9 | Culture and Control Flashcards
What is organizational culture?
a system of assumptions and beliefs shared by a group of people that share their perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours
~ (Schein, 1992)
it is taught to new members who join the organization as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to certain issues
What are the multiple sources of culture?
- Country cultures: regions –> the company within which the organisation is situated in
- Occupational cultures
- Industry cultures: indistry groups
- Organizational cultures: subcultures –> department & divisions, occupations & functions
What are the different levels of organizational culture?
ARTIFACTS:
- outer layer, that is visible, tangible aspects - behaviour and speech
- observable products of culture
- easy to see, hard to interpret
E.g: office layout, dress code
VALUES:
- shared principles, standards, goals
- What people say is the reason for their behavior
- Values and norms about what is right and wrong, important or unimportant
E.g: Social equality, high quality rels
ASSUMPTIONS:
- taken-for-granted, unconscious, underlying, shared beliefs and schemas that determine how group members percieve, think and feel about situations
- not visible and must be inferred
E.g: “schools should educate” “happy employees benefit the organization”
why does culture matter?
culture controls and coordinates bhv in orgs
What are some of the ways organizations might control and coordinate work?
SIMPLE/COERCIVE CONTROL
- direct, personal control exercised by 1 person over another
TECHNICAL CONTROL
- a type of structural control embedded in technical systems
- e.g.: assembly line controls the pace of work
BUREAUCRATIC CONTROL
- decisions are made centrally
- efficient yet not very adaptive
- formal hierarchy, rules and procedures
NORMATIVE CONTROL
- shared values shape bhv, norms, expectations shape bhv
Why is normative control effective?
- feels less obtrusive, and more natural than bureaucratic/ technical control
- employees internalize culture and even monitor each other’s complaince => in turn, leaders are freed up from constant monitoring
–> Strong norms act as guidelines for bhv; increase members clarity about the orgs priorities and expectations
–> Culture is an important control mechanism especially when employees face unique problems and when employees actions cannot be specified by supervisors, and when bhvs cannot be directly observed
What does it mean if a firm has a strong organizational culture?
Core values are intensely held and widely shared
- there is concensus across the org on what is improtant and valued
How does a strong culture improve performance?
Strong culture:
- Guides behavior (but is often experienced as autonomy) which is desirable for knowledge workers, and conserves management resources
- Generates commitment
- Taps into intrinsic motivations of employees
As a result, a strong and strategically relevant culture can improve overall performance (sales volume, revenues, market share etc.)
What are some risks of having strong culture?
- Incongruence - if culture is misaligned with the environment
Congruence model: culture, strategy, structure
- Inertia - strong culture can be a source of inflexibility that prevents adaptation
What are the 4 steps in creating and maintaining culture?
Attraction, Selection, Socialization, Attrition
What is ‘attraction’ and ‘selection’?
selection for cultural fit
So:
- job descriptions
- recruiting events
- employee referrals
attracting the ‘right’ employees
- cultural fit is important - bc wrong hiring is costly
- need to balance the need for cohesion with the need for diversity
What is the ‘socialization’ process in cultivating culture?
starts with onboarding and training - bc culture is LEARNED
- Peers and supervisors transmit org values and underlying assumptions to newcomers as well as task relevant info
- Can be formal and structured, or informal and unstructured
Socialization is an ongoing process - how is this presented in the firm?
Done through stories and symbols, rituals, language and metaphor:
- Stories and symbols - the creation of ‘myths’ from the org’s history; make ordinary actions into symbols of excellence
- Rituals -routines that support assumptions underlying a culture - can be in the form of celebrations/‘wins’
- Language and Metaphor - specialised language that insiders use signals assumptions, metaphors: “Reach for the stars”
What is the role of leaders in cultivating and maintaining culture?
- they set the tone for the rest of the org
- Can reinforce culture by modelling desired bhvs and attitudes, instructing systems that reward those bhvs, make sure that values drive recruitment
- instituing systes that reward desired bhvs
- leaders must set and maintain culture, and contantly check its alignment with environmental demands
What are the 6 steps to creating culture change?
1) Create a sense of urgency
2) Change leaders and other key players
3) Role model
4) Train
5) Change the reward system
6) Create new stories and symbols
