Chapter 13
Organizational Culture
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Learning Objectives
Define organizational culture and
know why it is important
Distinguish among organizational,
national, and global culture and
understand the relationships
among them
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Learning Objectives
Evaluate the culture-free approach
to understanding organizational
culture
Identify levels of organizational
culture
Know what organizational culture
does
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Learning Objectives
Discuss the cultural dimensions
and typology approaches to
understanding organizational
culture
Understand how organizational
culture can be managed
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Organizational Culture
A pattern of basic assumptions -
invented, discovered, or developed by a
given group as it learns to cope with its
problems of external adaptation and
internal integration - that has worked
well enough to be considered valid and,
therefore, to be taught to new members
as the correct way to perceive, think,
and feel in relation to those problems
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National and Global Culture
Relationship between national and
corporate culture complex
“Logic of industrialization" may
affect all organizations the same
way
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National and Global Culture
National culture and other elements
in an organization's environment
may determine internal
organizational culture
Globalization also affects
organizational culture
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Understanding Organizational
Culture
Culture-free approach
Technology, policies, rules, organizational
structure, and other variables that contribute to
efficiency and effectiveness make national
culture irrelevant for successful management
Organizations culture free in some respects,
but culture bound in many others
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Levels of Organizational
Culture
Artifacts
Concrete aspects of an organization
that symbolize its culture
Espoused Values
Public values and principles that
organization's leaders announce it
intends to achieve
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Levels of Organizational
Culture
Actual Values
Validated espoused values, what the
organization demonstrates it stands for
Basic Underlying Assumptions
Unconscious beliefs and values that structure
feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and actions
that members of a culture view as the only
correct understanding of life
Usually emphasize or exaggerate major
national cultural themes
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Levels of Organizational
Culture
Subcultures
Shared meanings created and
maintained by groups within an
organization
Reflect division of labor or personal
background of employees
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What Organizational
Culture Does
FUNCTIONS DYSFUNCTIONS
Provides an external Can create barriers to
identity change
Creates a sense of Can create conflict
commitment within the organization
Acts as source of high
reliability
Subcultures can change
at different rates than
Defines an interpretive
scheme other units
Acts as a social control
Can clash when two
mechanism companies merge
Can become "cultural
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Tower of Babel"
13-12
Some Underlying Dimensions of
Organizational Culture
Dimension Questions to be answered
1. The organization’s relationship Does the organization perceive itself
to its environment to be dominant, submissive, harmonizing,
searching out a niche?
2. The nature of human activity Is the “correct” way for humans to
behave to be dominant/proactive.
harmonizing, or passive/fatalistic?
3. The nature of reality and truth How do we define what is true and what
is not true; and how is truth ultimately
determined both in the physical and
social world?
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Some Underlying Dimensions of
Organizational Culture
Dimension Questions to be answered
4. The nature of time What is our basic orientation in terms of
past, present, and future, and what kinds
of time units are most relevant for the
conduct of daily affairs?
5. The nature of human nature Are humans basically good, neutral, or
evil, and is human nature perfectible or
fixed?
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Some Underlying Dimensions of
Organizational Culture
Dimension Questions to be answered
6. The nature of human relationships What is the “correct” way for people to
relate to each other, to distribute power
and affection? Is life competitive or
cooperative? Is the best way to organize
society on the basis of individualism or
groupism? Is the best authority system
autocratic/paternalistic or
collegial/participative?
7. Homogeneity versus diversity Is the group best off if it is highly diverse
or if it is highly homogeneous, and should
individuals in a group be encouraged to
innovate or conform?
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Trompenaars’ Four Corporate
Cultures
Family culture
Emphasizes personal, face-to-face
relationships
Hierarchical with authority structure
based on power differentials
commonly experienced between
parents and children
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Trompenaars’ Four Corporate
Cultures
Eiffel Tower culture
Emphasizes division of labor and
coordination through hierarchy of
authority
Relies on planning to accomplish its
goals
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Trompenaars’ Four Corporate
Cultures
Guided missile culture
Egalitarian, impersonal, task
oriented
Incubator culture
Attempts to minimize organizational
structure and culture
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Leadership and
Organizational Culture
Not clear to what extent leaders can
manage organizational culture
Elements of Culture Leaders Can
Change
Employee selection criteria
Socialization of new members
Meaning of work
Artifacts/surface manifestations of culture
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Convergence or Divergence?
Industrialization Use of
Organizational organizational
strategies for culture as a
managing culture competitive tool
Impact of diverse
national cultures
on organizational
culture
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Implications for Managers
Analyze organizational cultures to
coordinate activities or change them
Understand what levels of culture can
be influenced
Know how organizational culture can
influence a manager
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