Organizational communication chapter 5

Schein's Model of Organizational Culture

A model of culture that pulls together several of the notions we have already considered in this chapter. Helps understand how culture can be understood in a variety of organizational forms and contexts Definition of culture A mode of culture-level 1 artifacts-level 2 espoused values-level 3 basic assumptions

Level 1: Artifacts and Creations

- Most visible of social and physical environment that organizational members have created - Communication and expression of solidarity through agreement - Ex: architecture, dress, memos, decision-making

Peters and Waterman's "Excellent Cultures" themes

-Identified "themes" or aspects of organizational culture that were prevalent in high-performing companies-Studied 62 organizations. -Emphasize the importance of people and downplay bureaucratic structure and values. 1.a bias for action-excellent organizations react quickly and do not spend excess time planning and analyzing 2. Close relations to the customer-excellent organizations gear decisions and actions to the needs of customers 3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship-excellent organizations encourage employees to take risks in the development of new ideas. 4. Productivity through people- excellent organizations encourage positive and respectful relationships among management and employees 5. Hands-on, value-driven-excellent organizations have employees and managers who share the same core value of productivity and performance 6. Stock to the knitting- excellent organizations stay focused on what they do best avoid radical diversification 7. Simple form, lean staff- excellent organizations avoid complex structures and divisions of labor 8. Simultaneous loose-right properties- excellent organizations exhibit both unity of purpose and the diversity necessary for innovation

Level 3: Basic Assumptions

-represent the core values of the organization's culture -not taken for granted & high resistant to change (unaware) -not noticed; not sensory; not conscious -not cerebral, but about human nature and reality (time, space, behavior)

Ethnography

A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork.- means the "writing of culture" and ethnographic methods differ dramatically from traditional social science techniques. The ethnographer sure goal is to minimize the distance between the researcher and the culture being investigated. Intense observation of cultural group gives ethnographers a better understanding of the values and assumptions at work. Then creates a mini theory that is grounded in observations of a particular organizational culture. Then an ethnography of that culture can be written. Trying to tell a cultural tale. Traditional social science research.

Deal and Kennedy's "Strong Cultures"

1. Values are the beliefs and visions that members hold for an organization. 2. Heroes are the individuals who come to exemplify an organization's values. 3. Rites and rituals are the ceremonies through which an organization celebrates its values. 4. The cultural network is the communication system through which cultural values are instituted and reinforced.

Definition of culture schein

A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved 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. First- group phenomenon Second-pattern of basic assumptions Third-schein sees culture as an emergent and developmental process Fourth-socializing

Group phenomenon

An individual cannot have a culture because cultural formation depends on communication. But cultural groups can exist on many levels, ranging from civilizations and countries to small organizational or social groups. It's important to highlight the human need for stability, consistency, and meaning and thus the push of many cultural forms toward patterning and integration.

Cultural performances-contextual

Are embedded in organizational situations and organizational history.

High Reliability Organizations (HROs)

Cultural assumptions and values are expected to permeate the values and behaviors of organizational members can be seen in high reliability organizations that are increasingly important in our technologically advanced society.

Alternative approaches to culture

Culture is complicated, emergent, not unitary, and often ambiguous- these researchers see culture as the emerging and sometimes fragmented values, practices, narratives, and artifacts that make a particular organization "what it is".

Culture as an emergent and developmental process

Cultures are learned or invented as a group meets internal and external challenges.

Organizational cultures are emergent

Cultures are socially created through the interaction of organizational members. Th idea is central to a communication focus on culture in which culture is not merely transmitted through communication but in which communication is "constructive of culture". A study of organizational culture should concentrate on the communication processes through which culture is created. These communication processes can be best conceptualized as "performances" that are interactional, contextual, episodic, and improvisational

cultural metaphor

Derives from the field of anthropology, where scholars study the cultures of nations, tribes, snd ethnic groups

Methods for studying organizational culture

First, organizational culture is reflected in a complicated set of assumptions, values, behaviors, and artifacts, second, organizational cultures change over time as groups adapt tot environmental contingencies. Third, organizations are usually composed of subcultures existing in varying degrees of harmony or competition. Fourth, organizational cultures are created and maintained through the communicative interactions of organizational members m. Research methods used to investigate culture, then, need to account for these facets of culture.

Organizational cultures are not unitary

Organizations are characterized by a multitude of subcultures that "may co-exist in harmony, conflict, or indifference to each other. Martin highlights the aspect of culture in her discussion of a differentiation approach in which inconsistencies among cultural views are expected and often seen as desirable. There are a number of sites where culture might develop in an organization, including "vertical slice", "horizontal slice", or a specific work group. Subcultures might emerge around networks of personal contacts or demographic similarity. These cultural sites all serve as breeding grounds...for the emergence of shared meaning" thus, a wide range of subcultures could spring up at various sites in a single organization. Organizational culture is that various subcultures within an organization may represent important differences in power and interests. Power and ideology

A model of culture

Schein set forth a model that sorts out the various elements of culture into there distinct levels. The levels of organizational culture differ in terms of their visibility to those observing the organization and in terms of their meaning and influence for organizational members.

Culture as pattern of basic assumptions

The beliefs that make up culture are relatively enduring and difficult to change. Organizational culture also encompasses values, behaviors, rules, and physical artifacts. He also believes that the core of culture is its basic assumptions and that values and behaviors are better seen as Reflections of that culture.

Organizational cultures are complicated

The complexity of organizational culture is demonstrated by the wide variety of "markers" that scholars use to investigate it. Beyer and truce argue that an organizations culture is revealed through its rites and they differentiate among rites if passage, rites of degradation, rites of enhancement, rites of renewal, rites of conflict reduction, rites of integration. Danbridge looks at organizational ceremonies as indicators of culture. Quinn and McGrath focus on the roles of values and belief systems in the transformation of organizational cultures. Smith an eisenberg consider the metaphors of employees and management in a study of the culture at Disney land. Etc... Rites, ceremonies, values, belief systems, stories, communication rules, and hallway talk are just a few of the windows through which researchers attempt to gain a glimpse of an organizations culture. Come scholars focus on one cultural marker, some a variety of cultures

Organizational cultures are often ambiguous

The fragmentation perspective argues that fragmentation studies will see and ambiguous culture as "a normal, salient, and inescapable part of organizational functioning in the contemporary world" "postmodern" world that is multifaceted, fragmented, fast-moving, and difficult to understand. A flux. There are ambiguities in interpretation of situations and statements. These ambiguities illustrate the multiple realities within the organization and during the postaquisition process. These ambiguities can be particularly challenging for individuals as they try to forge their own identities within these reconfigured organizational cultures.

Cultural performances-improvisational

There are no scripts that guide organizational members.

Cultural performances-episodic

They are distinct events in organizational life.

Cultural performances- interactional

They require the participation of multiple organizational members.

The socializing aspect of organizational culture

When individuals enter an organization, a major part of learning the ropes consists of developing an understanding of the assumptions and values that make up that organizations culture.

Level 2: Espoused Values

explicitly stated values and norms preferred by an organization