What is Organizational Culture?

A system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and

norms that unite the members of an organization.

Reflects employees views about the way things are
done around here.

The culture specific to each firm affects how
employees feel and act and the type of employee
hired and retained by the company.

Do Organizations Have Uniform
Cultures?
Core
Values
Subcultures
Dominant
Culture
Culture & Subcultures
Dominant culture -- most widely shared values
and assumptions
Subcultures
Located throughout the organization
Can enhance or oppose (countercultures) firms dominant culture

Are countercultures useful?
Provide surveillance and critique, ethics
Source of emerging values
Elements
of
Organizational
Culture
The
Artefacts of
Org. Culture
Culture
Organizational Culture Profile
Org Culture
Dimensions Dimension Characteristics
Innovation
Experimenting, opportunity seeking, risk taking, few
rules, low cautiousness
Stability
Predictability, security, rule-oriented
Respect for people
Fairness, tolerance
Outcome
orientation
Action oriented, high expectations, results oriented
Attention to detail
Precise, analytic
Team orientation Collaboration, people-oriented
Aggressiveness
Competitive, low emphasis on social responsibility
Artifacts of Organizational Culture
Observable symbols and signs of culture
Physical structures, ceremonies, language, stories
Maintain and transmit organizations culture
Not easy to decipher artifacts -- need many of them
Artifacts Stories & Legends
Social prescriptions of desired (undesired) behavior
Provides a realistic human side to expectations
Most effective stories and legends:
Describe real people
Assumed to be true
Known throughout the organization
Are prescriptive
Artifacts Rituals & Ceremonies
Rituals
Programmed routines
(eg., how visitors are greeted, marking attendance,
call for meeting etc)

Ceremonies
Planned activities for an audience
(eg., award ceremonies, celebrating occassions etc)

Artifacts Organizational Language
Words used to address people, describe
customers, etc.
Leaders use phrases and special vocabulary as
cultural symbols
Language also found in subcultures
Artifacts Physical Structures
Building structure -- may shape and reflect
culture
Office design conveys cultural meaning
Furniture, office size, wall hangings
Strength of Organizational Culture
How widely and deeply employees hold the
companys dominant values and assumptions
Strong cultures exist when:
Most employees understand/embrace the dominant
values
Values and assumptions are institutionalized through
well-established artifacts
Culture is long lasting -- often traced back to founder

Functions of Strong Corporate Culture
Functions of
Strong Cultures
Control system
Social glue
Sense-making
Organizational
Outcomes
Org performance
Employee well-being
Culture strength
advantages depend on:
Environment fit
Not cult-like
Adaptive culture
BUSINESS
CULTURE
ORGANIZATION
CULTURE
OCCUPATIONAL
CULTURE
Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions
Finds national culture dimensions meaningful to
business
Basis:
Work related values not universal
National values may persist over MNC efforts to create
corporate culture
Home country values often used to determine HQ policies
MNC may create morale problems with uniform moral norms
Purpose: understanding of business situations
across-cultures
Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions
Geert Hofstede sampled 100,000 IBM
employees 1963-1973
Compared employee attitudes and values across
40 countries
Isolated 4 dimensions summarizing culture:
1. Power distance
2. Individualism vs. Collectivism
3. Uncertainty avoidance
4. Masculinity vs. Feminity

Power Distance
Degree of social inequality considered normal
by people
Distance between individuals at different
levels of a hierarchy
Scale: from equal (small power distance) to
extremely unequal (large power distance)

Individualism Vs. Collectivism

Degree to which people in a country prefer to
act as individuals rather than in groups
Describes the relations between the individual
and his/her fellows
Uncertainty Avoidance
Degree of need to avoid uncertainty about the
future
Degree of preference for structured versus
unstructured situations
Structured situations: have tight rules may or may not be
written down

High uncertainty avoidance: people with
more nervous energy (Vs. easy-going), rigid
society, "what is different is dangerous."
Masculinity Vs. Feminity
Division of roles and values in a society

Masculine values prevail:
Assertiveness, success, competition

Feminine values prevail:
Quality of life, maintenance of warm personal
relationships, service, care for the weak, solidarity