Session 4: Organizational Culture

Strong culture

A culture that is characterized by the organization's core values being both intensely held and widely shared. A value intensely held and widely shared.

Weak culture

A culture that is characterized by vagueness, ambiguity, and/or inconsistencies.

Values

A layer of organizational culture: (1) concepts or beliefs, (2) pertain to desirable end-states or behavior, (3) transcend situations, (4) guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and (5) are ordered by relative important. What we believe. Espoused vs. enacted values

Assumptions

A layer of organizational culture: Basic assumptions are unobservable and represent the core of organizational culture. Ex: driving on the right side of the road. Something deep down.

Artifacts

A layer of organizational culture: are physical manifestation of organized culture: acronyms, manner of dress, awards (anything physical and observable). At the surface.

Hierarchy

A type of organizational culture: Structured work environment; control; consistency; process control; measurement; efficiency

Market

A type of organizational culture: driven by competition and need to accomplish goals; compete; customer focused; productivity; market share; profitability; goal achievement

Clan

A type of organizational culture: family-oriented and employee-focused; collaborative; cohesion; participation; morale

Adhocracy

A type of organizational culture: fosters creative innovations; adaptability; growth

Enacted values

Part of values: How you actually act; there is a gap between espoused values and this

Espoused values

Part of values: explicitly stated (in website, handbook, mission statement)

Subculture

Tends to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems, situations or experiences that members face. Happen in large companies. They are the different departments that may have their own cultures.

Organizational culture

The set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environment. A pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organization's members. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behavior of individuals and groups. "It's the way things are done here."

Dominant culture

This culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization's members; All departments share certain fundamental core values in whole company