Organizational Culture

1. OrganizationalCulture

2. Corporate Culture Hits Schwab Executives at Charles Schwab & Co. underestimated the influence of organizational culture on behavior when they acquired U.S. Trust AP/Wide World Photos.

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. AP/Wide World Photos.

4. Artifacts • Stories/legends • Rituals/ceremonies • Organizational language • Physical structures/décor Shared values • Conscious beliefs • Evaluate what is good or bad, right or wrong Shared assumptions • Unconscious, taken-for-granted perceptions or beliefs • Mental models of ideals Elements of Organizational Culture Visible Invisible (below the surface)

5. Meaning of Cultural Content • Cultural content refers to the relative ordering of beliefs, values, and assumptions. • Example: Software company SAS Institute has an employee-focused culture that emphasizes work-life balance. • An organization emphasizes only a handful of values out of dozens or hundreds of values that exist.

6. Organizational 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

7. Mayo Clinic Deciphers its Culture Courtesy of the Mayo Clinic To decipher its culture and identify ways to reinforce it at the two newer sites, the Mayo Clinic retained an anthropologist who shadowed employees, joined physicians on patient visits, and posed as a patient to observe what happens in waiting rooms.

8. 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

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

10. Artifacts: Organizational Language • Words used to address people, describe customers, etc. • Leaders use phrases and special vocabulary as cultural symbols • eg. Referring to “clients” rather than “customers” • Language also found in subcultures • eg. Whirlpool’s “PowerPoint culture”

11. Artifacts: Physical Structures/Symbols • Building structure -- may shape and reflect culture • Example: Oakley’s “interplanetary headquarters” looks like a vault, representing the eyewear and clothing company’s protective culture • Office design conveys cultural meaning • Furniture, office size, wall hangings

12. Benefits of Strong Corporate Cultures SocialControl Strong Organizational Culture SocialGlue ImprovesSense-Making

13. Problems with Strong Cultures • Culture content might be misaligned with the organization’s environment. • Strong cultures may focus on mental models that could be limiting • Strong cultures suppress dissenting values from subcultures.

14. Adaptive Organizational Cultures • External focus -- firm’s success depends on continuous change • Focus on processes more than goals • Strong sense of ownership • Proactive --seek out opportunities

15. Org Culture and Ethics • Executives view org culture as one of three main influences on business ethics • Organizational culture also an ethical problem when it is very strong --corporate cults

16. 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

17. 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

18. Strengthening Organizational Culture

19. Whole Foods Spreads its Culture When expanding operations, Whole Foods Market maintains its culture through a ‘yoghurt culture’ strategy. This is a socialization process in which current employees who carry the grocer’s unique culture are transferred to new stores so recently-hired employees learn and embrace that culture more quickly.

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

21. 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

22. EncounterStage Role Management Stages of Socialization Pre-EmploymentStage • Outsider • Gathering information • Forming psychological contract • Newcomer • Testingexpectations • Insider • Changing roles and behavior • Resolving conflicts

23. B C D A Pre-employment Socialization Conflicts A: Firm “sells” the job and company, hides negative info Individual Attracts Organization Organization Attracts Individual B: Applicant polishes up the résumé to look good C: Applicant avoids asking important questions that may be awkward (e.g. pay) Individual Selects Organization Organization Selects Individual D: Company avoids using valid selection tests that might scare away applicants

24. Realistic Job Previews • A balance of positive and negative information about the job and work context • Benefits of RJPs • Less turnover, higher job performance • Less reality shock • Vaccination effect • Builds loyalty

25. OrganizationalCulture