Organizational Culture Problems

12 Key excerpts on "Organizational Culture Problems"

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  eBook - ePub

  Multigenerational Communication in Organizations

  Insights from the Workplace

  • Michael G. Strawser, Stephanie A. Smith, Bridget Rubenking(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  5  Perspectives on Organizational Culture

  The remainder of the volume hinges on this chapter as the foundational component of the workplace. Organizational culture will be defined and presented within a historical context; then the authors will reflect on their findings and connect these findings to previous literature.

  5.1  Defining Organizational Culture

  2020 arguably changed many personal and professional elements of the workplace. For one, suddenly, more than ever before, organizations were under attack for their values or lack thereof. As organizations learned to pivot, downsize, re-establish values, and communicate with various stakeholders, society at large was not the only group experiencing change. Organizations were under a cultural attack in many ways and were forced to reconsider all elements of the business, which collectively contribute to an organization’s culture.

  Organizational culture is a saturated area of study in management, business, and communication industries. Therefore, the definition of organizational culture can be complex and varied. Typically, organizational culture is defined as a set of values, beliefs, assumptions, and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business (Deal & Kennedy, 1982 ). Organizational culture is important because it identifies the relevant employees, customers, suppliers, and competitors and defines how an organization will interact with these parties. Organizational culture has been correlated with competitive advantage (Barney, 1986 ), leadership (Schein, 2010 ), recruitment (Braddy, Meade, & Kroustalis, 2006 ), retention (Sheridan, 1992 ), and unethical behavior (Umphress, Bingham, & Mitchell, 2010 ), to name a few.

  Organizational culture helps us understand exactly how organizations accomplish goals and fulfill their missions and purposes (Sanchez, 2011 ). Culture is anecdotally referred to as “the way things are done around here,” similar to hearing “because I said so” from a parent while you were growing up. Organizational culture can seem arbitrary, but it is nonetheless pragmatic as defined by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997)

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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)

  At the individual level, organisational culture affects employees’ morale, job satisfaction, commitment, productivity and retention. Organisations cannot survive if they fail to adapt themselves to their changing environment. Central to these changes is culture change. If the dominant values and beliefs in the organisation do not change, no real changes happen. Organisational culture can support or suppress an organisation’s ability to use its full capacity and ability to perform effectively and efficiently. Culture makes organisations unique, and organisational culture change is concerned with how this uniqueness originates, evolves and operates (Needle, 2010 ). Advances in technology, the information explosion and big data have led to the emergence of new forms of organisation, such as virtual organisations. These are digitally enabled organisations, which form a network of cooperating entities and make resources available to each other in order to support a particular product or service. In virtual organisations, employees work in Organisational culture change – A process through which the organisation’s existing culture is critically evaluated, the desired values and beliefs are envisioned, the preferred culture is implemented, and the cultural changes are reinforced and sustained for a period deemed appropriate by the organisations. Chapter 7 Creat ing organisat ional cult ure | 167 dispersed geographical places. Activities and communication are coordinated and supported by information communication technologies, as globalisation and political and social issues contribute to making organisational culture change pervasive. As Denison ( 1996 , 2000 ) points out, organisational culture involves codes or logics that organise the behaviour of the people within the organisation, and the lessons learned in the past that may be important enough to pass on to the next generation.

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  Cultural Change in Modern World History

  Cases, Causes and Consequences

  • Peter N. Stearns(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  Getting a sense of how culture change in organizations can be studied, and what distinctive elements may be involved, is a vital subset of the larger phenomenon. What Is an Organizational Culture? Organizational beliefs and values often cluster around some specific issues that are not usually covered in more conventional cultural inquiry. An exhaustive list is neither feasible nor useful, but some sense of particular, and vividly current, examples sets the stage for the fuller consideration of the components of organizational culture change that follows. Universities, for example, offer quite varying valuations of the balance between teaching and research—an important cultural issue on campus, particularly but not exclusively for faculty. No university, particularly in contemporary culture, admits to anything but a devotion to teaching. On the other hand, most faculty (regardless of institution) have been trained to emphasize research. But in between these two poles is a great deal of cultural variance. Some institutions genuinely reward successful devotion to teaching, beyond lip service; others make it very clear that research credentials must come first, even if constructive teaching forms an icing on the cake. Many CULTURAL CHANGE IN MODERN WORLD HISTORY 94 institutions, increasingly interested in teaching, struggle to figure out how to implement a higher priority in fact, against strong cultural traditions in academia where research productivity is the name of the game. 3 Many contemporary organizations, public and private alike, grapple with cultural issues around gender, which is without doubt an increasingly important issue in many current social contexts. Specific concerns include facilitating greater opportunities for promotion for women; putting a lid on sexual harassment; and dealing with pay and family differentials.

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  Leadership and the Culture of Trust

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

    (Publisher)

  As the general society assumes this value as a priority, organizations follow. These and many other forces, such as life experiences, past tradition, socioeconomic class, and political circumstances of the members of any organization, are all strong cultural forces that direct change (Reynolds, Shaping Culture 69 1986). They are equally strong in resisting change and preserving a de- sired former culture. Culture is at the symbolic level of existence. Or- ganizational culture is the whole range of shared models of social action, containing both real and ideal elements accepted by members and en- forced by organizational systems. We learn and internalize our values and our standards from society. Our values change as a result of changes in our interaction with the larger society. When someone challenges a settled belief in practice, the choice is whether to change the circumstances or change the value. Pres- sure to change values occurs when we feel dissatisfaction with current values as applied in social context. As noted, sometimes a culture becomes maladaptive, a situation where the implicit culture and formal policy differ. One way to turn around a maladaptive organization is to determine the implicit culture (as op- posed to the formal one) and correct it. These culture gaps divide energy and commitment. They allow multiple goals or methods of goal attain- ment to develop. They blur commitment and reduce trust levels. Our organizations today need leadership in these situations to counter this cultural values pluralism and to give needed attention to cultural main- tenance tasks. STRATEGIC PLANNING Strategic planning is a popular technology today. Many organizations are undertaking strategic planning projects as a way to focus and con- centrate their resources on what their leaders see as horizon issues and programs. The key elements in strategic planning are cultural.

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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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  Organizational Studies and Business Models

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

    (Publisher)

  This is primarily done through organizational comm.-unication, 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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  Gender, Power and Organisations

  An Introduction

  • Susan Halford(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  It may be related prim- arily to a pre-existing paradigm of cultural beliefs and attitudes ende- mic in the wider society which are imported into an organisation through its members, who then help to shape and determine the organ- isation. Alternatively, the culture is sometimes conceptualised as an internal phenomenon, produced by and within the organisation. Organisations consciously construct their own values, language and rituals, which are an important by-product tn the production of goods and services, indeed, often a part of this performance. For example, certain mainstream management writers (for instance, Deal and Ken- nedy 1982, Peters and Waterman 1982) identify organisational rituals which are designed to integrate and unify the workforce, as well as ensure commitment and enthusiasm for the organisation, its policies and products. Annual golf matches, go-kart racing, after-work pub sessions, Christmas parties, company gifts to reward performance, the creation of company 'heroes' ('Employee of the Month') and the commissioning of corporate logos, are all examples of management practices which are designed to bring a certain 'spirit' or 'ethos' into the organisation, as well as to represent it to the outside world. Such practices are widely evident in UK and US organisations, both public and private sector, which may be seen to be following Peters and OrganisatioMl Cultures 67 Waterman's (1982) advice that companies with 'strong cultures' are high performers. In this structural perspective, therefore, culture is the mobi- lisation of hierarchical power, the way management can deliberately attempt to achieve a unitary organisation with collective consensus. It works not only to give employees a sense of identity and direction, but, by embracing individuals with an all-inclusive meaning system, is assumed to eradicate differences between organisational members.

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  Organisational Behaviour

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

    (Publisher)

  The bank considers the complaints it has received on this subject and what measures can be taken to reduce them. This results, among other things, in employees having to undergo training in customer-friendly behaviour. External influences on the culture of an organisation include legislation by the government and the EU, other companies in the sector, market developments and mergers. Based on the organisation’s collective experiences of success and failure, common values, norms and beliefs arise about what is correct and worth striving for. The culture of an organisation is thus a product of various internal and external factors. Organisations differ from each other in this respect because they are exposed to different internal and external problems or opt for different solutions to the same problems. Schein’s theory closely matches the group development theory described in chapter 3. In a group, shared values, norms and ideas also arise. They result from the attempts of the group’s members to bring about satisfactory methods of collaboration. These methods are related to both internal matters (internal integration) and the necessity to adapt to the environment (external adaptation). Once an organisational culture has been developed, it continues to exist despite the fact that some employees leave the organisation and new employees are recruited. The culture of an organisation is relatively stable because the culture is confirmed and transmitted every day. © Noordhoff Uitgevers bv ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE 305 8 § 8.7 Transmitting organisational culture The transmission and maintenance of an organisational culture occurs in several ways. It begins with the selection of new personnel. As far as possible, employees are hired who fit in with the existing culture. In the selection process, the interview is an important way for both individuals and organisations to assess the fit.

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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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  Organization and Management Problem Solving

  A Systems and Consulting Approach

  • James T Ziegenfuss, Jr(Authors)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Solving Cultural System Problems 265 • The feeling or climate conveyed in an organization by the physical lay-out and the way in which its members interact with customers or other outsiders None of these dimensions individually represents the culture of the organi-zation. Taken together, however, they reflect and give meaning to the concept of organizational culture. (Hellriegel et al., 2001, p. 512) This cultural dimension has been defined and elaborated by Schein's work. Schein (1993a, 1993b, 1996a, 1996b, 1997) has described the formation and maintenance of culture as problems of external adaptation to a changing busi-ness environment and internal integration of technology, climate, and structure. He indicated that culture is formed as the organization acts on and responds to environmental trends and pressures. This external adaptation merges with the internal integration of social-psychological and technical dimensions to form corporate culture. Schein's formative characteristics of culture include the following. In our model, his points provide both clues to potential problems and points of intervention.

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  Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

  Evidence-based Lessons for Creating Sustainable Organizations

  • Steve M. Jex, Thomas W. Britt, Cynthia A. Thompson, Cynthia A Thompson(Authors)
  • 2024(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Prior to his current job, he was a statisti- cal consultant for the University of South Florida Muma College of Business. He received his Ph.D. in I-O Psychology from the University of South Florida in 2021. Organizational Culture and Climate 658 organizations, or by outsiders, the challenge may serve to strengthen employees’ beliefs in those basic assumptions. For example, if a new employee refuses to accept the basic assumptions that are inherent in an organiza- tion’s culture, this will typically force other employees to “bring that person into line.” In the process of doing so, the core values and assumptions may be strengthened or reaffirmed, regardless of whether that person eventually accepts them, actively resists them, or ultimately leaves the organization. It is worth noting, however, that while many organizational culture experts view culture as being highly resistant to change, as we see in Comment 12.4, there is not complete con- sensus among organizational researchers on this issue. In nearly all reviews of organizational culture over the years, one of the common assertions is that once the culture of an organization is estab- lished, it is extremely difficult to change (Ostroff et al., 2013; Schein, 2010). This is because, by definition, culture represents beliefs and assumptions that are so rarely questioned that they are not even conscious. Thus, it takes a lot of effort to get people to question basic assump- tions and, in the process, change culture. Although this is by far the dominant view- point within the literature, there is surpris- ingly little research to support this viewpoint (Ostroff et al., 2013). There is also some rea- son to believe that in some cases changing the culture of an organization may not be as difficult as people think. Wilkins and Ouchi (1983), for example, argued many years ago that the idea of organizational culture being difficult to change comes largely from cul- tural anthropology.

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  Introduction to Human Resource Management

  A Guide to HR in Practice

  • Charles Leatherbarrow, Janet Fletcher(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • CIPD - Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  These seven characteristics: innovation and risk taking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness and stability, when taken together, define how employees perceive the organisation. Each characteristic may be more or less dominant in different organisations, so defining the perceived prevailing culture. Lorsch and Tierney (2002) suggest that the true nature of an organisation’s culture is what its members do when they are not being observed. Why study organisational culture? By studying an organisation’s culture, it enables HR practitioners, managers and consultants to understand why people in organisations behave as they do. Attempts can then be made to change an overtly negative culture to make it more conducive to the achievement of section, department and overall organisational objectives. Moorhead and Griffin (1992) consider that organisational culture probably exerts the greatest influence on individual behaviour when the culture is taken for granted. One of the major reasons that organisational culture is such a powerful influence on employees is that it is not explicit. Instead, it is an implicit { meaning it is not plainly expressed } part of the employees’ values and beliefs. According to Greenberg (2013, p370): ‘It would be reasonable to think of organisations as unique because of the various cultural forces that shaped them. Indeed, culture plays several important roles in organisations.’ Greenberg (ibid) suggests that culture: provides a sense of identity; generates commitment to an organisation; clarifies and reinforces standards of behaviour. Zhang and Iles (2017, cited in Rees and Smith, 2017) point out the difficulties of offering a silver-bullet approach { meaning – the best/most appropriate method } by suggesting the type of culture that should be adopted to best deliver corporate goals

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