Chapter 4: Culture and Leadership

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

Used to describe the internal behaviour, values and processes in an organization

It can also be used to refer to external socio-economic and political forces that form part of the external context of organizations.

Question 2

Cultural theorist believe

Answer 2

Culture is central to ‘all aspects of organizational life’, that organizational culture can foster affective commitment among followers, that under some circumstances leaders can shape the culture of an organization, but also more generally, culture can restrict leaders, which is why ‘culture is serious business’

Question 3

Williams (1988)

Answer 3

Believes the word culture is one of the most complicated words in the English language

Three broad types of usage:

1) as a process of intellectual, spiritual or aesthetic development
2) as a reference to a particular way of life
3) as reference to the arts

Question 4

Giddens and Sutton (2017: 995)

Answer 4

define culture as ‘The values, norms, habits and ways of life characteristic of a coherent social group.’

Question 5

Stuart Hall (1932–2014)

Answer 5

‘Culture is not a matter of ontology, of being, but of becoming … [it] is not just a voyage of rediscovery, a return journey. It is not “archaeology”. Culture is a production’.

The idea is therefore that a national identity, such as ‘Britishness’, can be socially constructed, and, importantly, a national culture is malleable and is being constantly reproduced

Question 6

Northouse (2015) nine cultural dimensions:

Answer 6

1) Uncertainty avoidance
2) Power distance
3) Institutional collectivism
4) In-group collectivism
5) Gender egalitarianism
6) Assertiveness
7) Future orientation
8) Performance orientation
9) Human orientation

Question 7

1) Uncertainty avoidance

Answer 7

the extent to which society relies on rules to avoid uncertainty.

Question 8

2) Power distance

Answer 8

views about the extent to which power should be unequally distributed.

Question 9

3) Institutional collectivism

Answer 9

the identification of broader societal interests compared with individual goals.

Question 10

4) In-group collectivism

Answer 10

the expression of pride in social organizations and families.

Question 11

5) Gender egalitarianism

Answer 11

the promotion of restriction of gender inequalities.

Question 12

6) Assertiveness

Answer 12

the encouragement of toughness as opposed to submissiveness.

Question 13

7) Future orientation

Answer 13

the forward planning and support for change compared with support for traditionalism.

Question 14

8) Performance orientation

Answer 14

the extent to which people are encouraged by and rewarded for improved performance.

Question 15

9) Human orientation

Answer 15

the degree of cultural support for fairness and concern for others.

Question 16

Anglo group (including the USA and the UK) is said to have a culture that is

Answer 16

characteristically competitive, results orientated and less attached to their families.

Question 17

The identification of national cultures is problematic because surveys tend to assume

Answer 17

that each society must have a unitary, consensual array of values.
(Different parts of the nation have different views! not to mention they vary person to person extensively.)

Question 18

dominant culture

Answer 18

implies that in a society with diverse cultures and class divisions, a ruling class is able to persuade most of the population that its values and worldview should prevail

A culture can never be completely dominant as there is always the possibility that competing values will exist or that some sections of society (e.g. the poor) will, through their life experience, fail to be entirely convinced of the legitimacy of the ruling ideology.

Question 19

Subculture

Answer 19

Within society, or, indeed, within a work organization, there may be groups who do not share the dominant values but express themselves through different values and symbols such as dress codes or language

Question 20

Counterculture

Answer 20

Where a subculture opposes or inverts the values of the dominant culture

may provide a symbolic resistance to a dominant culture, or even a solution for its members as they can find a more positive self-definition within that culture

Question 21

The national cultures embedded within people need to be understood:

Answer 21

because they interweave explicitly and predictably with people’s thinking, assumptions and action inside the workplace, and for leaders they provide choices of who to be in various situations

Question 22

organizational culture

Answer 22

a social construct made up of values, patterns of relationships and ways of doing things in a particular organization

Question 23

In terms of influencing people’s thinking and action, a growing body of cultural literature is contributing to our understanding of organizational culture.

Answer 23

1) It is posited, for example, that the neoliberal logic of privatization and competition forced into all aspects of society has come to frame decision making by upper-echelon leaders.
2) Moreover, it has coerced individuals into new employment relationships, new routines, compelling human beings to adopt new attitudes, thought patterns, values and self-images.

Question 24

In summary, the influence of organizations is dominant in shaping, if not determining,

Answer 24

employer–employee relations and ideas, but organizations are located in national cultures, which influence the cultures of organizations (Hofstede, 2001)

Question 25

Although national culture is basic to social interaction, ‘Organizations are typically best seen as existing in a

Answer 25

broader cultural context, with a variety of societal, industrial, regional, class, occupation, etc., cultures interplaying’

Question 26

The current trend in mainstream management literature in which reference is made to ‘corporate culture’ implies that

Answer 26

organizational leaders create their culture through explicit ‘mission’ or value statements and individual behaviours and the like, which is then transmitted down to the lower-echelon leaders and other employees as part of a formalized approach to managing people.

Question 27

As Handy (1985: 189) observes,

Answer 27

‘This culture depends on a central power source, with rays of power and influence spreading out from that central figure. In sum, a leader’s influence and power cause others to act.

Question 28

(Martin 2002, cited in Alvesson, 2016: 267)

Answer 28

‘the right corporate vision, mission statement or leader, an organization can build a highly committed, unified culture that fosters productivity and profitability’

Question 29

Negatives: while cultural control can help to reduce ambiguity and reinforce organizational processes:

Answer 29

it can also encourage ‘group think’, hinder critical thinking and lead to unproductive activities and mistakes

Question 30

‘organizational culture’

Answer 30

a system of ‘shared’ values and beliefs, co-produced by leaders and followers, which seek to reinforce employee behaviour so as to achieve the organization’s goals.

Question 31

Cooke and Rousseau (1988: 245)

Answer 31

define organizational culture as ‘the shared beliefs and values guiding the thinking and behavioral styles of members.’

Question 32

Visible artifacts

Answer 32

• such as buildings or uniforms or displayed works of art
• wearing of a stethoscope by doctors in hospitals,
• the wig worn by judges in British law courts
• the wearing of a professorial gown in universities

Question 33

Rituals and ceremonies

Answer 33

Another aspect of observable organizational culture

Formal rituals are collective routines that ‘dramatize’ the organization’s culture. For example, the office party can be viewed as a ritual for integrating new members into the organization

Question 34

Employment-related espoused values possess six characteristics:

Answer 34

1) They involve moral or ethical statements of ‘rightness’.
2) They pertain to desirable modes of behaviour at a given point in time.
3) They directly influence employee behaviour and experiences, and act as significant moderators.
4) They are typically associated with strategic goals and address questions like ‘What are we doing?’ and ‘Why are we doing this?’.
5) They guide the selection and evaluation of members.
6) They may vary in respect of male/female, demographic and cultural differences (Nindl et al., 2013), for example a belief that women in the armed forces should not engage in combat roles.

Question 35

The term ‘shared’ in cultural analysis implies

Answer 35

that organizational members are a whole. Each member has been exposed to a set of dominant values, although not every member may internalize and endorse them.

Question 36

Basic assumptions

Answer 36

Are invisible, unconscious, taken for granted and highly resistant to change.

These are the implicit and unspoken assumptions that underpin everyday choices and shape how leaders and followers perceive, think about and emotionally react to social and organizational events.

Question 37

The basic assumptions/beliefs about human nature, human relationships, relationship to nature and how the world works

Answer 37

form the base upon which employees, who as social beings enter the workplace with life histories and experiences, build their values of how the world should be

Question 38

organizational climate

Answer 38

relates to managers’ and other employees’ evaluation of tangible workplace attributes

Question 39

Schneider and Reichers (1983)

Answer 39

define organizational climate as employees’ perceptions of formal policies, the procedures that translate policies into guidelines, and the practices that act upon them.

Climate is conceptualized as an artefact of organizational culture

Question 40

Durkheim’s concern for social solidarity through ideological consensus suggests

Answer 40

that culture is the social ‘glue’ binding an organization together (theorist)

Question 41

Weber emphasizes that individuals behave

Answer 41

‘not out of obedience, but … because … of unreflective habituation to a regularity of life that has engraved itself as a custom’ (theorists)

Question 42

Contemporary literature identifies four perspectives:

Answer 42

1) managerialist,
2) symbolic-interactionist,
3) social conflict
4) feminist.

Question 43

The managerialist perspective

Answer 43

-shares assumptions with functionalist sociology

Culture is looked upon as an organization-wide set of values devised by senior managers in order to produce a committed and loyal workforce.

Writers from this perspective focus on the role of leaders, their style of leadership and the kinds of culture most appropriate to the achievement of the goals of the organization

Question 44

The symbolic-interactionist perspective

Answer 44

contends that organizational culture is about shared meanings produced by workers and management in regular, routine contact

Culture emerges from day-to-day symbolic or meaningful action and is not fixed but subject to negotiation over time.

The advocates of this perspective favour qualitative methods such as participant or non-participant observation in order to obtain information about the meanings actors share.

Question 45

The social conflict perspective

Answer 45

rooted in Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism

It assumes that conflict is a basic feature of all organizations as members struggle for control over scarce resources.

Values, norms and beliefs are assumed to develop to maintain the power and control of management.

The ultimate conflict, according to this approach, is between ‘capital’ and ‘labour’ and values are seen as legitimizing management against resistance from subordinates.

Question 46

The feminist perspective

Answer 46

argues that gender is a central aspect of organizational analysis

Gender, defined here as the ‘patterned, socially produced, distinctions between female and male, feminine and masculine’

is crucial for understanding how people encounter support, encouragement and scepticism in organizational contexts

cultural values associated with notions of masculinity and femininity are often reflected in organizational processes; for example, processes and rewards that privilege masculine attributes.

Question 47

Management and leadership theorists have identified different cultural change strategies that focus on changing the manifestations of organizational culture:

Answer 47

such as artefacts, work value, norms of behaviour and basic assumptions.

Question 48

Alvesson (2011a: 152) explores three perspectives on organizational culture and leadership:

Answer 48

1) the role of leaders in creating an organizational culture;
2) leadership as maintenance and reproduction of organizational culture;
3) culture as framing and reframing by leadership.

Question 49

CULTURE AS A CONSTRAINT

Answer 49

CULTURE AS A CONSTRAINT

Question 50

Alvesson (2011a)

Answer 50

contends that managers can influence organizational culture but only in a very restricted way so that culture is generally seen as a constraint upon management.

Question 51

Culture is a constraint on leadership behaviour and initiatives, but so are other parts of the business environment such as

Answer 51

government policies, politics, laws and regulations

Question 52

Emmott (2015: vii)

Answer 52

observes that the concepts of engagement and voice are rooted in the notion that they create an effective employment relationship built on ‘trust, fairness and respect’, which has a positive effect on performance.

Question 53

‘Employee engagement’ and ‘voice’

Answer 53

terms used to describe HR practices that are designed to allow employees some input into decision-making processes.

Question 54

Direct engagement

Answer 54

refers to those forms of participation where individuals are involved in decision-making processes that affect their everyday work routines.

Examples include group and team briefings, quality circles and problem-solving groups

Engaging employees directly in the decision-making process is considered a key aspect of enacting change, including cultural change, and subsequently sustaining it (Important)

Question 55

Indirect employee voice

Answer 55

describes those forms of worker participation where employee representatives participate in the processes of decision making at strategic organizational level

Examples of indirect voice include ‘worker directors’ joint consultative committees and European Works Councils (EWC)

Question 56

Johnstone and Ackers (2015) the ‘pluralist model’

Answer 56

assumes there is scope for co-operation and compromise achievable through dialogue

Question 57

Evaluation and Criticism

Answer 57

Evaluation and Criticism

Question 58

The first criticism levelled at cultural theorists

Answer 58

Relates to the methodology used to identify distinct national cultures. They are too broad and see culture as a statistical average of personal values, rather than an ambiguous measure that can vary drastically per person.

Question 59

The second criticism levelled at cultural theorists

Answer 59

much cultural analysis is framed within a culture–performance relationship in which a ‘strong’ culture increases commitment and better all-round performance.

demonstrating a causal relationship between a strong corporate culture and business performance has proven problematic

Question 60

The third criticism levelled at cultural theorists

Answer 60

Followers within the same organization will not necessarily internalize the culture of their workplace in the same way, and predictions of a ‘strong culture’ creating commitment and motivation in one individual does not necessarily work with all employees.

Question 61

The last criticism levelled at cultural theorists

Answer 61

strong corporate culture does little to alter the nature of the employment relationship, at least not in any meaningful way.

The preoccupation with culture does nothing to obviate the need to reduce labour costs and, in the light of weak trade union representation, to intensify the pressure of work and increase employee voice

Question 62

Lecture and beyond

Answer 62

Lecture and beyond

Question 63

Alternaitve culture defintion

Answer 63

The set of overlapping, inevitably sometimes conflicting value communications in which we conduct our lives (a culture of skiing having conflicting political views)