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Organisational Culture, Typologies of organisational culture, What Is…
Organisational Culture
Typologies of organisational culture
Deal and Kennedy
emerges in response to the environment in which the organisation works
Work hard/Play hard culture
Low risk but fun
Performance-driven
High energy levels
Tough guy macho culture
High risk and individualistic
Competitive
Rapid feedback on decisions
Process Culture
Low risk and Highly bureaucratic
Takes Years to get feedback on decisions
Highly regulated
Bet your Company Culture
High risk but planned
Years before outcomes of decisions are known
Technical Specialist
Handys
A
power culture
has a single, dominant individual who exerts their will over the organisation. Start-up firms are often good examples of this type of culture.
A
role culture emphasises
the importance of rules, policies and procedures and clearly defined roles. This often equates to a bureaucratic organisation.
In a
task culture
the focus is on the task in hand and the culture is based on expertise rather than role. This type of culture often develops in matrix and project structures.
A
person culture
is focused on individuals and often includes ‘star performers’ around whom the rest of the organisation coalesces. Rock bands and professional practices, such as architects’ and lawyers’ firms, often develop person cultures.
organisations should match their culture to the external needs of their organisation
Schein's cultural iceberg
three levels of organisational culture, where each level is progressively more difficult to observe.
Visible artifacts
the physical environment, the language used, technologies, what people wear, and the stories people tell each other.
Less Tangible
The norms and values (espoused values) that drive behaviour in an organisation are less tangible. Schein argued that these usually originate from the founder or leader of an organisation, and are passed on through formal mission statements and strategy documents.
Deepest Level
basic assumptions and beliefs. These are the unconscious, taken-for-granted assumptions that guide behaviour. This level forms the very essence of culture according to Schein. This model views culture as a complex phenomenon that is difficult but not impossible to change.
Critique of culture typologies
King and Lawley (2019)
Typologies should be treated with caution. They argue that organisations do not fit neatly into such categories and the tendency of typologies to generalise fails to recognise the features that make an organisation unique. Typologies also suggest that all organisations have a homogenous, unified culture, which misses many of the nuances and subtleties that exist within organisations.
Joanne Martin (1992),
Integration
refers to a perspective on culture that holds that an organisation has a single, unified culture with a set of shared values to which all employees subscribe. Organisational effectiveness is the result of greater employee commitment and employee control. This view subscribes to the notion of a ‘strong culture’ characterised by the existence of a clear set of values, norms and beliefs; the sharing of these by the majority of members; and the guidance of behaviour by these values, norms and beliefs.
Differentiation
regards a single organisation as consisting of many groups, each with their own sub-culture with its own characteristics. These sub-cultures develop within professional groups, departments, functions, geographical locations or by seniority. The potential for conflict is inherent in this pluralistic view of culture as different sub-cultures interact.
Fragmentation
assumes the absence of consensus, focuses on power differentials in the organisation, and stresses the inevitability of conflict as a norm in organisations. This view of culture sees groupings of people with loosely held beliefs, which change regularly.
The cultural web
Johnson (1988)
culture is a paradigm or way of seeing the organisation that will be interpreted differently by different people. He proposed that there are six overlapping aspects of culture that encompass both the ‘hard’ aspects of organisations (
structures, control systems and power
) as well as the ‘soft’ aspects (
stories, rituals and symbols
). Johnson described this as a cultural web.
What Is Organizational Culture
Definitions
Deal and Kennedy, 1982, p. 4
how things are done around here
Schein, 2010, p.6)
the basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion an organisation’s view of itself and its environment.
Features of culture
Cunliffe (2008)
1. Basic assumptions
: These are the taken-for-granted, unquestioned and accepted ways of doing things.
2. Values
: What underlies the decisions made in the organisation?
terminal values
(outcomes such as increased profitability, social responsibility)
instrumental values
(desired behaviours such as competitiveness, collaboration that will deliver the terminal values).
3. Norms
: These are the unwritten rules that guide behaviour.
Do employees address their manager using their first name or more formally? Are people competitive or collaborative?
4. Language and stories
: Is there a special language used in the organisation? How many acronyms exist? What are the stories that people are told when they join the company, or on their website?
5. Rites and ceremonies
: These are ways of behaving within an organisation. This might include dress codes (formal or casual), how meetings are conducted, and ceremonies such as inductions, long-service awards, promotion boards etc.
6. Artefacts and symbols
: These are often the brand identities of organisations. Think about the symbols used by Nike and Apple. A frightening finding in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Schlosser, 2001) was that many young children recognise the yellow ‘M’ of McDonalds more than they do their own name! Another artefact might be the office layout or décor – is it modern and trendy (like Google), or more old-fashioned?
Implication of organisational culture for managers
Peters and Waterman (1982)
They argued that managers need to understand how to build a strong, values based culture and that this required a change a shift from the traditional rational approach with its top-down direction and communication, and focus on tasks and measurement.
Proposed that managing culture requires a more innovative and exciting approach to management where:
managers gain commitment through emotional appeals to shared values;
communication becomes less formal and structured and is expressed through stories and symbols instead of memos and newsletters; and
there is greater trust, commitment and autonomy, where employees have more control aligned to the vision and values rather than traditional management approaches.
Why is organisational culture important
Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Peters and Waterman, 1982
a strong set of shared values, or culture, underpinned all successful companies.
Peters and Waterman, 1982, p. 75)
Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies. Moreover the stronger the culture and the more it was directed towards the marketplace, the less need there was for policy manuals, organisation charts or detailed procedures and rules.
argue that by creating a shared sense of purpose, staff motivation will be increased
(Canning et al., 2020)
the benefit of the 'right' culture are increased trust and reduced conflict
Naranjo-Valencia et al., 2016)
driving collaboration, knowledge sharing and innovation
Impact of national culture on work
The GLOBE view of national culture variables
2004 (House et al, 2004)
Power distance
The degree to which members of a group expect power to be distributed equally.
Uncertainty avoidance
The extent to which a society, organisation or group relies on social norms, rules and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events.
Humane orientation
The degree to which a group encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring and kind to others.
Institutional collectivism
The degree to which organisational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward the collective distribution of resources and collective action.
In-group collectivism The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organisations and families.
Assertiveness
The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational and aggressive in their relationships with others.
Gender egalitarianism
The degree to which a group minimises gender inequality.
Future orientation
The extent to which individuals engage in future-orientated behaviours such as delaying gratification, planning and investing in the future.
Performance orientation
The degree to which a group encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence.
Meyer's culture map
Communicating In a low-context culture, communication is precise, simple and clear. Messages are taken at face value and are clarified through repetition. In high-context cultures, communication is more nuanced and layered. Messages may be implied rather than stated, less is put into writing and more is left open to interpretation.
Persuading Different countries adopt either specific or holistic approaches to persuasion. For example a Western manager might break down an argument into its component parts whilst Asian managers tend to show how all the components fit together. Meyer also found that certain cultures use deductive logic (principles first) whereas others use inductive logic (application first).
Trusting In task-based cultures, trust is built cognitively or from the head. By collaborating and proving ourselves reliable, we build trust. In relationship-based cultures, trust is built through forming relationships (from the heart). As we get to know each other on a personal level, we get to like each other and build trust.
Evaluating This scale measures the preference for frank (direct) versus diplomatic (indirect) negative feedback.
Disagreeing Different cultures have different views on how productive conflict is for a team or organisation. This scale measures the degree of comfort with open disagreement and the degree to which confrontation is perceived as harmful.
Deciding This scale considers the degree of consensus in decision making and contrasts consensual cultures with hierarchical, top-down cultures.
Leading This scale measures the degree of respect shown to authority figures, ranging from egalitarian to hierarchical. This dimension is based on Hofstede's power distance.
Scheduling Some cultures adhere closely to schedules while others see them as simply guidelines. This scale measures how much value is placed on operating in a structured, linear manner versus being flexible and reactive.
Changing organisational culture
Schein, 2010
organisation begins to create cultures through the actions of founders who act as strong leaders.
Primary embedding mechanisms (the larger tools in the graphic); and
Individual leaders can use the primary mechanisms to influence the culture of their team by making conscious choices about what they pay attention to, what they control and measure, and what behaviours they choose to reward. This requires leaders to be reflective practitioners and consider their own behaviours.
What leaders pay attention to, measure and control.
How leaders reward people
How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises
Deliberate role modelling and coaching
How leaders select, promote and get rid of people
How leaders allocate resources
Secondary reinforcement mechanisms (the smaller tools in the graphic).
The secondary mechanisms tend to be organisation-wide levers, such as policies, systems and office environments, which therefore may be more difficult or time-consuming to change.
Organizational design and structure
Organizational systems and processes
Formal statements of vision, mission, and value
Stories about important events and people
Rites and rituals
Design of physical space and buildings
The cultural dynamics model
Hatch (1993)
Manifestations How employees become aware of their values (without necessarily becoming aware of the underlying assumptions) can be explored by considering what emotions and perceptions are encouraged or limited within the organisation.
Realisation How values are translated into the rites, rituals and stories within the organisation can be observed by the everyday practices in the organisation and how these relate to organisational values.
Symbols Some artefacts become more than their simple meaning and come to symbolise much more than their action. This can be seen by the informal communication in an organisation, e.g. the last five people picked to do that job have all been promoted. The job then symbolises much more than simply being selected for the task.
Interpretation An employee might quote the values, but is this being done sarcastically? The meaning behind the symbol can often be important to understanding how the symbol is understood or used.