Organizational Culture, Change, and Leadership

Organizational culture

A system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs indicating what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior in a given organization.

Assumptions

Taken for granted beliefs about human nature and reality.

Values

Shared principles, standards, and goals.

Artifacts

The visible and tangible elements of culture.

Mission statement

A statement of purpose, describing who the company is and what it does.

Rituals

Repetitive activities within an organization that have symbolic meaning.

Innovative cultures

Cultures that are flexible, adaptable, and experiment with new ideas.

Aggressive cultures

Cultures that value competitiveness and outperforming competitors.

Outcome-oriented cultures

Cultures that emphasize achievement, results, and action as important values.

Stable cultures

Cultures that are predictable, rule-oriented, and bureaucratic.

People-oriented cultures

Cultures that value fairness, supportiveness, and respecting individual rights.

Team-oriented cultures

Cultures that are collaborative and emphasize cooperation among employees.

Detail-oriented cultures

Cultures that emphasize precision and paying attention to details.

Service culture

A culture that emphasizes high-quality service.

Safety culture

A culture that emphasizes safety as a strong workplace norm.

Strong culture

A culture that is shared by organizational members.

Onboarding

The process through which new employees learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to function effectively within an organization.

Formal orientation program

Program that indoctrinates new employees to the company culture, and introduces them to their new jobs and colleagues.

Mentors

Trusted people who provide employees with advice and support regarding career-related matters.

Creating a Sense of Urgency

Explain to employees why changing the fundamental way in which business is done is so important.

Changing Leaders and Other Key Players

Culture change often follows changes at the highest levels of the organization.

Role Modeling

Employees modify their own beliefs and behaviors to reflect those of the leader.

Training

Well-crafted training programs can teach employees the new norms and behavioral styles.

Changing the Reward System

Rewarding employees who embrace the company's new values and promoting these employees can make sure the changes have a lasting impact.

Creating New Symbols and Stories

Developing new rituals, symbols, and stories can increase the chance of a successful culture change.

Disrupted Habits

The loss of familiar habits and patterns can be jarring.

Personality

People who have a positive self-concept are better at coping with change.

Feelings of Uncertainty

The feeling that the future is unclear creates stress and leads to a sense of lost control.

Fear of Failure

People who feel that they can perform well under the new system are more likely to be committed to the proposed change.

Personal Impact of Change

People tend to be more welcoming of change that is favorable to them.

Prevalence of Change

A history of unsuccessful changes may cause people to feel skeptical toward newly planned changes.

Perceived Loss of Power

Losing status is particularly painful for high-status individuals.

Communication

The process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.

Sender

The person initiating a communication.

Encode

The translation of ideas into words.

Medium

The way that a sender's message is conveyed.

Receiver

The person who a message is intended to reach.

Decode

The process of assigning meaning to a received message.

Noise

Anything that interferes with or distorts the message being transformed.

Filtering

The distortion or withholding of information to manage a person's reactions.

Selective perception

The personal filtering of what we see and hear to suit our own needs.

Information overload

What occurs when the information processing demands on an individual's time to perform interactions and internal calculations exceed the supply or capacity of time available for such processing.

Jargon

A specific set of acronyms or words unique to a specific group or profession.

Communication Channels

The channel or medium used to communicate a message affects how accurately the message will be received.

Grapevine

The informal gossip network within a given organization.

Use Written Communication When

Conveying facts, the message needs to become part of a permanent file, there is little time urgency.

Use Verbal Communication When

Conveying emotion and feelings, the message does not need to be permanent, there is time urgency.

Code-switching

Adjusting one's style of speech, appearance, behavior, and expression in ways that will optimize the comfort of others in exchange for fair treatment, quality service, and employment opportunities.

Voice

Communication directed to someone higher in the organizational hierarchy with the perceived power or authority to take action on the problem or suggestion.

Psychological safety

The belief that you won't be punished when you make a mistake.

High and Low Context Cultures

Cultures also vary in terms of the desired amount of situational context related to interpreting communication.

Well-intentioned feedback

May prevent people from sharing information if it shifts attention away from the storyteller.

Affect

A generic term that covers a broad range of feelings people experience.

Emotion

Feeling that occurs quickly and profoundly in response to an event that is desired (positive) or undesired (negative).

Positive emotions

Emotions such as joy, love, and surprise that can result from desired events.

Negative emotions

Emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness that can result from undesired events.

Empathy

The ability to understand the emotions of another person and use that understanding to inform the responses to those emotions.

Emotional intelligence

How people can understand each other more completely by becoming more aware of their own and others' emotions.

Self-awareness

This exists when you are able to accurately perceive, evaluate, and display appropriate emotions.

Emotion regulation (Self-management)

This exists when you are able to direct your emotions in a positive way when needed.

Social awareness

This exists when you are able to understand how others feel.

Relationship management

This exists when you are able to help others manage their own emotions and truly establish supportive relationships with others.

Persona

A professional role that involves acting out potentially artificial feelings as part of a job.

Emotional labor

The regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes.

Emotional Contagion

Transmitting emotions to another person by displaying them.

Surface acting

Behavior requiring individuals to exhibit physical signs, such as smiles, that reflect emotions they don't feel.

Deep acting

Behavior requiring an individual to try to experience the emotions they are displaying.

Genuine acting

Behavior requiring an individual to display emotions aligned with their own.

Cognitive dissonance

A term that refers to a mismatch among emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.

Power

The ability to influence the behavior of others to get what you want.

Dependency

The more that a person or unit is dependent on you, the more power you have.

Scarcity

In the context of dependency, refers to the uniqueness of a resource.

Importance

The value of the resource.

Substitutability

One's ability to find another option that works as well as the one offered.

Formal leaders

Those who hold a position of authority and may utilize the power that comes from their position, as well as their personal power to influence others.

Informal leaders

Those without a formal position of authority within the organization but demonstrate leadership by influencing those around them through personal forms of power.

Trait theories of leadership

Theories that focus on stable characteristics of a person, including personality, ability, and physical characteristics.

Leadership emergence

The tendency to be seen as a leader in situations where there is no formal leader.

Leadership effectiveness

The leader's success in achieving goals, influencing others, and having satisfied employees.

Agentic behaviors

Behaviors that are forceful, competitive, dominant, assertive, confident, determined, and independent.

Communal behaviors

Behaviors that are warm, gentle, friendly, caring, understanding, sensitive to others' needs, and compassionate.

Expectations based on Prototypes

People who fit the image of a job are seen as a better fit for that job, regardless of skills.

Autocratic decision making

What occurs when leaders make the decision alone without necessarily involving employees in the decision-making process.

Democratic decision making

What occurs when leaders and employees participate in the making of the decision.

Laissez-faire decision making

What occurs when leaders leave employees alone to make the decision.

Task-oriented leader behaviors

Behaviors that structure the roles of subordinates, provide them with instructions, and behave in ways that will increase the performance of the group.

People-oriented leader behaviors

Behaviors that show concern for employee feelings and treat employees with respect.

Transformational leaders

Leaders who lead employees by aligning employee goals with the leader's goals.

Transactional leaders

Leaders who ensure that employees demonstrate the right behaviors and provide resources in exchange.

Charisma

Behaviors leaders demonstrate that create confidence in, commitment to, and admiration for the leader.

Inspirational motivation

When leaders come up with a vision that is inspiring to others.

Intellectual stimulation

When leaders challenge organizational norms and encourage employees to think creatively and work harder.

Individualized consideration

When leaders show personal care and concern for the well-being of their followers.

Contingent rewards

Rewarding employees for their accomplishments.

Active management by exception

Leaving employees alone but proactively predicting potential problems and preventing them from occurring.

Passive management by exception

Leaving employees alone but coming to the rescue if anything goes wrong.

Trust

The belief that the other party will show integrity, fairness, and predictability in one's actions toward the other.

High-quality LMX relationships

A high-quality, trust-based relationship between a leader and a follower.

Low-quality LMX relationships

A situation in which the leader and the employee have lower levels of trust, liking, and respect toward each other.

Servant leadership

A leadership approach that defines the leader's role as serving the needs of others.