Organization Culture

1
Organization Culture

• MGMT 550, Spring 2001
• Maggie Kolkena

2
Agenda

• What is Culture?
• Strength of Culture
• Diagnosing Culture
• Application IDEO
• Sub-Cultures Herman dHooge, Intel
• Culture Comparison Cindy Trames, Nike

3
What is Culture?

• Definition
• Shared pattern of beliefs, assumptions and
  expectations held by organization members
• A reflection of the organization's personality

4
Levels of Organization Culture
Artifacts Creations
Patterns of Behavior
Behavioral Needs
Shared Values
Fundamental Beliefs Assumptions
Bowditch and Buono, 5th Edition
5
Strength of Culture

• Extent of shared beliefs
• Thick cultures
• More widely shared
• Clearly ordered vs. ambiguous
• Thin cultures higher ambiguity

6
Diagnosing Culture

• Ethnographers focus on
• Cultural artifacts and creations
• Organizational heroes
• Organization myths and stories
• Organizational taboos, rites rituals
• Shared values
• Espoused vs. enacted

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Methods for Deciphering Organization Culture

• Content analyzing publications
• Content analyzing company documents historical
  records
• Observing physical settings
• Observing organizational member interactions
• Administering questionnaires surveys
• Listening to analyzing conversations
• Listen to organization myths stories
• Focus groups
• Interviewing organizational members (iterative)
• Insider-outsider in-depth interviews (iterative)

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IDEO

• What artifacts did you notice?
• Were there patterns of behavior?
• What were some of the behavioral norms?
• Can you guess at the shared values?
• What fundamental beliefs and assumptions can you
  infer?

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Herman DHooge Intel

• In what ways did the sub-culture align with
  greater Intel culture?
• In what ways did the sub-culture deliberately
  diverge?

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Cindy Trames Nike

• What artifacts are unique to Nike?
• Who are the organizational heroes?
• What are some of the myths and stories at Nike?

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Culture Comparison Intel Nike