This document discusses organizational culture and its importance. It begins by defining organizational culture as an organization's shared values, norms, beliefs and understandings that are taught to new members. There are visible and invisible aspects of culture. Culture serves two functions - internal integration and external adaptation. There are four main types of organizational culture: adaptability culture, mission culture, clan culture and bureaucratic culture. These types relate to an organization's strategic focus and flexibility. The document emphasizes that organizational culture should be consistent with and support an organization's strategy and external environment. Managers should understand and shape their culture accordingly.

1. Organizational Culture
Abdulrhman Alzhrani- BSc, MHA
T.A, Health Services Administration Dept.
Faculty of Public Health and Health Informatics, UQU

2. Objectives/Outline
• Know the nature of organizational culture and its manifestations
• Know how to interpret the culture
• Understand the importance of organizational culture
• Describe the four types of organizational culture

3. What is Organizational Culture?
• An org’s shared values, norms, guiding beliefs, and understandings
• It is the the unwritten part of the organization.
• Shared by members of an org – weakly or strongly
• Taught to new org members as the correct way to think, feel and behave

4. Levels of Org.
Culture
• Visible artifacts and
observable behaviors people
share.
• Invisible aspect: underlying
values, assumptions, beliefs,
shared purpose and meaning
• Unconsciously operated

5. Purpose of Culture
• Culture serves two critical functions in organizations:
1. Internal Integration: integrates members with shared identity and
purpose so they know how to relate to one another and what to expect of
others
2. External Adaptation: helps organization adapt to external environment
• Both functions of culture are related to building the org’s social capital.
• Social Capital refers to the quality of interaction among people and weather they
share a common perspective.

6. Interpreting Culture
• Rites and ceremonies
• rite of passage, rite of integration
• Stories and Myths
• heroes
• Power Relationships:
• who influences or has the ability to do so.
• Symbols
• Physical artifacts
• Org. Structures
• Tall or flat hierarchy
• Control systems
• How information is managed, quality
control systems, reward systems, and
how decisions are made

7. Org. Design and Culture
• Managers want a corporate culture that reinforces the strategy and structural
design that the org. needs to be effective in its environment.
e.g. Internet-based companies
• The correct relationship among cultural values, organizational structure and
strategy, and the environment can enhance performance.
• Cultures can be assessed along many dimensions such as the extent of
collaboration vs. isolation among people and departments.

8. • We focus on two dimensions:
• The extent to which the
environment requires
Flexibility or Stability
• The extent to which the
org.’s strategic focus are
Internal or External
• Types:
• The Adaptability Culture
• The Mission Culture
• The Clan Culture
• The Bureaucratic Culture
• relate to the fit among cultural
values, organizational
structure and strategy, and the
environment

9. The Adaptability
Culture
• Strategic focus on External
Environment
• Flexibility and change to meet
stakeholders’ needs.
• Innovation and risk-taking
are embraced by employees
and leaders.
• The long-term emphasis is on
growth and acquiring new
resources.
• e.g. Internet-Based companies

10. The Mission Culture
• It is characterized by emphasis on
a clear vision of the org’s
purpose.
• Strategic focus on external
environment, but without the
need for rapid change.
• Mission Culture reflects high
level of competiveness and a
profit making orientation
• A results-driven organization
focuses on job completion.
• Professionalism, aggressiveness
and ambition are key values
• e.g. General Electric

11. The Clan Culture
• Strategic focus on internal
environment .
• The important value is taking
care of employees to help them
be satisfied as well as productive.
• Orgs that use clan culture have
strong cultures that emphasize
shared values and trust.
• People may be hired because they
are committed to the org’s
purpose.

12. The Bureaucratic
Culture
• Internal strategic focus with stable
environment
• Support methodical approach to do
business
• It is a culture of order, discipline,
and control
• Has high level of consistency,
conformity, and collaboration
among employees
• Integration and efficiency
• Less favorable culture
• It is used in highly predictable
environment
• e.g. Large organizations such as
MacDonald’s, Military

14. Culture Strength and Subcultures
• Culture Strength refers to the degree of agreement among members of the org.
about the importance of specific values.
• high consensus about the importance of org’s values = cohesive and strong
• disagreement = weak culture
• Strong culture is associated with the frequent use of ceremonies, symbols ,..etc.
which increase employee commitment to the values and strategy of the org.
• Subcultures do exist- a branch, or department cab have its own distinctive
subculture- e.g. RD dept. vs. manufacturing dept.

15. Implications
• Pay attention to corporate culture.
• Understand the underlying values, assumptions, and beliefs on which culture is
based as well as its observable manifestations.
• Evaluate org. culture based on rites and ceremonies, stories and myths, symbols
and the structures, control systems, and power relationships you can observe in the
org.
• Make sure corporate culture is consistent with strategy and environment .

16. Cont.
• Shape culture to fit the needs
• Consciously manage culture to shift values toward high performance and goal
accomplishment.
• To support learning orientation, emphasize cultural values of openness and
collaboration, equality and trust, continuous improvement, and risk-taking.
• Build a strong internal culture that encourages adaptation to changing
environmental conditions.

17. Q & A
Thank You