W&O ch14 Organizational culture Flashcards
Organizational culture
The shared values, norms and assumptions in an organization
Values
Stable, evaluative beliefs that determine our preference for a certain outcome or approach in various situations. They are our conscious perceptions of what is right/wrong or good/bad
Assumptions
Unconscious, taken for granted perceptions about the correct way of dealing with and thinking about problems and opportunities
What are the dimensions of organizational culture (iceberg)
Artefacts (tip of iceberg), shared values and shared assumptions (under the water that are often not seen)
Shared values
Values that people within the org have in common
Conscious, what is good/bad, right/wrong, congnitions
Espoused vs enacted
Espoused values
What they say is important for them as a value
Usually socially desirable
They don’t always match the enacted values
Enacted values
What the org actually does - values in action
An organization’s culture is defined by enacted values
Shared assumptions
Nonconscious, taken for granted, implicit mental models, prototype for behaviour
Artifacts
- Visible symbols and signs and observable manifestations of an org’s culture
- Symbols or indicators of culture - tip of the iceberg
- Represent, maintain and strengthen culture
- Signal and pass on culture to newcomers
Four categories of artifacts
- Stories and legends
- Organizational language
- Rituals and ceremonies
- Physical structures and symbols
Stories and legends
Artifacts
- Tales recounting heroic deeds or ridicule incidents of deviations from org’s core values
- Add human realism to corporate expectations, individual performance standars and criteria for getting fired
When do stories and legends have the greatest effect on communicating org’s culture?
- Describe real people
- Assumed to be true
- Known by employees thoroughout org
- Convey clear messages about the way things should/not be done
Organizational language
Artifacts
How employees talk to one another, describe customers, express anger, and greet stakeholders
= all verbal symbols of shared values, norms and asumptions
Rituals and ceremonies
Artifacts
- Rituals - repetitive, predictable events that have symbolic meaning of underlying cultural values, norms and assumptions (e.g. fast-paced walk around the office)
- Ceremonies - planned displays of org culture, specifically for the benefit of an audience (e.g. rewarding employees)
Physical structures and symbols
Artifacts
- Might support a company’s emphasis on their values (e.g. teamwork…)
- Building, workplace design…
- E.g. Collaborative and creative cultures (more team space, informal and flexible environment, organic layout) vs Controlling and competitive cultures (more individual space, formal and fixed environment, structure and symmetrical layout)
What are various categorizations of organizational cultures?
Dimensions of org cultures
- Innovation - experimenting, risk-taking, few rules
- Stability - security, predictability
- Respect for people - fairness, tolerance
- Outcome orientation - high expectations, action-oriented
- Attention to detail - precise, analytic
- Team orientation - collaboration, people-oriented
- Aggressiveness - competitive, low emphasis on social responsibility
Problems of categorizing and culture models
- Oversimplification of diversity (there are many more values and its combinations)
- Ignoring deeper shared assumptions
- Not automatically shared by everyone in an organization: culture is blurry and fragmented
- Often subcultures exist
Subculture
Parallel to the dominant culture
Sometimes … the dominant culture:
* enhance - by enacting parallel values, norms and assumptions
* differ - but do not conflict with the DC
* contrary to (counterculture) - embrace values, norms, and assumptions that directly oppose org’s DC
The relevance of subcultures (incl. countercultures)
Sources of conflict and dissension
* Risk of dysfunctional behaviour
BUT…
1. Source of attentiveness and critical thinking: creativity
↪ Guard performance and ethical behaviour
2. Sources of info in order to adapt to changing environment
↪ Long term survival
What does the strength of an organization’s culture depend on?
- Extent to which employees understand and embrace dominant values
- Extent to which the values and assumptions are institutionalized through wide-spread artifacts
Period in which the culture has ‘prevailed’ - often links back to the founder of the organization
↪ Strong cultures often long-lasting
Functions of a strong culture
- Control system
- Social glue
- Sense making
Control system
Function of strong culture
Org culture deeply embedded form of social control - influences employee decisions and behaviour
Culture is pervasive and operates almost invisibly
Social glue
Function of strong culture
- Bonds people, makes them feel part of the org
- Employees motivated to internalize org’s culture - fulfils their connectedness need
Sense making
Funciton of strong culture
- Org helps make sense of what goes on and why
- Clearer role perceptions
- Less role-related stress
(Contingencies) Benefits of culture strength depend on
-
Culture content fits the environment
↪ Motivation and clearer role perceptions to practice behaviours improving org’s interactions with costumers -
Moderate, not cult-like, strength
↪ Cult-like culture locks employees’ mental models - less creativity to solve unique problems
↪ Cult-like cultures supress subcultures - Adaptiveness
Adaptive culture
Contingency of strong cultures
- Embraces change, creativity, open-mindedness, growth and learning
- Seek emerging changes and adapt to those
- Strong learning orientation
Outcomes from the strong culture
- Organizational performance (incl. ethical behaviour)
- Employee well-being
Bicultural audit
Merging organizational cultures
Establishing the cultures of two organizations that merged
↪ Differences and similarities
Determines the extent to which differences could lead to conflicts
Action plan for combining cultures
Strategies to combine cultures
- Assimilation
- Deculturation
- Integration
- Separation
Assimilation
- Acquired org embraces culture of aquiring org
- Works best when aquired org has a weak culture and aquiring org’s culture is strong and successful
Deculturation
- Acquiring org enforces culture (in case of resistance)
- Rarely works - delays merger
- May be necessary only when acquired org’s culture is dysfunctional but its employees don’t realize yet
Integration
- Combining the best aspects of different cultures into one new culture
- (very) slow process
- Work best when both orgs’ cultures are relatively weak or have overlapping values
↪ But employees need to be motivated to improve the culture
Separation
- Individual orgs keep their culture
- If the orgs have different activities (diversified conglomerates) or are based in different countries
What 5 ways how to change and strengthen organizational culture?
The circle model
- Model desired culture through the actions of founders and leaders (transformational and authentic leadership styles)
- Align artifacts with the desired culture
- Introduce culturally consistent rewards/recognition (artifacts; rewards have very strong effect on employees)
- Support workforce stability and communication
- Use attraction, selection, and socialization for cultural fit (ASA theory)
ASA theory
States that orgs have a natural tendency to attract, select and retain people with values and personality characteristics that are consistent with the org’s character
Attraction - employees consider org’s culture during application process
Selection - select employees who fit the culture
Attrition - if an employee leaves because the culture wasn’t a fit
Organizational socialization
The process by which individuals learn the values, expected behaviours and social knowledge necessary to assume their roles in the organization
Adjustment and learning process - organizational comprehension (determines effective socialization)
Psychological contracts
Employee’s beliefs about the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between the employee and the employer which develop throughout recruitment and socialization
Two types of psychological contracts
- Transactional - short-term economic exchanges
-
Relational - long-term attachments encompassing mutual obligations
↪ Organizational citizenship behaviour more likely to prevail
Three stages of organizational socialization
- Pre-employment stage
- Encounter stage
- Role management
Pre-employement stage
Outsider
Gathering info (indirect - often distorted)
Forming expectations
What are the 4 conflicts that can arise during preemployment stage?
Very long, I know but once you understand, very easy
- Employer’s motivation to attract high-quality job applicants conflicts with applicant’s need to receive complete and accurate info (org describes only positive aspects)
- Applicant’s motivation to attract job offers conflicts with the employer’s need to receive complete and accurate info for choosing the best applicant (applicant pretends to be better, points out only positives)
- Employer’s motivation to attract high-quality applicants conflicts with their need to receive complete and accurate info for choosing best applicant (employer reluctant to ask questions that might scare off best applicants)
- Applicants’ motivation to attract job offers conflicts with their need to receive complete and accurate info for choosing best job (don’t ask about salary)
Encounter stage
Newcomer
Testing preemployment expectations
If unmet or unrealistic expectations don’t fit reality = reality shock
↪ Results in stress that takes up newcomer’s energy
Role management
Insider
Strengthen work relationships
Practice new role behaviours
Resolving conflicts between nonwork and work activities and conflicts between personal and org’s values
How to improve the socialization process
- Prior to hiring: realistic job preview
↪ Balanced info of positives and negatives - trust (increases affective organizational commitment)
↪ Helps reducing reality shock, turnover and increases job performance - After hiring: socialization agents, buddies
