Chapter 6 - Intro. To Organisational Culture Flashcards
Organisational Culture
A system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organisations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organisation and dictate how they dress, act and perform their jobs.
President of Ford: “Organisational culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner”
- Says that businesses should be attuned to outside (national) culture and organisational.
Geert Hofstede
Definition of culture:
“The collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group of category of people from another”
- his definition separates the way we think and we behave.
- He is pointing to a difference between what people are THINKING and about what people are actually DOING.
- “The unwritten rules of the social game”
CULTURE: has to be learned before it is done, it is not inherited.
- In order to understand the mindset of ‘something’ (Persons, organisations etc), you must be a part of that group. If not you won’t fully understand the innovation and structures needed to put organisational strategy into action.
For Hofsteed first comes the mindset, then behaviour of individual then structure o the organisational.
- He says “It is not the tip of the ice berg that sinks the ship, but the 90% that is submerged under water”
- He distinguishes between the outside vs. The inside and the written vs. The unwritten.
⇒ This again means culture is hard to ‘pin down’; it is something that you develop as you grow up. As you socialize you start to understand social and cultural norms and you develop these in to your everyday life. It makes a distinction between what is official (written down) and what goes n behind the scenes. Culture is thus less about what is official (i.e. rules) and more the things that go on behind the scenes; that you do not see.
John Weeks
He conducted organisational ethnography in British Armstrong Bank. - Unpopular culture.
He tracked the implications of the complaints from people working there had about the organisational culture of the business.
John Weeks saw that the company was underpinned by a ‘culture of complaint’. He goes on to say that to understand an individual you must relate the behaviour to the overall culture.
Organisational Ethnography
The ethnographic study and of organisations and their organising processes.
- Before we understand these issues the anthropological concern with getting to know and understanding the difference between: What people and organisations SAY and what people actually DO.
Rachael Hudley (‘power of spaces’)
She conducted Ethnography in the corridors of businesses.
Methods used:
- Observation
- Analysis
- Walking tours
Although corridors are layers that may not be an important space to some, Rachael Hudley recognized that what goes on in these transient spaces, where people meet for a chat and e.g. say good morning, is a very important part of organizations culture.
She found that “what happens in these ‘grey areas’ allows for a different type of culture to be born”
Corridors are informal spaces where Intimacies and social networks can be formed.
The layout is thus very important to business culture.
THE CORRIDORS HAE CULTURE.
- CORRIDORS AND ITIMATE spaces are necessary for people to have a moment and create meaning between one another. And therefore crucial to a successful business.
Further Examples
HP
- Flat hierarchy
- “It was more like a family”
Inemuri: napping in Japan.
- This went against the western understanding of an ‘efficient worker’.
- Organisational cultures are becoming more aware of values and beliefs of other national or organisational cultures.
Scholars in organisational studies have made efforts to define culture as…
‘something that we do when no one is looking’
- in this sense, culture is about learned responses to the world around us.
