Influences on Organizational Culture

9 Key excerpts on "Influences on Organizational Culture"

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  Exploring Management

  • John R. Schermerhorn, Jr., Daniel G. Bachrach(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  They represent the organizational culture as a system of shared beliefs and values that devel- ops in an organization and guides the behavior of its members. 2 Whenever someone talks about “the way we do things here,” he or she is talking about the organization’s culture. Sometimes called the corporate culture, it communicates the person- ality of the organization. And it can have a strong impact on an organization’s performance and the quality of work experiences of its members. For example, check out Zappos.com. Its CEO Tony Hsieh has built a fun, creative, and customer-centered organizational culture. He says that “the original idea was to add a little fun,” and things moved to the point where the notion of an unhappy Zappos customer is almost unthinkable: “They may only call once in their life,” says Hsieh, “but that is our chance to wow them. If we get the culture right most of the other stuff, like brand and the customer service, will just happen.” 3, 4 Organizational Culture Shapes Behavior and Influences Performance. Although culture isn’t the only driver of what happens in organizations, it’s an important one. Organ- izational culture helps to set values, shape attitudes, reinforce beliefs, direct behavior, and establish performance expectations and the motivation to fulfill them. 5 In strong culture organizations, the culture is clear, well defined, and widely shared by members. Does this sound good to you? It can be. But you also have to be careful. A strong culture can have both downsides and upsides. When the strong culture is positive, it supports high performance by forging a good fit between the nature of the business and employees’ talents. It discourages dysfunctional behaviors and encourages helpful ones while keeping a clear performance vision front and cen- ter to focus employees’ efforts.

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  Unexpected Consequences

  Why The Things We Trust Fail

  • James William Martin(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  Teams are influenced by an organization’s cultures and its subcultures. These entities often have differing measures of performance, goals, and objectives. Some- times, when an outside business has been acquired, unique subcultures may exist that are different from an organization’s dominant culture or its subcultures. This may or may not be a problem. If the newly acquired orga- nization can be easily integrated into the larger business, assimilation will occur over time. However, if the new business is not smoothly integrated, the complexity of the combined organization increases. Error conditions also increase. In this context, some cultures are stronger than others and do a better job of this than others because their core values are widely practiced by their members. Strong cultures evolve by practicing behavioral patterns that increase organizational success as shown by longevity, profits, market share, growth, and similar measures of success. Organizational culture has importance relative to actions taken to prevent failures as well as manage them. Employees move through a socialization process consistent with an or- ganization’s culture after they begin an association with a team as well as informal and formal groups. Through this process, they are exposed to at- titudes and behaviors of coworkers that shape perspectives of how work should be performed and the interpersonal behaviors necessary for suc- cess. These learned behaviors are reinforced in several ways. New employ- ees can be assigned a mentor, or left to fend for themselves, receive formal 126 UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES or informal training, or be provided with specialized tools, methods, and instructions to accelerate their socialization process. Over time, the social- ization process continues as employees hear stories, do their work, interact with other members of the organization, and take part in rituals such as parties, reward and recognition ceremonies, and similar group activities.

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  Organizational Studies and Business Models

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • College Publishing House

    (Publisher)

  The values of a corporate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior. Senior management may try to determine a corporate culture . They may wish to impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of the organization. In addition, there will also be an extant internal culture within the workforce. Work-groups within the organization have their own behavioral quirks and interactions which, to an extent, affect the whole system. Roger Harrison's four-culture typology, and adapted by Charles Handy, suggests that unlike organizational culture, ____________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ____________________ corporate culture can be 'imported'. For example, computer technicians will have expertise, language and behaviors gained independently of the organization, but their presence can influence the culture of the organization as a whole. Organizational culture and corporate culture are often used interchangeably but it is a mistake to state that they are different concepts. All corporations are also organizations but not all organizations are corporations. Organizations include religious institutions, not-for-profit groups, and government agencies. There is even the Canadian Criminal Code definition of organized crime as meaning a group comprised of three or more persons which has, as one of its primary activities or purposes, the commission of serious offences which likely results in financial gain. Corporations are organizations and are also legal entities. As Schein (2009), Deal & Kennedy (2000), Kotter (1992) and many others state, organizations often have very differing cultures as well as subcultures. Organizational Culture Includes Brand culture Brand culture is a company culture in which employees live to brand values, to solve problems and make decisions internally, and deliver a branded customer experience externally.

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  Leadership in Higher Education from a Transrelational Perspective

  • Christopher M. Branson, Maureen Marra, Margaret Franken, Dawn Penney(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  Work to actively foster and sustain the alignment of sub-cultures with the organizational values and behaviours that reflect the desired strategic intent and priorities, therefore, needs to be at the core of leadership. Leaders cannot effectively embark on such work if they do not understand the foundations of culture. The foundations of organizational culture According to Schein (2004: 17), the culture of an organization, or more explicitly, as noted, its collection of sub-cultures (referred to hereafter simply as organizational culture), can be defined as ‘a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by [the] group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems’. Moreover, these assumptions are formed out of a system of values and ways of thinking that permeate across Organizational Culture: Recognizing its Invisible Force 21 the organization and through interactions among the people, the structures and the organizational systems, and ultimately shape what come to be recognized and accepted as behavioural norms (Abbasi and Zamani-Miandashti 2013). Culture spreads via norms formed from these assumptions, and the approval or disapproval attached to these expectations. Norms provide order and meaning to ambiguous or uncertain organizational situations, thereby providing standards of performance against which individuals can evaluate the appropriateness of behaviour (Hogan and Coote 2014). More explicitly, Daft (2010) explains how culture exists at two levels.

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  Organizational Studies

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Orange Apple

    (Publisher)

  The values of a corporate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior. Senior management may try to determine a corporate culture . They may wish to impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of the organization. In addition, there will also be an extant internal culture within the workforce. Work-groups within the organization have their own behavioral quirks and interactions which, to an extent, affect the whole system. Roger Harrison's four-culture typology, and adapted by Charles Handy, suggests that unlike organizational culture, WT ____________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ____________________ corporate culture can be 'imported'. For example, computer technicians will have expertise, language and behaviors gained independently of the organization, but their presence can influence the culture of the organization as a whole. Organizational culture and corporate culture are often used interchangeably but it is a mistake to state that they are different concepts. All corporations are also organizations but not all organizations are corporations. Organizations include religious institutions, not-for-profit groups, and government agencies. There is even the Canadian Criminal Code definition of organized crime as meaning a group comprised of three or more persons which has, as one of its primary activities or purposes, the commission of serious offences which likely results in financial gain. Corporations are organizations and are also legal entities. As Schein (2009), Deal & Kennedy (2000), Kotter (1992) and many others state, organizations often have very differing cultures as well as subcultures. Organizational Culture Includes Brand culture Brand culture is a company culture in which employees live to brand values, to solve problems and make decisions internally, and deliver a branded customer experience externally.

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  Organizational Behaviour

  • Paul Smith, Marilyn Farmer, Wendy Yellowley(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  9

  Organizational culture and change

  I believe that the real difference between

  success

  and failure in a

  corporation

  can very often be traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great

  talents

  of its people. What does it do to help these people find common cause with each other? And how can it sustain this common cause and sense of

  direction

  through the many changes which take place from one generation to another? (THOMAS WATSON JR)

  My starting point has always been ‘change’. (ALVIN TOFFLER)

  CHAPTER OUTLINE

  1

    Introduction

  2

    How is organizational culture defined?

  3

    Typologies of organizational culture

  4

    Change in organizations

  5

    Change models

  6

    Changing organizational culture

  7

    Summary

  CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

  By the end of this chapter you will understand:

  •   how to explain and define the meaning of the term ‘organizational culture’

  •   the hidden and less visible aspects of culture

  •   the different types of and varying perspectives on culture

  •   the reasons why organizations may need to change, and the external and internal triggers driving change

  •   the process of achieving cultural change in organizations.

    9.1 Introduction

  KEY TERM

  Organizational culture: the shared values, norms and behaviours that guide how employees work within an organization and act as a cohesive force.

  For many years, anthropologists have studied the norms, values and belief systems that emerge within groups of people living in the same country, region and society. These studies have demonstrated that such shared ways of behaving and thinking will also impact on the way that formal business organizations operate, and the communications and relationships of employees.

  One of the most well-established studies of culture was that conducted by Geert Hofstede in the 1980s. His research identified that there were common belief systems in different countries around the world. In the same way that such systems emerge within a society or country, when people come together as employees to work within an organization, over time, patterns of behaving, common attitudes and norms become established. These patterns can clearly impact on the performance of organizations and they have provided a focus for many academic research studies since the 1980s. The popular book In Search of Excellence

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  Leadership and the Culture of Trust

  • Gilbert W. Fairholm(Author)
  • 1994(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  6 Components of Culture INTRODUCTION Peters and Waterman (1982) identified culture as the basis for the excel- lence of many of the business organizations they studied. Their findings concluded that strong, cohesive cultures produce desired organizational results. Their eight-element model for understanding culture defines an organizational environment characterized by shared values and beliefs, heros and heroines, rituals and ceremonies, and cultural priests and priestesses—that is, storytellers, gossips, and spies. These are all aspects of cultural theory, not of organizational theory. They based their book— like culture itself—on a symbolic frame of reference in dealing with in- ternal (co-workers) and external (customers) clients. When talking about culture, we are really talking about reality con- struction. Culture helps member perception and understanding of par- ticular events, actions, objects, utterances, or situations in distinctive ways, but ways acceptable by the group. Culture creation—that is, reality construction—involves generating rules and systems of enforcing rule compliance. It is a task of creating social norms and customs. Enforce- ment of social norms is a major part of culture management. Effective enforcement determines success in reality construction and assurance that leaders can communicate desired meanings. Leaders use several mechanisms to manage meaning in the organiza- tion. These mechanisms, or systems of relationships, bind group mem- bers into a unity, making it distinct from all others. They communicate the system of meanings via symbols. Selznick (1957) talks of the embod- iment of values (a form of symbolism) in an organizational structure 80 Shaping Organizational Cultu through statements of mission, programs of activity, selective recruit- ment, and socialization.

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  Organizational Behavior

  • Mary Uhl-Bien, John R. Schermerhorn, Jr., Richard N. Osborn(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  1 In the business setting, this system is often referred to as the corporate culture. Each organization has its own unique culture. Just as no two individual personalities are the same, no two organiza- tional cultures are identical. Yet, there are some common cultural elements that yield stability and meaning for organizations. 2 Functions of Organizational Culture It is important to recognize that the organizational culture of a firm emerges from (1) the dialogue and discourse among its members and their collective experience over time, (2) the attempts by managers to influence subordinates, and (3) pressures from the larger environment in which the members, the managers, and the organization operate. In this chapter we will examine the functions of organizational culture and various levels of cul- tural analysis to understand the powerful force of organizational culture. We will then turn to innovation and link innovation to managing organizational culture. External Adaptation An important function of organizational culture is to provide historically successful answers to external adaptation. 3 Issues of external adaptation deal with ways of reaching goals, tasks to be accomplished, methods used to achieve the goals, and cope with success and failure. Through their shared experiences, members can develop common views that help guide their day-to-day activities toward commonly shared goals. Although managers attempt to influence members and the organization in many ways, they have an important influence by emphasizing a limited number of goals that shape the shared actions, values, and beliefs of all organizational members and key exter- nal contributors.

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  Culture and Psychology

  • David Matsumoto, Linda Juang(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Different people or groups may be specialized according to role, objective or task, and rank or status within a hierarchy may differentiate them from one another; but theoretically they should all collectively address a common goal (e.g., building a car, selling groceries). We all spend a major portion of our lives in organizations. In fact, most of you reading this book are probably doing so within the educational system—an organiza-tion that plays an important part in many people’s lives and is an important agent of socialization in the development and maintenance of culture (recall our discussion of this topic in Chapters 3 and 4). The companies that we work for are also organiza-tions. Churches, sport teams, government, community centers, the military, and small businesses are all different types of organizations to which we all belong. We are wit-ness to culture and organizational issues in everyday news, from events involving the United Nations to clashes between groups, religions, and countries. In this chapter, we describe how culture influences people’s behaviors in orga-nizations and the organizations themselves. We will focus on work organizations because they have been the topic of many cross-cultural studies and provide the con-text for our knowledge of the effects of culture on organizations. The work context is an interesting place to study the influence of culture on psychological processes because it may enhance or diminish differences. Sanchez-Burks, Lee, Choi, Nisbett, Zhao, and Koo (2003), for instance, demonstrated that American versus East Asian cultural differences in attention to indirect meaning were actually larger at work compared to nonwork settings. Still, it’s important to remember that the information gained in understanding the relationship between culture and work organizations can be useful in understanding the many other organizations that are part of our lives as well.

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