Student:Preda Raluca- Iris

An II,gr. 175 C

What is organizational culture?

What is culture? Organizational culture theory emphasizes that culture is a set of values that
an organization or group of people have in common. Seven elements make up an organizational
culture:

1. Structural stability. All cultures are held together quite rigidly by their own values and
beliefs. It’s what identifies the group and resists any changes to the members.
2. Breadth. Culture is pervasive and touches every part of the organization. Even if someone
doesn’t fully adhere or agree with the culture, they are subject to it anyway since it’s what is
generally accepted.
3. Depth. Do not underestimate how ingrained and unconscious culture is present in any group.
It’s how people act and not have to explain their actions to their peers.
4. Patterning or integration. When the members of the group exhibit the same behavior over a
period of time, it means that culture makes their beliefs coherent.
5. Visible artifacts. The office is a great example of an artifact important to organizational
culture theory. But mostly these are things that are very apparent on the surface of the group
such as hierarchy, interaction and attitudes during meetings.
6. Espoused beliefs, values, rules and behavioral norms. When you look up at the company
corkboard or its website and you see the mission and visions then you’ve seen these
element.
7. Underlying, taken-for-granted assumption. There are tacit, basic things that explain the
artifacts and beliefs.

You can’t go wrong with culture if you use these assumptions

All these put together create the culture in your workplace. Now, if you want to use
organizational culture theory to understand your team and business, here are some things to
remember:
Groups do not exist in a vacuum. The industry, the community and the environment your team
exists in, shapes the way its members act. You’re a good leader if you can successfully manage
your team in its chosen environment or industry.
Culture should be agreed upon and accepted by your team members. When your people don’t
agree on some beliefs, practices and rituals in your team, organizational culture theory states that
conflict and issues may arise.

Culture dictates the reality. I think that accepting what is true and real is one of the most difficult
parts of working in a group. Determine the context of your group. If it’s a high-context group
then people determine what is real based on circumstance while a low context group has
universally-accepted norms and rules.
Student:Preda Raluca- Iris
An II,gr. 175 C

A group’s time orientation may vary. I think that it’s a bit funny that some organizations like to
do things one at a time while other are great at doing a lot of projects all at the same time. Make
sure your teams and departments are on the same time orientation.

A group’s orientation towards work should be the same across its members. Since you’re all
there because of work, one of the most important things you should do as a leader is get
everyone on the same page. There are three ways you can approach work:
 Make your team successful by achieving expansive growth and creating a new kind of
value in your industry.
 Gain a comfortable part of the market in your industry that can simply sustain your business
indefinitely.
 Emphasize your team’s personal growth and creativity through breakthroughs and
innovation .

Made of instinctive, repetitive habits and emotional responses, culture can’t be copied or easily
pinned down. Corporate cultures are constantly self-renewing and slowly evolving: What people
feel, think, and believe is reflected and shaped by the way they go about their business. Formal
efforts to change a culture (to replace it with something entirely new and different) seldom
manage to get to the heart of what motivates people, what makes them tick. Strongly worded
memos from on high are deleted within hours. You can plaster the walls with large banners
proclaiming new values, but people will go about their days, right beneath those signs,
continuing with the habits that are familiar and comfortable.

But this inherent complexity shouldn’t deter leaders from trying to use culture as a lever. If you
cannot simply replace the entire machine, work on realigning some of the more useful cogs. The
name of the game is making use of what you cannot change by using some of the emotional
forces within your current culture differently.
You may be asking: If it is so hard to change culture, why should we even bother to try? Because
an organization’s current culture contains several reservoirs of emotional energy and influence.
Executives who work with them can greatly accelerate strategic and operating imperatives.
When positive culture forces and strategic priorities are in sync, companies can draw energy
from the way people feel. This accelerates a company’s movement to gain competitive
advantage, or regain advantages that have been lost.
Although challenging, multidimensional, and often difficult to deal with, a company’s cultural
situation constitutes a powerful set of emotional resources. As is the case with other resources —
human, technological, financial — it is incumbent upon leaders to strive to get the most value out
of it.

The best way to start is to ask yourself a series of questions. What are the most important
emotional forces that determine what your people do? What few behavior changes would matter
most in meeting strategic and operational imperatives? Who are the authentic informal leaders
Student:Preda Raluca- Iris
An II,gr. 175 C

you can enlist? And what can you and your fellow senior leaders do differently to signal and
reinforce those critical behaviors?

To determine what type of organizational culture you belong to, here is a summary of the four
types and their specific qualities:

 The Clan Culture: This culture is rooted in collaboration. Members share commonalities
and see themselves are part of one big family who are active and involved. Leadership
takes the form of mentorship, and the organization is bound by commitments and
traditions. The main values are rooted in teamwork, communication and consensus. A
prominent clan culture is Tom’s of Maine, the maker of all-natural hygiene products. To
build the brand, founder Tom Chappell focused on building respectful relationships with
employees, customers, suppliers and the environment itself.
 The Adhocracy Culture: This culture is based on energy and creativity. Employees are
encouraged to take risks, and leaders are seen as innovators or entrepreneurs. The
organization is held together by experimentation, with an emphasis on individual
ingenuity and freedom. The core values are based on change and agility. Facebook can be
seen as a prototypical adhocracy organization, based on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s famous
admonition to, “Move fast and break things – unless you are breaking stuff, you are not
moving fast enough.”
 The Market Culture: This culture is built upon the dynamics of competition and
achieving concrete results. The focus is goal-oriented, with leaders who are tough and
demanding. The organization is united by a common goal to succeed and beat all rivals.
The main value drivers are market share and profitability. General Electric under ex-CEO
Jack Welch is a good example of this culture. Welch vowed that every G.E. business unit
must rank first or second in its respective market or face being sold off. Another example
of the market culture is software giant Oracle under hard-driving Executive Chairman
Larry Ellison.
 The Hierarchy Culture: This culture is founded on structure and control. The work
environment is formal, with strict institutional procedures in place for guidance.
Student:Preda Raluca- Iris
An II,gr. 175 C

Leadership is based on organized coordination and monitoring, with a culture

emphasizing efficiency and predictability. The values include consistency and
uniformity. Think of stereotypical large, bureaucratic organizations such as McDonald’s,
the military, or the Department of Motor Vehicles.