Categorizes the organizational social context into six criteria: organizational culture, controlling culture, enabling culture, culture change, employee practices, and cultural leadership. Provides attributes, indicators, and manageability for each criteria

1. 1
Social Context at an Organizational Scale
The organizational context is essentially about organizational culture. Culture is the pattern of shared and
customary values, beliefs, social forms, material traits, and practices of an organization. Culture is the
organizational environment that surrounds and affects individual and group social contexts. Initially,
culture reflects the founders of an organization, but gradually evolves to be compatible with the particular
domain within which an organization functions and the nature of the work being done.
The literature focuses on changing industrial era,vertically-oriented, authoritative or bureaucratic cultures
to become more horizontal, sharing, and collaborative as a precursor to successfulknowledge
management. However,Simard and Jourdeuil (2013) propose that knowledge management should adapt
its practices to the existing culture – the approach taken here. There are a number of reasons why such an
approach is preferred. Culture change is both difficult and takes a long time – often beyond the tenure of
a knowledge manager. It requires sustained support and direction from organizational executives – a
substantial challenge in a rapidly changing environment. Considerable effort and resources are needed
that would be better used to implement knowledge management. Finally, an existing culture is likely to
be aligned with an organization’s environment and changing it is unlikely to succeed or,if successful
could hinder business success.
A total of 300 terms related to organizational culture found in the literature were classified into six
criteria: organizational culture, controlling culture, enabling culture, culture change, employee practices,
and leadership (Figure 3). Table 3 provides a detailed framework for the organizational scale criteria and
their associated indicators and management actions. Each criterion is briefly described below.
Organizational Culture is the pattern of shared and customary values, beliefs, social forms, material
traits, and practices of an organization. This is a generic criterion that describes the attributes of cultures
in general, rather than a specific type of culture. Cultural attributes include shared values, norms, and
attitudes, organizational memory, and the meaning of symbols. Organizational culture indicators include
social behavior, rituals and artifacts, and transmission through stories. Management actions include
promoting shared values, recognizing and rewarding desired behavior, and practicing espoused values.
Controlling culture is an industrial-era culture that emphasizes central authority, structured work
processes,and maintaining stability. Controlling represents the opposite end of the cultural spectrum
from enabling. Attributes of a controlling culture include authoritative hierarchy, resistance to change,
and inflexible structure. Controlling culture indicators include command and control, compliance and
enforcement, and bureaucracy. Management actions include implementing codes and rules, developing
policies and guidelines, and requiring compliance.
Enabling culture is a knowledge society culture that focuses on networking and collaboration, creativity
and innovation, and learning and adaptation. Enabling represents the opposite end of the cultural
spectrum from controlling. Attributes of an enabling culture include responsible autonomy, adaptability
and agility, and social responsibility. Enabling culture indicators include consensus building, network
structures,and a holistic perspective. Management actions include promoting sharing and collaboration,
establishing mutual goals and expectations, and encouraging creativity and innovation.

2. 2
Figure 3. Organizational Social Context
Culture change is transforming or evolving one type of culture into another. Attributes of culture change
include a lengthy process,a propensity for culture to perpetuate itself, and passing between generations.
Cultural change indicators include difficulty of changing, a need for power, and the importance of
leadership. Management actions include communicating the need for change, soliciting political
sponsorship, and empowering individuals.
Employee practices are management decisions and actions that affect how employees relate to the
organizational culture. Attributes of employee practices include demographics, diversity, and well-being.
Employee practice indicators include hiring and staffing, interactions with workers, and the work
environment. Management actions include knowing worker demographics and trends, engaging
employees, and matching work to proficiency.
Cultural leadership is management decisions and actions that impact, affect,or influence organizational
culture. Cultural leadership attributes include charisma and presence,leadership style, and risk tolerance.
Cultural leadership indicators include decision making, goal setting, and supporting and enabling action.
Management actions include leading by example, seeking counsel and collaborating, and personally
interacting with workers.

3. 3
Table 3 Organizational Scale Context Framework
Table 3 provides a detailed framework for the organizational scale context, including criteria, indicators,
and management actions. There are six criteria: organizational culture, controlling culture, enabling
culture, culture change, employee practices, and cultural leadership.
Criteria Indicators* Management*
Organizational Culture
Shared Values, Norms, Attitudes
Shared Vision, Ideology, Beliefs
Shared Assumptions,Models
Shared Principles, Practices
Organizational Memory, Essence
Common direction
Diversity, Differences
Social Environment, Context
Symbols have meaning
Perceptions
Social differentiation
Fashion preferences
Social behavior
Rituals, Artifacts
Transmitted through stories
Social Practices, Pressure
Corporate understanding
Symbolic actions
Leaders provide cues
Decisions communicate values
Leaders telegraph values
Rewards send messages
Praise / Criticism showvalues
Reward desired behavior
Practicing espoused values
Promote shared values
Promote desired behavior
Match words and practices
Model values and behavior
Increase cultural awareness
Increase understanding
Communicate values
Recognition
Mentorship
Disseminate culture
Controlling Culture
Authoritative hierarchy
Resistant to change
Laws, rules, policies
Inflexible structure
Institutions
Morality
Intergroup conflict
Prejudice, ethnocentricity
Common responsibility
Organizational structure
Central goals
Stability, order
Institutional bias
Low sociability
Top-down
Command, control
Compliance, enforcement
Security
Pluralism / monolithic
Bureaucracy
Mercenary
Fragmented
Arrogance
Insular, intolerant
Discrimination, stereotyping
Social contract,moral pressure
Institutional pressure
Loopholes, interpretation
Preclude legitimate behavior
Unintended, unequaleffects
Implement rules, codes
Match strategy to culture
Develop policies, Guidelines
Balance pressures
Proportional penalties
Clarify expectations
Require compliance
Regulations
Prevention, coercion
Detection
Intervention
Recovery
Punishment, penalties
Consequences, sanctions
Resolve conflicts
Enabling Culture
Responsible autonomy
Adaptive, agile
Values, ethics
Social responsibility
Environmental responsibility
Continuous learning
Social development
Sense-making mechanism
Binds the organization
Stable but not static
Culture evolves naturally
Good corporate citizenship
High sociability
Synergy, emergence
Delegated decisions
Negotiated agreements
Creative, innovative
Holistic perspective
Multicultural, diverse
Network structure
Consensus building
Freely shared information
Frequent input, feedback
Collaborative work
Informal integration
Environmentally responsible
Provide guidelines
Mutual goals, expectations
Manage with empathy, honesty
Promote sharing,collaboration
Create safe-fail environment
Encourage innovation
Stress employee ownership
Match work to passions
Earn trust continuously
Seek feedback, listen to ideas
Ask for help & advice
Jointly review progress

4. 4
Table 3 (Continued)
Culture Change
Change weakens culture
Passed between generations
Generational differences
Cross-generation transfer
Interdependence
Culture perpetuates itself
Social interactions over time
Underlying drivers
Lengthy process
Evolution, Cultural drift
Changing environment
Leadership is key
Change is hard, difficult
No pain, no change
Culture linked to power
Power is required
Must change everything
Management
Organizational readiness
Positive role models
Create sense of urgency
Communicate need for change
Analyze need, research
Establish guiding coalition
Solicit political sponsorship
Create vision, strategy
Empower, involve employees
Short-term wins
Consolidate, Reinforce gains
Embed, integrate with systems
Anchor, institutionalize change
Employee Practices
Worker relationships, attitudes
Diversity
Demographics, trends
Retention
Work experience
Organizational knowledge
Work-life balance
Employee well-being
Desire to learn
Worker interactions
Insight to attitudes
Hiring, staffing
Work environment
Organizational awareness
Involvement
Work assignments
Career advancement
Know demographics & trends
Gather employee input
Measure diversity, interactions
Employee retention practices
Engage employees
Match employees to culture
Match work to proficiency
Be interested in employees
Value, appreciate employees
Coaching, teaching, mentoring
Challenging work assignments
Provide learning opportunities
Provide career opportunities
Establish well-being programs
Competitive compensation
Respect privacy
Recognize accomplishments
Cultural Leadership
Emotional intelligence
Charisma, presence
Leadership style
Accountability, responsibility
Organizational role
Situational pressure
Broad view, vision
Leading, managing
Understanding,expertise
Confidence, trust
Risk tolerance
Previous experience
Belief system
Self-interest
Power, agenda
Decision making
Goal-setting
Approving
Endorsing, promoting
Guiding
Leading
Supporting, enabling
Challenging
Dictating, directing
Ordering, controlling
Commanding
Consulting
Concurring
Enforcing
Reviewing
Approve,endorse behavior
Lead by example, guidance
Promote desired behavior
Seek counsel, collaborate
Consider expert advice
Champion ongoing education
Personally interact with workers
Emphasize growth opportunities
Provide a safe-fail environment
Treat people with respect
Communicate honestly,often
Give people freedom
Be fair with everyone
Inspire employees
Provide incentives
* (/) indicates contrasting terms; (,) indicates similar terms; (-) indicates sequential terms