ASSIGNMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE NEED FOR ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE……………………….3

DEFINITION OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE……………………….3
IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATION CULTURE………………………...4
FUNCTIONS OF ORGANISATION CULTURE………………………….4
DIMENSIONS OF ORGANISATION CULTURE………………………...5
LEVELS OF ORGANISATION CULTURE…………………………….…5
NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE……………………….….7
APPROACHES TO DEFINE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE……….….8
HOW EMPLOYEES LEARN CULTURE.....................................................9
ASSESSING ORGANISATION CULTURE………………………………10
PRO’s & CON’s OF ORGANISATION CULTURE………………………11
CORPORATE CULTURE…………………………………………………11
SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATION CULTURE……………………………12
THE HP WAY: CHANGE IN ORGANISATION CULTURE…………….13
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………..13
REFERENCES………………………………………………………….…..14

1
THE NEED FOR ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

No organization would boast about its constancy, sameness, or status quo standing
compared to ten years ago. Stability is interpreted more often as stagnation than
steadiness, and organizations that are not in the business of change and transition are
generally viewed as recalcitrant.

A survey was conducted of reengineering projects by the consulting firm that invented
the reengineering change process. In all, 497 companies in the United States and another
1245 companies in Europe were polled. The survey found that 69 percent of the firms in
the United States and 75 percent of the firms in Europe had engaged in at least one
reengineering project. Unfortunately, the study reported that 85 percent of those firms
found little or no gain from their effort. Less than half, for example, achieved any change
in market share, one of the primary goals. The experts concluded that reengineering was
not enough to achieve desirable change. It had to be integrated with an overall approach
to changing an organization’s culture. In other words, the failure of reengineering
occurred in most cases because of the culture of the organization remained the same.
Without any kind of fundamental change, namely, the change of the culture of an
organization, there is little hope of enduring improvement in organizational performance.

DEFINITION OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

“….Culture is the set of values, guiding beliefs and understandings that is shared by
members of an organization and is taught to new members. It represents the unwritten,
feeling part of the organization.”
---Richard L.Daft

“…According to Larry Senn, The corporate culture “consists of the norms, values and
unwritten rules of conduct of an organization as well as management styles, priorities,
beliefs and inter-personal behaviour that prevail. Together they create a climate that
influences how well people communicate, plan and make decisions”

Joanne Martin defines cultures in organization in the following words “As individuals
come into contact with organizations, they come into contact with dress norms … the
organization’s formal rules and procedures, its formal codes of behaviour rituals …. And
so on. These elements are some of the manifestations of organizational culture”.

Edgar Schein is pre-eminent in the area of organizational cultural research that looks at
implementing strategy in an organization and how that organization imparts its core
values and purpose to all parts of the organization.

2
He defines organizational culture as “a pattern of basic assumptions – invented,
discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of
external adaptation and internal integration – that has worked well enough to be
considered valuable and, therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to
perceive, think and fell in relation to those problems”.

IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATION CULTURE

Organizational culture is a fundamental part of an organization’s collective experience. It

may include routines, beliefs, values, goals, and systems which are learned, re-learned
and passed on to new employees. Organizational culture can also include formal
processes such as policies and procedures relating to working hours, employee benefits
and job descriptions; and informal processes such as leadership styles and patterns of
information sharing.

Why organizations need to work hard to maintain a good or improve a poor

organizational culture:-

• Organizations with strong, healthy cultures tend to outperform organizations with

weaker cultures.
• The psychosocial work environment, the organization of work and the management
culture of the workplace can have a dramatic impact on employee stress and health
outcomes.
• Developing a healthy workplace provides an opportunity to improve the health of your
organization and to improve its public image and profile. It also offers the chance to curb
organizational health costs and directly affect your bottom line. (Jones, 2005)
When employees experience a supportive work environment, costs related to illness,
disability and absenteeism are lowered and employee satisfaction and productivity are
increased.
• Better management of employees can be an important key to becoming an employer of
choice and attracting and retaining talented staff .

FUNCTIONS OF ORGANISATION CULTURE

• Defend
• Integrate
• Regulate
• Adapt
• Support Development
• Provide Quality of Governance
• Orientate at Consumer (Society)
• Define Formal Relations
• Behavioral control
• Encourages stability

3
 • Provides source of identity
• Determine Types of Organizational Structure and Make Strategy Organic

DIMENSIONS OF ORGANISATION CULTURE

• Innovation and risk taking – willing to experiment, take risks, encourage innovation
• Attention to detail – paying attention to being precise vs saying its “good enough for
chopped salad”
• Outcome orientation – oriented to results vs oriented to process
• People orientation – degree of value and respect for people. Are people considered
unique talents, or is an engineer an engineer an engineer.
• Individual vs Team orientation – are individuals most highly noted, or are collective
efforts
• Aggressiveness -- taking action, dealing with conflict
• Stability – openness to change

A Composite Two-by-Two
Some researchers present a framework of culture characterized by two dimensions
• Internal focus (attending primarily to what is going on inside the organization) vs
External focus (attending primarily to what is going on outside the organization)
• Stability and control [interest in keeping things the same) vs Flexibility and discretion
(interest in making changes).

LEVELS OF ORGANISATION CULTURE

Schein’s articulation of corporate culture recognises that there are three levels at which
to diagnose an organization’s culture (Schein, 1992). Schein expresses the levels and
explains them by way of a model of organizational culture that shows the
three levels of culture that interact within a hierarchy.

4
Artifacts

• Artifacts are the surface, layer of an organization’s culture that represents the
visible manifestations of an organization’s culture and are the superficial
declaration of that culture.
• The importance of artifacts is as the tangible elements of an organization’s
culture. A sporting organization’s office layout, jargon, physical environment,
clothing, protocols, logos, rituals, ceremonies, myths, stories, and even its playing
style, are all artifacts as well as any other visible representations of the
organization.
• Schein warns that although observation of artifacts is easy, their meanings are
often simplified despite being very difficult to decipher.In particular, Schein says
it is inadvisable to try and interpret lower layers of a culture from the artifacts
alone.
• It is important that artifacts are identified and classified because it assists in the
diagnosis of an organization’s context and environment that facilitate the mapping
of an organization’s culture.

5
Espoused Values

• Espoused values are the initial values that a person holds about the way to solve a
problem which are put forward by the individual as a solution or strategy to solve
an organizational problem.
• An example in a sporting organization might be a coach who advocates
punishment of the players for a poor performance. If for the next few occasions
that they play they win or perform at a high level, punishment becomes the
coach’s preferred method of addressing the problem because it works. The coach
then continues to adopt punishment as a standard practice following poor
performances because the team plays well following such punishments. The
practice of punishing players for performing poorly is the coach’s espoused value.
When others in the coaching group agree, believing that punishment for a poor
performance works, punishment following poor performances becomes a shared
value.

Basic Assumptions:

• The third level of organizational culture, are the beliefs that organization members
take for granted.
• Culture prescribes “the right way to do things” at an organization, often through
unspoken assumptions.

NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

A company’s prevailing values, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs all make up the soft,
invisible stuff of culture and determine its outlook—what it finds meaningful and
important. Culture also consists of, and manifests itself through, an organization’s
artifacts (e.g., employee dress, product line, signage, publications, interior architecture,
and furniture) as well as its behaviors (e.g., financial reporting, hiring and firing
practices, employee training, and recycling programs). The complicated fabric of culture
is woven from hundreds, if not thousands, of implicit and explicit events, issues, and
symbols.

Artifacts

 EMPLOYEE DRESS
 PRODUCT LINE
 SIGNAGE
 PUBLICATIONS
 INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
 FURNITURE

6
Behaviours:

 FINANCIAL REPORTING
 HIRING / FIRING PRACTICES
 EMPLOYEE TRAINING
 RECYCLING PROGRAMS
 LANGUAGE
 CEREMONIES
 GENDER EQUALITY
 VALUES SUCH AS QUALITY,EFFICIENCY

APPROACHES TO DEFINE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

The Hierarchy Culture

• A hierarchy culture is often found in formal, structured organizations that

emphasize smooth running, stability, predictability and efficiency. These
organizations rely on formal rules and policies. Because the environment is
relatively stable, tasks and functions are usually integrated and coordinated and
uniformity in products and services is maintained.
• Hierarchical organizations tend to rely on clear lines of decision-making
authority, standardized rules and procedures.
• Control and accountability mechanisms are valued as the keys to success.

The Market Culture

• Market culture organizations tend to be oriented toward the external environment

and are focused on transactions with external constituencies such as suppliers,
customers, contractors, licensees, unions and regulators.
• Unlike a hierarchy, where internal control is maintained by rules, specialized jobs,
and centralized decisions, the market culture operates primarily through economic
market mechanisms, such as monetary exchange.
• Profitability, bottom-line results, strength in market niches, stretch targets, and
secure customer bases are primary objectives of the organization. Market oriented
cultures are results-oriented and emphasize winning.

The Clan Culture

• Organizations with a clan culture are family type organizations that emphasize
shared values and goals, cohesion, inclusion, individuality and a sense of
engagement.
• They sometimes seem more like extended families than economic entities.

7
 • Rather than relying on rules and procedures, clan-type firms focus on teamwork,
employee involvement programs and corporate commitment to employees.

The Adhocracy Culture

• The root word of adhocracy is ad hoc, implying something temporary, specialized

and dynamic. Adhocracies are often characterized as “tents rather than palaces” in
that they can reconfigure themselves rapidly when new circumstances arise.
• A major goal of an adhocracy is to foster adaptability; flexibility and creativity
where uncertainty, ambiguity and information overload are typical.
• In an adhocracy culture, the emphasis is often on individuality, risk-taking and
anticipating the future.

HOW EMPLOYEES LEARN CULTURE?

Culture is transmitted to employees in a number of ways. The most significant are stories,
rituals, symbols, and language.

Stories: Organizational “stories” typically contain a narrative of significant events or

people including such things as the organization’s founders, rules breaking, reactions to
past mistakes,and so forth. Lavinson and Rosenthal suggest that stories and myths about
organization’s heroes are powerful tools to reinforce cultural values throughout the
organization and specially in orienting new employees. These stories provide prime
examples that people can learn from. Stories and myths are often filtered through a
“cultural network” and remind employees as to “why we do things in a certain way”. To
help employees learn the culture, organizational stories anchor the present in the past,
provide explanations and legitimacy for current practices, and exemplify what is
important to the organization.

Rituals and Ceremonies: Corporate rituals are repetitive sequences of activates that
express and reinforce the values of the organization, what goals are most important, and
which people are important and which ones are superfluous. Ceremonies and rituals
reflect such activities that are enacted repeatedly on important occasions. Members of the
organization who have achieved success are recognized and rewarded on such occasions.
For example, awards given to employees on “founders’ day”, Gold medals given to
students on graduation day are reflections of culture of that institution.

Material / Cultural Symbols: Symbols communicate organizational culture by

unspoken messages. When you walk into different businesses, do you get a “feel” for the
place – formal, casual, fun, serious, and so forth? These feelings you get demonstrate the
power of material symbols in creating an organization’s personality. Material artifacts
created by an organization also speak of its cultural orientation and make a statement
about the company. These material symbols convey to employees who is important, the
degree of equality desired by top management and the kind of behaviour that are
expected and appropriate. Examples: - assigned parking space for senior executives in the

8
company premises, large offices given to senior managers, luxury automobiles given to
senior or successful officers of the organization.

Organizational Heroes: Top Management and prominent leaders of the organization

Become the role models and a personification of an organization’s culture. Their
behaviour and example become a reflection of the organization’s philosophy and helps to
mould the behaviour of organizational members.

Language: - Many organizations and units within organizations use language as a way to
identify members of a culture. By learning this language, members attest to their
acceptance of the culture and their willingness to help to preserve it.

ASSESSING ORGANISATION CULTURE

It is important to note that there is no one right way to assess organizational culture. In
some cases, even a blend of approaches may work best. In order to select the most
appropriate approach for your workplace, you will need to answer the following
questions based on your first-hand knowledge:
• What approach would your organization’s various employee groups respond best to?
• What approach would be best for your workplace considering available time,money and
other resources?
• What approach would have the biggest impact?

The qualitative camp points out that the richness of perceptions and experience inside an
organization are vital to deep understanding, and they sniff that culture cannot be
constrained to a two by two matrix or a list of dimensions.On the other hand quantitative
researchers argue that managers need to have some hard data, and that the drawbacks of
getting slow, expensive, possibly unreliable (unique to the interpretation of the
researcher)

The Qualitative Approach:

� Senior management interviews
� Customer / supplier interviews
� Focus groups
� Annual reports
� Press releases

The Quantitative Approach:

� Surveys
� Metrics

9
PRO’s & CON’s OF ORGANISATION CULTURE

PROS
• Can be used for organizational development
• Provides snapshot for strengths & weaknesses
• Can also show sub-cultures (business units) within larger culture
• Can also be used for recruitment & leadership development.

CONS
• Measures “perceptions,”not necessarily “truth”
• Potential skewed results
– Respondents
– Timing
– Deal
• Results - as strong as your instrument
• Generic instruments may not be suitable

CORPORATE CULTURE

Corporate culture can have a significant impact on a firm’s long-term economic

performance. Corporate culture will probably be an even more important factor in
determining the success or failure of firms in the next decade. Corporate cultures that
inhibit strong long-term financial performance are not rare; they develop easily, even
in firms that are full of reasonable and intelligent people. Although tough to change,
corporate cultures can be made more performance enhancing. The most common
types of corporate culture are formal culture and informal culture.

Formal vs informal culture

Roles, responsibilities, accountability, rules and regulations are

components of formal culture. They set the expectations that the
organisation has from every member and indicates the consequences
if these expectations are not fulfilled.
Informal culture on the other hand has tangible and intangible, specific and non – specific
manifestations of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions. This part of organisational
culture comprising of artifacts, symbols, ceremonies, rites, and stories is highlighted in
almost all the definitions of organisational culture.

10
SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATION CULTURE

The success of any company depends in part on the match between individuals and the
culture of the organization. Organizational culture is a framework that guides day-to-day
behaviour and decision making for employees and directs their actions toward
completion of organizational goals. Culture is what gives birth to and defines the
organizational goals. Culture must be aligned with the other parts of organizational
actions, such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling; indeed, if culture is not
aligned with these tasks, then the organization is in for difficult times. The collective
rules by which an organization operates define its culture. These rules are formed by
shared behaviors, values and beliefs. Culture form the basis for how individuals operate
within the context of the organization. The way a group or individual behaves, defines
what is “normal” and sanctions what is not normal is determined by his or her culture.
Culture can be defined either by a set of observable behaviors or by the underlying values
that drive behavior. In large organizations, vision statements, mission statements and
statements of values are often formalized to describe the company’s culture. Having a
positive and aligned culture benefits the organization in many ways. One important
benefit is a high level of productivity. The destructive influence of hiring someone who
does not share the same set of values, goals and commitment espoused by the
organization will weaken a strong chain of links and bonds. An employee’s performance
depends on what is and what is not proper among his or her peers, which in turn affects
that individual’s behavior and motivation to participate and contribute within the
organizational framework.
An effective means of keeping employees aligned with the values and goals of an
organization is by developing a culture that encourages employees to focus on a higher
purpose for their work. Values that support this kind of cohesive operation include the
idea that people. Leaders that unify an organization believe that everyone has something
to contribute to the organization and decision-making should involve people at all levels
within the organization.
Creating an environment where people enjoy and value their work is key. To do this
effectively, leaders must be sure to communicate clear expectations for every member of
the organization. These expectations should be supported by the words and actions of
managers who regularly let people know how their work is important to the organization.
Individuals should be given assignments that are consistent with their strengths and
interests, and opportunities for continued learning and growth should be provided as well.
The importance of understanding organizational culture cannot be overlooked. The
bottom line for managers who want to create a culture of success is to start with creating
a positive environment. Bring in people whose values are in line with the organization’s
culture, and continue to acknowledge success and involve the whole organization in
maintaining an environment that allows people to enjoy working hard to meet the
company’s goals.

11
THE HP WAY: CHANGE IN ORGANISATION CULTURE

The strength of organizational culture and identity and their capacity to fit the
organization’s environment is epitomised by Hewlett-Packard that did things “The HP
Way”. The Hewlett-Packard culture was diagnosed by understanding how it was
disseminated, reinforced and indoctrinated. Hewlett-Packard is acknowledged as a
visionary organization that has endured and prospered through the development of a cult-
like, strong and appropriate culture (A. D. Brown, 1998). It has achieved this outcome
using several techniques including continually recounting stories about the organization
to new and existing members so often that they became folklore; maintaining traditional
practices such as coffee breaks signalled in a particular way; worker sponsored plays; and
the removal of hierarchical trappings to create an egalitarian workplace. The strength of
the Hewlett-Packard culture and identity were increased through all members of the
organization who shared the organizational values, represented by all employees having
the same terms and conditions of employment.

Hewlett-Packard was concerned that as it grew as an organization this culture may be lost
or diluted, meaning that The HP Way would be in conflict with alternative values or
subcultures and its ideology weakened. To overcome this and maintain the strength of
their culture Hewlett-Packard developed an induction programme through which new
members were introduced to The HP Way, company policies and information about
Hewlett-Packard’s operations. Hewlett-Packard’s goals, objectives and shared values
were reinforced, but employees were left to determine the best way that these could be
accomplished within their divisional organization. This had the effect of making the
divisions responsible for achieving their own targets and ensured that employees
responsible for delivering the product had input into the running of the organization.
Organizations with weaker cultures do not actively seek to promote and reinforce their
culture, which organizations with strong cultures do.

CONCLUSION

The reason organizational culture was ignored as an important factor in accounting for
organizational performance is that it refers to the taken-for-granted values, underlying
assumptions, expectations, and definitions present in an organization. It represents “how
things are around here.” It reflects the prevailing ideology that people carry inside their
heads. It conveys a sense of identity to employees, provides unwritten and, often,
unspoken guidelines for how to get along in the organization, and enhances the stability
of the social system that they experience. Unfortunately, people are unaware of their
culture until it is challenged, until they experience a new culture, or until it is made overt
and explicit through, for example, a framework or model.

12
References

“Edgar H. Schein”, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Jossey –Bass, (1992). 2nd Ed.,.P34-
38,P 12-15,P 97,P 112
(Downloaded from www.rapidshareblogspot.com)

“Richard Daft”,

Schein, E. The corporate culture survival guide. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, (1999),3Ed,P 64-67
(Downloaded from www.rapidshareblogspot.com)

Denison, D. Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness. New York: Wiley, (1990).2Ed,P
175-204,P113,114,128.
(Downloaded from www.rapidshareblogspot.com)

Asim Khan,“Matching People with Organizational Culture”-A report by CEO of BMG Inc.
(www.scribd.com)

Bruce M. Tharp,” Diagnosing Organizational Culture” organization culture –white paper

(www.scribd.com)

13