Organizational Culture

1. Organizational Culture RichardHopper Workshop on Strategy for the New University - Kazahkstan Senior Education Specialist The World Bank December 17, 2008

2. What is it? • shared philosophy • shared values • shared behaviors • shared habits • Shared rules • shared climate

3. Leadership • Combination of… • Management • Culture • Creation (or destruction) of culture is a key function of leadership • Leaders create cultures – managers and administrators work within the cultures created by leaders

4. Leaders, founders, process • Leaders are generally individuals who can influence the group to adopt a certain approach to a problem • Culture stems from three elements: • founders values • shared learning experiences of members • new beliefs brought in by new members or leaders but adopted by the group. • To generate culture is less about the content of a plan and more about the process of learning during the planning process. • What kinds of questions do leaders ask and how they set the agendas for meetings?

5. Questions and rituals provide clues • What happens in conflict or when someone is insubordinate? • How budgets are created in an organization reveals leader beliefs • Ritualizing certain behaviors can be a powerful reinforcer.

6. Values and assumptions • Can be imposed by leader on a group • Culture is stable and the result of group experiences and learning • Become accepted and internalized by the group

7. How to determine theorganizational culture • Ask questions • There should be a coherence to the responses… even though it is intangible. • Do not ask: “what is the culture here?” • Such a question won’t tell you much • Ask instead questions that get to the root of the shared concept…

8. Questions to ask… • What is important here? • What does it take to succeed here? • Success can be defined differently by faculty, administrators, students… depending on their role and their tasks • What was it like to join this organization? • What is the history of this organization (department, program)? • Who was involved in its establishment? In its development? • Who was instrumental in making it what it is today?

9. More questions to ask • What are the critical problems? • What is the basic mission? • What are the specific goals? • How do you achieve these goals in your role? • What are the ways of working? • How do people feel around here? • What gets done? Who does it? • Who thought of that idea? Who thought of that method of practice? • Tell me the story about the founder of this program...

10. More clues • Examine published documents, brochures, applications, handbooks for staff, materials, etc. • A consensus on mission and goals (how to achieve mission) is important and not always present • If you challenge cultural assumptions, people generally get defensive… that’s when you know that you’re challenging the established or shared norms. • Group stability is important – universities have students moving through in a short time, so the stability is diminished 

11. Even more clues • Examine what are new members taught • Architecture, lore, myths, stories, slogans, published values, rituals, ceremonies • Easy to see; hard to understand • Not all groups develop integrated cultures … there can be conflict and ambiguity • Can a large organization or university have a uniform culture?

12. Midlife crisis • In midlife organizations the leadership issue is more complex... [new] CEOs do not have the same options as the founders and owners. • At this stage, the culture defines leadership more than leadership creates culture. • All organizations undergo a process of differentiation as they grow… can work on sub cultures • The objective is to socialize the culture