BUS 272 Week 9: Organizational Culture

BUS 272 – E100, Week 9: Organizational Culture

• Organizational culture is the shared perceptions of employees about their organization and work environment. It shapes attitudes and behaviors within the organization.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe common and dysfunctional characteristics of organizational culture's effects on people and the organization.
• Identify factors that create and sustain cultural values within organizations.
• Understand how culture is conveyed to employees.
• Explain how to build and maintain an ethical organizational culture.
• Describe a positive organizational culture.

Corporate Culture

• Corporate culture encompasses values, norms, and behaviors, which can be either formally stated or observed in action within organizations.
• Managers have a role in shaping the culture to impart a sense of shared values to employees.
• Organizational culture is made up of layers:
  • Artifacts: visible aspects like language, symbols, stories, and rituals.
  • Values: beliefs about what is important.
  • Assumptions: deeply ingrained beliefs about how things should be done, which are the hardest to change.

Organizational Culture Characteristics

• Shared: Common values and behaviors among members.
• Pervasive: Present throughout the organization's structure.
• Enduring: Relatively stable over time.
• Implicit: Often unspoken but deeply ingrained.
• Tacit social order: Shapes employee behavior profoundly, defines what is accepted, discouraged or rejected.

Culture & Structure

• Culture is the "soul" of an organization; beliefs and values dictate how it functions.
• Structure, the skeleton and flesh, provides the framework for carrying out organizational actions.
• Culture is the unifying force.
• Organizational culture distinguishes one organization from another.

The Cultural Iceberg

• Observable: Artifacts (visible behaviors, actions, symbols, language, and materials).
• Not Observable: Core Values (learned ideas), Attitudes (the reflection of core values), and Assumptions (deep-rooted beliefs).
• The core values, attitudes and assumptions are unseen but influence how the organization operates and employees act within it.

Characteristics of organizational culture

• Innovation and risk-taking: encourages employees to be inventive and take chances.
• Attention to detail: requires precision, accuracy, and analysis.
• Outcome orientation: emphasizes results more so than processes.
• People orientation: respects the impact of decisions on employees.
• Team orientation: tasks are shared among teams rather than individuals.
• Aggressiveness: focuses on competitiveness and ambition over gentleness.
• Stability: values consistency and minimal disruption to preserve the current state.

Organization A and Organization B

• Organization A emphasizes strict adherence to rules & regulations with little tolerance for creative thinking.
• Organization B promotes change, risk-taking, and employee learning experiences. Productivity is balanced with treating people well. Values teamwork and employee growth.

Culture

• Dominant culture: widely held beliefs and values across the organization.
• Subcultures: unique values within smaller groups or departments.

Strong vs Weak Cultures

• Strong culture: shared, deeply held values, impacting how employees act.
• Weak culture: opinions and values differ among employees.

Culture's Functions

• Defines boundaries between organizations.
• Creates a sense of identity among members.
• Facilitates commitment to the organization.
• Enhances stability.
• Provides guidance on behavior.
• Makes sense of the organization to employees
• Important in decentralized organizations.
• Strong leadership focused on shared goals is critical for organizations.

Culture Creates Climate

• Organizational climate: Shared perceptions of work environment, showing team spirit with a more visible impact .
• Influences attitudes and outcomes. Measures of sentiment.

Climate vs Culture

• Climate: reflects the present emotional state of the organization, is more visible and easy to measure.
• Culture: deep-rooted values, can influence long-term performance and success. hard to change.

Culture & Sustainability

• Sustainability means an organization continues to function over a long period, tools & structures aren't damaged.
• Sustainable management isn't solely altruistic; it is beneficial.

Culture & Innovation

• Innovative organizations often have open, collaborative, and visionary cultures.
• Startups with these characteristics are often better suited to survive and thrive in today's market.

Culture as a Liability

• Institutionalization: When a culture becomes so ingrained it hinders change, adaptability, and ability to evolve, even hindering growth and development.
• Barriers: Culture often creates roadblocks to change, diversity, acquisitions, and mergers.

How a Culture Begins

• The culture of an organization is established by its founders.
• Founders shape the culture through direct actions, hiring practices, and training.

Keeping a Culture Alive

• Selection is a critical part of continuing culture.
• Top management and their behavior have significant effects on cultural development.
• Socialization is the process that new members go through in order to adapt and understand the culture.
• Stages of socialization in an organization: prearrival, encounter, and metamorphosis. Outcomes of a good socialization process include improved productivity, commitment, and reduced turnover.

How Employees Learn Culture

• Effective methods employees use to understand culture include narratives, materials, rituals, and language prevalent within an organization.

Changing Organizational Culture

• Changing an organization's culture is difficult but achievable under the right circumstances.
• Establishing a need for change, and clear visibility will signal a likely need to change an organization’s culture.
• Culture change is best brought on by addressing visible behaviors with clear and effective interventions.

Creating an Ethical Culture

• Role models from leadership.
• Communication of ethical expectations.
• Training and education.
• Acknowledgement and reward of appropriate ethical actions and punishment of unacceptable behaviors.
• Mechanisms to protect those who exercise good judgment and speak up.

Creating a Positive Culture

• Emphasize employee strengths.
• Reward rather than punish.
• Emphasize employee vitality and growth.
• Reflect on possible deficiencies and shortcomings of the prevailing organizational culture.
• National culture can influence the organization's culture.

Changing Organizational Culture (cont.)

• Leadership in setting the tone, through behavior.
• Replacing stories, symbols, and rituals with new ones.
• Selection, promotion, and support for employees espousing new values.
• Revising socialization patterns.
• Adjustment to rewards.
• Standardizing processes, and formalizing informal traditions and ways of operating
• Consensus and a culture of trust are key elements in a successful organization.

Summary and Implications

• Purpose of Organizational Culture: Creates stability and provides a clear understanding of how things are done within the organization.
• Reading Organizational Culture: Using artifacts like stories, rituals, symbols, and language to perceive the culture.
• Creating and Maintaining Culture: Culture is derived from the founders, communicated by management and learned by employees through socialization processes.
• Possible Side Effects of Strong Cultures: Pressure from colleagues, issues with adaptability, and potential pitfalls with organizational changes and new ventures.
• Changing Culture: Modifying reward systems and working on carefully changing employee beliefs.

Explore the intricacies of organizational culture in BUS 272, Week 9. Learn about the characteristics that shape workplace attitudes and behaviors, how culture is communicated, and strategies to foster a positive and ethical environment. Understand the essential role managers play in cultivating shared values among employees.