Organizational Culture: Chapter 13 Flashcards

1
Q

organizational culture

A
  • consistent, shared, observable patterns of behaviour that distinguish between groups
  • describes the expectations and perceptions that affect decisions and behaviours
  • defines which behaviours are appropriate and expected
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2
Q

culture

A

includes:
- the norms
- values
- customs
- traditions
- habits
- skills
- knowledge
-beliefs

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3
Q

function of culture

A
  • shapes behaviour
  • provides a sense of identity
  • provides stability and predictability
  • provides direction in times of need
  • feelings of belonging to a community
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4
Q

categories of norms

A
  • proscreptive (what not to do)
  • prescriptive (what to do)
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5
Q

components of organizational culture

A
  1. structural system
  2. expressive and affective systems
  3. individuals
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6
Q

components of organizational culture: structural systems

A
  • formal structures, policies, strategies, and management processes
  • formal goals and objectives
  • authority and power structure
  • reward mechanisms
  • recruitment and training operations
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7
Q

components of organizational culture: expressive and effective systems

A
  • defines how organizations assign and share meanings and values
  • unifies and legitimizes member beliefs
  • provides standards for organizational behaviours
  • shaped by:
    1. society
    2. history of the organization
    3. environment in which the organization operates
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8
Q

components of organizational culture: individuals

A
  • influenced by external environment
  • group with similar characteristics, who interact frequently, will likely develop an internal identity reflecting consistent set of values.
  • people within an organization become contributors and fabricators of organizational meaning and values
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9
Q

organizations & culture: fitting in

A
  • influences
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10
Q

alignment of individual and organization’s values

A

good predictor of:
- job satisfaction and organizational commitment
- coworker satisfaction
- trust in managers
- indicators of strain
- intention to quit

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11
Q

dominant culture

A

overarching core values shared by most members of the organization

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12
Q

subculture

A
  • microculture created within a subset unit of the organization
  • can increase stress and conflict
  • can change the status quo and make the organization adapt
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13
Q

counterculture

A

subcultures with values that oppose the dominant culture

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14
Q

advantages of organizational culture

A
  • increase organization’s marketability
  • improve productivity, decrease conflict, increase employee satisfaction, and provide stability
  • encourage creativity, problem solving, and innovation
  • reinforce punctuality and adherence to policy and schedules
  • powerful tool for directing and focusing members and increasing organizational productivity
  • provides cues on how to act
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15
Q

disadvantages of organizational culture

A
  • org. culture is not always solution to org. problems
  • too-weak + too strong cultures = instability
  • can become misaligned with the values of the org
  • unethical culture
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16
Q

levels of organizational culture

A
  1. artifacts
  2. values
  3. assumptions
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17
Q

levels of organizational culture: artifacts

A

visible and obvious
- behaviour
- ceremonies and rituals
- stories
- symbols
- enacted values

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18
Q

levels of organizational culture: values

A

not directly visible, but observable through interations
- organizational standards
- right vs wrong
- good vs bad
- espoused values

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19
Q

levels of organizational culture: assumptions

A

invisible, unobsersable
- unconscious beliefs
- taken for granted understanding about why things are the way they are

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20
Q

artifacts: behaviour

A

consistent pattern of behaviour within the organization

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21
Q

artifacts: ceremonies, rites and rituals

A
  • elaborate sets of activities that are enacted on important occasions
  • rites are unspoken
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22
Q

artifacts: stories

A
  1. Stories about how the company started
  2. Stories about a particular instance of great customer satisfaction
  3. Stories about the boss
  4. Stories about getting fired
  5. Stories about whether lower-level employees can rise to the top
  6. Stories about how the company deals with crisis situations
  7. Stories about what happens when rules are broken
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23
Q

artifacts: symbols

A

communication through unspoken messages

24
Q

shared values

A

throughout the company

25
Q

espoused values

A

What members of an organization say they value

26
Q

enacted values

A

Values reflected in the way individuals actually behave

27
Q

assumptions

A
  • deeply held beliefs
  • guide behaviour
  • tell members of an organization how to perceive and think about things
28
Q

creating a culture

A
  1. have idea for new enterprise
  2. The new organization is already a part of an existing environment with operational conditions that set expectations and limits on its cultural potential
  3. founding group is created
  4. creation of internal structure and at this point, a culture has already been created
29
Q

managing culture

A
  1. what leaders pay attention to
  2. how leaders react to crises
  3. how leaders behave
  4. how leaders allocate rewards
  5. how leaders hire and fire individuals

These are common areas where discrepancies arise between espoused and enacted values

30
Q

inconsistent leaders

A

employees spend a lot of time trying to decipher and find meaning in the inconsistent signals

31
Q

leaders reacting to crisis

A

when emotions are hightened, true priorities are revealed

32
Q

how do leaders reinforce the values of the organizational culture?

A
  • modeling
  • teaching
  • coaching
33
Q

consistent rewards

A

reward systems established reinforces consistent cultural values

34
Q

socialization

A
  • newcomers are transformed from outsiders to effective members of the organization
  • how culture is passed from generation to generation
35
Q

socialization process

A
  1. anticipatory socialization
  2. encounter
  3. change and acquisition
36
Q

anticipatory socialization

A
  • encompasses all of the learning that takes place prior to the newcomer’s first day on the job
  • actively seek info about new role
  • expectations about social acceptance
  • construct a scheme for interpreting their experiences
  • includes realism and congruence
37
Q

anticipatory socialization: realism

A

degree to which the newcomer has realistic expectations about the job and the organization

38
Q

anticipatory socialization: congruence

A

describes the level of “fit” between both the individual’s abilities and the demands of the job, and between the individual’s values and the organization’s values

39
Q

encounter

A
  • newcomer learns the tasks associated with the job
  • clarifies roles
  • establishes new relationships at work
  • discover how realistic and congruent their expectations were during the anticipatory socialization
40
Q

encounter: task demands

A
  • actual work performed
  • how individuals learn to perform tasks is directly related to the organization’s culture
41
Q

encounter: role demands

A
  • involve the expectations placed on newcomers
  • often do not know exactly what is expected of them (role ambiguity)
  • may receive conflicting expectations from other individuals (role conflict)
42
Q

encounter: interpersonal demands

A
  • arise from relationships at work
  • organization’s political climate, leadership styles, and group pressure
  • must adapt and adjust to these
43
Q

change and acquisition

A
  • newcomer begins to master the demands of the job
  • become proficient at managing their tasks, clarifying and negotiating their roles, and engaging in relationships at work
44
Q

benefits of good socialization

A
  • good performance, high job satisfaction, high levels of organizational commitment, and the intention to stay with the organization
  • low levels of distress symptoms
  • adopt the organization’s values and norms
  • ensures the company’s culture survives
  • ensures a shared framework of understanding
45
Q

deepest levels of culture are often ____, which is why it is difficult to change in a organizational setting

A

unconscious

46
Q

how can managers encourage ethical behaviour

A
  • being good role models
  • remind employees that ethical B is good business sense
  • puts company in congruence with larger values of society
  • say that rationalizations for unethical B are not valid
  • implement code of ethics
47
Q

why implementing formal ethical guidelines may not always work

A
  1. may see the code of ethics as simply a management showpiece, leading to cynicism and resentment
  2. may reduce the perceived need for employees to think about and be involved in ethical decision making
48
Q

empowerment

A
  • to unleash employees’ creativity and productivity
  • done by eliminating traditional hierarchical notions of power
49
Q

how can you evaluate the success of cultural change

A
  • looking at behaviours
  • looking at enacted values
50
Q

If the new behaviour were to persist even if rewards were not present, and if the employees have internalized the new value system, then the behaviour is probably _____________

A

intrinsically motivated

51
Q

if employees automatically respond to a crisis in ways consistent with the new culture, then the change effort can be _____________

A

deemed successful

52
Q

When new employees, ideally hired with the desired values and beliefs, maintain these beliefs after being socialized, it can be a good indication that the desired culture has ___________

A

permeated the organization

53
Q

two main theories about how culture relates to organizational performance

A
  • strong culture perspective
  • adaptation perspective
54
Q

strong culture

A

consensus on the values that drive the company and with an intensity that is recognizable even to outsiders

55
Q

why are strong culture thought to facilitate performance

A
  1. characterized by goal alignment - all employees share common goals
  2. create a high level of motivation because of the values shared by the members
  3. provide control without the oppressive effects of a bureaucracy
56
Q

concerns with strong culture

A
  1. strong economic performance creates strong cultures, rather than the culture being responsible for the economic performance
  2. unadaptable and inflexible strong cultures often take so long to adjust to changes in their environment that performance suffers
57
Q

adaptive perspective

A
  • encourages confidence and risk-taking among employees
  • has leadership that produces change
  • focuses on the changing needs of customers
  • facilitate change to meet the needs of three groups of constituents