...less widely understood is what happens when you have to fast track both cultural and strategic change when the strategy and its desired outcomes are both incompatible with the culture of the organization. How should managers deal with these challenges? How should such cultural appreciations be brought in to the discussion to develop and implement the business strategy? Cultural change is strategic change It is important to understand cultural change as also involving strategic change. Strategy can be considered as a cultural production that may involve cultural adaptation, or transformation, or both. This conceptualization is particularly useful if the organization is “betwixt and between” cultures and organizational identities i.e. a local authority department aspiring to become a commercially driven company. I will use a case study of such an organization that was changing from a council department into a Limited Liability Partnership to flesh out some ideas that illuminate the relationship between strategic development and organizational culture. Culture is not like a skin that an organization can discard as it selects a new organizational culture that is perceived to have strategic fit with its commercial strategy. In my view culture is the organization. Therefore, when an organization faces considerable market forces to change its strategy it can not simply change its culture at will to avoid cultural and strategic incompatibility. The organization has to recognize the...
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...TEACHING NOTE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE By Romuald Stone, DBA The construct of organizational culture has raised considerable interest of both academics and practitioners in the field of change management. Organizational culture is “derived from the anthropological concept of culture that attempts to explain why people in societies believe and behave as they do.” It has “become a common way of thinking about and describing an organization’s internal world—a way of differentiating one organization’s ‘personality’ from another.” This organizational self-image develops over a period of time with the core elements typically coalescing during the organization’s formative years. In many organizations we find a strong dominant culture that is pervasive not only in the headquarters element but across divisions and geographic regions. However, in large organizations this culture is not uniform but instead is composed of many subcultures. Subcultures may share certain characteristics, norms, and values yet they can be totally different with some functioning collaboratively and others in conflict with each other. Definition Organizational culture is defined as a complex set of shared beliefs, guiding values, behavioral norms, and basic assumptions acquired over time that shape our thinking and behavior; they are part of the social fabric of the organization—its genetic code. As such, culture drives the organization and guides the behavior of everyone in that...
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...Virtually every aspect of life is affected at least indirectly by some type of organization. We look to organizations to feed, clothe, house, educate, and employ us. An organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons. Modern organizations have one thing in common: they are the primary context for organizational behavior. In a manner of speaking, organizations are the chessboard upon which the game of organizational behavior is played. Therefore, present and future managers need a working knowledge of modern organizations to improve their chances of making the right moves when managing people at work (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009). Organizational behavior (OB) is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understanding and managing people at work. OB is a horizontal discipline that cuts across virtually every job category, business function, and professional specialty (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009). This paper will attempt to answer the question, what goes wrong in organizations. The first thing that goes wrong in organizations is the lack of knowledge of managers on how to manage diversity. Diversity represents the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people. There are many different dimensions or components of diversity, which implies that diversity pertains to everybody. Diversity pertains to the host of individual differences that make all of us unique and different from others (Kinicki...
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...transactional and transformational approach in a way that it is beneficial for the progression and it proves to be productive. Changing organization's culture is an intricate task and certainly very arduous as rightly put by Schein(1992) it is the organization's composition and basal utility. If the culture is very conducive and its pertaining to a large organization which has succeeded in one's endeavors; a leader may adapt to the new culture considering the changes would not bring adequate and prominent changes since at times it becomes difficult to transmute in such organizations. A leader determined to change the culture has to be confident in his abilities and new management style and needs to make sure if its pertinent and easily adaptable. As per the survey cited in Carr et al. (1996) around 10% of the organizations were successful to confine the new management approach in the institution and the percentage up till now is somewhat around 15 to 19%. When a leader joins an organization and truly believes if there is a scope for change and can attain break through, leader should certainly opt for it considering various factors such as increase in revenue and monetary gains, customer satisfaction, technological advancement, improved process and control mechanism and acquiring an edge over the competitors. (Smith, M.E., 2003) The leader's aim needs to be pellucid, attainable and viable. The competitive priorities needs to be aligned with the company's scope and indispensable role played...
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...McShane−Von Glinow: Organizational Behavior, Second Edition Part Four Organizational Processes Organizational Culture © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2002 C H A P T E R 15 Organizational Culture AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER , YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO : Learning Objectives I Describe the elements of organizational culture. I Discuss the importance of organizational subcultures. I List four categories of artifacts through which corporate culture is communicated. I Identify three functions of organizational culture. I Discuss the conditions under which cultural strength improves corporate performance. I Discuss the effect of organizational culture on business ethics. I Compare and contrast four strategies for merging organizational cultures. I Identify five strategies to strengthen an organization’s culture. McShane−Von Glinow: Organizational Behavior, Second Edition Part Four Organizational Processes Organizational Culture © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2002 C arly Fiorina is taking Hewlett-Packard back to the future by reformulating the California-based technology company’s legendary culture, known as the H-P Way. “The H-P Way is about innovation; trust and respect and integrity; contribution to community; and performance,” says Fiorina, H-P’s first CEO hired from outside the company. The problem, she argues, is that employees have distorted these values over the years. “The H-P Way has been misinterpreted and twisted as a gentle bureaucracy...
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...Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE INVENTORY Organizational Culture Inventory: A Review of the United States Army’s Culture, Expectations and Behavioral Norms Organizational Culture Inventory: A Review of the United States Army’s Culture, Expectations and Behavioral Norms Introduction Founded in 1784, the United States Army is a branch of the United States Department of Defense which is largely responsible for land based military operations. The Army's primary mission is to provide necessary forces and capabilities to the Combatant Commanders in support of the National Security and Defense Strategies (Schoomaker & Harvey, 2005). An all volunteer force, the Army is comprised of over 1 million men and women serving in three different operational sections that include the Active Army, the Army Reserve, and the National Guard. The three main purposes of the Army are to promote peace, resolve conflict and deter war, and if all else fails, fight and win a war. As such, the operational foot print of the Army is quite extensive and extends from the continental United States to many other countries and provinces across the world. This paper is constructed to provide a synopsis of the Army’s current culture, Targets for Cultural Change, Potential Benefits & Risks of Cultural Change, followed by a Conclusion and Reflection statement. Current Culture The culture of an organization is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms, rituals and beliefs of organization...
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...ASSESSING CORPORATE CULTURE 1. Scheins approach to assessing organizational culture a. Strengths of scheins approach to assessing organizational culture Schein defines and describes culture as any one of many elements of organizational culture. The culture of an organization can be viewed and treated like other structures within an organization. Certain organizations such as by-laws, committees, and chain of command flow charts, may serve to answer basic questions such as “how do we interact with the external environment?” and “how do we order ourselves internally?” As an organization responds to these questions, the responses become core assumptions. These core assumptions become the frames through which the organization interprets the world round it. In place of questionnaire or instrument that utilizes typologies, Schein prefers clinical research model of assessing organizational culture. In this model of organizational culture investigation, the researcher gets much more directly involved within the organization by acting as participant observer or ethnographer. He suggests that members of the organization will more openly respond to the researcher and the investigation because the members of the organization think they have something to gain by collaborating with the researcher. Schein believes that valid data on the culture of the organization will only be collected when the researcher is perceived as the consultant who is seeking to help the organization and...
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...Decision Making 16 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE One of the primary responsibilities of strategic leaders is to create and maintain the organizational characteristics that reward and encourage collective effort. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is organizational culture. But what do we really mean by organizational culture? What influence does it have on an organization? How does one go about building, influencing or changing an organization's culture? THE IMPACT OF CULTURE Why is culture so important to an organization? Edgar Schein, an MIT Professor of Management and author of Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, suggests that an organization's culture develops to help it cope with its environment. Today, organizational leaders are confronted with many complex issues during their attempts to generate organizational achievement in VUCA environments. A leader's success will depend, to a great extent, upon understanding organizational culture. Schein contends that many of the problems confronting leaders can be traced to their inability to analyze and evaluate organizational cultures. Many leaders, when trying to implement new strategies or a strategic plan leading to a new vision, will discover that their strategies will fail if they are inconsistent with the organization's culture. A CEO, SES, political appointee, or flag officer who comes into an organization prepared to "shake the place up" and institute sweeping changes, often experiences resistance...
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...C H A P T E R Organizational Culture Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: • Describe the elements of organizational culture. • Discuss the importance of organizational subcultures. • List four categories of artifacts through which corporate culture is communicated. • Identify three functions of organizational culture. • Discuss the conditions under which cultural strength improves corporate performance. • Discuss the effect of organizational culture on business ethics. • Compare and contrast four strategies for merging organizational cultures. • Identify five strategies to strengthen an organization’s culture. 16 S I X T E E N 496 T o an outsider, PeopleSoft is one of the loopiest places on the planet. The Pleasanton, California, business management software company has nerf ball shootouts and minigolf tournaments in the hallways. Dress-down day is every day of the week. A white collar is usually a T-shirt. The bagels and gourmet coffee are free. Having fun is so ingrained that many employees—called PeoplePeople—say it’s the best place to have a bad day. PeopleSoft also values egalitarianism— treating everyone with respect and minimal status differences. Executives don’t have secretaries, special perks, or grandiose offices. “Don’t kiss up and slap down,” PeopleSoft cofounder Dave Duffield reminds everyone. In other words, give the bagel delivery guy the same respect as the company president. PeopleSoft is also extreme on...
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...Chapter 5 Organizational Development and Change Chapter Overview The organizational development (OD) tradition is a practitioner-driven intervention-oriented approach to effecting organizational change via individual change, with view to increasing effectiveness. It is implemented within a problem-solving model, places a heavy accent on survey-based problem diagnosis and subordinates people to a vision of the future. Commitment-based strategies of effecting change assume that the impetus for change must come from the bottom up, whilst compliance-based strategies involve the creation of behavioural imperatives for change. Various ‘employee involvement’ strategies are reviewed, but there is little evidence for their effectiveness either as a means of securing commitment or enhanced performance, or as a means of leverage for change. Culture is assumed to be the primary vehicle for change within the OD tradition, although the relationship between culture and the change process is ill understood. Finally, the assumptions underpinning team development, and its implementation, are critically examined. The organizational culture literature itself is fraught with epistemological debate. Practitioners are interested in management by measurement and manipulation of culture. Theoreticians of culture, however, aim to understand the depth and complexity of culture. Unresolved issues remain regarding how to define culture, the difference between culture and climate, measurement/levels...
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...Section 1 Organizational Culture: set of artifacts, values and assumption that emerge from the interaction of organizational members Open social system operating a dynamic environment. CRITERIA to identify something as culture: 1. Deeply felt or held 2. Commonly intelligible 1. Accessible to a cultural group Organization = Ordered and purposeful interaction among people. Purposeful, because its members produce (supero-rdinative) goal-directed activities. Organizational communication is a continuous process through which organizational members create, maintain and change the organization. (it includes business communication) N.B. All organizational members take place in it; messages are produced to create a shared meaning of messages, but it is not always achieved. Those messages vary in form according to various factors (power distances, roles, goal, method, non-verbal), and to be fully understood have to be considered in their contexts Culture: "the collective programming if the mind that DISTINGUISHES the members of one group tor category of people from another" (Hofstede 2001) Is both a process and a product; is confining (imitates groups) and facilitating (gives us a way to better understand what is happening) Cultural Symbol = physical indicators of organizational life (Rafaeli & Worline 2000) ARTIFACTS: visible/tangible, are also part of them norms, standards, customs and social convention. Norms: pattern of behaviors or communication...
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...“Discuss how the various management theories formulated since the early 1900’s may be viewed from the Mechanistic, Organic, Cultural or Political perspectives.” The problems and opportunities facing organizations today are complex and changing rapidly. From the difficulties associated with globalization to the benefits of employee-centred initiatives to make workplaces more productive, all of society’s institutions feel the pressure of a new and very challenging environment. In order for organizations to perform efficiently and effectively with high productivity, organizations must discipline themselves by planning, organizing, leading, and controlling regarding to the four main management approaches which include classical approach, behavourial approach, quantitative approach, and modern approach. The four crucial approaches mentioned above can also be used and fitted differently depending upon different organizational perspectives such as Mechanistic perspective, Organic perspective, Cultural perspective, and Political perspective which will be discussed critically in the essay. From the Mechanistic organizational perspective point of view, the perspective recognizes the organization as a centralized authority based with many rules and procedures, a clear-cut division of labour, narrow spans of control and formal means of coordination. As an overall view, the Mechanistic perspective creates a very tight structure that focuses on procedure more than staffs. Mechanistic organizations...
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...OInternational Journal of Business and Management December, 2008 Organizational Culture and Its Themes Shili Sun School of Foreign Languages, Ludong University No.186 Hongqi Middle Road, Zhifu District, Yantai 264025, Shandong Province, China Tel: 86-535-668-1098 Abstract E-mail: shilisun@hotmail.com As one of the key ‘stable factors’, culture within an organization is playing a critical role in the organization’s everyday operations. Although the culture literature has at times focused on the culture of an organization as shared basic assumptions (Schein, 1985), or as metaphors within organizations (Morgan, 1986, 1997), it is not sufficient to attempt to understand and measure them. This paper explores organizational culture in general, some definitions and implications of organizational culture are reviewed from different perspectives, and Cliffe’s cultural themes are addressed with the use of Scholes’ cultural web and Hofstede’s onion diagram model of organizational culture. Keywords: Culture, Organizational culture, Cultural themes 1. Organizational culture Historically, there are numberless definitions about organizational culture, which is defined in many different ways in the literature. Perhaps the most commonly known definition is “the way we do things around here” (Lundy & Cowling, 1996). Organizational culture is manifested in the typical characteristics of the organization, in other words, organizational culture should be regarded as the right way in which things...
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...Journal of Business and Management December, 2008 Organizational Culture and Its Themes Shili Sun School of Foreign Languages, Ludong University No.186 Hongqi Middle Road, Zhifu District, Yantai 264025, Shandong Province, China Tel: 86-535-668-1098 E-mail: shilisun@hotmail.com Abstract As one of the key ‘stable factors’, culture within an organization is playing a critical role in the organization’s everyday operations. Although the culture literature has at times focused on the culture of an organization as shared basic assumptions (Schein, 1985), or as metaphors within organizations (Morgan, 1986, 1997), it is not sufficient to attempt to understand and measure them. This paper explores organizational culture in general, some definitions and implications of organizational culture are reviewed from different perspectives, and Cliffe’s cultural themes are addressed with the use of Scholes’ cultural web and Hofstede’s onion diagram model of organizational culture. Keywords: Culture, Organizational culture, Cultural themes 1. Organizational culture Historically, there are numberless definitions about organizational culture, which is defined in many different ways in the literature. Perhaps the most commonly known definition is “the way we do things around here” (Lundy & Cowling, 1996). Organizational culture is manifested in the typical characteristics of the organization, in other words, organizational culture should be regarded as the right way in which...
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...Chapter 5 Organizational Development and Change Chapter Overview The organizational development (OD) tradition is a practitioner-driven intervention-oriented approach to effecting organizational change via individual change, with view to increasing effectiveness. It is implemented within a problem-solving model, places a heavy accent on survey-based problem diagnosis and subordinates people to a vision of the future. Commitment-based strategies of effecting change assume that the impetus for change must come from the bottom up, whilst compliance-based strategies involve the creation of behavioural imperatives for change. Various ‘employee involvement’ strategies are reviewed, but there is little evidence for their effectiveness either as a means of securing commitment or enhanced performance, or as a means of leverage for change. Culture is assumed to be the primary vehicle for change within the OD tradition, although the relationship between culture and the change process is ill understood. Finally, the assumptions underpinning team development, and its implementation, are critically examined. The organizational culture literature itself is fraught with epistemological debate. Practitioners are interested in management by measurement and manipulation of culture. Theoreticians of culture, however, aim to understand the depth and complexity of culture. Unresolved issues remain regarding how to define culture, the difference between culture and climate, measurement/levels...
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