Organizational Behaviour

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Organisational Culture
Why is Organizational Culture so important?

Agenda
At the end of the session, you will be able to:
 Understand what is Organisational Culture?
 Dimensions of Organisational Culture
 Types of Cultures
 Functions of Organisational Culture
 How Important is Organisational Culture to employees
 Sustaining & perpetuating Organisational Culture
 Changing Organisational Culture

Organizational Culture

Simply stated, it is the shared values, principles and traditions and ways of
doing things that influence the way organizational members act.
It is all about the set of important assumptions, often unstated, that members
of an organization share in common. It speaks about the personality a company
has and the style in which it does things.

Important elements of the definition may be stated thus:
 Shared values and practices
 Perceived meaning
 It’s the way we do things around here
 Cultural products
 Descriptive
 Organization culture is different from organizational climate
 Culture has an important role in organizations

Research suggests that the following dimensions of
organizational culture separate companies from one
another:
 Routine ways of communicating, such as organizational
rituals and ceremonies and language commonly used.
 The norms shared by individuals and teams throughout the
organization; like ‘do not do too much; do not do too little’.
 The dominant values help by the organization such as high
product quality, low absenteeism, high efficiency, etc.
Dimensions of Organizational Culture

 The philosophy that guides management’s policies and
decision-making
 The rules of the game for getting along in the
organization; or the ropes that a new recruit must
learn in order to be accepted as a full-fledged member of
the group.
 The feeling or climate conveyed in an organization by the
physical layout and the way in which managers and
employees interact with customers, suppliers and other
outsiders.
Dimensions of Organizational Culture
(J. Martin, Culture in Organizations,
New York, Oxford University Press, 1996)

Strong vs Weak Cultures
Elements of strong cultures Elements of weak cultures
Values widely shared Values shared by a few, usually top management
Members know what is important Members not very clear about what is important
Most employees can tell stories about company
history/heroes
Employees possess little knowledge of company
history or heroes
Employees strongly identify with culture Employees have little identification with culture
Strong linkage between shared values and behavior Little connection between shared values and
behaviors

Culture is passed on to employees in numerous ways. The most significant
ones may be listed thus:
Cultural Products
 Rites: Relatively elaborate, dramatic planned sets of activities that consolidate
various forms of cultural expressions into one event carried out through social
interactions, usually for the benefit of audience
 Ceremonial: A system of several rites connected with a single occasion or event
 Ritual: A standardized detailed set of techniques and behaviors that manage
anxieties but seldom produce intended technical consequences of practical
importance
How Employees learn Culture?

How Employees learn Culture?
 Myth: A dramatic narrative of imagined events usually
used to explain origins or transformations of something
 Saga: A historical narrative describing the unique
accomplishments of a group and its leaders, usually in
heroic terms
 Legend: A handed down narrative of some wonderful
event that I based on history but has been
embellished with fictional details

 Story: A narrative based on rare events, sometimes a combination of truth and fiction
 Symbol: Any object and event, quality or relation that serves as a vehicle for conveying
meaning usually by representing another thing
 Language: A particular form or manner in which members of a group use sounds and
written signs to convey meanings to each other
 Values: Life directing attitudes that serve as behavioural guidelines
 Metaphors: Shorthand of words used to capture a vision or to reinforce old and new values
 Belief: An understanding of a particular phenomenon
 Heroes/Heroines: Individuals whom the organisation has legitimized to model
behaviour for others
(Source: H.W. Trice and J.M. Beyer, “Studying Organizational Culture through Rites and
Ceremonials,” Academy of Management Review 9 October, 1984)

Bureaucratic
culture
Clan culture
Entrepreneurial
culture
Market culture
Types of Cultures
Each organization culture is unique. However, four general types of organizational culture that are useful
for comparing organization's are:
Cultures

Functions of Organizational Culture
Culture provides a sense
of identity to members
and increases their
commitment to the
organization
Culture is a sense-
making device for
organization members
Culture reinforces the
values of the
organization
Culture serves as a
control mechanism for
shaping
behavior

Source: APAEXECLLENCE

Source: GREATPLACETOWORK

Creating and Sustaining Culture
The Role of Founder
The founders of an organization have a major
influence on the organization's initial culture
because of their values and beliefs. They
usually pick up people who think and feel the
same way they do; those who believe in the
dream of the founders and are willing to follow
their footsteps scrupulously and religiously.

Creating and Sustaining Culture
Socialization
Socialization is a process through which a new recruit begins to understand and accept the values, norms and beliefs
held by others in the organization. HR department representatives help new recruits to “internalize the way things
are done in the organization”.
Socialization, in fact, is a three step process
 Pre-arrival stage
 Encounter stage
 Metamorphosis stage

 Once established, company cultures may be perpetuated:
 By Screening and selecting new employees that mesh well with the culture
 By systematic indoctrination of new hires in the culture’s fundamentals
 By the efforts of senior management to reiterate core values in daily conversations
and pronouncements
 By the telling and retelling of company legends and stories
 By regular ceremonies honoring members who display desired cultural
behaviours, and
 By visibly rewarding those who display cultural norms and penalizing those who don’t.
(J.P. Kotter and J.L. Heskett, Corporate Culture and Performance, New York, Free Press, 1992)
Perpetuating the Culture

Organizational Culture, as stated previously, is generally stable. However, it is not immutable. Culture is something
which evolves over a period of time—in response to changes in environment, particularly changes in composition of
workforce, changes in top management, changes brought about by mergers and acquisitions, deliberate attempts to
change the structure of an organization, changes brought about by a crisis etc. In any case, there is growing
evidence suggesting likely change in organizational culture due to the occurrence of any of the following: (Kilmann,
et al and P.J.Frost, et al)
Changing Organizational Culture
 A dramatic crisis
 Leadership changes hands
 Young and small organizations
 Mergers and acquisitions
 Weak culture
 Responding to the revolution brought about by Internet

Questions

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