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