Introduction to organisational culture

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Introduction to organisational culture

• Lecture
• Frida Wikstrand
• 2003-11-05

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Culture - examples

• Professional culture
• Organisational culture
• National culture
• etc

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Definition

• Culture . . . is that complex whole which
  includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
  custom, and any other capabilities and habits
  acquired by man as a member of society.
• learned behaviour
• ideas in the mind
• a logical construct
• a statistical fiction
• a psychic defence mechanism

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What is culture not then?

• Culture
• Combined system of meanings and symbols. A system
  where meaning is articulated
• References like conceptions, meaningful symbols
  and values that helps the individual understand
  its context, express feelings etc
• Process of meaning that helps I to understand its
  experiences and show the way to its actions

• Social constructions
• Pattern of activities that social interplay leads
  to
• A continuous process of interplay that leads to a
  pattern of relations
• The form that the action takes or the network of
  social contacts that exists in a given situation

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Organisational culture 1

• Issue fore debate during 1980 1990
• Tried to identify the qualities in successful
  companies in the US (Peter and Waterman (1982))
  and to understand the secrets behind the Japanese
  success companies (Ouchi (1981))
• Pheffer (1194) argues that traditional sources to
  value in the organisations (production,
  technology etc) are not that important anymore.
  Stresses that organisational culture and ability
  to change whish is lead by the employees has
  increased in value.
• Knowledge is the key factor to lasting success.
  Knowledge in the organisation is connected to
  culture (Davenport Prusak (1998))

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Organisational culture 2

• Related to history and tradition
• They have a certain depth, hard to get a grip of,
  hard to explain and must therefore be interpreted
• It is collective and is shared among members of a
  group or groups
• It is primary on an idea level wish means that it
  is related to meaning, conceptions, faith etc
• It is holistic, inter-subjective and emotional
  rather than rational and analytic
• It is expressed in symbols and are available
  through interpretation of symbols

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Organisational culture 3

• To handle knowledge becomes an issue of handle
  the organisational culture (Alvesson
  Kärreman(2001), McDermott (1999))
• Culture is of great importance when understanding
  how the organisation works regarding
• Strategically change
• Management
• Meeting the costumer
• How knowledge is created, divided, maintained and
  used (Alvesson 2001)
• Organisational culture can also be a way of
  controlling the employee

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Why is OC interesting now? (and to KM?)

• The interest is different in different industries
• Great interest in knowledge intensive companies
  where innovation is important.
• Often in young companies such as in the
  IT-business
• The interest for Km usually raise an interest for
  organisational culture
• During periods of organisational change the OC is
  of new and great interest
• During the 1980s there are an overwhelming
  belief in OC as a way to organisational success
  (consultant and management literature)

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Why is OC interesting now? (and to KM?) 2

• OC has given science and organisational theorists
  a new tool to work with in the understanding of
  organisational behaviour
• New ways of production (lean production etc)
  breeds a need for flexibility in the organisation
  and a need to motivate people in a new way
• Old professions is weakening whish gives
  management a new reason to give meaning in work
  and strengthen the identification with the
  organisation.
• Culture becomes an important component in trying
  to keep the organisation together

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Why is OC interesting now? (and to KM?) 3

• A changing world and workplace
• Important to engage the employees in the
  workplace
• We can see a shift from control over behaviour
  and measuring results toward controlling values,
  attitudes that affect the employees service mind
  and in the long run the costumers satisfaction

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Good organisational culture?

• Good culture is distinguished by norms and
  values that support team working, profitability,
  honesty, orientation toward service mind, pride
  over once work and devotion toward the
  organisation. It support adaptability, the
  ability to be successful in the long run, despite
  new competitors, new laws and rules, new
  technology and the burden of growth. (Baker
  198010)

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Good organisational culture? 2

• Can you say that there is good and bad values?
  Who decides what is what?
• Statements about a right and a wrong culture
• A culture has a good/positive affect on the
  organisation when it is working in the right
  direction.
• But can have a negative/bad affect on the
  organisation when it leads the organisation in
  the wrong direction

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Problems with using culture to understand the
organisation

• One problem can be to reduce the complexity of
  the culture
• Or see everything as culture
• It is often seen as the values by the top
  managers without any connection to the employees

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Aspects on organisational culture

• Can see the organisation as a system where the
  members share curtain ideas, conceptions and
  interpretations that are important to the
  activity in the organisation (Smircich (1985))
• Culture does not exist in the mind of the
  individual but in between individuals
• OC and the managers goals are not always (if
  ever) the same
• The real culture is spontaneous and grows from
  below.

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Aspects on organisational cultureCultural
engineering

• Sees OC as one part of the building of the
  organisation
• Socialisation when employed
• Kick of etc
• Sees norms, values and attitudes as something
  that can be disconnected from other issues in the
  organisation

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OC affect on organisations result

• A common culture helps to coordinate the
  organisational goals and agree on what resources
  to use to reach the goals. A flexible way to
  manage org.
• Good results leads to a strong, good culture. Can
  create a certain spirit in the organisation that
  not to question the way we do things around
  here. The culture can also reproduce itself with
  good results.
• Certain cultures are more affective during
  certain times.
• Situated cultures is the way to good results.
  Adjustable environmental changes.

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OC can also be seen as

• Terms of antagonism / opposition and (hidden)
  conflicts, dominating ideologies, class, gender,
  one-sidedness etc
• OC is the most far-reaching control (Ray (1986))
• A systemised way of establishing a conception of
  the world and feelings within the employee

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OC and powerGender

• In our (and most) society there is ideas that
  certain educations, choices of career, work and
  positions is connected with certain sexes /
  gender
• Most jobs are sex-typed
• Either male or female
• Gender is constructed in the workplace
• Different works sex-typing has changed over time.
  It is not fixed!

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Why culture important when talking about KM?

• Knowledge sharing assists in organisational
  learning.