Organizational Culture Notes

Organizational Culture (OC) is about "how people do things around here" (Terry Deal and Allan Kennedy).

Organizational culture is recognizable when observed, such as Google's culture, which is expressed through its logo on various items, play areas like ping-pong tables and bowling alleys, and free food and restaurants.
Examines the shared characteristics among individuals within an organization.

OC is a set of norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes guiding actions of members and significantly impacting employee behavior (Schein, 1992).
Denison et al. (2012) define OC as the underlying values, protocols, beliefs, and assumptions held by organizational members, strongly supported by the organizational structure and fundamental principles.

Shared meanings, assumptions, norms, and values governing work behavior.
Symbolic, textual, and narrative structures in which norms and values are encoded.
Structural causes and consequences of cultural forums and their relationship to organizational effectiveness.

Martin and Meyerson:
- Practices: formal scripts, rules, job descriptions, performance assessments.
- Informal customs: norms of communication, style, conflict management, when to talk, how to speak, dress codes.
- Artifacts: logos, tools signifying the organization.
- Rituals, languages, stories, jargons, meetings differentiating groups.

Hofstede (2011) identified six attributes of organizational cultures:

Culture as the dominant force within an organization.
Defines culture as a pattern of shared assumptions controlling almost everything within organizations.
Key questions:
- How do we relate to one another?
- How do we perceive things like truth and falsehood?
- What is the balance of task and relationship-oriented behavior?
- How do we seek to fulfill ourselves through our work?
- How do we manage time?

Three levels, like an iceberg, with the most important bits being unseen.
- Artifacts: Visible elements (e.g., symbols, ping pong tables, happy hours, branding, furniture, colors, dress codes).
- Values: Espoused values and beliefs (e.g., mission statements, codes of conduct).
- Assumptions: Underlying beliefs that steer decision-making (e.g., honesty, even at personal cost).
- Basic underlying assumptions steer decision-making and how “we do things around here”—ultimately, driving our culture.

Main question: What is the main criteria for determining if an organization is effective or not? What key factors define organizational effectiveness?
Based on research by John Campbell and colleagues (1974).
Two major dimensions emerged from statistical analysis of thirty-nine indicators of effectiveness (1983).

First Dimension:
- Differentiates effectiveness criteria that emphasize $flexibility$ , $discretion$ , and $dynamism$ from criteria that emphasize $stability$ , $order$ , and $control$ .
- Continuum ranges from organizational versatility and pliability to organizational steadiness and durability.
Second Dimension:
- Differentiates effectiveness criteria that emphasize an $internal$ orientation, $integration$ , and $unity$ from criteria that emphasize an $external$ orientation, $differentiation$ , and $rivalry$ .
- Continuum ranges from organizational cohesion and consonance to organizational separation and independence.

Based on two pairs of competing values: stability vs. flexibility and inward-looking focus vs. outward-looking focus.
Forms a 2x2 box model with four quadrants, each representing a distinct set of organizational effectiveness indicators.
- HIERARCHY: structured and control stability more control internal focus
- MARKET: results oriented competition more control external focus
- ADHOCRACY: dynamic and entrepreneurial innovation less control external focus
- TEAM: family-like focus on mentoring less control internal focus