Organisational Culture Notes

Organisational Culture

Defining and Describing Organisational Culture

  • Organisational culture may be a topic in the exam, so it's important to understand.
  • Topics to be covered:
    • Defining and describing organisational culture.
    • Identifying different types and layers of organisational culture, including Sheen's iceberg model.
    • Discussing factors that influence uniformity and strength of cultures. A strong culture isn't always good.
    • Recognizing the role of culture in organisational management and control.
    • Distinguishing between mainstream and critical perspectives on organisational culture.
    • Critically reflecting on the ability of organisations to effectively manage culture.

Power and Politics

  • A mini-lecture on power and politics will occur in week 11, along with discussions framed similarly to exam questions.
  • Topics for the exam will also be finalized in week 11.
  • There will be no class in week 12 due to a public holiday.

Exam Information

  • The surgery date has been moved to the day before the exam.
  • The instructor will be part of the moderation process but not directly marking the exams.
  • Exam questions have been reviewed and finalized and will be put through Inspira.
  • The current situation will not disadvantage students.

Additional Topics

  • The ability to change culture will be touched on, including potential methods. It is not an easy task.

Culture Breakdown

  • What is culture?
    • Why do we care so much?
    • Definitions and dimensions.
    • The purpose of culture.
    • Strong versus weak corporate cultures.
    • How do we build and maintain culture?
  • Mainstream and critical perspectives.
  • Subcultures and countercultures.
    • Subcultures aren't necessarily bad but may resist the main culture.

What is Culture?

  • Graduation is the pinnacle of culture at the university.
    • Wearing regalia.
    • Receiving awards.
    • PhD recipients are followed by Masters and then Bachelor's degree recipients.

Importance of Culture

  • Sense of belonging.
    • Identifying with a university or organisation.
  • Setting a tone for expectations.
  • Socialisation to organisational norms.
  • Directing employees toward the organisation's goals.

Culture Importance to Employees

  • Identity and social fit are paramount.
  • Understanding the organisation's values and expectations.
  • Alignment with personal values is crucial.
    • Misalignment can lead to presenteeism, absenteeism, or exit.

Definitions of Organisational Culture

  • Edgar Schein:
    • Basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that a group of people share.
    • Determines perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and overt behavior.
  • Peters and Waterman:
    • System of shared values, norms, and routines.
    • Manifested in anecdotes, myths, and fairy tales.
    • Communicates and reinforces shared values and beliefs.
  • Robbins (textbook):
    • System of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes one organisation from another.
    • Each organisation has its own culture, even within the same industry.

Statistics on Organisational Culture

  • Disengaged workers:
    • 37% more absenteeism.
    • 49% more accidents.
    • 60% more errors and defects.
    • Source: Harvard Business Review, 2015.
  • Nearly 1131\frac{1}{3} of employees left their job in the last five years due to culture.
  • Organisations with low employee engagement scores:
    • 18% lower productivity.
    • Lower profitability.
    • 37% lower job growth.

Culture vs. Strategy

  • Peter Drucker quote: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
    • Meaning: A great strategy will fail if the culture doesn't align with it.
  • Culture plays a pivotal role. Without a culture that allows it, innovation will never be achieved.

Layers of Culture (Shein's model)

  • Observable Artifacts:
    • Physical manifestations.
    • Dress, awards, myths, stories, rituals, ceremonies, decorations, behaviors.
  • Espoused Values:
    • Explicitly stated values and norms.
    • Integrity, customer focus, innovation.
  • Basic Assumptions:
    • Core values and beliefs.
    • Not always observable or stated.
    • Hidden.
Owen Glen Building
  • Observable artifacts:
    • Donors to the building.
    • Links to alumni and the business industry.
    • Painting of Owen Glen.
    • Connections to Ngati Whatua Orakei with a sculpture made of metal and Pounamu.
  • Espoused values:
    • Hard work and determination.
  • Basic Assumptions:
    • Striving to educate future business leaders.
    • Integrity is paramount.

Stories, Rituals and Symbols

  • Stories.
    • How the company started.
    • Engages customers and employees.
    • Imbues brand with corporate values, history, and consistency.
  • How We Talk.
    • Language changes depending on the setting and people.
    • Terminology and jargon unite people within an organisation.
  • Jargon.
    • Unites if everyone knows it.

EcoStore

  • New Zealand company. Every business needs a great story to engage customers and employees alike. A story imbues a brand with corporate values, history and consistency. This is a method attracting and retaining people into your organisation

Activity: University Culture

  • Tuarua, an albatross taking flight. The shape of the building is to symbolise the albatross taking flight.
  • There is a stream that runs under the business school, and there is earth bought as a sacred place within the school grounds.

Video: Interview

  • The hand holding example. The aim is to gauge how someone will fit into the values of the business.

Functions of Culture

  • Conveys a sense of identity for the organisation's members.
  • Facilitates commitment.
  • Creates stability of the social system
  • Determines the organisation's climate and ethical work climate.
  • Defines the rules of the games, helps with sense making, and guides behaviors.

Ethical Examples within Companies

  • VW with their emission scandal, and Enron, where junior staff members would be signing off on thing because senior management said it was fine.

Strong vs. Weak Culture

  • Strong Culture: Core values are intensely held and widely shared.
  • Weak Culture: Opinions and perceptions vary widely.
  • Strong cultures can be bad. For example, Enron had a very strong culture but back lashed for customers and employees.
  • If you have a weaker culture, you might be able to do quite well.
  • If you have a really strong culture and you are a company about to merge with another company with a really strong culture, it is not going to go down very well. Daimler Chrysler is an example. On paper it look like a marriage made in heaven, however it cost billions and ended up in the courts.
  • You have also got Pixar and Disney. Many people thought that was not going to go down very well, but they have actually made that work really, really well.

Six Components to a Strong Culture (Coleman)

  • Vision.
  • Values are clearly laid out.
  • Practices are clear.
  • People have their voices heard.
  • Strong narrative.
  • Everyone's place in there.

Mainstream View

  • A strong culture is a positive culture.
  • Positive:
    • Employees: commitment, sharedness
    • Senior Management: Loyalty, low turnover
    • Organisation : Productive
    • Wider Environment: Ethical behavior

Microsoft

  • Culture of accountability within Microsoft New Zealand.
  • Transparent rewards.
  • Growth mindset.
  • Psychological safety.
  • Values are clear.

Institutionalisation

  • A condition that occurs when an organisation takes on a life of its own apart from any of its members.

Change Management

  • Mergers and acquisitions: conflicting and incompatible organisation's cultures can lead to the failure of mergers.
  • Diversity: Strong cultures might inadvertently condone, support bias or require conformity.

The Dark Side of a Strong Culture

  • Uber example.
  • Contest culture: Co-workers seen as opponents, long hours, bullying, counterproductive work behaviours.

Key Summary

  • Many potential positives for cultivating a strong culture.
  • A spouse values may be different from those enacted values and that can affect employees of the company.
  • Some cultures can encourage ethically compromised and even criminal acts, an an unhealthy from of social control.

Who Makes and Changes Organisational Culture?

  • Managers Organisational Culture.
Mainstream Managerial Perspective
  • Culture is something an organisation has.
  • Can be shaped by management.
  • Promotes one best way of doing things.
  • Leaders create and manage culture.
  • Cultures reflect the values, beliefs and actions of their senior leaders only.
Socialisation Model
  • Pre-arrival: Learning occurs before a new employee join the company.
  • Encounter: Employees see and experience what the organisation really is.
  • Metamorphosis: An employee changes and adjusts to the job, the work group or the organisation.
  • Impact on productivity, links to commitment.

Culture Change at Uber Example

  • Incentives.
  • Feedback channel into top management.
  • Support groups for different regions.
  • More interaction between drivers and base.