2. What is Culture
• This is consistently up for debate—especially within Anthropology
• It is more intuitive. It is what you think and how you feel
• For society, it includes language, cuisine, and religion
• There is another idea of culture as it pertains to work
• It is how things are done, values, or beliefs one should have at work
• This too is not clearly defined or objective. It’s more subjective
• Another term for it is organizational culture
• Organizational culture can be seen as the shared rules governing
affective and cognitive aspects of membership in the organization and
the means by which they are expressed.
• In other words, the way you should think and behave when you
belong to a certain group.
3. Organizational Culture
• According to Schein, elements of Organizational culture
exist at three different levels:
• 1) Organizations contain symbols (or artifacts). For
example:
• Logos, uniforms, stories, events, etc.
• 2) There are also espoused values and beliefs. These are
manifested by:
• Buzzwords, phrases, and professional norms and rules
• 3) Underlying Assumptions
• This is manifested as a worker’s sense of identity,
knowledge of how things work, and an understanding
of the reality of working in the organization.
4. History Accounts
of a Work
Culture
• Henry Ford banning alcohol and having reading
rooms and libraries are examples of an attempt
(by Ford) to transmit values of hard work and
thriftiness across the workplace.
• Calling bosses by their first name helped promote
a sense of community in the workplace
• More modern accounts of corporate culture can
be found in two influential books published in the
early 1980s:
• In Search of Excellence by Peters and
Waterman
• Corporate Cultures by Dean and Kennedy
5. In Search of
Excellence
• Peters and Waterman identify eight attributes (elements of a
culture) of highly successful companies:
• A bias for action: they solve problems. Don’t complain but
act.
• Close to the customer: they listen to what they want
• Autonomy and entrepreneurship: allow people to make
mistakes
• Productivity through people: people are important. No
we/they
• Hands-on/Value-driven: following the core beliefs of the
company
• Stick to the knitting: Stick to what you know well
• Simple form/lean staff: fewer managers
• Simultaneous loose/tight properties: being both centralized
and decentralized at the same time
6. In Search of
Excellence
(continued)
Of particular importance was the last item
which was Simultaneous loose/tight properties.
Companies want to allow workers
to have autonomy so they can
figure out how to do things better
At the same time, the companies
core values must be followed.
Companies that adhere to these principles tend
to be more successful.
7. Corporate
Cultures
• Many similarities to In Search of Excellence
• Values are stressed as a key to balancing
autonomy and informality
• Values are reinforced at the symbolic level
8. Japan and Changes to Organizational Culture
• In the 1980s, Japanese industry began to produce higher quality products for a better price.
• In studying this phenomenon, US companies determined Japanese work culture (which was
strong) to be a possible consideration.
• In adapting US culture, it was necessary for US workers to become more flexible and be more
committed.
• As a result, the worker in the US would need to be simultaneously more autonomous but
controlled.
• Some say that an organizational (corporate) culture is nothing more than an attempt to control
the employee
9. Organizational Control
• Edwards studied different forms of control in capitalist industries and categorized it into
three stages:
• Simple control- like factories of the 19th century where there was a hierarchy of
power and workers obeyed, but resented, those on top. Factory foremen had a lot of
control, but sometimes might act in their own interest.
• Technical control- depersonalized control. Ford’s assembly line is an example.
Workers were controlled by force (loss of job). Higher wages is trade off.
• Bureaucratic Control- this combines the two other forms. It involves an unwritten
procedure that is indoctrinated during training. This is a form of today’s control.
• There is a difference today in that there is not a trade-off of job stability or
moving up.
10. Does
Everyone Buy
into the
Organizational
Culture?
No. In short, we have a
more diverse society
than Japan. This means
we have different
approaches and views.
We can change the
name of a “customer”
to a “guest” but not all
workers will think of the
customer as a guest.
At the end of the day, it
is a job. If the company
is not loyal, the
employee will sense it.
11. More Recent Developments in Organizational
Culture
• How can control be exerted in the Gig economy?
• For example, how can Uber exert control while at the same time saying the drivers are
not ‘employees’?
• At the same time, technology allows for increased control
• You phone and other electronics can monitor you and provide control for the
company.
• Employees are more cynical of company attempts to develop a corporate culture. They
see through the hype.
• Younger people are, in some cases, beginning to organize again to counter perceived
organizational control
