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“Let's demonstrate empathy. Lets be kind to one

another. Let's have curiosity. Let's continue to
learn. And most importantly, let's take action. In
a Conscious Culture, that's our job. We take
action if we experience something or if we see
something. And in doing so, we change the
culture for all.”

Francine Katsoudas, Chief People, Policy

& Purpose Officer
ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
OSD-5
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?

The set of shared beliefs, values, and norms

that influence the way members think, feel
and behave.
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❑ Serves as a frame of reference that is common and shared

by significant number of people

❑ Socially developed, learned, and transmitted in behavioral,

cognitive and emotional terms

❑ Contributes to the identity of the organization

❑ May come with symbolic features

❑ Product of the organization’s history

❑ Has direct and indirect influence on the performance of

the organization
Edgar Schein developed an influential model of
organizational culture which identifies three levels of
culture. Culture is found in

He defined culture as:

Observable
“The pattern of Artifacts
basic assumptions that a given group has
invented, discovered, or developed in
learning to cope with its problems of
external adaptation and internal Espoused
integration, and that have worked well Values
enough to be considered valid, and,
therefore, to be taught to new members as
the correct way to perceive, think, and feel
Underlying
in relation to those problems.” Assumptions
ICEBERG MODEL OF CULTURE
 TYPES OF ORGANISATIONAL
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CULTURES-COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWOK

• Cameron and Quinn identified for Flexibility & Discretion
generic culture types across a large
sample of organizations:
CLAN ADHOCRACY
• Clan Culture
• Adhocracy Internal focus &
External focus
&
• Hierarchy Integration
Differentiation
• Market
HIERARCHY MARKET

Stability & Control

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• Clan Culture: Doing Things Together

• Friendly collaborative culture which can be compared to that of a large
family or clan
• Main values include teamwork, communication, consensus, and
development.
• Adhocracy Culture: Doing Things First
• Culture which promotes risk taking and values innovation
• Values include change, agility, transformation, creativity.
• Market Culture: Getting the Job Done
• A culture which is results driven, market orientated, and highly competitive
• Values are competitiveness, aggressiveness.
• Hierarchy Culture: Doing Things Right
• A formalized and structured work environment.
• Values are consistency, stability, uniformity, bureaucracy
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CULTURES & SUBCULTURES

• Edgar Schein proposed three subcultures built around specific functions performed by
people in organisation.

• Professional subculture
• Engineer subculture
• Operator subculture

• Subcultures can be enhancing, orthogonal or counterculture

• This depends on the pivotal and peripheral values accepted and followed by the
subcultures.
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• Enhancing subcultures:
• Members adhere to dominant organizational culture values enthusiastically
• Members agree with and care about both pivotal and peripheral values, consistent
with the larger organization’s core values.
• Intense commitment to particular peripheral values, that are consistent with those
of the overarching culture
• Orthogonal subcultures:
• Members embrace the dominant culture’s values but also hold their own set of
distinct, but not conflicting, values.
• Members embrace the pivotal organizational values but, simultaneously, hold
values that are peripheral to those of the overarching culture.
• Counter cultures:
• Members disagree with the core values of the dominant culture
• Members hold values that directly conflict with core organizational values.
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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the idea that a business has a responsibility
to the society that exists around it
• Approaches to CSR include:
• Obstructionist approach
• Defensive approach
• Accommodative approach
• Proactive approach
• Organizational culture can be an influential antecedent that will influence the
adoption of corporate social responsibility practices.
• Engaging in CSR could act as a reinforcement of the values upheld by the company
which in turn can boost employee trust, morale and engagement
• Co-dependent relationship between culture and CSR.