College of Management and Technology International Section | Centre for Defence Leadership & Management | College of Management and Technology 23+26. Organisational

College of Management and TechnologyInternational Section | Centre for Defence Leadership & Management | College of Management and Technology

23+26. Organisational Culture

SLP(E) Course


ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE


WHY STUDY CULTURE?


THAT’S WHY


IQ

EQ CQ

““The Effective Contemporary The Effective Contemporary Leader”Leader”

Bright enough!

Emotionally aware Culturally attuned

(DEOMI)


Individual’s Frame of Reference

The The IndividualIndividual

Functional/Divisional

Professional Institutional

Organisational

Service/Arm of Service

Domestic/family

A Cultural Web for the Individual


Flower Model:An individual’s frame of reference

Organisation

ReligionDomestic

Profession

Nationality

INDIVIDUAL

College of Management and Technology

Culture will eat your strategy for breakfast

As seen on the wall of the Ford HQ Boardroom


What do we mean by Organisational Culture?

• The way we do things.

• Unwritten rules & norms.

• Assumptions about behaviour, purpose, collective identity.


Schein’s Model

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE


Culture/Mental Programming

Visible

Invisible

Iceburg

Water-level

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS



Visible

Invisible

Response to:

EnvironmentTime

ActionCommunication

SpacePower

IndividualismCompetitiveness

Artefacts

Values & Assumptions

Iceburg

Water-level

MusicArt

FoodGreeting


Schein’s Model

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS




Artefacts

• Any tangible or verbally identifiable elements in an organization.

• Buildings, furniture, dress code & history are all typical organizational artifacts.


Schein’s Model

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS


Values

• The organization's stated or desired cultural elements.

• Often a written or stated tone that the Senior Leader hopes to exude throughout the organisation.


Schein’s Model

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS


Assumptions

• Shared basic assumptions:– Often these ‘unspoken’ rules exist without the

conscious knowledge of the membership.

• Typically so well integrated that they are hard to recognize from within. – Underlying & driving element often missed.






Cultural Dissonance - Flags: Artefacts or Assumptions?



22-23. Organisational Culture

SLP(E) Course


He’s the new guy – he went to a seminar on ‘Admit your Mistakes and Earn Respect’.

He admitted one so they sacked him!


Double S Cube Model

NETWORKED

FRAGMENTED

COMMUNAL

MERCENARY

Low High

HighS

ocia

bilit

y

Solidarity

Types of organisational culture


Networked

• Positively networked:– Culture of friendship & kindness.– Relaxed informal & helpful.– Sense of loyalty & belonging.– Flexible & sharing.– Relations with supplier network

• Negatively networked:– Tolerance for poor performance.– Overly concerned with means rather than ends

NETWORKED

FRAGMENTED

COMMUNAL

MERCENARY

Low High

High

Soc

iab

ility

Solidarity


Communal

• Most attractive?• Positively communal:

– Play hard, work hard.– The organisation is forever with you. – Loyalty.– Widely espoused values.

• Negatively communal:– Fixate on an opponent.– Surrender to leader.– Neglects the wider competition.

NETWORKED

FRAGMENTED

COMMUNAL

MERCENARY

Low High

High

Soc

iab

ility

Solidarity


Fragmented

• Positively fragmented:– Scope for individual freedom. – Liberating.– Flexibility.– Cost effective.

• Negatively fragmented:– Going through major change.– Multiple business sectors - cohesion?– Blame culture.

• Hinders organisational learning.

NETWORKED

FRAGMENTED

COMMUNAL

MERCENARY

Low High

High

Soc

iab

ility

Solidarity


Mercenary

• Restless & ruthless.• Positively mercenary:

– Dispenses with debate

and gets on with it.– Focus on the opposition. Clear vision.– The goal: to win.

• Negatively mercenary:– Selfless, reckless bast****s.– Enemy inside & outside.– Tunnel vision.

NETWORKED

FRAGMENTED

COMMUNAL

MERCENARY

Low High

High

Soc

iab

ility

Solidarity


What’s my culture?

• Four tests to find out:– Physical space.– Communication.– Time.– Identity.

• Communication example:– Networked: a lot of talk & both formal/informal info exchange.– Mercenary: swift, direct & work focused.– Fragmented: few meetings, brief discussions in corridors.– Communal: Frequent talk & much non-verbal communication,

i.e. dress, colour & symbolism.


Networked?

Communal?

Fragmented?

Mercenary?

Military Culture



Organisational Culture

Exercise 5

SLP(E) Course


Organisational Culture

• Understanding the culture of your organization is important if you are to manage successful change programmes.

• In syndicates spend 45 mins considering:– The nature of the culture in your organization by

applying Schien’s model (artefacts | values | assumptions).

– How this culture may impede change.

• Nominate (a) speaker(s) to give a short (5 min) presentation to the whole course.


Schein’s Model

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS



Challenge of changing the Culture


Why Change Culture?- the most frequent question!

• Fundamental requirement is to provide a credible (in receiver’s mind) reason why pain & grief is necessary.

• If not credible then nobody will embrace change with enthusiasm & the change programme will die.

• Humans are not necessarily rational beings:• Good ideas rejected.• Because failure to explain in relevant terms.



Changing the organisational Paradigm

• Culture is deeply rooted & much is unobservable.

• How ‘joined-up’ is organisation?• Valid reason for change – ‘burning platform’.• Observing/measuring change.• Wide number of stakeholders.

– Some unknown.– Some acting as ‘blockers’.


Measuring culture

• Purpose: – Assess distance between present culture & the

required future culture.

• Qualitative approaches: – Focus groups, interviews & documents.– Narrow, but deep, understanding.

• Quantitative approaches: – Questionnaires, surveys & polls.– Wide, but shallow, understanding.


Stakeholder analysisInterest vs Influence

High InterestLow InfluenceHigh InterestLow Influence

Low InterestLow InfluenceLow Interest

Low Influence

High InterestHigh InfluenceHigh Interest

High Influence

Low InterestHigh InfluenceLow Interest

High Influence

Interest

Influence

High

Low High


Stakeholder analysis (2)Promoters & Opponents

PromotersPromoters

Potential PromotersPotential

Promoters

OpponentsOpponents

Hidden Opponents

Hidden Opponents

Aware-ness

Acceptance

Well Known

Positive NegativeUnknown



Visible

Invisible

Iceburg

Water-level

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS


Changing culture - Activity

Visible

Invisible

Artefacts

Values & Assumptions

Manage issuesCost | Quality | Time

Manage issuesCost | Quality | Time

Manage values&

Assumptions

Manage values&

Assumptions

Manage power & politics

Manage power & politics

StakeholderAnalysis


Can a leader change culture?

ARTEFACTS

VALUES

ASSUMPTIONS

Increasingly difficult


Burn’s & Bass Transactional/Transformational

Leadership

• Transactional leaders: BUY followers.• Transformational leaders: INSPIRE followers.


The ability to deliver Change

• Ability to change depends on the depth of the changes:– Artefacts are easy but have little impact. – Values & Beliefs are more difficult. – An Assumption is more difficult still. – Several Assumptions is very difficult indeed.

• The more change goes against the culture, the less likely to succeed.

• The key is to identify what needs to be changed, what you need to keep & what you need to grow.


Growing New Cultures

• Clear responsibility.• Real team-working at all levels.• Performance focussed:

– Results not process.

• Positive out look. – Looking for opportunities not obstacles.

• Sense of community: – People belong, they trust each other.

• Learn and improve as we go:– The ‘learning organisation’


Changing military culture

“The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out."

Liddell-Hart


Changing military culture

• Changing operational requirements:– Responsive & flexible.– Achieved through conditioning & hierarchy.

• To wider, organisational change:– Can be Resistant.



• Smaller Defence Board to strengthen top level decision making.

• Clarify responsibility and accountability.

• Smaller and more strategic Head Office

• Focus Chiefs of Staff on running their Services

• Strengthen financial management

• Create Joint Forces Command

• Manage people better – longer tours.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS


These recommendations are only the first step. It is the people in the organisation at all levels who will need to make it work. We therefore conclude with recommendations on implementation and behaviours. Implementation must be driven by Ministers and the senior leadership of the Department. They will need to lead by example by acting in the ways on which the success of the new model depends. Crucially, they must take the tough decisions needed to balance the books, without which this model, or any other, will fail.

LEVENE - PEOPLE AND BEHAVIOURS(Values and Assumptions)


The message

Ineffective business leadership at all levels

Defence second to sectional interests

Strong leadership at all levels

Keep the big picture in mind

Culture of efficiency

Be a leader Think Defence Do it better

Be Think Do

Cultural DNA poorly adapted to current

business environment



Documents

College of Management and Technology International Section | Centre for Defence Leadership & Management | College of Management and Technology 23+26. Organisational