ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE PART 1

Organizational culture refers to a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that show people what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Every organization develops and maintains a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the members of the organization. Let's explore what elements make up an organization's culture.

 



Characteristics of Organizational Culture

According to Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, there are four types of organizational culture: Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy.

·         Clan oriented cultures are family-like, with a focus on mentoring, nurturing, and “doing things together.”

·         Adhocracy oriented cultures are dynamic and entrepreneurial, with a focus on risk-taking, innovation, and “doing things first.”

·         Market oriented cultures are results oriented, with a focus on competition, achievement, and “getting the job done.”

·         Hierarchy oriented cultures are structured and controlled, with a focus on efficiency, stability and “doing things right.”

 

 

Types

Several methods have been used to classify organizational culture. While there is no single "type" of organizational culture and organizational cultures vary widely from one organization to the next, commonalities do exist and some researchers have developed models to describe different indicators of organizational cultures. Some are described below:

Hofstede

Hofstede (1980) looked for differences between over 160 000 IBM employees in 50 different countries and three regions of the world, in an attempt to find aspects of culture that might influence business behavior. He suggested things about cultural differences existing in regions and nations, and the importance of international awareness and multiculturalism for the own cultural introspection. Cultural differences reflect differences in thinking and social action, and even in "mental programs", a term Hofstede uses for predictable behaviour. Hofstede relates culture to ethnic and regional groups, but also organizations, profession, family, to society and subcultural groups, national political systems and legislation, etc.

Hofstede suggests the need for changing "mental programs" with changing behavior first, which will lead to value change. Though certain groups like Jews, Gypsies and Basques have maintained their identity through centuries, their values show adaptation to the dominant cultural environment.

Hofstede demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groupings that affect the behavior of organizations and identified four dimensions of culture in his study of national cultures:

• Power distance (Mauk Mulder, 1977) - Different societies find different solutions on social inequality. Although invisible, inside organizations power inequality of the "boss-subordinates relationships" is functional and according to Hofstede reflects the way inequality is addressed in the society. "According to Mulder's Power Distance Reduction theory subordinates will try to reduce the power distance between themselves and their bosses and bosses will try to maintain or enlarge it", but there is also a degree to which a society expects there to be differences in the levels of power. A high score suggests that there is an expectation that some individuals wield larger amounts of power than others. A low score reflects the view that all people should have equal rights.
• Uncertainty avoidance is the coping with uncertainty about the future. Society copes with it with technology, law and religion (however different societies have different ways of addressing it), and according to Hofstede organizations deal with it with technology, law and rituals or in two ways - rational and non-rational, with rituals being the non-rational. Hofstede listed some of the rituals as the memos and reports, some parts of the accounting system, large part of the planning and control systems, and the nomination of experts.
• Individualism vs. collectivism - disharmony of interests on personal and collective goals (Parsons and Shils, 1951). Hofstede brings about the idea that society's expectations of Individualism/Collectivism will be reflected by the employee inside the organization. Collectivist societies will have more emotional dependence on members in their organizations; when in equilibrium - organization is expected to show responsibility on members. Extreme individualism is seen in the US. In fact, collectivism in the US is seen as "bad". Other cultures and societies US will therefore seek to resolve social and organizational problems in ways different from American ways. Hofstede says that a capitalist market economy fosters individualism and competition and depends on it but individualism is also related to the development of the middle class. Research indicates that some people and cultures might have both high individualism and high collectivism. For example, someone who highly values duty to his or her group does not necessarily give a low priority to personal freedom and self-sufficiency.
• Masculinity vs. femininity - reflects whether a certain society is predominantly male or female in terms of cultural values, gender roles and power relations.
• Long- Versus Short-Term Orientation which he describes as "The long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue. Societies with a short-term orientation generally have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth. They are normative in their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results. In societies with a long-term orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation, context and time. They show an ability to adapt traditions to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results."

These dimensions refer to the impact of national cultures on management, and can be used to adapt policies to local needs. In a follow up study, described in another model is suggested for organisational culture.

 

 

 

Deal and Kennedy

Deal and Kennedy (1982) defined organizational culture as the way things get done around here.

Deal and Kennedy created a model of culture that is based on 4 different types of organizations. They each focus on how quickly the organization receives feedback, the way members are rewarded, and the level of risks taken:

1. Work-hard, play-hard culture: This has rapid feedback/reward and low risk resulting in: Stress coming from quantity of work rather than uncertainty. High-speed action leading to high-speed recreation. Examples: Restaurants, software companies.
2. Tough-guy macho culture: This has rapid feedback/reward and high risk, resulting in the following: Stress coming from high risk and potential loss/gain of reward. Focus on the present rather than the longer-term future. Examples: police, surgeons, sports.
3. Process culture: This has slow feedback/reward and low risk, resulting in the following: Low stress, plodding work, comfort and security. Stress that comes from internal politics and stupidity of the system. Development of bureaucracies and other ways of maintaining the status quo. Focus on security of the past and of the future. Examples: banks, insurance companies.
4. Bet-the-company culture: This has slow feedback/reward and high risk, resulting in the following: Stress coming from high risk and delay before knowing if actions have paid off. The long view is taken, but then much work is put into making sure things happen as planned. Examples: aircraft manufacturers, oil companies.

 

Factors and elements

Gerry Johnson (1988) described a cultural web, identifying a number of elements that can be used to describe or influence organizational culture:

• The paradigm: What the organization is about, what it does, its mission, its values.
• Control systems: The processes in place to monitor what is going on. Role cultures would have vast rulebooks. There would be more reliance on individualism in a power culture.
• Organizational structures: Reporting lines, hierarchies, and the way that work flows through the business.
• Power structures: Who makes the decisions, how widely spread is power, and on what is power based?
• Symbols: These include organizational logos and designs, but also extend to symbols of power such as parking spaces and executive washrooms.
• Rituals and routines: Management meetings, board reports and so on may become more habitual than necessary.
• Stories and myths: build up about people and events, and convey a message about what is valued within the organization.

 

Communicative Indicators

There are many different types of communication that contribute in creating an organizational culture:

• Metaphors such as comparing an organization to a machine or a family reveal employees’ shared meanings of experiences at the organization.
• Stories can provide examples for employees of how to or not to act in certain situations.
• Rites and ceremonies combine stories, metaphors, and symbols into one. Several different kinds of rites that affect organizational culture:
• Rites of passage: employees move into new roles
• Rites of degradation: employees have power taken away from them
• Rites of enhancement: public recognition for an employee’s accomplishments
• Rites of renewal: improve existing social structures
• Rites of conflict reduction: resolve arguments between certain members or groups
• Rites of integration: reawaken feelings of membership in the organization
• Reflexive comments are explanations, justifications, and criticisms of our own actions. This includes:
• Plans: comments about anticipated actions
• Commentaries: comments about action in the present
• Accounts: comments about an action or event that has already occurred

Such comments reveal interpretive meanings held by the speaker as well as the social rules they follow.

• Fantasy Themes are common creative interpretations of events that reflect beliefs, values, and goals of the organization. They lead to rhetorical visions, or views of the organization and its environment held by organization members.

 

 

Schemata

Schemata (plural of schema) are knowledge structures a person forms from past experiences, allowing the person to respond to similar events more efficiently in the future by guiding the processing of information. A person's schemata are created through interaction with others, and thus inherently involve communication.

Stanley G. Harris (1994) argues that five categories of in-organization schemata are necessary for organizational culture:

1. Self-in-organization schemata: a person's concept of oneself within the context of the organization, including her/his personality, roles, and behavior.
2. Person-in-organization schemata: a person's memories, impressions, and expectations of other individuals within the organization.
3. Organization schemata: a subset of person schemata, a person's generalized perspective on others as a whole in the organization.
4. Object/concept-in-organization schemata: knowledge an individual has of organization aspects other than of other persons.
5. Event-in-organization schemata: a person's knowledge of social events within an organization.

All of these categories together represent a person's knowledge of an organization. Organizational culture is created when the schematas (schematic structures) of differing individuals across and within an organization come to resemble each other (when any one person's schemata come to resemble another person's schemata because of mutual organizational involvement), primarily done through organizational communication, as individuals directly or indirectly share knowledge and meanings.

 

Strong/weak

Strong culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their alignment to organizational values. In such environments, strong cultures help firms operate like well-oiled machines, engaging in outstanding execution with only minor adjustments to existing procedures as needed.

Conversely, there is weak culture where there is little alignment with organizational values, and control must be exercised through extensive procedures and bureaucracy.

Research shows that organizations that foster strong cultures have clear values that give employees a reason to embrace the culture. A "strong" culture may be especially beneficial to firms operating in the service sector since members of these organizations are responsible for delivering the service and for evaluations important constituents make about firms. Research indicates that organizations may derive the following benefits from developing strong and productive cultures:

• Better aligning the company towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals
• High employee motivation and loyalty
• Increased team cohesiveness among the company's various departments and divisions
• Promoting consistency and encouraging coordination and control within the company
• Shaping employee behavior at work, enabling the organization to be more efficient

Personal culture

Organizational culture is taught to the person as culture is taught by his/her parents thus changing and modeling his/her personal culture.Indeed employees and people applying for a job are advised to match their "personality to a company’s culture" and fit to it. Some researchers even suggested and have made case studies research on personality changing.

 

National culture

Corporate culture is used to control, coordinate, and integrate of company subsidiaries. However differences in national cultures exist contributing to differences in the views on the management. Differences between national cultures are deep rooted values of the respective cultures, and these cultural values can shape how people expect companies to be run, and how relationships between leaders and followers should be resulting to differences between the employer and the employee on expectations. (Geert Hofstede, 1991) Perhaps equally foundational; observing the vast differences in national copyright (and taxation, etc.) laws suggests deep rooted differing cultural attitudes and assumptions on property rights and sometimes; the desired root function, place, or purpose of corporations relative to the population.