Week 2: Organisational Culture

Question 1

Organisational Culture:

Answer 1

• Organisational Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, and assumptions that develops within an organisation and guides behaviour
  
  • Can’t see organisational culture – exists below the surface
  • Personality of the organisation

Organisational culture is influenced by the national culture and frequently mirrors many aspects of it, but it also derives from the particular characteristics and experiences unique to the organisation

Question 2

Culture vs climate:

Answer 2

• Culture refers to shared assumption, values, and norms
• Climate refers to shared perceptions of the work environment, including the physical, social, and political environment
• Levels of cultural analysis: see pic

Question 3

Observable culture

Shared values

Common assumptions

Answer 3

• Observable culture: are behavioural patterns that a group displays and teaches to new members
  
  • We can’t directly observe an organisation’s cultural assumptions and values
  • Decipher organisational culture indirectly through artefacts:
    
    • Stories (founding story, sagas)
    • Rites
    • Rituals/Ceremonies
    • Cultural symbols
    • Cultural rules and roles
• Shared values: the set of coherent values held by members of the organisation and that link them together
• Common assumptions: are the collection of truth that organisational members share as a result of their joint experiences and guide values and behaviours

Question 4

Subculture

Counterculture

Answer 4

• Subcultures: are unique patterns of values and philosophies within a group that are not consistent with the dominant culture of the larger organisation or social system
• Countercultures: are the patterns of values and philosophies that outwardly reject those of the larger organisation or social system

Question 5

Founding story

Saga

Rites

Rituals

Ceremonies

Cultural symbol

Answer 5

• Founding story: the tale of the lessons learned and efforts of the founder of the organisation
• Saga: is an embellished heroic account of the story of the founding of an organisation
• Rites: standardised and recurring activities used at special times to influence organisational members
• Rituals: systems of rites. Establish boundaries and relationships between organisational stakeholders via repetition of events
  
  • E.g. Japanese companies often commence their work days with groups exercises and the singing of the company song
• Ceremonies: planned activities specifically for an audience
  
  • More formal than rituals
  • E.g., award ceremonies; celebrating a new product launch
• Cultural symbol: is any object, act or event that serves to transmit cultural meaning
  
  • Building structure – may shape and reflect culture
  • Office design conveys cultural meaning
  • E.g., furniture, office size, wall hangings

Question 6

Cultural rules and roles:

Answer 6

• Specify when various types of actions are appropriate and where individual members stand in the social system
• Form part of the normative control of an organisation and emerge from its daily routines
  
  • E.g., the timing, presentation, and methods of communicating directives are often specific to each organisation

Question 7

Cultural management paradigms

Answer 7

Question 8

Shared values:

Answer 8

• Shared organisation values emerge by effectively linking values and action
• Strong organisational cultures are characterised by a deeply shared value system that:
  
  • provide strong corporate identity
  • enhance collective commitment
  • provide a stable social system
  • reduce need for formal and bureaucratic controls

Question 9

Strong corporate cultures:

Answer 9

• a widely shared philosophy
• a concern for individuals
• a recognition of heroes
• a belief in ritual and ceremony
• a well-understood sense of informal rules and expectations
• a belief that what employees do is important to others

Question 10

Common assumptions

Common assumptions and management philosophy

Management philosophy

Answer 10

• Common assumptions are understandings known at the deepest level to almost everyone in the organisation
  
  • These assumptions often lie dormant until actions violate them
• Common Assumptions and Management Philosophy
  
  • Managers need to recognise what can/cannot be changed in the organisation’s culture
  • Management is a subculture in itself
  • Management philosophy links key goal-related and collaboration issues to shape the general way by which organisation will manage its affairs
• Management philosophy: links key goal-related issues with hey collaboration issues to come up with general ways by which the organisation will manage its affairs

Question 11

Different perspectives on organisational culture:

Integration perspective

Differentiation perspective

Ambiguity/fragmentation perspective

Answer 11

• Different perspectives on organisational culture:
  
  • The integration perspective views culture as a system of shared meanings, unity and harmony
    
    • Assumes joint agreement on ‘the way we do things around here’
    • Views organisational cohesion as a managerial tool for adjusting culture
    • Emphasises individual assimilation, and strong and pervasive values
    • Socialisation maintains consistency
  • The differentiation perspective views organisational culture as a compilation of diverse and inconsistent beliefs that are shared at group level
    
    • Emphasises not only unity/harmony, but also diversity and inconsistency
    • Corporate vs. organisational culture
  • The ambiguity/fragmentation perspective views organisational culture as lacking any form of pattern as a result of differing meanings between and within individuals over time
    
    • Emphasises ambiguity as the normal state

Each of these perspectives can operate at any time or at the same time

Question 12

Functions of organisational culture:

External adaptation

Internal integration

Answer 12

• External adaptation: the process of reaching goals and dealing with outsiders
  
  • Answering important instrumental or goal-related questions about coping with the external environment
• Internal integration: the creation of a collective identity and the means of matching methods of working and living together
  
  • Creation of collective identity that defines membership and behavioural norms

Question 13

Three important aspects of working together:

Answer 13

1. Deciding who is a member and who is not
2. Developing an informal understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
3. Separating friends from enemies

Question 14

Managing organisational culture

Answer 14

• Strong cultures:
  
  • Can create competitive advantage
  • But can also be a liability if there is a mismatch between culture and the changing environment
• Management must understand the existing culture in order to manage or change it

Question 15

Ethics and organisational culture

Ethical climate

Climate vs Culture

Answer 15

• Ethical climate: A shared set of understandings about correct behaviour and how ethical issues will be handled
  
  • The ethical climate sets the tone for consistent decision-making
  • Some organisations will support ‘doing the right thing’; in others, operating efficiency may outweigh social considerations
• Climate vs. culture (often confusion between the two)
  
  • Climate refers to the focus on organisational members agreed to perceptions of their organisational environment
  • Culture refers to the focus on judgments and values, rather than perceived practices and procedures