10. Organizational Culture Flashcards
Seven Primary Organizational
Culture Characteristics
Innovation and Risk Taking Attention to Detail Outcome Orientation People Orientation Team Orientation Aggressiveness Stability
How Organizational Cultures Form
Philosopy of org. founders –> Selection criteria –>
1) top management
2) socialization
last: organizational cultural
(chart)
Ten Things We Know to be True
Focus on the user and all else will follow
It’s best to do one thing really, really well
Fast is better than slow
Democracy on the web works
You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer
You can make money without doing evil
There’s always more information out there
The need for information crosses all borders
You can be serious without a suit
Great just isn’t good enough
Culture as a barrier to…
Change
Diversity
Innovation
Acquisitions and Mergers
Culture creates climate…shared
perceptions organizational members
have about their organization and work
environment.
A Spectrum of Reasons for Failure
DEVIANCE An individual chooses to violate a prescribed process or
practice.
INATTENTION An individual inadvertently deviates from specifications.
LACK OF
ABILITY An individual doesn’t have the skills, conditions, or
training to execute a job.
PROCESS
INADEQUACY A competent individual adheres to a prescribed but
faulty or incomplete process.
TASK CHALLENGE An individual faces a task too diffic ult to be executed
reliably every time.
UNCERTAINTYA lack of clarity about future events causes people to take
seemingly reasonable actions that produce undesirable results
PROCESS COMPLEXITY
A process composed of many elements breaks down when it
encounters novel interactions.
HYPOTHESIS TESTING
An experiment conducted to prove that an idea or a design
will succeed fails.
EXPLORATORY TESTING
An experiment conducted to expand knowledge and investigate
a possibility leads to an undesired result.
Categories of Mistakes
Preventable failures in predictable
operations
Unavoidable failures in complex systems
Intelligent failures at the frontier
How to Build a Psychologically Safe
Environment
Frame the work accurately ◦ Detoxifies failure Embrace messengers ◦ Celebrate rather than shoot bearer Acknowledge limits ◦ Model openness Invite participation ◦ Involvement Set boundaries and hold people accountable ◦ Clarity about what is blameworthy and consequences
Organization as…
Psychic Prison
Toxic Organizational Cultures
Authoritarian-hierarchical Competing-conflictive Laissez faire Dishonest-corrupt Rigid-traditional
Cases, articles, etc
Home Depot
Bill Bratton
Tipping Point Leadership
at a Glance
Resource Hurdle
Motivational Hurdle
Political Hurdle
Cognitive Hurdle
How to Create an Ethical
Organizational Culture
How to Create an Ethical
Organizational Culture
Implications for Managers
Create the culture you want when the
organization is small and new
If established culture needs to be
changed, expect it to take years
How to keep culture alive
Selection
Top management
Socialization - help new employees adapt
How to keep culture alive
Selection
Top management
Socialization - help new employees adapt
