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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
CHAPTER SCAN
Corporate cultures provide identifying characteristics and values for organizational members to
appreciate and learn. Cultures are distinguished by artifacts, values, and basic assumptions. The
socialization process is the entry stage in an organization that provides clues about its culture.
Cultures are difficult to change, yet change is necessary in some instances for survival.
Organizations need an adaptive culture in order to respond effectively to the changing
environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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KEY TERMS
Chapter 16 introduces the following key terms:
organizational (corporate) culture
artifacts
espoused values
enacted values
assumptions
strong culture
adaptive culture
organizational socialization
anticipatory socialization
encounter
change and acquisition
triangulation
II.
Organizational cultures exist in all organizations, and have important effects on the morale and
motivation of organizational members. Cultures are communicated through artifacts, values, and
basic assumptions that are both visible and invisible. Stories are considered by some as the most
effective approach to reinforcing an organizations values, and frequently involve the CEO.
Values that organizations hold can be either enacted or espoused. When espoused values are not
confirmed by actions, the organizational culture is weakened. Leaders have a responsibility to
monitor and alter the organizational culture when necessary. Much of our concept of
organizational cultures has been adapted from cultural anthropology. There appears to be distinct
cultures in organizations.
The subject has been studied closely since the 1970s, and particularly since the early 1980s, with
the publication of the Deal and Kennedys Corporate Cultures, Ouchis Theory Z, and Peters and
Watermans In Search of Excellence. One of the best known scholars in the area of corporate
cultures is Edgar Schein. Schein became interested in organizational culture when he discovered,
while teaching in Mexico and Europe, that company cultures may be stronger than country
cultures.
A.
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assumptions.
B.
Artifacts
Symbols of culture in the physical and social work environment are called artifacts.
Artifacts are the most visible and accessible level of culture. Artifacts include personal
enactment, ceremonies and rites, stories, rituals, and symbols.
1.
Personal Enactment
Ceremonies can be divided into organizational rites, including rites of passage, rites
of enhancement, rites of renewal, rites of integration, rites of conflict reduction,
and rites of degradation. They are relatively elaborate sets of activities that are
enacted repeatedly on important occasions.
3.
Stories
Stories are rich carriers of organizational culture that give meaning and identity to
organizations and help orient new employees. There are stories about the boss,
stories about getting fired, stories about how the company deals with employees
who have to relocate, stories about whether lower-level employees can rise to the
top, stories about how the company deals with crisis situations, and stories about
how status considerations work when rules are broken.
4.
Rituals
Everyday practices that are repeated frequently are known as rituals. Typically
unwritten, rituals send a clear message about the way things are done in an
organization.
5.
Symbols
Values
Values are a deeper level of culture that reflects underlying beliefs. An espoused value is
what organizational members say they value, like ethical practice. Enacted values are
values reflected in the way individuals actually behave, and may differ from espoused
values.
D.
Assumptions
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III.
Culture serves four functions, including providing a sense of identity to members and promoting a
sense of commitment. Culture helps organizational members attribute sense and meaning to
organizational events, and reinforces the values in the organization. Finally, culture serves as a
control mechanism for shaping behavior.
A.
A strong culture is an organizational culture with a consensus on the values that drive the
company and with an intensity that is recognizable even to outsiders. Strong cultures can
be positive or negative. For example, street gangs have strong cultures, yet they also
exhibit negative characteristics.
B.
The concept of fit asserts that an organizations culture is only good if it fits, or aligns
itself, with the industry or the firms strategy.
C.
Adaptive cultures encourage confidence and risk taking among employees, have
leadership that produces change, and focus on the changing needs of customers. Cultures
that promote long-term performance tend to be the most adaptive. Adaptive cultures
facilitate change to meet the needs of their constituents.
IV.
Organizational members can get information about the priorities, values, and beliefs of
leaders by observing the things on which leaders spend their time, as long as leaders are
consistent in what they pay attention to.
B.
Many believe that organizations show their real culture during times of crisis, and
consequently pay close attention to the leaders during a crisis situation.
C.
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Employees emulate the leader's behavior and look to leaders for cues to appropriate
behavior. Leaders demonstrate the organizations values and culture through their
behavior.
D.
Rewarding behavior that is consistent with the organizations values increases acceptance
of those values and the organizations culture. If leaders do not allocate rewards in a way
that reinforces espoused values, employees may become confused and frustrated.
E.
Leaders often reinforce a desired organizational culture through the selection of new
employees whose value systems are similar to the organizations value system. Promoting
from within the organization also serves to reinforce the culture. Also, both the rationale
behind firing an employee and the manner in which the termination is carried out convey a
great deal about the organizations culture.
V.
ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION
A.
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Anticipatory Socialization
All of the learning about the organization that occurs before a newcomers first day
on the job is referred to as anticipatory socialization. Realism is the degree to
which the new person holds accurate expectations about the job and the
organization. Congruence refers both to the extent to which a newcomers abilities
match the demands of the job, and the extent to which the newcomers values
match the values of the organization.
2.
Encounter
The second socialization stage, in which the newcomer learns the organizational
tasks associated with the job, clarifies roles, and establishes relationships at work,
is known as encounter. Expectations formed in the anticipatory socialization stage
may clash with the realities of the job during this stage.
3.
During the change and acquisition stage, newcomers begin to master the
demands of the job. The time span of the last stage varies greatly, but is complete
when the newcomer and others consider the newcomer an organizational insider.
B.
Outcomes of Socialization
The socialization process centers on the transmission of the organizations core values to
newcomers. Newcomers are exposed to these values through interaction with and
observation of role models, through training, and through the rewarding and punishing of
specific behaviors.
VI.
Quantitative and qualitative techniques are both valuable approaches to assessing culture.
A.
Based on Maslow's need hierarchy, the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) measures
twelve cultural styles. It provides an assessment of culture at the individual level that can
be aggregated to the group level or organization level. The two dimensions of the OCI are
task/people and security/satisfaction.
B.
This survey focuses on what actually happens and on the expectations of others in the
organization. It measures operating norms and ideal norms along the two dimensions of
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technical/human and time (short term versus long term). Results provided at the individual
level can be aggregated to the group level.
C.
Triangulation
Organizations need to periodically reassess their cultures as environmental changes occur due to
globalization, workforce diversity, and advances in technology. Mergers and acquisitions require
the blending of two organizational cultures, often a difficult process. Two basic approaches to
changing culture are (1) helping current organizational members buy into a new set of values, and
(2) adding newcomers and socializing them into the organization, and removing current members
as appropriate.
A.
Developing a global organizational culture requires that the values that drive an
organizations culture support a global view of the company and its efforts. Conflicting
pressures of centralization and decentralization add to the difficulty of creating such a
culture.
B.
An organizations culture can profoundly affect the ethical behavior of its employees.
Managers must behave in an ethical manner themselves, encourage ethical behavior from
their employees, and present ethical behavior as good business. Trust plays an important
role in any effort to develop an ethical organizational culture.
C.
VIII.
IX.
Empowerment requires trust between managers and supervisors and between supervisors
and employees. In an environment of trust, empowerment releases the creative energy of
employees and leads to increased productivity and higher quality products and services.
However, in order to develop a culture of empowerment, managers must be willing to let
go of traditional hierarchical notions of power.
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
CHALLENGE
LOOKING BACK: How Enrons Culture Empowers People
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Organizational (corporate) culture is a pattern of basic assumptions that are considered valid
and that are taught to new members as the way to perceive, think, and feel in the organization.
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employees, and media channels. The second stage is the encounter stage, where a newcomer
learns his or her tasks and clarifies his or her role. In this stage, culture is communicated by
mentors, supervisors, and others who model behavior, as well as through policies, meetings,
memos, etc. In the last stage, change and acquisition, both the newcomer and others begin to
think of the newcomer as an insider. The individual is rewarded for displaying behavior that
reflects the values of the culture.
7. How can managers assess the organizational culture? What actions can they take to change
the organizational culture?
Sophisticated tools and techniques have been developed to assess organizational culture. The
Organizational Culture Inventory is a popular tool that diagnoses the fit between the organization
and the individual. The Kilmann-Saxton Culture-Gap, another popular tool, compares what
actually happens with the expectations of others in the organization. This instrument helps
pinpoint gaps in cultural change that affect performance, job satisfaction, and morale.
Triangulation includes three techniques that provide the most comprehensive view of the
organization when used in combination.
8. How does a manager know that cultural change has been successful?
Using the interventions for changing organizational culture presented in Figure 16.3, managers
can assess the extent to which employees buy into a new set of values rather than merely
complying with them.
9. What can managers do to develop a global organizational culture?
Managers can create a clear mission statement and share it with all individuals. Next, they need to
ensure that the flow of information is effective. They can broaden managers minds to allow them
to think globally. Global career paths ensure that a broad range of employees experience various
cultures. Tapping into the strengths of various cultures can enhance the products and services.
Finally, managers can implement worldwide management education and team- development
programs to help establish a shared identity among organizational members.
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This exercise is excellent to assist in preparing students for the job search process. It gives them
practice at researching an organization and allows them to learn about a variety of companies
through their classmates presentations.
ETHICS QUESTIONS: SUGGESTED ANSWERS
1. Are rites of degradation ethical?
No. Students' examples will have varying degrees of severity. Bans on hazing practices can
stimulate interesting conversations.
2. Is it ethical to influence individuals values through the organizational culture? If culture
shapes behavior, is managing culture a manipulative tactic? Explain.
When organizations suppress individuality, they are probably engaging in manipulation of
employees. Do students see the issue differently when they consider organizations such as an all
womens college, a male barbershop quartet, or a Hispanic club?
3. How can leaders use organizational culture as a vehicle for encouraging ethical behavior?
When organizational leaders respond to ethical issues in visible ways that reflect ethical behavior,
they reinforce ethical behavior in their organizations. Leaders can also promote ethical behavior as
a good business practice that leads to congruence with society as a whole.
4. Korean chaebols hire individuals to fit their cultures. To what extent might this practice be
considered unethical in the United States?
Such a practice might hinder equal employment opportunities for women and minorities in the
United States. Dismissal of employees who do not fit the culture may result in legal actions
against the organization on the basis of discrimination. Alternatively, organizations can and do
attempt to hire individuals whose values match their own in order to sustain a certain
organizational culture and/or image.
5. One way of changing culture is to remove members who do not change with the culture. How
can this be done ethically?
Performance standards that reflect the new desired behaviors can be used to assess members
contributions to the organization. When failure to change negatively affects job performance,
members with substandard performance can be removed.
CHALLENGES
16.1 ANALYZING THE THREE LEVELS OF CULTURE
Encouraging students to discuss examples from this challenge in the classroom can really bring the
concepts alive for them. Another option would be to have the whole class evaluate the artifacts in
the universitys environment.
16.2 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ETHICS
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This challenge integrates the material on ethics with the information on organizational culture.
Students could also be asked to evaluate the ethical climate of the university. This would provide
a common experience to generate class discussion on the influence an organizations culture has
on the ethical behavior of its members.
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EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
16.1 IDENTIFYING BEHAVIORAL NORMS
Instructor's Notes:
Students enjoy this exercise. There are sometimes very different norms for the international
students than for the dominant culture students. Some students will have a hard time remembering
the socialization process they lumbered through as freshmen. It is worth noting that transfer
students have a different socialization process than most students. Another interesting response
usually follows if you ask students how their campus culture differs from other universities.
16.2 CONTRASTING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES
Instructor's Notes:
Unless impression management issues are involved, it is usually better to have students get factual
information about the organizations that are on the list. It is also worthwhile to allow students to
select an organization that is not on the list, particularly if they are interested in non-profit
organizations.
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How did it feel to wear a label? Would it have felt better if you had known what it said or if
you had been able to choose another label?
Did you treat others according to their labels? Why? Why not? Did you find that your
behavior changed over the course of the activity? What factors influenced your behavior?
Did you feel empowered or disempowered by your role? Why?
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to the corporate, vagabonding to tourism, the quirky and lively to the toned down and
flattened out.
2. Using the concept of a strong culture, explain the nature of Patagonias culture.
A strong culture refers to one where there is consensus on the organizations core values,
where organization members are highly committed to those values, and where there is
substantial resistance to change regarding those values. Consensus on and commitment to the
organizations core values are evident in the Patagoniacs shared characteristics, which reflect
the companys core values of loving the outdoors; being passionately committed to quality, to
people, and to the environment; and desiring to make a difference. While not stated directly,
substantial resistance to change in Patagonias core values can be very easily implied from the
case facts.
3. Can Patagonias culture be described as an ethical organizational culture? Explain your
answer.
An ethical organizational culture is one with norms that promote ethical behavior that is,
doing what is right, fair, and just. Students should be encouraged to interpret the different
elements of the case in terms of doing what is right, fair, and just. In particular, they can cite
Patagonias commitment to people, quality, and the natural environment as evidence of an
ethical organizational culture.