Organizational Culture

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Chapter 16

• Organizational Culture

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Chapter Outline

• Elements of Organizational Culture
• Deciphering Organizational Culture through
  Artifacts
• Organizational Culture Performance
• Strategies to Merge Organizational Cultures
• Strengthening Organizational Culture

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Organizational Culture

• Executives at Charles Swab underestimated the
  influence of organizational culture when they
  acquired U.S. Trust.

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Organizational Culture

• Organizational Culture basic pattern of shared
  assumptions, values, beliefs considered to be
  the correct way of thinking about acting on
  problems opportunities facing the organization

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Elements of Organizational Culture

• Physical Structures
• Rituals Ceremonies
• Stories
• Language
• Beliefs
• Values
• Assumptions

Artifacts of Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture
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Elements of Organizational Culture

• Assumptions
• Deepest part of culture, unconscious
• Beliefs
• Perceptions of reality
• Values
• Stable, long-lasting beliefs
• Espoused
• Enacted

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Elements of Organizational Culture

• Brown Brown, Inc. --
• an aggressive culture
• Annual sales meeting, managers of poorly
  performing divisions are led to the podium by
  medieval executioners while a funeral dirge plays

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Elements of Organizational CultureOrganizational
Subcultures

• Divisions, geographic regions, occupational
  groups
• Can support or oppose (countercultures) firms
  dominant culture
• Subcultures may create conflict
• Two functions of countercultures
• encourage constructive controversy
• source of emerging values

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Deciphering Organizational Culture Through
Artifacts

• Artifacts observable symbols signs of
• an organizations culture
• Stories and Legends
• Rituals and Ceremonies
• Language
• Physical Structures and Symbols

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Artifacts Stories and Legends

• Social prescriptions of the way things should or
  should not be done
• Most effective stories
• Describe real people
• Assumed to be true
• Known throughout the organization
• Are prescriptive

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Artifacts Rituals and Ceremonies

• Rituals
• Programmed routines of daily life
• How visitors are greeted
• How much time employees take for lunch
• Ceremonies
• Planned activities for an audience
• Award ceremonies
• Public launch of new product

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Artifacts Organizational Language

• How employees address co-workers, describe
  customers, express anger
• Leaders use phrases metaphors as cultural
  symbols
• General Electrics grocery store
• Language also found in subcultures
• Whirlpools PowerPoint culture

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Artifacts Physical Structures and Symbols

• Oakleys protective and competitive culture is
  apparent in its building design. Weve always
  had a fortress mentality Oakley executive.

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Artifacts Physical Structures and Symbols

• What we make is gold, and people will do
  anything to get it, so we protect it Oakley
  executive.

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Organizational Culture and Performance Benefits
SocialControl
Strong Organizational Culture
SocialGlue
AidsSense-Making
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Organizational Culture and Performance Problems

• Culture content might be incompatible with the
  organizations environment
• Lego partnership with Star Wars
• Strong cultures focus attention on one mental
  model
• Strong cultures suppress dissenting values from
  subcultures

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Organizational Culture and PerformanceAdaptive
Cultures

• External focus -- success depends on continuous
  change
• Nokia shifted from toilet paper rubber boots to
  cellular phones
• Focus on processes more than goals
• Strong sense of ownership

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Strategies to Merge Cultures

• Assimilation
• Deculturation
• Integration
• Separation

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Strategies to Merge Cultures
Assimilation

• Acquired company embraces acquiring firms
  culture
• Acquired firm has a weak culture

Deculturation

• Acquiring firm imposes its culture on unwilling
  acquired firm
• Acquired firms culture doesnt work but
  employees dont realize it

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Strategies to Merge Cultures
Integration

• Both cultures combined into a new composite
  culture
• Both cultures can be improved are relatively
  weak

Separation

• Merging companies remain separate with their own
  culture
• Firms operate successfully in different
  businesses requiring different cultures

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Changing and Strengthening Organizational Culture
Founders Leaders
Culturally Consistent Rewards
Strengthening Organizational Culture
Aligning Artifacts
Selecting Socializing Employees