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Module Fifteen

Organizational Culture

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CULTURE (1)• “Culture consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting,

acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values”[i]

• “…culture is viewed as transmitted and created content and patterns of values, ideas, and other symbolic-meaningful systems as factors in the shaping of human behavior and the artifacts produced through behavior”[ii]

• “...culture is viewed as the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another”[iii]

• “ … culture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of society”[iv]

[i] Kluckohm, C., (1951), The study of culture, In D. Lerner and H.D. LAsswell (Eds.), The Policy Sciences (pp. 86-101), Stanford, CA:Stanford University Press.[ii] Kroeber, A.L., and T. Parson, (1958), The concept of culture and social system, American Sociological Review, 23, 582-583.[iii] Hofstede, G., (2001), Culture’s Consequences, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.[iv] Ferraro, G.P., (1994), The Cultural Dimension of International Culture, Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.

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CULTURE (2)

• Thus, at the most basic level, culture is:– Something that is shared by all or almost all members

of some social group (such as a nation, a region, an organization, a profession, an age group, a religious group),

– A system of values and beliefs, symbols, heroes, rituals and practices,

– Something that is transmitted from one generation to another,

– Something that human beings get socialized into from “day one”

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Culture Value Orientation Model• A culture may be profiled along six dimensions:

– Relation to nature (what is the societal orientation to its nature – harmony, disregard or, mastery of, i.e., trying to change its environment);

– Time orientation (what is the societal orientation to time, how does it use time, is it oriented towards past, present or future);

– Basic human nature (what is the basic nature of human beings – good, evil, neutral/mix);

– Activity orientation (what is the societal orientation to human activity – doing, being, containing/controlling);

– Relationships among people (what is the societal orientations among people – individualistic, group/collective, hierarchical), and;

– Space orientation (how do people relate to the ownership of space – public, private, mixed)

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Hofstede (National Culture) – 5 Dimensions1. Individualism/Collectivism (whether individual or collective

action is preferred way of dealing with issues)2. Power Distance (degree to which differences in power are

accepted in a culture)3. Uncertainty Avoidance (whether the society tends to prefer

rules and operate in predictable situations versus situations involving no prescribed behaviors)

4. Masculinity/Femininity (degree to which values associated with stereotypes of masculinity—e.g. aggressiveness—and femininity—e.g. compassion, empathy—are emphasized)

5. Long-Term/Short-Term Orientation (whether society is concerned with the future—values thrift and persistence—or is concerned with the present and past.)

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Team Assignment on National Culture

• Identify a member of your team who knows another national culture well (because they are from another country, lived for an extended period in another country, etc…)

• Compare and contrast U.S. national culture with the other national culture you chose using Hofstede’s model (Teams 1 to 5) and Schein’s model (Teams 6 to 11)

• You have 25 min

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A few comparisons

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A few comparisons

More on:

http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php

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Organizational Culture – What is it?

• No one single definition:– A collective worldview developed through time, as

a human group discovers solutions to adapt to a given environment and thrive in it.

– “The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group from another.”

– “A system of values, beliefs, symbols, heroes, rituals, and practices.”

• Truly understanding an organization’s culture requires substantial exposure to it.

• Strength of culture depends upon degree to which individuals hold similar assumptions and values about how to respond to organizational situations.

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Why Care about Organizational Culture?

• To avoid misunderstandings based on cultural differences

• To best understand how to influence people• As a leader (high-level manager or entrepreneur),

you might even become a “Culture Shaper” • Closer to home, when looking for a job, you had

better choose an organization consistent with your values (person/culture fit)

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Organizational Culture

* Source: E. H. Schein, “Organizational Culture,” American Psychologist 45, no. 2 (1990), p. 109-19.

• definition of organizational culture: * (a) a pattern of basic assumptions, (b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, (c) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, (d) that has worked well enough to be considered valid and , therefore, (e) is to be taught to new members as the (f) correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

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Organizational Culture: Framework for Analysis

Observable ArtifactsObservable Artifacts

Values, Norms, Philosophy, Ideology

Values, Norms, Philosophy, Ideology

Underlying AssumptionsUnderlying Assumptions

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Some Underlying Dimensions

of Organizational Culture *Dimension

1. The organization’s relationship to its environment

2. The nature of human activity

3. The nature of reality and truth

4. The nature of time

Questions to be Answered

Does the organization perceive itself to be dominant, submissive, harmonizing, or searching for a niche?

Is the “correct” way for humans to behave to be dominant / proactive, harmonizing, or passive / fatalistic?

How do we define what is true and what is not true; and how is truth ultimately determined in both the physical and social worlds: by pragmatic test, reliance on wisdom, or social consensus?

What is our basic orientation in terms of past, present and future, and what kinds of time units are most relevant for the conduct of daily affairs?

* Source: Adapted from E. H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985), p. 86. Copyright © 1985 by Jossey-Bass. Adapted with permission.

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Some Underlying Dimensions of Organizational Culture *

Dimension

5. The nature of human nature

6. The nature of human relationships

7. Homogeneity versus diversity

Questions to be Answered

Are humans basically good, neutral, or evil; is human nature perfectible or fixed?

What is the “correct” way for people to relate to each other and to distribute power and affection? Is life competitive or cooperative? Is the best way to organize society on the basis of individualism or groupism? Is the best authority system autocratic / paternalistic or collegial / participative?

Is the group best off if it is highly diverse or if it is highly homogeneous, and should individuals in a group be encouraged to innovate or conform?

* Source: Adapted from E. H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985), p. 86. Copyright © 1985 by Jossey-Bass. Adapted with permission.

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Some Key Factors Affecting the Context of Organizational Culture

Environmental Characteristics* Social, political, and legal* Industry* Competitive pressures

Organizational Characteristics* Mission* Product and service requirements* Size* Technology* Policies and procedures* Reward system* Organizational design

Dynamics Between Groups and Departments* Dependency* Information technology* Communication process* Cooperation

Leadership and ManagerialCharacteristics* Philosophical orientation* Style* Process and output orientations* Consideration

Work GroupCharacteristics* Commitment* Task* Size and composition* Work design

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Your College of Business/School of Management Culture – Team Assignment

(1) Share your descriptions of the College of Business’s culture and create an overarching description based on your discussion

(2) Conduct on-line research on Google’s culture and create a description based on your research

Be sure to use Schein’s model to anchor your descriptions

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More on Culture…• Culture is hard to change• Espoused culture (what organization states it

values/believes) versus actual culture• Culture is shaped by leaders• Strong versus weak culture• Many mergers that fail are the result of incompatible

cultures• People shape culture

If many people in the organization are very outgoing, then the culture will likely be social and open.

If doors are open and a few closed door meetings are held, then the culture will likely be unguarded

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Example of Choosing A Job Based on Value Alignment

I chose to leave “corporate” world for academia because the latter fit better with my values. For example, I value:1. Helping others 2. Learning3. Autonomy

I chose CalPoly in part because it fit with the following values:1. Collegiality 2. Teaching and research balance (I value both as

important to academic career success)3. Learning-by-doing

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Key Takeaways

• Be observant about the artifacts you observe. What Be observant about the artifacts you observe. What might be the symbolic meaning of the artifacts you might be the symbolic meaning of the artifacts you observe, and what do these reflect about underlying observe, and what do these reflect about underlying values and assumptions?values and assumptions?

• Learn the history of countries or organizations you visit.Learn the history of countries or organizations you visit.• Do your values overlap with those of the organization?Do your values overlap with those of the organization?• What should be changed in an organization’s culture for What should be changed in an organization’s culture for

it to be more effective? What should be done to enact a it to be more effective? What should be done to enact a culture shift?culture shift?

• Prepare to ask company representatives about an organization’s culture during a job interview.