1. Organizational Culture
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Re-aligning Dell’s Organizational Culture
Dell’s “winning” culture, which emphasized cost efficiency and competitiveness, became more of a liability as the market moved toward a preference for style and innovation.

3. Organizational Culture Defined
The basic pattern of shared values and assumptions governing the way employees within an organization think about and act on problems and opportunities.

4. Elements of Organizational Culture
Artifacts of organizational culture
Elements of Organizational Culture
Organizational culture
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5. Content of Organizational Culture
The relative ordering of values.
A few dominant values
Example: Dell -- efficiency and competitiveness
Problems with measuring org culture
Oversimplifies diversity of possible values
Ignore shared assumptions
Adopts an “integration” perspective
An organization’s culture is fuzzy:
Diverse subcultures (“fragmentation”)
Values exist within individuals, not work units

6. Organizational Culture Profile
Org Culture Dimensions
Dimension Characteristics
Innovation
Experimenting, opportunity seeking, risk taking, few rules, low cautiousness
Stability
Predictability, security, rule-oriented
Respect for people
Fairness, tolerance
Outcome orientation
Action oriented, high expectations, results oriented
Attention to detail
Precise, analytic
Team orientation
Collaboration, people-oriented
Aggressiveness
Competitive, low emphasis on social responsibility
Source: O’Reilly et al (1991)

7. Organizational Subcultures
Dominant culture -- most widely shared values and assumptions
Subcultures
Located throughout the organization
Can enhance or oppose (countercultures) firm’s dominant culture
Two functions of countercultures:
provide surveillance and critique, ethics
source of emerging values

8. Cirque du Soleil’s Risky Culture
Cirque du Soleil’s founders promote a risk-taking and creative corporate culture. They frequently take gambles on new forms of creativity and initiatives.

9. Artifacts in Organizational Culture
Observable symbols and signs of culture
Physical structures, ceremonies, language, stories
Maintain and transmit organization’s culture
Not easy to decipher artifacts -- need many of them

10. Artifacts: Stories and Legends
Social prescriptions of desired (undesired) behavior
Provides a realistic human side to expectations
Most effective stories and legends:
Describe real people
Assumed to be true
Known throughout the organization
Are prescriptive

11. Artifacts: Rituals and Ceremonies
programmed routines
(eg., how visitors are greeted)
Ceremonies
planned activities for an audience
(eg., award ceremonies)

12. Artifacts: Organizational Language
Words used to address people, describe customers, etc.
Leaders use phrases and special vocabulary as cultural symbols
Language also found in subcultures

13. Artifacts: Physical Structures/Symbols
Building structure -- may shape and reflect culture
Office design conveys cultural meaning
Furniture, office size, wall hangings
Courtesy of Microsoft Corp.

14. Organizational Culture Strength
How widely and deeply employees hold the company’s dominant values and assumptions
Strong cultures exist when:
most employees understand/embrace the dominant values
values and assumptions are institutionalized through well-established artifacts
culture is long lasting -- often traced back to founder

15. Functions of Strong Corporate Cultures
Culture strength advantages depend on:
Environment fit
Not cult-like
Adaptive culture
Functions of Strong Cultures
Control system
Social glue
Sense-making
Organizational Outcomes
Org performance
Employee well-being

16. Contingencies of Org Culture & Performance
Effect of organizational culture strength on organizational performance is moderate
Need to consider contingencies:
Ensure culture-environment fit
Avoid strength to level of corporate cult
Cults restrict mental models, suppress subcultures
Create an adaptive culture
External focus, process focus, ownership, proactive

17. Merging Cultures: Bicultural Audit
Part of due diligence in merger
Minimizes risk of cultural collision by diagnosing companies before merger
Three steps in bicultural audit:
1. Examine artifacts
2. Analyze data for cultural conflict/compatibility
3. Identify strategies and action plans to bridge cultures

18. Merging Organizational Cultures
Assimilation
Acquired company embraces acquiring firm’s cultural values
Deculturation
Acquiring firm imposes its culture on unwilling acquired firm
Integration
Cultures combined into a new composite culture
Separation
Merging companies remain separate with their own culture

19. Changing/Strengthening Organizational Culture

20. Changing/Strengthening Organizational Culture
Actions of Founders/Leaders
Org culture sometimes reflects the founder’s personality
Transformational Leaders can reshape culture -- organizational change practices
Aligning Artifacts
Artifacts keep culture in place
e.g., building structure, communicating stories, transferring culture carriers

21. Changing/Strengthening Organizational Culture
Introducing Culturally Consistent Rewards
Rewards are powerful artifacts – reinforce culturally-consistent behavior
Attracting, Selecting, Socializing Employees
Attraction-selection-attrition theory
Socialization practices

22. Attraction-Selection-Attrition Theory
Organizations become more homogeneous (stronger culture) through:
Attraction -- applicants self-select and weed out companies based on compatible values
Selection -- Applicants selected based on values congruent with organization’s culture
Attrition -- Employee quite or are forced out when their values oppose company values

23. Lindblad’s Shipshape Socialization
Lindblad Expeditions can’t afford to have crew members jump ship soon after starting the job, so the adventure cruise company gives applicants a DVD showing a realistic picture of what it’s like to work on board. This realistic job preview is one part of the company’s socialization process.

24. Organizational Socialization Defined
The process by which individuals learn the values, expected behaviors, and social knowledge necessary to assume their roles in the organization.

25. Socialization: Learning & Adjustment
Learning Process
Newcomers make sense of the organization’s physical, social, and strategic/cultural dynamics
Adjustment Process
Newcomers need to adapt to their new work environment
New work roles
New team norms
New corporate cultural values

26. Stages of Socialization
Pre-Employment Stage
Outsider
Gathering information
Forming psychological contract
Encounter Stage
Newcomer
Testing expectations
Role Management
Insider
Changing roles and behavior
Resolving conflicts

27. Improving Organizational Socialization
Realistic job preview (RJP)
A balance of positive and negative information about the job and work context
Socialization agents
Supervisors– technical information, performance feedback, job duties
Coworkers – ideal when accessible, role models, tolerant, and supportive

28. Organizational Culture
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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