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Organizational social context
The document discusses organizational culture as a complex and evolving environment that shapes social contexts within organizations, highlighting the challenges of cultural change and knowledge management. It categorizes culture into six criteria: organizational culture, controlling culture, enabling culture, culture change, employee practices, and cultural leadership, each with specific attributes, indicators, and management actions. The emphasis is on adapting knowledge management practices to fit existing cultures rather than forcing cultural changes that may hinder business success.
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Organizational social context
- 1. 1 Social Context atan 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. OrganizationalSocial 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 OrganizationalScale 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) CultureChange 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