Organizational Culture

Question 1

What is organizational culture?

Answer 1

→ The basic pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs considered to be the correct way of thinking about and acting on problems and opportunities facing the organization.
→ Culture is shared.
→ Culture helps members solve problems.
→ Culture is taught to newcomers.
Culture strongly influences behavior

Question 2

Functions of Culture

Answer 2

→ Social glue that helps hold an organization together.
○ Provides appropriate standards for what employees should say or do.
→ Boundary-defining.
→ Conveys a sense of identity for organization members.
→ Facilitates commitment to something larger than one’s individual self-interest.
→ Enhances social system stability.
→ Serves as a “sense-making” and control and coordination mechanism.
○ Guides and shapes the attitudes and behavior of employees.

Question 3

Keeping a Culture alive

Answer 3

→ Selection
○ Identify and hire individuals who will fit in with the culture.
→ Top Management
○ Senior executives establish and communicate the norms of the organization.
→ Socialization
Organizations need to teach the culture to new employees.

Question 4

Layers of Culture

Answer 4

○ Artifacts: Aspects of an organization’s culture that you see, hear, and feel.
○ Beliefs: The understandings of how objects and ideas relate to each other.
○ Values: The stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important, as well as how one should behave
Assumptions: The taken-for-granted notions of how something should be in an organization.

Question 5

Types of Artifacts

Answer 5

Symbols

Rituals

Stories and Legends

Organizational Language

Physical Stuctures

Question 6

The Strong Culture Concept, Assets and Liabilities

Answer 6

→ A strong culture is an organizational culture with intense and pervasive beliefs, values, and assumptions.
→ A strong culture provides great consensus concerning “what the organization is about” or what it stands for.
→ Weak cultures are fragmented and have less impact on organizational members.
→ An organization does not have to be big to have a strong culture.
→ Strong cultures do not necessarily result in blind conformity.
→ Strong cultures are associated with greater success and effectiveness
→ Assets of Strong Cultures:
○ Coordination: The overarching values and assumptions of strong cultures can facilitate communication and coordination.
○ Conflict Resolution: Sharing core values is a powerful mechanism for resolving conflicts.
○ Financial Success: Strong cultures contribute to financial success and organizational effectiveness when the culture supports the mission, strategy, and goals of the organization.
→ Liabilities of Strong Cultures:
○ Resistance to Change: A strong culture can prove very resistant to change and can damage a firm’s ability to innovate.
○ Culture clash: Strong cultures can mix badly when a merger or acquisition pushes two of them together under the same corporate banner.
○ Pathology: Some strong cultures can threaten organizational effectiveness simply because the cultures are, in some sense, pathological.
§ Cultures based on beliefs, values, and assumptions that
support infighting, secrecy, and paranoia.

Question 7

Espoused vs. Enacted Values

Answer 7

→ Espoused Values: Stated Values, The “Desired” Culture
→ Enacted Values: Perceived Values, The “Real” Culture
→ Alignment is needed between the espoused and enacted values
Alignment is needed with the values of organizational members

Question 8

Subcultures

Answer 8

Subcultures are smaller cultures that develop within a larger organizational culture that are based on differences in training, occupation, or departmental goals.

Question 9

Six Content Dimensions of Culture

Answer 9

Competitiveness: Whether the members tend to compete vs cooperate

Innovativeness: Extent to which members encouraged to think outside the box and challenge the status quo

Conflict Tolerance: Degree to which members are encouraged to air conflict and criticism openly

Individual Initiative: Degree of freedom, responsibility and independence that members have

Tolerance of Failure: Whether the organization tolerates failure vs. demands success

Power Distance: Extent to which formal hierarchical differences are emphasized vs. members treating each other as equals