1. Unpacking Organizational Culture

2. Sensemaking Structuring what is unknown into the known
Members contribute to the creation of the organization's culture by making sense of their work environment, work activities, and the people they work with
Individuals make plausible, coherent, and reasonable accounts of what happens in the work environment

3. Sensemaking Sensemaking is ongoing
Sensemaking never really starts because it really never stops
What are the occasions for sensemaking?
Ambiguity and uncertainty
Ambiguity exists when there are numerous cues that allow for any number of interpretations
Uncertainty exists when there are not enough cues to create any interpretation
You engage in sensemaking to create order in the organization

4. Sensemaking Information load, complexity, and turbulence
First, as information load increases, you take steps to organize it into manageable chunks
You might forget some of the information, file some, or filter other information out
Some of it will stand out, become more salient than others
Second, the greater the complexity the more it will influence what you notice and what you do not notice
The more complex the information you deal with, the more likely it is that you will create habits or routines for handling it
Third, as turbulence increases, there are more occasions for sensemaking
A highly turbuIent environment is one in which there is instability or a high frequency of change
Turbulence: irregular motion especially when characterized by up-and-downs

5. Sensemaking Sensemaking is a social process
Social activity constrains how you make sense of the event, what are other organizational members saying about it?
Will your sensemaking always match the sensemaking of others?
Organizational cultures as a set of subcultures
Individuals in different subcultures may create equivalent or different views
Organizational members can participate in the same event and produce different meanings
Plausibility, rather than accuracy, drives the sensemaking process

6. Sensemaking An example, a study of flight attendants
Air travel for flight attendants is a cultural performance
Organizational members participate in a co-construction of meaning
Normal routines and emergencies of air travel
Flight attendants are required to manage the tensions
Smiling and assuring passengers even when flying through turbulent weather

7. Sensemaking
How do flight attendants make sense when ambiguous and uncertain situations occur?
Flight attendants must make sense of anything that is non-routine or presented as an emergency and when ongoing cultural performance is interrupted
Based upon their training and interactions with other flight attendants, they make sense
Organizational values and norms learned in training and prescribed in procedures
Stereotypes of what flight attendants should say and do
The interruption is turned back into the dominant routine (e.g. smiling and saying everything is okay)
To the passenger, the flight attendant is a representative of the organization, routinely performing that organization's culture for passengers

8. Sensemaking
The process of identifying what is the organization's culture is the process of sensemaking
Revealed in the stories organizational members tell about their organizational experiences
The meanings that are created can become codified as values, norms, or beliefs that emerge from the stories and interactions of organizational members

9. The Structure of Organizational Culture
A Consensus View of Organizational Culture
A Divided View of Organizational Culture

10. A Consensus View of Organizational Culture
A consensus view of organizational culture is based on the congruence of artifacts, values, and assumptions jointly held or shared by organizational members
The more unity there is among members, the more consensual the view of organizational culture
Mutually consistent interpretations are abundant
Little variation occurs
Generally, a charismatic or otherwise strong leader shapes this integration by initially generating the value and beliefs and then uses strategies to publicize and propagate them

11. A Divided View of Organizational Culture
The altemative view is that different groups, or subcultures, are created as organizational members interact in their daily work routines
Different sets of artifacts, values, and assumptions
Subcultures can develop in several ways and can have various relationships to one another
Functional or occupational roles; geographical locations; product, market, or technology distinctions; and hierarchical levels
When two or more organizations merge or work together in a joint venture or strategic alliance
Age, gender, raciaI, ethnic, sexual orientation, physical ability, and family status distinctions among employees
Employees with similar characteristics and interests, friendships

12. A Divided View of Organizational Culture
Forms of Cultural Division
In contrast to the clear consensus of an
integrated view of organizational culture,
there are two configurations for examining
the relationships of subcultures to one
another
Differentiation
Fragmentation

13. Differentiation
Organizational members may be differentiated into subgroups relative to their inconsistent interpretations
Managers and employees
Supervisors and workers
Home office employees and field office employees
Oppositional thinking (i.e. us versus them) with each subculture concerned about the power they hold relative to the other subculture

14. Differentiation Multiple subcultures
Organizational values were different among organizational units, by hierarchical level, and by age group, ethnicity and gender
Consistency and clarity about what makes each subculture distinct from others
The problem?
Organizational members may belong to more than one subculture
To which subculture does a 30-year-old female manager in purchasing belong?
The subculture distinction based on function, hierarchy, age, or gender?
She belongs to each
The artifacts, values, and assumptions central to each subculture may conflict with the artifacts, values, and assumptions of other subcultures

15. Differentiation Espoused values and enacted values
An espoused value is one presented to others as a core value or as central to the organization’s mission or treatment of employees
A gap between what an organization promotes and what an organization does
Espoused values:
Acting with uncompromising honesty and integrity in everything we do
Respecting our social and physical environment around the world
Alignment?

16. Differentiation
A careful analysis of most any organizational culture will expose expoused values that are not enacted
An example
According to organizational policy, employees can take annual leave for personal use, sick leave, family and medical leave, and leave without pay
All of the policies are available on the agency's website
Formally, all employees have also equal access to any of the policies that fit their specific circumstances
Discrepancies and contradictions

17. Differentiation
An employee complaining that since she is single she can not take advantage of them
Employees with family members have more time off from work
Some are reluctant to take advantage of them, as their colleagues complain about completing their unfinished work
From the organization’s perspective, the work-family policies are a benefit to help employees balance their work and family lives
Conversations among employees influence the way in which employees use the policies, or feel about, or act toward those who use
The espoused value is never realized

18. Differentiation
The cultural differences and inconsistencies revealed from a differentation perspective are viewed as being inescapeable, and often desirable
In this perspective, the inconsistencies between or among subcultures are usually clear
Recognize, that all subculture differences are not necessarily conflicting
A subculture may also enhance the primary organizational culture by supporting the core values and norms of the organization
Subcultures can exist together in harmony, conflict, or indifference

19. Fragmentation
The second divided perspective for viewing organizational culture
Ambiguity reigns
There is neither clear consistency nor clear inconsistency
The organization is not so neatly divided
Organizational members have multiple, overlapping identities making it difficult to create organization- wide consensus

20. Fragmentation
Many interpretations and views exist that consensus can not be achieved throughout the organization or within subgroups
A culture of ambiguity
An example, several sexual haressment charges in a municipality
Promoting a zero tolerance sexual harassment policy
The organization's newsletter
Specialized training
Ambiguity about the policy and its effect on the organization's culture
Men not women perceived higher levels of sexual conduct in the organization
Employees who scored higher on the post-training evaluation did not support the organization's zero-tolerance policy to a greater extent than employees whose scores were lower
Employees' beliefs about sexual conduct in the organization and the influence of the zero tolerance policy were not neatly divided along the lines of men and women.
Creating ambiguity rather than managing it

21. The Three Perspectives

22. The Three Perspectives
By focusing on one or the other, we may miss the way in which organizational members construct and enact their culture through communication
Using all three perspectives allows consensus, consistency and ambiguity to be releaved as they actually exist in an organization’s culture

23. The Three Perspectives
Think of a kaleidoscope-a tube-shaped optical instrument
When put to your eye, it can be rotated to produce an infinite succession of brightly colored symmetrical designs
Martin’s perspectives illuminates unique aspects of an organization’s culture
For the most complete view of a culture, each perspective must be applied and then interpreted relative to the others

24. Organizational Culture or Organizational Climate
Organizational culture and climate are different constructs in communication literature
Climate is based on individual perceptions of the work environment
Organizational members’ perceptions of an organization’s policies, practices and procedures
Culture focuses on the underlying context assumptions and values while climate focuses on the surface features of organizational context

25. Organizational Climate
In Supportive Climates
In Defensive Climate
Managers view themselves and their employees as equal
Managers view themselves as superior
Managers ask questions and analyze answers
Managers pass judgment
Communication is straightforward
Communication is manipulative, full of hidden meanings and ambiguity
Managers encourage group problem solving
Managers impose solutions
Managers are flexible and willing to change their views
Managers are dogmatic and certain about answers
Managers empathize with employees
Managers are indifferent to employees’ feelings