Culture and Change Flashcards
Define values
Attitudes about what people think are important
Define beliefs
Things that the group thinks are true or correct about the organization
Define norms
Behaviour that is considered appropriate or true
What are the four characteristics of organizational culture?
- Consists of values, beliefs, and norms
- Shared among organizational members
- Way of life; tends to be stable over time
- Has a strong impact on employee behaviour, satisfaction, and organizational performance
How is the culture of the organisation reflected in the organisation?
The culture is reflected in how people behave at work; how people interact with each other, what leadership is like, etc.
Explain how culture is like an iceberg
Most people understand the culture implicitly; most of it is not clearly visible to those outside the organization
Explain what a strong culture is
A culture where all the group members understand the beliefs and values of the organization, and those beliefs and values have a strong influence
Explain what a weak culture is
A culture where there is low consensus among all the members of the organization, and there is ambiguity about the beliefs and values of the organization
What are the assets of strong cultures?
- Better coordination and ingroup cooperation
- More effective conflict resolution
- Financial success
Why might strong cultures succeed?
People are on the “same page”; there’s an overarching goal system to guide their behaviour
What are the liabilities of strong cultures?
- Resistance to change
- Culture clash (difficult to merge two unique, strong cultures)
- Pathology
Explain how pathology is a liability of strong cultures
A strong culture that is ineffective, undesirable, unethical, unsafe, or irrelevant to the goals of the organization can be very detrimental
What is the main contributor to culture?
Organizational leadership
What are the three things that affect organizational leadership?
- Founder or CEO
- Management
- Emergent leaders
Explain how the founder or CEO can affect the organizational leadership
Organizations often exhibit the personality, beliefs, and values of the founder
Explain how the management can affect the organizational leadership
What management pays attention to gets repeated and reinforced; managers serve as role models and their behaviour gets imitated
Explain how the emergent leaders can affect the organizational leadership
Influential people not in formal leadership roles can shape the culture
How is the culture learned by new members?
Socialization
Define socialization in terms of culture
Merging individuals into “the way” things are done, shared attitudes, values, beliefs
What are the seven steps through which socialization occurs?
- Selecting & orientation of employees
- Debasement and hazing
- Training in the “trenches”
- Reward and promotion
- Exposure to core culture
- Organizational folklore
- Role models
What are some clues and steps people can use to diagnose a culture? (5)
- Observe interactions between org members
- Identify the behaviours that are rewarded and punished
- Identify the values of the founder/leader(s)
- Analyse how decisions are made and how people behave, particularly when a situation presents potentially competing values
- Examine artifacts
What are the three types of cultural artifacts?
- Symbols
- Rituals
- Stories
What is the purpose of cultural artifacts?
Used to communicate, teach, and reinforce the beliefs, values, and norms of the culture
How are cultural artifacts shown in strong cultures?
More people using or displaying artifacts and telling stories. They do rituals and traditions more frequently and with more devotion
Define cultural symbols
Visible representations of values and/or beliefs
Define cultural rituals
Behaviours that are engaged in repeatedly by organization members
Define cultural stories
Narratives that are shared among organization members
What are the 6 reasons that organizations may need to change?
- Competition
- World politics
- Economic shocks
- Technology
- Info processing and communication
- People
What 6 things can change in an organization?
- Products and markets
- Goals and strategies
- People (HR)
- Job design
- Structures and processes
- Culture
What are the three stages of Lewin’s model of change?
- Unfreeze
- Change
- Refreeze
What happens when you change part of the company (i.e. what are the impacts on the organization)?
Changing one part of the company means you have to anticipate how the other parts of the company will change and how you can accommodate those changes
Describe the “unfreeze” stage of Lewin’s model of change
- Show employees that there is a gap between the current state and the desired state. This will motivate people to engage change
- Reduce the forces maintaining the status quo
Describe the “change” stage of Lewin’s model of change
- Develop new behaviours; new values and attitudes
2. Changing structures and processes, technology
Describe the “refreeze” stage of Lewin’s model of change
- Stabilize the organization in a new state of equilibrium
2. The change is reinforced by mechanisms like the culture, rewards, structures, leadership
What are four factors that can inhibit cultural change?
- Culture develops over many years and becomes part of how the employees think and feel
- Selection and promotion policies guarantee survival of culture
- Top management chooses managers likely to maintain status-quo
- Artifacts that reinforce the culture remain present
What are four factors that can facilitate cultural change?
- The organization faces a dramatic crisis
- Turnover in leadership
- The organization is young and small
- The organization has a weak culture
List the 6 things that organizations can do to help ease change
- Get leadership “on board”
- Inform members ahead of time
- Inspire members to accept/want change
- Reward desired behaviours
- Involve organizational members in decision making
- Be a trustworthy organization
