Organizational culture encompasses shared values and assumptions that shape behavior within organizations, influencing how employees dress, act, and perform. Key characteristics include innovation, attention to detail, teamwork, and stability, while strong cultures are marked by widely accepted core values that affect member behavior. Organizational culture also has functions like defining boundaries and enhancing stability, but can become a liability by obstructing change and diversity.

1. Organizational
Culture
Subject : Organizational Behavior
URVIN PATEL
urvinpatel18@gmail.com

2. Organizational culture is a system
of shared assumptions, values, reality,
which governs how people behave in
organizations. These shared values
have a strong influence on the people in
the organization and dictate how they
dress, act, and perform their jobs.
Definition

3. 7 Key Characteristics of
Organizational Culture
Innovation and risk taking- The degree to
which employee are encouraged to be
innovation and take risks.
Attention to Detail - The degree to which
Employees expected to be accurate in their
work.

4. Teamwork - Companies that organize work
activities around teams instead of individuals place
a high value on this characteristic of organizational
culture.
- companies tend to have a positive relationship
with their coworkers and managers.

5. People Orientation- The degree to
which management decisions are take
into consideration and the effect of
outcomes on people within the
organization.
Stability- The degree to which
organizational activities emphasize
maintaining the status quo in contrast to
growth.

6. Aggressiveness – The degree to which
people are aggressive and competitive
rather than easygoing.
Reward system- Rewards allocation
are based on employee performance.

7. Culture Is a Descriptive Term
Culture Job
Satisfaction
 Organizational
culture is concerned
with how employees
perceive an
organization’s culture,
not whether or not they
like it.
 Descriptive
 Measures affective
responses to the work
environment:
concerned with how
employees feel about
the organization.
Evaluative

8. Do Organizations Have Uniform
Cultures?
 The dominant culture expresses the
core values that are shared by a majority
of the organization’s members.
 Subcultures tend to develop in large
organizations to reflect common
problems, situations, or experiences of
members.
 Subcultures mirror the dominant culture
but may add to or modify the core values.

9. Strong Cultures
 In a strong culture, the organization’s core
values are both intensely held and widely
shared.
 The more members who accept the core
values and the greater their commitment to
those values, the stronger the culture is.
 Strong cultures will:
 Have great influence on
the behavior of its members
 Result in lower employee

10. Culture Versus Formalization
 Both seek predictability,
orderliness, and consistency.
 Culture controls by increasing
behavioral consistency.
 Formalization controls through
policies and written documentation.
 Strong cultures can be a substitute
for formalization.

11. Culture’s Five Basic
Functions
 Defines Boundaries
 Conveys a Sense of Identity
 Generates Commitment Beyond Oneself
 Enhances Social Stability
 Sense-making and Control Mechanism

12. Culture as a Liability
 Barrier to Change
Culture is slow to change – even in a
dynamic environment.
 Barrier to Diversity
 Culture seeks to minimize diversity
 Can embed prevalent bias and
prejudice
 Barrier to Acquisitions and Mergers
 Most mergers fail due to cultural
incompatibility.

13. Creating Culture and sustaining
culture
 Ultimate source of an organization’s
culture is its founders.
Founders create culture in three ways:
 By hiring and keeping those who think
and feel the same way they do
 Indoctrinating and socializing those
employees to their way of thinking and
feeling
 Acting as a role model and
encouraging employees to identify with
them

14. Keeping a Culture Alive
Selection – seek out those who fit in
Top Management – establish norms
of behavior by their actions
Socialization – help new employees
adapt to the existing culture

15. A Socialization Model
 Pre-arrival – initial knowledge about the
organization and own unique ideas
 Encounter – exposed to the
organization
 Metamorphosis – member changed to
fit within the organization

16. Dimensions of
Socialization Programs
Intense
Programs
Moderate Programs
Formal – new
workers separated
for training
Collective – group
basis
Fixed – planned
activities
Serial – role
models used
Divestiture – strip
away characteristics
to build up new ones
Informal – new
workers
immediately put to
work
Individual – one-
on-one
Variable – no
timetables
Random – on
your own
Investiture –
accepts and
confirms existing

17. How Organization Cultures Form
Success in employee socialization
depends on management’s selection of
socialization method and the closeness of
new employees’ values to those of the
organization

18. How Employees Learn
Culture
Culture is
transmitted to
employees through:
Stories – provide
explanations
Rituals – reinforce
key values
Material Symbols –
convey importance
Language – identify
and segregate
members

19. Creating an Ethical
Organizational Culture
 A strong culture with high risk tolerance,
low-to-moderate aggressiveness, and
focuses on means as well as outcomes is
most likely to shape high ethical standards
 Visible role model
 Communicate ethical expectations
 Provide ethical training
 Visibly reward ethical acts and
punish unethical ones
 Provide protective mechanisms

20. Creating a Positive
Organizational Culture
A positive culture is one that
emphasizes the following:
 Building on Employee
Strengths
 Rewarding More Than
Punishing
 Emphasizing Vitality and
Growth of the Employee

21. Global Implications
National and Organizational Cultures:
 Organizations exist in a global context
 Must be aware of local and national cultures
Suggestions and Observations:
 Organizations heavily dependent on foreign
markets and labor
 National culture does influence organizational
culture
 All managers must be culturally sensitive

22. Implications for Managers
 Create the culture you want
when the organization is small
and new.
 If established culture needs to
be changed, expect it to take
years