Maintaining Organizational Culture

10 Key excerpts on "Maintaining Organizational Culture"

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  Leadership

  Regional and Global Perspectives

  • Nuttawuth Muenjohn, Adela McMurray, Mario Fernando, James Hunt, Martin Fitzgerald, Bernard McKenna, Ali Intezari, Sarah Bankins, Jenny Waterhouse(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  180 | Leadership entire process. If the institutionalisation is effectively done, then the desired goal of sustaining organisational culture can be achieved. • Sustaining best practices : Sustaining the best practices in the organisation involves the support of the manager or the leader who is committed to effecting a culture change. There are a variety of ways that leaders can communicate organisational culture to employees. Schein ( 2010 ) identifies some of these ways: measuring, controlling, reacting to crisis situations, providing a personal role model, rewarding, selecting and promoting the employees. According to Schein ( 2010 ), all these practices inform organisational orientation in respect of strategic goals. The organisational culture is conveyed through what the leaders emphasise in their own actions, as well as the provision of encouragement and facilitation of enacting the new desired values and beliefs. Implementing and sustaining a new culture is highly challenging. Successful changes result from shared values and commitment to the desired culture, which to a high degree relies on the relationship between the leader and other organisational members. The leader should be able to build trust and discretion in the organisation. Organisational culture change is a continuous process. Given the never-ending and rapid changes in the economic, technological, social, political and environmental world, organisations’ survival depends on their capacity to change. For this reason, once an organisation builds a new culture, changes in the culture must be constantly monitored and analysed to ensure that the desired values and beliefs are being maintained, and to identify what changes need to be implemented to improve future organisational performance. CASE STUDY 7.2 Coates Hire Coates Hire Limited was founded in 1885 as an engineering company in Melbourne, Australia and is presently operated as a construction hire company.

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  Organizational Studies

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

    (Publisher)

  This is primarily done through organizational communication, as individuals directly or indirectly share knowledge and meanings. Mergers, organizational culture, and cultural leadership One of the biggest obstacles in the way of the merging of two organizations is organizational culture. Each organization has its own unique culture and most often, when brought together, these cultures clash. When mergers fail employees point to issues such as identity, communication problems, human resources problems, ego clashes, and inter-group conflicts, which all fall under the category of “cultural differences”. One way to combat such difficulties is through cultural leadership. Organizational leaders must also be cultural leaders and help facilitate the change from the two old cultures into the one new culture. This is done through cultural innovation followed by cultural maintenance. • Cultural innovation includes: o Creating a new culture: recognizing past cultural differences and setting realistic expectations for change o Changing the culture: weakening and replacing the old cultures • Cultural maintenance includes: o Integrating the new culture: reconciling the differences between the old cultures and the new one o Embodying the new culture: Establishing, affirming, and keeping the new culture Corporate culture vs. organizational culture Corporate culture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions, and meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called the character of an organization, since it embodies the vision of the company’s founders. 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.

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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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  Organisational Behaviour

  • Gert Alblas, Ella Wijsman(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 We inspire people to small, everyday acts that, when put together, can have a real impact on the world. 4 We develop new ways of doing business whose goal is to double the scope of our company, while simultaneously lowering our impact on the environment. We have always had faith in the ability of our brands to improve the lives of people and to do what is right. As our company grows, so do our responsibilities. We realise that global challenges such as climate change are matters that concerns us all. Accountability for the wider impacts of our actions is ingrained in our values; it is a fundamental part of who we are. § 8.6 The development of organisational culture How is the culture of an organisation created? Many factors play a part in the development of a culture, such as the nature of the work and the environment in which the organisation must operate, but it is primarily created by the people who founded the organisation. Once the culture has developed, it is the (top) managers who embody, maintain or gradually change the culture. According to the theory of Schein (1985), the culture of an organisation arises out of a learning process that is focused on finding the best way for Learning process members to interact with each other and with the environment in which they are involved. It is a process whose goal is internal integration and external adaptation. Ad 1 Internal integration Internal integration is the adaptation of the activities of the members of the organisation to each other and to the goals of the organisation. In the process of integration, they learn how they must interact with each other. Once the appropriate manner of interaction has been found, this is elevated to a norm or value. Henceforth, interaction must take place in the prescribed manner.

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  Becoming a Sustainable Organization

  A Project and Portfolio Management Approach

  • Kristina Kohl(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Auerbach Publications

    (Publisher)

  It is comprised of leadership’s vision, shared core values, and a reflection of the organization’s attitudes and beliefs (see Figure 6.1). Organizational culture is deeply rooted and reflects the shared experiences of the organization’s owners, managers, and employees. An organization’s culture is expressed through the actions of its leaders and employees. These behaviors and actions impact relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. It is demon-strated by how management treats its employees, how employees treat one another, and how manage-ment and employees interact with customers and the community. Culture is the everyday embodiment of organizational core values and their incorporation into functional operations. Leadership sets the Shared Values Shared Values Visions Visions Attitudes/Beliefs Attitudes/Beliefs Culture Figure 6.1 Organizational Culture Creating a Culture of Sustainability 121 tone and models behavior for the employees. Is the organization more of a command-and-control struc-ture with very regimented processes? Or is it more collaborative, with policies that promote independent thinking and creativity? Culture dictates how power and influence flow within the organization. The decision-making process, reporting requirements, systems and controls, guiding principles, routines, processes, and internal stories all impact and reflect an organization’s culture. Figure 6.2 considers some organizational attributes that reflect culture. Culture is reflected in goals but also in how activities are conducted as it relates to customer rela-tions, environmental stewardship, community service, marketing messages, business practices, new product innovation, supplier selection, and work habits. Culture is reflected in desired outcomes, the type of programs and projects that are selected, and how work is performed. It is apparent in work group structures, flexibility of schedules, and even team formations.

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  Strategic Management in Schools and Colleges

  SAGE Publications

  • David Middlewood, Jacky Lumby, David Middlewood, Jacky Lumby(Authors)
  • 1998(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  3 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Tony Bush WHAT IS ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE? The concept of 'culture' stresses the informal features of organisations rather than their official aspects. It focuses on the values, beliefs and norms of people in the organisation and how these individual perceptions coalesce into shared organisational meanings. Culture is manifested by symbols and rituals rather than through the formal structure of the organ-isation. Deal's (1985, p. 605) definition of culture is similar to those offered by many other writers: Culture is an expression that tries to capture the informal, implicit -often unconscious - side of . . . any human organisation. Although there are many definitions of the term, culture in everyday usage is typically described as 'the way we do things around here'. It consists of patterns of thought, behaviour and artefacts that symbolise and give meaning to the workplace. Harris (1992, p. 4) claims that culture is central to educational organisations: Theorists argue that educational administration has a technical management aspect but is mainly about the culture within an organ-isation. This culture includes the rituals which occur (or should occur) within an organisation . . . Educational managers . . . are taken to be those capable of shaping ritual in educational institutions. The interest in culture as an increasingly significant aspect of school and college management may be explained, in part, as dissatisfaction with the limitations of the traditional bureaucratic model. The latter's empha-sis on the technical aspects of institutions appears to be inadequate for schools and colleges aspiring to excellence. The stress on the intangible world of values and attitudes helps to produce a more balanced portrait 32

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  Practical Sustainability

  From Grounded Theory to Emerging Strategies

  • N. Khalili(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Individual consideration: demonstrates awareness of the strengths and weak- nesses of each employee, shows interest in others’ well-being, promotes learning and development, and encourages two-way communication. In essence, the leader can be the role model and hero who inspires others and exemplifies the behaviors that are needed to establish the Laying the Foundation 65 culture. The leader can facilitate the three steps for developing a culture: Clarify the values of the organization in regard to sustainability. 1. Establish beliefs and policies that provide parameters for behav- 2. iours—what is accepted in the organization. Integrate organizational values with individual values (i.e., 3. internalization). In conclusion, an organization’s culture has a major impact on employees and their effectiveness. In further exploring the factors that make a culture and how that culture is formed and maintained, the chapter provided tools for future leaders and managers. Leaders who adhere to transformational and charismatic values and behaviors can become the key agents of change in their organizations. Now we will elaborate on the mechanisms and steps of change management within an organization. What Is Change Management? When an organization sets out to change its organizational culture, it is bringing about planned change. According to Levy, 32 there are two goals of planned change: first, it seeks to improve the ability of the organization to adapt to changes in its environment; and second, it seeks to change employee behavior. Because an organization’s success or failure is essentially determined by employee behaviors, planned change is focused on changing the behaviors of individuals and groups in the organization. In planned change, an organization can either utilize first- order change or second-order changes.

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  Organizational Behavior

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

    (Publisher)

  Is it just another gleaming office tower or the Freedom Tower symbolizing the resilience of the American people and New York City’s ability to recover from the attacks? 28 In this sense, organizational culture is a “shared” set of meanings and perceptions. The members of most organizations create and learn a deeper aspect of their shared culture. 29 Often one finds a series of common assumptions known to most everyone: “We are dif- ferent.” “We are better at. . . .” “We have unrecognized talents.” Cisco Systems provides an excellent example. Senior managers often share common assumptions, such as “We are good stewards” and “We are competent managers” and “We are practical innovators.” Like values, such assumptions become reflected in the organizational culture. Of course, shared meanings and perceptions can create a double-edged sword. In his book How Do the Mighty Fall, consultant Jim Collins notes that organizations may begin to decline if managers share an unrealistic positive perception of them. 30 Organizational Myths In many firms, a key aspect of the shared common assump- tions involves organizational myths. Organizational myths are unproven and frequently unstated beliefs that are accepted without criticism. Often corporate mythology focuses on cause–effect relationships and assertions by senior management that cannot be empiri- cally supported. 31 Although some may scoff at organizational myths and want to see ratio- nal analysis replace mythology, each firm needs a series of managerial myths. 32 Myths allow executives to redefine impossible problems into more manageable components. Myths can facilitate experimentation and creativity, and they allow managers to govern. Managing Organizational Culture L E A R N I NG ROA DM A P DIRECT ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE VALUES • DEVELOPING SHARED GOALS MODIFYING VISIBLE ASPECTS OF THE CULTURE The process of managing organizational culture is a complex challenge of the first order.

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  Vanishing Boundaries

  How Integrating Manufacturing and Services Creates Customer Value, Second Edition

  • Richard E. Crandall, William R. Crandall(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  370 ◾ Vanishing Boundaries © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC where mission statements can appear: on business cards and company letterhead, in lobby headquarters, even on coffee mugs. For these statements to be truly effec-tive, employees should be able to not only remember the statements but also relate them to their jobs. Many organizations have a short mission statement, which can be recited, followed by a longer list of values, which can be referred to. The values of the desired culture should also be verbally repeated by key com-pany spokespersons, such as the CEO, president, or vice presidents. These values can be stated in company literature as well as advertising. At the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, there is a key value statement that we 58 are very proud of: “where learning gets personal.” Classes are purposely kept small so students and professors can have more contact with each other. This one value appears in uni-versity advertising and is frequently mentioned by the chancellor of the university. Although the university holds other values, this particular value is the one that is promoted the most, and hence permeates the culture of the institution. Promote an Ethical Culture Although it may seem obvious in this day and time that a company would want an ethical culture, wanting such a culture and promoting it are two different things. Promoting an ethical culture involves extra work on the part of management in that ethical behavior must be communicated, nurtured, encouraged, and expected. Not promoting such a culture leaves management only hoping that the company will be ethical. 59 Management writers Stephen Robbins and Mary Coulter offer five excellent guidelines for promoting an ethical culture. 60 First, managers and supervisors need to be visible role models for the rest of the employees in the company.

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  Corporate Culture and Organizational Symbolism

  An Overview

  • Mats Alvesson, Per O. Berg(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter

    (Publisher)

  In this type of companies, in which the corporate assets leave the office at five o'clock, the esprit de corps is one of the most important mechanisms of unity. Another similar argument is that as standardized production processes reduce the competitive advantages of technology, corporate identity be-comes a more important discriminating factor (Berg/Gagliardi 1985). 138 7 Managing Organizational Cultures A strong culture is also assumed to increase the employees' trust in the company. To increase the trust in the organization's justification of itself, in its rightful and legitimate role in society, in its general task (mission), in its fundamental values, etc. will thus become one of the most important elements in the managerial process. As a matter of fact, the mission will constitute the organization's raison d'etre which legitimates the existence of the organization and its activity, not only in the eyes of its employees but also to society at large. The other basic assumption shared by the proponents of a cultural per-spective on management is that the organizational culture has a strong impact on the company's image, i.e. the cogent imprint that the organi-zation has made on an audience (Berg/Gagliardi 1985). Since organiza-tions increasingly rely on the cooperation of customers and clients to perform their tasks, they have a strong need to bring customers closer to the company, not only by building up automatic services (e.g. banking transactions, delivery systems of oil, gas, etc.), creating clubs (e. g. Club Mediterrane, Herz No. 1 Club), considering customers members rather than consumers, but also by developing and projecting strong corporate identities for the customers to identify with (Berg 1989 c; Normann 1985). For many organizations the image of the company seems, in fact, to be more important than the content or substantial value of the goods and services provided.

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