Managing Organisational Culture

11 Key excerpts on "Managing Organisational Culture"

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  eBook - ePub

  Accelerating Organisation Culture Change

  Innovation Through Digital Tools

  • Jaclyn Lee(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  2

  Organisational Culture and Change Management

  2.1 Definition of Organisational Culture

  Cameron and Quinn (2011) defined organisational culture as, “…the taken-for-granted values, underlying assumptions, expectations, and definitions that characterize organizations and their members. It is an enduring slow-to-change core characteristic of organisations” (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

  Edgar H. Schein, a well-known culture guru, defines organisational culture as “A pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid. It is therefore taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems” (Schein, 2004).

  Culture is also very complex and not easy to crystallize. However, it is a critical part of the organisational glue that binds people together toward a common vision and goal. Fralinger and Olson (2011) state that a strong and well-defined culture helps to pave the way for stakeholders to align their actions toward achieving an organisation's vision and objectives. Satya Nadella, in his book, Hit Refresh (2017), shares that an organisational culture is not something that can simply unfreeze, change, and then refreeze in an ideal way. It takes deliberate work, and it takes some specific ideas about what the culture should become.

  In another definition, the concept of culture, as described by a very successful CEO of a large global company with whom I recently spoke to, is one in which culture and values are very much integrated. It is the reason customers trust a company and why employees feel attracted to and have a sense of belongingness. This is also what holds a community together. He shares that culture needs to be built over time and protected, as it is something that can be fragile and easily broken.

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  Managing Strategy

  Your guide to getting it right

  • Chartered Management Institute(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Profile Books

    (Publisher)

  Understanding organisational culture

  Organisational culture is the way that things are done in an organisation, the unwritten rules that influence individual and group behaviour and attitudes. Organisational culture is defined by the organisation’s structure, the behaviour and attitudes of its employees, and the management and leadership style adopted by its managers. Organisational culture reflects the personality and character of the organisation, and is composed of the values, beliefs and basic assumptions that are shared by members of an organisation.

  An understanding of organisational culture is crucial for effective leadership. Leaders and managers will be better placed to implement strategy and achieve their goals if they understand the culture of their organisation. Strategies that are inconsistent with organisational culture are more likely to fail, while strategies that are in line with it are more likely to succeed. It is also important to understand the existing culture of an organisation before thinking about change.

  The workforce of an organisation swiftly comes to understand its particular culture. Culture is a concept that may be difficult to express plainly, but everyone knows it when they see it. For example, the culture of an informal software company may be quite different from that of a large financial corporation and different again from that of a hospital or a university.

  To gain an understanding of the culture of an organisation, the relationships between values, behaviour and unwritten rules must be examined. This checklist outlines the main steps and questions to ask to help gain this understanding. Some well-known methods used to classify organisational culture are also introduced.

  Organisations are human communities, peopled with individuals. Once managers develop an understanding of why people and their organisation behave as they do, they will be able to improve effectiveness, communication, organisation, control and, ultimately, results.

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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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  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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  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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  Leadership and the Culture of Trust

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

    (Publisher)

  It ties cultural leadership to the measures of effectiveness of that action used, the attitudes engen- dered in members by cultural artifacts, the service goals established, how leaders manage change, and how one exercises leadership. The attempt here is to show the relationship of these traditional ideas about organi- zations to new ideas about cultural leadership. Chapter 6 discusses culture from another perspective, that of its major components. It introduces the belief systems undergirding culture. This analysis adds another insight to our understanding of organizational cul- ture by focusing on the artifacts leaders create to operationalize cultural values. The overall focus of chapter 6 is on how and by what means leaders create meaning within the organization. This page intentionally left blank 5 Shaping Culture INTRODUCTION Changing culture is the hard part of change management. Change, ac- cording to dictionary definitions, is making or becoming different. Have- lock (1973) defined change as an alternation or disturbance of the existing situation. Kanter (1983) defined change in innovation terms. Garfield (1987) agreed. He said change throws off our equilibrium. Organizations develop cultures that incorporate the values and prac- tices of their leaders. Culture evolves through the accumulation of ac- tions and events the members of an organization experience. Leaders— especially the organization's founders—play a key role in this evolution- ary process. They, more than any other actor, are critical in structuring experiences within the group that point toward desired results. Leaders also emphasize some experiences over others and, in this way, further focus the acculturation process. Creating an organizational cul- ture involves the leader in several important implementation tasks. Among them are setting the values base for mutual interaction and thinking strategically about the organization and its future.

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  Corporate Culture and Organizational Symbolism

  An Overview

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

    (Publisher)

  Management of cultures is thus often described as cultural engineering (Berg 1985 a), engineering values (Martin/Meyerson 1986) or of ma-noeuvring the social system in a strictly neutral, rational and scientific sense (Brissy 1986). What above all characterizes this approach to managing cultures is that it presupposes a split between strategy and culture, thus focusing on the implementation of change, with little or no reference to the way in which change emerges as a result of the character of the culture. The culture is in this sense yet another variable -albeit covering a complex phenomenon -in the organization equation, to be measured, manipulated and changed more or less at will. Although most proponents of corporate culture man-agement realize that planned cultural change is a difficult project, they tend to be optimistic about it. This has been criticized by those authors who claim that culture is not a variable open to instrumental manipulation of the same type as structure or strategy (e.g. Smircich 1983 a) and that it 150 7 Managing Organizational Cultures is impossible to separate culture from strategy (Berg 1985 a). As should be clear from chapter 6, the different views on this subject partly depend on the fact that the authors have somewhat different phenomena in mind. Another feature of the organizational culture perspective is that of meta-management. Rather than directly influencing the individual members of the organization (i.e. by issuing orders), management now becomes a question of creating (cultural) conditions for collective action. This is done by affecting values, beliefs, norms and other types of collective cognitive structures and, through these, developmental frameworks and third order control systems.

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  Inside the BBC and CNN

  Managing Media Organisations

  • Lucy Küng-Shankleman(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  As its ‘latent power’ grew, so too did its perceived influence on strategic processes. Research by Kotter and Heskett (1992) concluded that it could have a significant impact on long-term economic performance. Firms with cultures that emphasised key constituency groups – customers, shareholders, employees – and leadership from all levels, outperformed by a large margin companies that did not display these characteristics. Indeed, culture became the starting place for strategy:

  strategy must be a natural expression of the potential latent in a culture. Because corporate cultures are unique, the products inspired by a culture can be original and incomparable to the offerings of competitors. Hence, a competitive strategy should begin with the culture of the organisation.

  (Hampden-Turner, 1990: 253)

  Schein's concept of culture

  Culture is to the organisation what character is to the individual. (Schein, 1992: 196)

  Culture is normally imprecisely defined – typically as an emergent pattern of shared beliefs, norms and values, unique to the organisation concerned. In contrast, Schein5 offers a definition that is both comprehensive and precise, and therefore suitable as a basis for empirical research. For Schein, culture is:

  a pattern of shared basic assumptions that a group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore is taught to new members of the group as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.

  (Schein, ibid.: 12)

  Culture is essentially, therefore, nothing more than the accumulated learning shared by a set of members of an organisation. This learning has been acquired as the group deals with the challenges posed by the environment and by the organisation as it develops and matures. In the course of this problem-solving process a number of precepts emerge which repeatedly prove themselves effective. These represent a set of basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be, assumptions which determine perceptions, thoughts, feelings and, to some degree, overt behaviour. They come to function as heuristics, shortcuts to future problem-solving. New members learn these assumptions as part of their socialisation, and thus the culture is perpetuated (Schein, ibid.).

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  Organizational Behavior

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

    (Publisher)

  And it suggests that a narrow emphasis is not sufficient. Neither is an emphasis solely on stockholders or customers associated with long-term economic performance. Instead, managers must emphasize responsiveness to competitive pressures, stockholder demands, and customer desires simultaneously. Developing Shared Goals One of the most powerful ways managers influence organizational culture is through commonly shared goals that are specific to the organization. The choice of specific goals often begins with the type of contribution the firm makes to society and the types of outputs it seeks. 37 Astute managers recog- nize that they should specify a desired set of internal conditions that can be used to eval- uate progress. Societal Goals, Output Goals, and Mission Statements Organizations normally serve a specific function or an enduring need of society. By emphasizing their contributions to the larger society, organizations gain legitimacy, a social right to operate, discretion to adopt non-societal goals, and freedom for operating practices. A management philosophy links key goal-related issues with key collaboration issues to come up with general ways by which the firm will manage its affairs. To develop a strong manage- ment culture, managers need to: • Emphasize a shared under- standing of what the unit stands for. • Stress a concern for members over rules and procedures. • Talk about heroes of the past and their contributions. • Develop rituals and ceremonies for the members. • Reinforce informal rules and expectations consistent with shared values. • Promote the sharing of ideas and information. • Provide employees with emotional support. • Make a commitment to understand all members. • Support progressive thinking by all members. How to Become a Better Culture Manager Southern Stock/Blend/Getty Images, Inc. 339 Managing Organizational Culture Societal goals represent an organization’s intended contributions to the broader society.

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  Fast Cultural Change

  The Role and Influence of Middle Management

  • M. Nieswandt(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  These aspects consider the complexity of human activity and organisational culture. The organisation here is an open system, but is regarded as a quasi-biological membrane that allows biological substances to interpenetrate. These substances, at the same time, are influenced and also influence each other. Hence, the development of organisational culture can be seen as an active, manageable process, but without losing sight of its complexity. The possibility of subcultures is not excluded, as she points out the complex and multi-causal conjunction of single facets. According to Sackmann’s (2007) understanding, organisational culture influences strategy and strategy development, structures and processes inside organisations, systems, and management and leadership-processes. Every organisational member is seen as a carrier of culture and therefore influences and is influenced by the above-mentioned aspects.

  Rites, rituals or ceremonies are seen as cultural manifestations. However, from these observations one can only draw limited conclusions about the current culture. In fact, they could be relics from the past (Sackmann, 1989). According to this approach, Sackmann employs the widely used metaphor of an iceberg, of which one can see only a small part above the water. The largest part lies hidden beneath the surface. So, one can only say something about the possible characteristics of this part (Sackmann, 1990, 2002, 2004).

  Sackmann defines organisational culture as: ‘the underlying shared basic assumptions of a group which are, on the whole, typical for the group in question. They have an impact on the group members’ perceiving, thinking [underlying assumptions], acting, and feeling [espoused beliefs and values; the influence of underlying assumptions] and these may also manifest in their actions and artefacts. Convictions are no longer conscious; [underlying assumptions] evolve from and develop through the group’s experience, i.e. they are being learned and passed on to new members of the group’ (Sackmann 2004, p. 25; translation by the author). The annotations in square brackets (by the present author) refer to the related levels in Schein`s (2004) model. These annotations show that, although Sackmann differentiates more and explicitly refers to the group, her definition of organisational culture is very close to Schein’s.

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  Leading Organizations through Transition

  Communication and Cultural Change

  • Stanley A. Deetz, Sarah J. Tracy, Jennifer Lyn Simpson(Authors)
  • 1999(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  The competitive advantages of a strong culture often can only be realized by systematically working to change cultural character. This involves attempts to align values, assumptions, and common practices with business needs and environmental and regulatory changes. This is more difficult than changing the strength of a culture but is frequently much more important.

  Building Employee Commitment, Identification, and Esprit de Corps

  Managing culture may be most important when the company is experiencing difficulties with coordinating or motivating employees. This is frequently the case after business reorganizations or extensive leadership changes. In these situations both attitude and control problems may arise. A strong organizational culture can help redirect employee actions in a way that is less obtrusive and more participative yet more effective than bureaucratic rules and regulations. A strong set of values and beliefs can be more effective in shaping behavior than a long list of rules and regulations and direct supervisor intervention, especially when leader legitimacy is an issue.

  A strong corporate spirit—an esprit de corps—plays a big part in motivating employees to work for collectively desired actions. When employees are highly committed to an organizational mission, they are more likely to go forward with actions that are consistent with company goals, even when these actions may not necessarily be in line with their individual or departmental priorities. When corporate philosophies saturate the organization in the form of a pervading culture, employees tend to identify more fully with the organization, resulting in increased commitment, organizational loyalty, and employee decisions that are in line with the organization’s espoused mission.

  Employee buy-in seems especially important in certain situations. For instance, when an organizational situation is complex and ambiguous, a set of common values and beliefs is extremely important as a regulatory mechanism. Ouchi (1981) refers to this as “clan control” and explains that subtle values sometimes cannot be put into words. A common understanding of organizational values among workers tends to prevent opportunistic behavior. This is especially true in our changing world of work when it is sometimes impossible for managers to “look over the shoulder” of and directly observe and manage employees. Today, effective management cannot merely consist of giving orders; it must focus on creating a shared vision and a sense of direction to people working in a company. The next three chapters focus on how leaders can generate organizational identification and increase buy-in among their employees in ways that respect employee needs and insights.

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