Chapter 15 Flashcards
Organizational culture
The shared social knowledge within an organization regarding the rules, norms, and values that shape the attitudes and behaviours of its employees.
Observable artifacts
Aspects of an organization’s culture that employees and outsiders can easily see or talk about.
* Symbols - logos, images on the company’s website, employee uniforms.
* Physical structures
* Language - jargon, slang, slogans
* Stories
* Rituals
*Ceremonies
Espoused values
The beliefs, philosophies, and norms that a company explicitly states.
Basic underlying assumptions
The ingrained beliefs and philosophies of employees.
- Ex. It is unimaginable that engineers would purposefully design something that is unsafe.
Solidarity
The degree to which group members think and act alike.
Sociability
How friendly employees are to one another.
Fragmented culture
An organizational culture type in which employees are distant and disconnected from one another.
- Low in solidarity and sociability.
Mercenary culture
An organizational culture type in which employees think alike but are not friendly to one another.
- High in solidarity and low on sociability.
Networked culture
An organizational culture type in which employees are friendly to one another, but everyone thinks differently and does their own thing.
- Low in solidarity and high on sociability.
Communal culture
An organizational culture type in which employees are friendly to one another and all think alike.
- High in solidarity and sociability.
Customer service culture
A specific culture type focused on service quality.
Diversity culture
- A specific culture type focused on fostering or taking advantage of a diverse group of employees.
Sustainability culture
A specific culture type focused on promoting sustainability both inside and outside of the organization.
Creativity culture
A specific culture type focused on fostering a creative atmosphere.
Culture strength
The degree to which employees agree about how things should happen within the organization and behave accordingly.
Subcultures
Cultures created within small subsets of the organization’s employees.
Countercultures
Subcultures whose values do not match those of the organization.
ASA framework
A theory (attraction–selection–attrition) that states that employees will be drawn to organizations with cultures that match their personality, organizations will select employees that match, and employees will leave or be forced out when they are not a good fit.
Socialization
The primary process by which employees learn the social knowledge that enables them to understand and adapt to the organization’s culture.
1. Anticipatory stage - A stage of socialization that begins as soon as a potential employee develops an image of what it would be like to work for a company.
2. Encounter stage - A stage of socialization beginning the day an employee starts work, during which the employee compares the information as an outsider to the information learned as an insider.
- Reality shock - A mismatch of information that occurs when an employee finds that aspects of working at a company are not what they expected them to be.
3. Understanding and adaptation - The final stage of socialization, during which newcomers come to learn the content areas of socialization and internalize the norms and expected behaviours of the organization.
Three basic stages of organizational change
- Unfreezing – occurs when the organization comes to some realization that the status quo is unacceptable.
- Change Initiative – this step may involve bringing in a new leader, introducing a new reward system, or implementing a new training program.
- Refreezing – The newly developed attitudes and behaviours need to harden up becoming entrenched as new norms, values, and shared understandings.
OCAI - Organizational culture assessment instrument (OCAI), a structured diagnostic tool used to describe and categorize corporate cultures.
- The OCAI is based on a framework of competing values and is organized around two primary dimensions that, together, help to define the nature of an organization’s culture.
- The first dimension distinguishes cultures that emphasize the value of flexibility, discretion, and dynamism from cultures that emphasize the values of stability, order, and control.
- The second dimension distinguishes cultures that are internally oriented, in which integration, coordination, and cohesion among members are valued, from cultures that are externally oriented, in which risk taking, entrepreneurship, and results are stressed above all.
Resistance
The deliberate act of opposing or withstanding change.
Selection
The process of choosing one or more new employees from a pool of applicants on the basis of job-related criteria
Training
An activity aimed at helping employees and managers acquire new knowledge, skills, and competencies need to support a desired culture, and is often part of a company’s overall socialization effort.
Performance management
The deliberate process of measuring and motivating job behaviours.
Person-organization fit
The degree to which a person’s personality and values match the culture of an organization.
Relationship between person-organization fit and job performance and organizational commitment
Person-organization fit has a weak positive effect on job performance.
Person-organization fit has a strong positive effect on commitment.
Realistic job previews
The process of ensuring that a prospective employee understands both the positive and the negative aspects of the job.
Newcomer orientation
A common form of training during which new hires learn more about the organization.
Mentoring
The process by which a junior-level employee develops a deep and long-lasting relationship with a more senior-level employee within the organization.
