Building Organizational Culture

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary role of midlevel leaders in fostering organizational culture, according to the content?

  • To solely endorse and uphold the values set by top leadership.
  • To actively build and manage culture by linking the organization's values with daily interactions. (correct)
  • To ensure that all employees are aware of the company's mission statement.
  • To focus on improving performance reviews and employee retention metrics.

What happens when midlevel leaders primarily focus on endorsing rather than enriching company culture?

  • Employees become more aware of the company's overarching vision and values.
  • There is a greater alignment between the stated values and actual practices.
  • Leaders lower in the hierarchy may feel disconnected and see their role as passive recipients. (correct)
  • The culture becomes more adaptable and responsive to change.

According to the content, what is the key difference between 'big-C' and 'small-c' culture?

  • 'Big-C' culture is measured by annual surveys, while 'small-c' culture is evaluated through formal training.
  • 'Big-C' culture is only relevant to executive leadership, while 'small-c' culture affects all employees.
  • 'Big-C' culture refers to the written, official values of a company, while 'small-c' culture describes the daily qualitative experiences. (correct)
  • 'Big-C' culture focuses on subcultures, while 'small-c' culture refers to divisions.

What is the suggested approach for middle managers to effectively enrich company culture by connecting big-C and small-c cultures?

<p>Finding big-C seeds that will thrive in the small-c soil and fostering their unique expression. (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

According to the content, what did the research on the Fortune 100 company reveal about the best midlevel leaders?

<p>They are attentive to both the overall company culture and the culture within their sphere of influence. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is an effective strategy to 'endorse big-C culture through celebration and preservation of select features'?

<p>Inviting subordinates to participate in high-level meetings to promote equality. (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

According to the content, how do culture builders endorse big-C culture by learning from other managers?

<p>By expanding their network of mentors and engaging in conversations about leadership to broaden their ideas. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Why is 'sharing blunders through structured practices' beneficial for managers?

<p>It gives managers a chance to see one another as vulnerable, which likely strengthens relationships and knowledge sharing. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

How can midlevel leaders enrich small-c culture through cultural innovations?

<p>By using interactions like meetings and feedback sessions as opportunities to cultivate the small-c culture. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What example does the content provide of enriching small-c culture by empowering employees to innovate during the pandemic?

<p>Inviting team members to try new ideas, such as using the first few minutes of each meeting for 'getting to know you' questions. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

According to the content, what is the outcome of seeing culture as something that leaders at any level can and should build?

<p>It fosters a shared experience, where employees become collaborators and are more likely to own the culture. (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of cultural experiments?

<p>They allow employees who seek leadership roles to demonstrate their capabilities and enrich small-c culture. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What should leaders do, according to the executive who grew to understand big-C culture?

<p>Constantly connect with peers to understand their approaches to living the company's values. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

How is an organization’s culture affected when its culture is not uniform but diverse?

<p>It becomes an advantage allowing customization of culture to feel inclusive to all. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the advantage for employees seeking leadership roles when cultural experiments have already been performed?

<p>They have knowledge of ways of enriching small-c culture to other departments. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does it mean when new practices arise throughout the organization when people at all levels are involved in actively building culture?

<p>It means the company’s ethos and customs are growing with slight deviations. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

According to the content, what are some examples of ways that culture builders can endorse big-C culture?

<p>Asking employees what they loved about the current company culture. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the best way to manage innovation and creativity in small-c culture?

<p>Attempt at trying something new helped the team understand the boundaries of the big-C culture and served as a bonding experience. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Which of these is least likely to be an important consideration for middle leaders to translate a company’s unique values into a lived experience for the people who work at their organization.

<p>A generic management habit (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

When is the power of company’s culture most likely to be seen and felt?

<p>When there is an unexpected exodus of employees. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Flashcards

Organizational Culture

The set of shared values that guide how work gets done in an organization.

Building Culture role

The managers and team leaders across the organization, who go beyond believing they are responsible for culture to actively building it

Enriching Cultural Norms

Supporting expressions of cultural norms and values as they arise in smaller teams

Big-C Culture

The company's official set of stated values.

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Small-c Culture

The qualitative experience of day-to-day patterns of interaction.

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Culture: ensuring a strong workplace

Frequent messaging from top leaders promoting the mission, purpose, vision, ethos, and values of the organization

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Culture Enrichment

When companies have both big-C and small-c cultures.

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Leaders role on culture

Linking the big-C and small-c cultures, aiming to find big-C seeds that will thrive in the small soil they are responsible for tending

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Managers role

The most effective managers focused on those aspects of big-C culture that they viewed as most important for connecting their specific group to the company’s values

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Volunteerism

Adding this activity to some of their face-to-face days also provided the team with an opportunity to interact outside of formal business meetings, strengthening their connections

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Culture Builders

Managers expand their network of mentors and engage in conversations about leadership to broaden their ideas and keep a pulse on the big-C culture.

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Enrich small-c culture

They try new leadership behaviors, new meeting practices, new hiring procedures or interview techniques, new incentives, and new patterns of communication. These are innovations in activity, not policy

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Culture Benefits

Seeing culture as something that leaders at any level can and should build has payoffs for employees, leaders, and companies.

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Study Notes

Building Culture From the Middle Out

  • Midlevel leaders are essential in creating a thriving organizational culture
  • Spencer Harrison and Kristie Rogers are the authors

Executives and Culture Ownership

  • When asked who is responsible for culture, most executives say "Everyone"
  • When asked how they manage culture, most executives have uninspiring answers
  • Generic management habits don't translate values into lived experiences

Organizational Culture Defined

  • Organizational culture is the set of shared values guiding how work gets done
  • Culture predicts high performance
  • Businesses need midlevel leaders to actively build the culture, not just believe in it

Midlevel Leaders' Role

  • These leaders often feel they should endorse rather than enrich cultural norms
  • Enriching means supporting expressions of cultural norms and values within smaller teams

Big-C and Small-c Cultures

  • Most successful midlevel leaders link the "big-C" culture (official values) with the "small-c" culture (daily interactions)

The Endorsing-Enriching Gap in Culture

  • Middle managers think frequent messaging by top leaders is the best approach
  • C-suite executives or HR specialists are often seen as primarily responsible
  • Leaders lower in the hierarchy think their job is to uphold the culture
  • Culture isn't explicitly defined
  • Leaders feel powerless to manage culture

Perspective on Culture

  • Companies have both big-C and small-c cultures
    • Big-C is the company's official values
    • Small-c is the qualitative experience of daily interactions like culture
  • Most think of big-C culture when they talk about culture
    • surveys suggest few employees actually know their company’s values
  • Big-C culture includes formal training, onboarding, leadership seminars, and executive offsites and is measured by surveys
  • Small-c is experienced in exchanges that reinforce how to accomplish work, the values practiced show up in daily behaviors
  • Variations of small-c will inevitably grow, and will spread when themes are successful
  • The role of middle leaders is to link the big-C and Small-c cultures
  • The leaders figure out how to create small-c cultures that bring big-C culture to life
  • Subcultures are defined by a divisions core activities
  • Small-c cultures are defined by relational behaviors that individuals develop

Endorsement and Enrichment

  • Effective managers emphasize company mission elements
  • They nurture ways of bringing those elements to life within teams
  • The managers share ideas with other managers and encourage culture innovation

Strategies for Culture Building

  • Endorse big-C culture through celebration and preservation of select features
    • One manager valued equality to life by inviting subordinates to participate in high-level meetings
    • Another manager promoted giving back volunteering by weaving volunteerism into meetings
    • Curating aspects of the big-C culture that resonate most with employees is critical during periods of change
  • Endorse big-C culture by learning from other managers
    • Culture builders expand their network of mentors, engage in conversations, and keep a pulse on the big-C culture
    • Cross-pollination facilitates some consistency in cultural experiences for employees
    • Sharing blunders through structured practices gives managers a chance to see one another as vulnerable
    • Managers engaged in sharing practices valued relationships and took “cultural field trips” to visit other parts of the company
  • Enrich small-c culture through cultural innovations
    • Culture builders realized interactions can be where culture happens
    • A sales executive built in talking points about wellness alongside the numbers
      • Each sales associate presented challenges
  • Enrich small-c culture by empowering employees to innovate
    • One team leader invited her team members to try some new ideas, and they landed on using the first five minutes of each gathering as a time to pair up and ask one another rotating questions
    • One leader has made empowerment a standard practice and delegates cultural tools

Culture as an Advantage

  • Culture is not uniform but diverse
  • Innovation lets them customize inclusion in influences
  • Building culture provides experiences and stories that ready them for promotion into senior roles

Culture Results

  • New practices arise throughout the organization when building culture
  • It means the company’s ethos and customs are growing, like a species evolves in a healthy ecosystem.
  • A adaptable culture is the result

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