Org culture, and types building culture

What is Organisational Culture?
• Culture is the soul of the organization—the beliefs and values, and
how they are manifested.
• Culture provides stability to an organization and gives employees a
clear understanding of “the way things are done around an
organization.”
• Culture sets the tone for how organizations operate and how
individuals within the organization interact.

Definition of Organizational Culture
• Organizational culture is the pattern of shared values, beliefs, and
assumptions considered to be the appropriate way to think and act
within an organization.
• The key features of culture are as follows:
• Culture is shared by the members of the organization.
• Culture helps members of the organization solve and understand the
things that the organization encounters, both internally and externally

• Because the assumptions, beliefs, and expectations that make up
culture have worked over time, members of the organization believe
they are valid.
• Therefore, they are taught to people who join the organization.
• These assumptions, beliefs, and expectations strongly influence how
people perceive, think, feel, and behave within the organization.

Levels of Culture
• Artifacts - These are what you see, hear, and feel when you encounter
an organization’s culture.
• You may notice, for instance, that employees in two offices have very
different dress policies, or one office displays great works of art while
another posts company mottos on the wall.

• Beliefs, Values, and Assumptions, unlike Artifacts, are not always
readily observable.
• Beliefs are the understandings of how objects and ideas relate to each
other.
• Values are the stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important.

• Assumptions are the taken-for-granted notions of how something
should be.
• When basic assumptions are held by the entire group, members will
have difficulty conceiving of another way of doing things.

Characteristics of Culture
• Research suggests that seven primary characteristics capture the
essence of an organization’s culture:
• Innovation and risk-taking. The degree to which employees are
encouraged to be innovative and take risks.
• Attention to detail. The degree to which employees are expected to
work with precision, analysis, and attention to detail.

• Outcome orientation. The degree to which management focuses on
results, or outcomes, rather than on the techniques and processes used
to achieve these outcomes.
People orientation:
• The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the
effect of outcomes on people within the organization.
• Team orientation. The degree to which work activities are organized
around teams rather than individuals.

• Aggressiveness: The degree to which people are aggressive and
competitive rather than easy going and supportive.
Stability: The degree to which organizational activities emphasize
maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth

Function of Culture
• Culture performs a number of functions within an organization:It has a
boundary-defining role because it creates distinction between one
organization and others.It conveys a sense of identity to organization
members.
• It helps create commitment to something larger than an individual’s
self-interest.
• enhances stability; it is the social glue that helps hold the organization
together by providing appropriate standards for what employees
should say and do.

Do Organizations have Uniform Cultures?
• Organizational culture represents a common perception held by the
organization’s members.
• Dominant culture: A system of shared meaning that expresses the core
values shared by a majority of the organization’s members.
• Subcultures: Mini-cultures within an organization, typically defined
by department designations and geographical separation.
• Core values in terms of the primary, or dominant, values that are
accepted throughout the organization.

Contrasting Organisational Cultures
• How a Culture Begins:
An organization’s current customs, traditions, and general way of doing things
largely owe to what it has done before and how successful those previous
endeavours have been.
How Organizational Cultures Form:
Once a culture is in place, human resource practices within the organization
act to maintain it by giving employees a set of similar experiences.
For example, the selection process, performance evaluation criteria, training
and career development activities, and promotion procedures ensure that new
employees fit in with the culture, rewarding those who support it and
penalizing (even expelling) those who challenge it.

• Three forces play a particularly important part in sustaining a culture:
• Selection practices,
• The actions of top management
• Socialization methods.

• Selection:
The explicit goal of the selection process is to identify and hire individuals who have the
knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the jobs within the organization successfully.
Top Management:
The actions of top management also have a major impact on the organization’s culture.
Through what they say and how they behave, senior executives establish norms that
filter down through the organization.
These norms establish whether risk-taking is desirable; how much freedom managers
should give their employees; what is appropriate dress; what actions will pay off in terms
of pay raises, promotions, and other rewards; and the like.

Socialization:
• No matter how effectively the organization recruits and selects new
employees, they are not fully trained in the organization’s culture when
they start their jobs.
• Because they are unfamiliar with the organization’s culture, new
employees may disturb the beliefs and customs that are in place.
• The organization will, therefore, want to help new employees adapt to
its culture.
• This adaptation process is called socialization.

Matching People with
Organizational Cultures
Research by Goffee and Jones provides some interesting insights on
different organizational cultures and guidance for prospective
employees.
Goffee and Jones argue that two dimensions underlie organizational
culture.

The Two Dimensions
The first is Sociability
The second dimension is Solidarity
Sociability This is a measure of friendliness.
High sociability means people do kind things for one another without
expecting something in return and they relate to each other in a friendly,
caring way.

• Solidarity It considers the strength of the group’s task orientation.
High solidarity means people can overlook personal biases and rally
behind common interests and common goals.

Four Culture Typology
• Networked culture High on sociability, low on solidarity
Organizations with this type of culture view members as family and
friends.
• People know and like each other. People willingly give assistance to
others and openly share information.
• The major downside to this culture is that the focus on friendships can
lead to a tolerance for poor performance and creation of political
cliques.

• Mercenary Culture Low on sociability, high on solidarity
Organizations with this type of culture are fiercely goal-focused.
• People are intense and determined to meet goals.
• They have a zest for getting things done quickly and a powerful sense of
purpose.
• A mercenary culture is not just about winning; it is about destroying the
enemy. This focus on goals and objectivity leads to a minimal degree of
politicking.
• The major downside to this culture is that it can lead toan almost
inhumane treatment of people who are perceived as low performers.

• Communal Culture High on sociability, high on solidarity
Organizations with this type of culture value both friendship and
performance.
People have a feeling of belonging, but there is still a ruthless focus on
goal achievement.
Leaders of these cultures tend to be inspirational and charismatic, with a
clear vision of the organizations’ future.
The major downside to this culture is that it often consumes employees’
lives.

• Fragmented culture Low on sociability, low on solidarity
Organizations with this type of culture are made up of individualists.
• Commitment is first and foremost to individual members and their job
tasks.
• There is little or no identification with the organization.
• In a fragmented culture, employees are judged solely on their
productivity and the quality of their work.
• The major downside to this culture is that it can lead to excessive
critiquing of others and an absence of collegiality and cooperation.

CREATING CORPORATE CULTURE
• Good leaders take an interest in the positive and negative effects of organizational culture.
Effective leaders have a vision for the culture they want and work to develop it in the
organization:
• They encourage staff to believe in their vision and empower them to help make it a reality.
• They encourage employees to respect and care about each other.
• They build trust between themselves and their team.
• When employees act in ways that exhibit the desired culture, leaders celebrate them. For
instance, to develop a culture where employees act independently, management
should acknowledge staffers who do great independent work.
• They eliminate negative behaviors. If the CEO wants a workplace culture that celebrates
diversity, they have to discourage bigotry and discrimination.
• They walk the walk. No amount of vision statements and speeches will be as effective as staff
seeing the leader lives by the values they talk about.

WHAT MAKES CULTURE TOXIC?
• Poor communication. If managers don't talk openly to their staff, or if employees can't share their
thoughts with management, that leads to a breakdown in trust.
• A toxic employee who backstabs or bullies colleagues can erode organizational culture. If management
doesn't rein the employee in, other employees may assume the company will tolerate them behaving the
same way.
• Prioritizing profit above everything else encourages employees to cut ethical corners to suit the bottom
line.
• Setting employees competing against each other works against building a cooperative culture.
• Micromanagement. If employees feel they're under constant scrutiny, they stress out.
• Resistance to change makes it harder to fight the negative impact of organizational culture.
• If managers or other workers don't perform to the company's standards, employees will realize how
much they can get away with.
• Lack of engagement. If the company shows no interest in employees, that makes it harder for them to
care.

EFFECTS ON MANAGEMENT
• The positive and negative effects of organizational culture influence
managers as well as lower-ranked employees. For example, a small
company may expect managers to help out employees when they need
it. That's a positive culture, fostering a spirit of teamwork.
• The effects of organizational culture on managers also shape how
decisions get made.
• The culture can emphasize data-driven decisions dominated by
analytics and statistics, or favor going with your gut.
• Culture shapes decisions as much as the facts in the case.

NEGATIVE IMPACT OF
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
• In a healthy organization, the effects of organizational culture on employee performance will
be positive. Employees know they're valued and enjoy the work environment, so they're
ready to give their best.
• A negative culture has the opposite effect:
• An organizational culture that doesn't value quality work gives the employees no reason to
strive for quality.
• A culture that tolerates bad behavior gives other employees license to behave the same way.
• Unhealthy organizational culture leaves employees feeling miserable, with decreased
motivation to commit to their job.
• An unpleasant culture can increase employee turnover because nobody wants to stick
around where they're miserable. If the culture becomes known outside the company, it may
become harder to attract new recruits too.

HOFSTEDE’s Cultural Dimension

Deal & Kennedy Corporate culture

Impact of culture on Behaviour in
Organizations
• Planning
• Staffing
• Career Management
• Appraisal and Compensation

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