Organizational Culture of Indonesia Dissertation - 1

Organizational Culture of Indonesia - Dissertation Example Indonesia consists of 17,508 separate islands and the population exceeds 234 million. In terms of population, it is the fourth largest country in the world. Indonesia is a multicultural society with one of the most populous Muslim majority country in the world. It also has a significant number of Hindus, Buddhist, and Christians. Hence the culture of one city is sometimes entirely different from other cities e.g. the culture of Hindu dominated Bali is entirely different from Jakarta which in turn is entirely different from Sumatra. Hence categorizing certain behaviors as Indonesian culture would be an oversimplification. Despite these cultural variations, the other factor which is more important for organizational culture is the â€Å"tightness† or â€Å"looseness† of the society or national culture in terms of organizational culture. This tightness or looseness is determined by the strength of societal norms and the degree of acceptability for deviations from these nor ms (James W. Smither, 2009). The Indonesian culture is quite loose because of already existing diversity in the society. Indonesia consists of 17,508 separate islands and the population exceeds 234 million. In terms of population, it is the fourth largest country in the world. Indonesia is a multicultural society with one of the most populous Muslim majority country in the world. It also has a significant number of Hindus, Buddhist, and Christians. Hence the culture of one city is sometimes entirely different from other cities e.g. the culture of Hindu dominated Bali is entirely different from Jakarta which in turn is entirely different from Sumatra. Hence categorizing certain behaviors as Indonesian culture would be an oversimplification. Despite these cultural variations, the other factor which is more important for organizational culture is the â€Å"tightness† or â€Å"looseness† of the society or national culture in terms of organizational culture. This tightness or looseness is determined by the strength of societal norms and the degree of acceptability for deviations from these norms (James W. Smither, 2009). The Indonesian culture is quite loose because of already existing diversity in the society. Organizational Culture of Indonesia Organizational culture in Indonesia has transformed ever since the movement of democratization in 1998. It has resulted in a lot of freedom of expression and freedom of information. It has also brought changes in the organizational structures with a shift towards decentralization and democratization (Hill, 2011). The system of centralization and authoritarianism is now completely changed. According to researchers one major dimension along which many ethnic groups and nations vary from each other is the degree of individualism and collectivism. This behavior strongly determines the attitude, behavior, and actions of the individuals and hence has a strong role to play in determining the working environment.