Chapter 16 - Organizational Culture

How does culture create climate

A positive workplace climate has been linked to higher customer satisfaction and organizational financial performance

Socialization

A process that adapts employees to the organization's culture

Outome orientation

The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve them

Stability

The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth

Aggressiveness

The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing

Team orientation

The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals

What is the source of a culture

The founders vision of what the organization should be, and a firm's initially small size makes it easy to impose that vision

Prearrival stage

The period of learning in the socialization process that occurs before a new employee joins the organization

Core values

The primary or dominant values that are accepted throughout the organization

Workplace spirituality

The recognition that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community

Ethical work climate

The shared concept of right and wrong behavior in the workplace that reflects the true values of the organization and shapes the ethical decision making of its members

Organizational climate

The shared perceptions organizational members have about their organization and work environment

Metamorphosis stage

The stage in the socialization process in which a new employee changes and adjusts to the job, workgroup, and organization

Encounter stage

The stage in the socialization process in which a new employee sees what the organization is really like and confronts the possibility that expectations and reality may diverge

Recognizing outside context

There are benefits to establishing a positive culture, but an organization also needs to be objective and not puruse it past the point of effectiveness

How does top management play a role in sustaining culture

Through words and behavior, senior executives establish norms that filter through the organization and influence culture

Material symbols

What conveys to employees who is important, the degree of egalitarianism top management desires, and the kinds of behavior that are appropriate

Barriers to change

When an organization's environment is undergoing rapid chage, its entrenche dculture may no longer be appropriate and there is a loss of consistent employee behavior

Strong culture

A culture in which the core values are intensely held and widely shared

Dominant culture

A culture that expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization's members

Positive organizational culture

A culture that emphasizes building on employee strengths, rewards more than it punishes, and encourages and growth

Functions of culture

1. Boundary-defining role 2. Conveys a sense of identity for org and members 3. Facilitates commitment to something larger than self-interest 4. Enhances stability of social system 5. Sense-making and contorl mechanisms that guides and shapes employees' attitudes and behavior

How does culture creation occur

1. Founders hire and keep employees who think and feel the same way they do 2. Indoctrinate and socialize employees to thier way of thinkinng and feeling 3. Founders behaviors encourage employees to identify with them and internalize thier belifes, values, and assumptions

What are the seven primary chracteristics of organizational culture

1. Innovation and risk taking 2. Attention to detail 3. Outcome orientation 4. People orientation 5. Team orientation 6. Aggressiveness 7. Stability

Institutionalization

A condition that occurs when an organization takes on a life of its own, apart from any of its members, and acquires immortality.

Social sustainability

Address the ways social systems are affected by an organization's actions over time, an in turn, how changing social systems may affect the organization

Culture and sustainability

An organization must develop a long-term culture and put its values into practice in order to create a truly sustainable business

What are the principles of an ethical culture

Be a visibile role model, communicate ethical expectations, provide ethical training, visibily reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones, and provide protective mechanisms

What are the charafcteristics of a spiritual organization

Benevolence, strong sense of purpose, trust and respect, open-mindedness

What plays an important role in sustaining cutlure

Selection practices, actions of top management, and socialization methods

Ethical culture

Share common values and values

How do employees learn culture

Stories, rituals, material symbols, and language

Organizational culture

System of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations

People orientation

The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the organization

Innovation and risk taking

Degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks

Attention to detail

Degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail

Barriers to diveristy

Desire for quick assimilation, elimination of the advantages of diversity, and cutlures that condones prejudice, support bias, or become insensitive to differences

Building on employee strengths

Emphasize showing workers how they can capitlaize on their strengths

What types of development of culture are there

Ethical, positive, and spiritual cutlure

Instrumental ethical climate

Frame decisionmaking around the assumption that employees (and companies) are motivated by self-interest

Caring ethical climate

Has norms values that encourage people to make ethical decisions based on looking out for the welfare of others

Culture versus formalization

High formalization creates predictability, orderliness, and consistency. Formalization and culture are two different roads to the same destination.

Culture and innovation

Innovative companies are characterized by their open, unconventional, collaborative, vision-driven, and accelerating cultures

What are some factors that signal a negative organizational cutlure

Instutionalization, barriers to change, barriers to diversity, dysfunctions, and barriers to acquisitions and mergers

How does socialization play a role in sustaining culture

It aids new employees in adapting to the prevailing culture

Language

Many organizations and subunits within them use language to help members identify with the culture, attest to their acceptance of it, and help preserve it

Subcultures

Minicultures within an organization, typically defined by department designations and geographical separation

Stories

Narratives about the organization's founders, rule breaking, rages-to-riches successes, workforce reductions, relocations of employees, reactions to past mistakes, and organizational coping

Culture as a liability

Negative culture can trickle down, leaving employees disengaged, uncreative, unappreciated, and polarized

What does socialization impact

New employees's work productivity, commitment to the organization's objectives, and decision to stay with the organization

Rules ethical climate

Operate by internal standardized expectations from a manual or something similar

Sustainability

Organization practices that can be sustained over a long period of time because the tools or structures that support them are not damaged by the processes

Culture as an asset

Organizational culture can provide a positive ethical environment and foster innovation as well as significantly contribute to an organization's bottom line

How does the ethical dimension affect culture

Powerfully influences the way its individual members feel they should behave

Rewarding more than punishing

Practicing using the power of smaller and cheaper rewards such as praise

What are the three stages of socialization

Prearrival, encounter, and metamorphosis

Encouraging vitality and growth

Recognizing the difference between a job and career. Supports employees contributions to organizational effectiveness but how the organization can make the employee more effective

What should strong culture do

Reduce employee turnover, build cohesiveness, loyalty, and organizational commitment

Independence ethical climate

Rely on each individual's personal moral ideas to dictate his or her workplace behavior

Rituals

Repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization

Law and code ethical climate

Rquires managers and employees to use an external standardized moral compass

How does selection play a role in sustaining culture

Selection allows employers and applicants to avoid a mismatch and and to sustain an organizations culture by removing those who might attack or undermine its core values