ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Institutionalization: A Forerunner of Culture

Institutionalization A condition that occurs when an organization takes on a life of its own, apart from any of its members, and acquires immortality.

What is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture, or corporate culture, comprises the attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of an organization.

What is Organizational Culture? (contd)

Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meanings held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. This system of shared meaning is, on closer examination ,a set of key characteristics that the organization values. Research suggests that there are Seven primary characteristics that, capture the essence of organization culture.

Essence Of Organization Culture

Innovation & Risk Taking Attention To Detail Outcome Orientation People Orientation Team Orientation Aggressiveness Stability

Some Types of Culture

There are different types of culture just like there are different types of personality. Researcher Jeffrey Sonnenfeld identified the following four types of cultures.
Academy Culture Baseball Team Culture

Club Culture
Fortress Culture

Strong Versus Weak Cultures

It has become increasingly popular to differentiate between strong & weak cultures. It is assumed that strong cultures have a greater impact on employee behavior & are more directly related to turnover.

Culture Versus Formalization

A strong culture increases behavioral consistency and can act as a substitute for formalization.
High formalization in an organization creates predictability, orderliness & consistency.

Organizational Culture Versus National Culture

National culture has a greater impact on employees than does their organizations culture. Nationals selected to work for foreign companies may be atypical of the local/native population.

Do Organizations Have Uniform Cultures?

Dominant culture Expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organizations members. Subcultures Mini-cultures within an organization defined by department designations and geographical separation. Core values The primary or dominant values that are accepted throughout the organization Strong culture A culture in which the core values are intensely held and widely shared.

What Do Cultures Do?

Cultures Functions:

Defines the boundary between one organization and others. Conveys a sense of identity for its members.

Facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than self-interest.

Enhances the stability of the social system. Serves as a sense-making and control mechanism for fitting employees in the organization.

What Do Cultures Do?

Culture as a Liability: Barrier to change.

Barrier to diversity
Barrier to acquisitions and mergers

Organizational Culture Evolution

At each level of the organization, people will be working, acting, thinking and feeling at different levels of personal commitment. Arthur F. Carmazzi author of Directive Communication psychology classifies these levels of commitment into three.

The level of individual People rely on personal skill and leader direction. SKILL = level of Individual.

The level of group People have emotional connection to their work. Work with people who have similar attitudes ATTITUDE = level of Group
The level of organization The Pinnacle of greatness comes when individuals see their work as their purpose. The organization is a vehicle to doing or becoming something greater that what it is. SELF-ACTUALISATION = level of Organization

Levels of culture
1. The Blame Culture Cultivates distrust and fear People blame each other Level of individual 2. Multi-directional culture Cultivates minimized cross- department communication and cooperation Commitment borders on the level of Individual and Group

Levels of culture
3. Live and let live culture - The culture is complacency - Manifests stagnation and low creativity - Commitment here is mixed between level of Individual & Group. 4. Brand congruent culture - People believe in product or service of the organization. - People have similar goals. - People here operate at the level of Group

Levels of culture
5. Leadership enriched culture - People view the organization as an extension of themselves. - Individual goals are aligned with the goals of the organization. - As a group the organization is more a family. - Most everyone here is operating at the level of Organization. Culture maintenance Developing and maintaining culture is important.

How Culture Begins

Founders hire and keep only employees who think and feel the same way they do.
Founders indoctrinate and socialize these employees to their way of thinking and feeling. The founders own behavior acts as a role model that encourages employees to identify with them and thereby internalize their beliefs, values, and assumptions.

Keeping Culture Alive

Selection

Concern with how well the candidates will fit into the organization. Provides information to candidates about the organization.
Senior executives help establish behavioral norms that are adopted by the organization. The process that helps new employees adapt to the organizations culture.

Top Management

Socialization

A Socialization Model
Outcomes

Socialization Process

Productivity

Pre-Arrival

Encounter

Metamorphosis

Commitment

Turnover

Stages in the Socialization Process

Pre-arrival Stage The period of learning in the socialization process that occurs before a new employee joins the organization. Encounter Stage The stage in the socialization process in which a new employee sees what the organization is really like and confronts the possibility that expectations and reality may diverge. Metamorphosis Stage The stage in the socialization process in which a new employee changes and adjusts to the work, work group, and organization.

How Organization Cultures Form

Top Management

Philosophy Of Organizations Founders

Selection Criteria

Organization Culture

Socialization

How Employees Learn Culture

Stories Rituals Material Symbols Language

Creating An Ethical Organizational Culture

Characteristics of Organizations that Develop High Ethical Standards:

High tolerance for risk Low to moderate in aggressiveness Focus on means as well as outcomes

Managerial Practices Promoting an Ethical Culture

Being a visible role model. Communicating ethical expectations. Providing ethical training. Rewarding ethical acts and punishing unethical ones. Providing protective mechanisms.

Creating a Customer-Responsive Culture

Key Variables Shaping Customer-Responsive Cultures The types of employees hired by the organization. Low formalization: the freedom to meet customer service requirements. Empowering employees with decision-making discretion to please the customer.

(contd) Good listening skills to understand customer messages. Role clarity that allows service employees to act as boundary spanners. Employees who engage in organizational citizenship behaviors.

Managerial Actions :

Select new employees with personality and attitudes consistent with high service orientation.
Train and socialize current employees to be more customer focused. Change organizational structure to give employees more control.

(contd)

Empower employees to make decision about their jobs. Lead by conveying a customer-focused vision and demonstrating commitment to customers. Conduct performance appraisals based on customer-focused employee behaviors.

Provide ongoing recognition for employees who make special efforts to please customers.

Factual Backing
Sigma Level Defects per million Cost effectiveness

Four
Six

6210
3.4

15-25% of sales
<1% of sales

Example: Motorola, GE, The Dabbawallahs of Mumbai. Their backbone is the strong ethical and cultural influence of the organisation on the employees .

Spirituality and Organization Culture

Workplace spirituality :The recognition that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of the community.

Characteristics
Strong sense of purpose :- Spiritual organizations build their cultures around a meaningful purpose. Profits may be important, but are not given the primary value.

Focus on individual development :- Spiritual organizations seek to create cultures in which employees can continually learn and grow. Trust and respect :- Spiritual organizations are characterized by mutual trust, honesty and openness among employees. Managers are not afraid to admit their mistakes.

Humanistic work practices :- The practices embraced here may be flexible work schedules, narrowing of status differentials, employee empowerment, job security, etc. Toleration of employee expression :- Spiritual organizations do not stifle employee expressions. They allow people to be themselves and express their mood and feelings without any guilt.

Criticisms of spirituality :

Firstly, there is very little research on workplace spirituality. We are not sure that whether the concept will have staying power. Secondly, it may be possible that the emphasis on spirituality may make some of the employees uneasy or uncomfortable.

There is a doubt that whether spirituality and profits are compatible objectives. This is matter of importance for the managers and investors in business.

Organization cultures cant be changed :Point Counterpoint

An organizations culture is based upon relatively stable characteristics which develop over years. Even the employees choose the organization because they feel that they will be a good fit.
It is therefore very difficult to reshape an organizations culture. However, in a survival-threatening crisis, the cultures need to be changed accordingly and even the employees respond to the change in such situations.

Factors responsible for the change of organization cultures :-

A dramatic crisis :- Situations like a major financial set back, loss of a major customer or a technological breakthrough by a competitor. Turnover in leadership :- New top level management which can provide a set of values effective in dealing with the crisis. Weak culture :- A culture which is the one which is not agreeable among the employees. Such cultures can be changed easily. The management takes some immediate steps to amend the culture like introduction of new values, promotions, transfers, job rotations and terminations.

CONCLUSION

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE BASICALLY REFERS TO THE SYSTEM OF SHARED MEANING HELD BY THE MEMBERS OF THE ORGANISATION WHICH DISTINGUISHES IT FROM THE OTHERS THE ORGANISATION CULTURES PEFORMS VARIOUS FUNCTIONS. THEY ACT AS BARRIERS TO CHANGE AND DIVERSITY IN THE ORGANISATION AND ALSO PROVIDE A BARRIER FOR ACQUISITIONS AND MERGERS WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS A CULTURE IS SUSTAINED BY PROPER SELECTION OF EMPLOYEES, CODE OF CONDUCT OF THE TOP LEVEL MANAGEMENT AND SOCIALISATION. THE EMPLOYEES LEARN THE CULTURE THROUGH STORIES RITUALS AND MATERIAL SYMBOLS. THEY ALSO GET USED TO THE LANGUAGE USED IN THE COMPANY.

A CUSTOMER RESPONSIVE CULTURE IS ONE OF THE BEST FORMS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES. A SPIRITUAL ORGANISATION CULTURE IS A FORM OF CULTURE WHICH DEALS WITH NOURISHING THE INNER LIFE OF THE EMPLOYEES AND POSSESSES A DESIRE TO CONNECT WITH OTHER HUMAN BEINGS AND COMMUNITIES. THE GOAL SET OUTWEIGHS THE EARNING OF PROFITS IN SUCH ORGANISATIONS CHANGING AN ORGANISATIONS CULTURE IS NOT AN EASY PROCESS. THIS CAN BE DONE ONLY UNDER SOME SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME.

Revant Pande Anleey Pereira

Thank You Mark Rodricks Sahil Khan Ajinkya Sonar