Organizational

culture
- Engineer Fronhoefer on being fired from Twitter for disagreeing with Elon
Musk on social media 2
Collection of values, expected
behaviors, and practices that
guide the actions of each
individual in the organisation.

..how we do things around here

 Organizational ethos
 Openness: receiving and giving information spontaneously
 Confrontation: facing, rather than shying away from,
problems
 Trust: maintaining confidentiality of information, integrity
in dealings
 Authenticity: congruence between claims and actions.
 Proactivity: taking initiative, pre-planning, taking
preventive action
 Autonomy: using and giving freedom to plan and act in
one’s sphere
 Collaboration: giving and asking for help to and from
others
 Experimentation: using and encouraging innovative
approaches to solve problems
 Motives Characteristic
organization
Achievement Industrial organization

Influence (expert Educational institutions,

power) scientific organizations
Control Bureaucracy

Dependency Traditional or one-man

organizations
Extension Community service
organizations
Affiliation Clubs
 Organizational Cultures differ along the following dimensions:
 Individual initiative: degree of responsibility, freedom, and
independence that individuals have.
 Risk tolerance: degree to which employees are encouraged to be
aggressive, innovative, risk-seeking.
 Direction: degree to which organization creates clear objectives and
performance expectations
 Integration: degree to which organization units are encouraged to
operate in a cooperative manner
 Management support: degree to which managers provide clear
communication, assistance, and support to subordinates.
 Control: number of rules and regulations, amount of direct supervision
used to control employee behavior
 Identity: degree to which members identify with organization as a whole
rather than with their particular work group
 Reward system: degree to which reward allocations are based on
employee performance criteria in contrast to seniority, favoritism, etc.
 Conflict tolerance: degree to which employees are encouraged to air
conflicts and criticisms openly
 Communication patterns: degree to which organizational communications
are restricted to formal hierarchy of authority.
Functions of Organizational Culture
(OC)
 Provides shared patterns of perceptions,
feelings, emotional bonding - communicating to
organizational members about how they are
expected to think, value and behave

 Functions as an implicit organizational control

system, prescribing and prohibiting certain
behaviors.

Cultural influences on organizational behavior

operate more implicitly than explicitly.
 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 that members
face. These can form vertically or
horizontally. It would include the core
values of the dominant culture plus
additional values unique to members of the
particular department.
 Strength of Culture
 A strong culture is characterized by :
 The organization’s core values being
 Wide acceptance among all members
 Strong member commitment to them
 A strong culture increases behavioral consistency. It
conveys to members what behaviors they should engage in.

 A strong culture can be a powerful means of implicit control

and can act as a substitute for formalization.
 High formalization creates predictability, orderliness and consistency. A strong
culture achieves the same end without any need for written documentation.

 A strong culture can be more potent than formal controls since

it controls the mind and soul as well as the body.
 Common expressions of organizational culture
1. Physical artifacts: layout, décor, availability of facilities, office
stationary, ‘symbols’
2. Language, jargons and metaphors: unique jargons,
terminologies, phrases, acronyms.
3. Stories, myths and legends
4. Ceremonies and celebrations
5. Routines, rites and rituals: staff meetings, training programs,
appraisal forms, superiors’ annual visits, picnics.
6. Behavioral norms: towards seniors, colleagues, in meetings,
during breaks.
 These norms transmitted to new members through
socialization
7. Shared beliefs and values: ethical / moral codes or
ideologies….consciously held, mental pictures of the nature of
organizational reality, what is considered right or wrong etc.
8. Basic assumptions: unconscious values, beliefs held by
organization’s members.
Managing (changing) organizational culture
 The case for
 Adapting to changing conditions / demands
 The case against
 Difficult for employees to unlearn years of shared
values and beliefs
 Situational factors under which OC can be changed
 A dramatic crisis
 Leadership turnover
 Life-cycle stage / Age of organization
 Size of organization
 Strength of current culture
 Absence of subcultures
 Organizational culture and effect on structure

OC dimensions: Structural properties:

• High trust • Low to medium complexity

• Functional conflict • Low centralization
• High or medium morale • Low formalization
• Equitable rewards • Wide span of control
• Low change resistance • Coordination and control through
• High leader credibility
• meetings and liaison roles
Low level of scapegoating
• Results based on group incentives
 Organizational culture effect on structure (contd.)
OC dimensions:
• Low trust
• High dysfunctional conflict
• Medium to low morale
• Not equitable rewards
• High change resistance
• Low leader credibility
• High level of scapegoating
Structural properties:
• High complexity
• High-medium centralization
• High formalization
• Coordination and control through
rules and procedures, planning
• Individual and procedure based
incentives
 Effect of culture on organizational choices
Cultural values Structure Processes
Power: Hierarchy: Decision-making :
differentiation: non-participative / participative
- high / low high / low Communication:
Centralization: vertical / horizontal
high / low Control:
tight / loose
Coordination:
vertical / horizontal

Individualistic / Horizontal Rewards and incentives:

differentiation: individual / group emphasis
collectivistic specialization: Communication:
orientation high / low specific / diffuse
Rewards: Decision-making :
differential: contentious / consensus
high / low

Uncertainty Formalization: Locus of decisions :

high / low hierarchical / diffuse
Avoidance: Centralization:
- high / low high / low