of practice and responsibility. This area of learning also introduced the learners to the corporate social and environmental responsibility. The prospective leaders within the organisation must understand the contributions they need to make to the environment and society, and this area provides this principle to the leaders. Lastly, they are guided in understanding the ethical and legal duties of the organisation on critical factors, including employment, unfair discrimination and other organisational policies.

Personal Development

This area of learning mainly focuses on the personal and professional development of managers. It helps the managers evaluate their understanding of business culture and context as well as identify key areas of weakness and strength which they can improve in communication and interpersonal skills that could improve their performance. These include understanding the role of self-assessment, feedback from other stakeholders and personal development planning in improving personal abilities and competencies.

Evaluation

On completing the unit, the learners are required to complete an assessment.t eh assessment compromises a written 3000 words assessment that reflects both the mastery of theory and practice associated with the unit.