MGMT-464: Chapter 14 - Organizational Culture, Socialization, and Mentoring

Drivers and Flow of Organizational Culture

Figure 14.2 provides a conceptual framework for understanding the drivers and effects of organizational culture. Five elements drive organizational culture: (1) the founder's values; (2) the industry and business environment; (3) the national culture; (4) the organization's vision and strategies; and (5) the behavior of leaders. Organizational culture influences the type of organizational structure adopted by a company and a host of internal processes implemented in pursuit of organizational goals. Organizational structure and internal processes then affect a variety of group and social processes, which impact employees' work attitudes and behaviors and a variety of organizational outcomes. 1) Drivers of Culture a. The founder's values b. The industry and business environment c. The national culture d. The organization's vision and strategies e. The behavior of leaders 2) Organizational Culture 3) Organizational Structure and Internal Processes 4) Group and Social Processes 5) Work Attitudes and Behaviors 6) Outcomes

Person-environment fit (P-E)

The compatibility between an individual and a work environment that occurs when their characteristics are well matched.

Espoused values

The explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization.

Person-organization fit (P-O)

The extent to which your personality and values match the climate and culture in an organization.

Artifacts

The physical manifestation of an organization's culture.

Rites and rituals

The planned and unplanned activities and ceremonies that are used to celebrate important events or achievements.

Organizational socialization

The process by which a person learns the values, norms, and required behaviors expected in order to participate as a member of the organization.

Mentoring

The process of forming and maintaining intensive and lasting developmental relationships.

Human capital

The productive potential of an individual's knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Social capital

The productive potential resulting from relationships, goodwill, trust, and cooperative effort.

Organizational culture

The set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments.

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 environments Four Characteristics of Organizational Culture: • Shared concept o Organizational culture consists of beliefs and values shared among a group of people • Learned over time o Culture is passed to new employees through the processes of socialization and mentoring • Influences our behavior at work o Its influence on behavior is the reason "culture eats strategy for breakfast." • Impacts outcomes at multiple levels o Culture affects outcomes at the individual, group/team, and organizational levels.

Enacted values

The values and norms that actually are exhibited or converted into employee behavior.

Formal statements

Using formal statements of: • Organizational philosophy • Mission • Vision • Values • Materials can be embedded culture when used for recruiting, selection, and socialization • Represent visible artifacts

The Organizational Socialization Process

What is organizational socialization? The process by which a person learns the values, norms, and required behaviors which permit them to participate as a member of an organization The three-phase model of organizational socialization • Anticipatory socialization • Encounter • Change and acquisition • Organizational socialization: process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors required to assume a work role. • Organizational socialization is a key mechanism used by organizations to embed their organizational cultures. • Organizational socialization turns outsiders into fully functioning insiders by promoting and reinforcing the organization's core values and beliefs. • Figure 14.7 shows a three-phase model of organizational socialization. • Each phase has its associated perceptual and social processes. • The model specifies behavioral and affective outcomes that can be used to judge how well an individual has been socialized.

Encounter phase

Employees come to learn what the organization is really like.

Strategic plan

Outlines an organization's long-term goals and the actions necessary to achieve those goals.

Phase 3: Change and acquisition

• Employees master important tasks and roles and adjust to their group's values and norms. • Change and acquisition phase: requires employees to master important tasks and roles and to adjust to work group values and norms. • Employees should be clear about their roles and be effectively integrated within the work unit. • Employees should have a clear understanding regarding the use of social media and expectations regarding surfing, texting during meetings, and sending personal messages on company equipment. • Table 14.2 describes tactics used by organizations to help employees through this adjustment process.

Workflow and organizational structure

• Hierarchical structure versus flatter organizations • Reducing organizational layers • Empower employees and increase employee involvement

Organizational activities and processes

• Leaders pay attention to those activities they can measure and control • These can send messages to employees about acceptable norms

Slogans, language, acronyms, and sayings

• Often powerful forces for cultural change • Easy to remember

Building Your Social Capital

A broad developmental network aids career success. Consistency and congruence between personal career goals and your developmental network boosts job and career satisfaction. Develop a mentoring plan • Make it goal driven. • Seek out those experienced in the areas in which you want to improve. • What value will you bring to the relationship? • Know when to move on. Social capital: the productive potential resulting from relationships, goodwill, trust, and cooperative effort. Social capital helps you when you are developing trusting relationships with others, and trusting relationships lead to more job and business opportunities, faster advancement, greater capacity to innovate, and more status and authority.

Sustainability culture

A company's ability to make a profit without sacrificing the resources of its people, the community, and the planet.

Vision

A long-term goal that describes "what" an organization wants to become. A compelling future state for an organization.

Competing values framework (CVF)

A practical way for managers to understand, measure, and change organizational culture.

D

All of the following are benefits of the RJP (realistic job preview) process EXCEPT a) leads to higher job performance. b) leads to lower turnover. c) provides a clearer picture of actual job expectations. d) employees may not accept a position after learning about the negative aspects of the job. e) All these are benefits of RJP.

General Functions of the Mentoring Process

Career related 1) Sponsorship 2) Exposure and visibility 3) Coaching 4) Protection 5) Challenging assignments Psycho-social related 1) Role modeling 2) Acceptance and confirmation 3) Counseling 4) Friendship Career functions of mentoring include sponsorship, exposure and visibility, coaching, protection, and challenging assignments. Psychosocial functions of mentoring include role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, counseling, and friendship.

Adhocracy culture

One that values an external focus and flexibility over internal and control.

Four Functions of Organizational Culture

Figure 14.3 identifies the four functions of organizational culture: 1) Establishes organizational identity. 2) Encourages collective commitment. 3) Ensures social system stability, which reflects the extent to which the work environment is perceived as positive and reinforcing, and the extent to which conflict and change are effectively managed. 4) Acts as sense-making device, by helping members make sense of their surroundings by helping employees understand why the organization does what it does and how it intends to accomplish its long-term goals. As profiled in the chapter, Southwest Airlines is an example of a firm that has successfully achieved these four functions.

The Process of Culture Change

Four truths about culture change 1) Leaders are the architects and developers of organizational change. a. This suggest that culture is not determined by fate. b. It is formed and shaped by the ongoing behavior of everyone who works at a company 2) Changing culture starts with one of the three levels of organizational culture: artifacts, espoused values, basic underlying assumptions. a. The fastest way to start a culture change project is through the use of observable artifacts. 3) Consider how closely the current change aligns with the organization's vision and strategic plan. a. Remember the quote "culture eats strategy for breakfast" whenever you pursue culture change. b. An organization's culture must be consistent with its vision and strategic goals. c. Vision: a long-term goal that describes what an organization wants to become. d. Strategic plan: outlines an organization's long-term goals and the actions necessary to achieve those goals. 4) Use a structured approach when implementing culture change. a. Our experience as consultants tells us that culture change frequently meets with resistance. b. People become accustomed to the culture they know and prefer to leave things as they are.

Realistic job preview (RJP)

Giving recruits a realistic idea of what lies ahead by presenting both positive and negative aspects of the job.

Market culture

Has a strong external focus and values control over flexibility.

Anticipatory socialization phase

Information gathered, and expectations formed before an individual actually joins an organization.

Hierarchy culture

Internally focused, produces a more formalized and structured work environment, and values stability and control over flexibility.

B

Jackson Electronics would like to change their organizational culture to emphasize clan culture. Jackson should use all of the following methods EXCEPT a) develop training programs to teach the underlying assumption of clan culture. b) have leaders keep information about negative events from employees. c) change the office structure to allow space for employees to collaborate and communicate. d) develop group and team reward systems. e) celebrate employee accomplishments and life events.

A

Jane works in an organization where quality and efficiency are highly valued. This organization's culture is likely a) hierarchy. b) adhocracy. c) goal-driven. d) clan. e) market.

Mentoring and Embedding Organizational Culture

Mentoring is the process of forming and maintaining intensive and lasting developmental relationships between a variety of developers and a junior person. Occurs over four phases • Initiation • Cultivation • Separation • Redefinition Mentoring: process of forming and maintaining intensive and lasting developmental relationships between a variety of developers and a junior person. Mentoring contributes to creating a sense of oneness by promoting the acceptance of the organization's core values throughout the organization. The networking aspect of mentoring promotes positive interpersonal relationships. The four phases of mentoring are initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition. • The initiation phase lasts 6 to 12 months and starts during the encounter phase of socialization. • The cultivation phases spans 2 to 5 years and entails the protégé/protégée receiving a host of career and psychosocial guidance. • In the separation phase, you detach from your mentor and become more autonomous. • During the redefinition phases, you and your mentor start interacting as peers.

Mechanisms for Creating Culture Change

OB experts have proposed 12 mechanisms or levers for changing organizational culture. These levers can be pushed to create a preferred type of culture, or they can be pulled to reduce a particular culture type. Changing culture amounts to pushing and pulling these levers to create a culture profile that is best suited to help an organization achieve its goals. These mechanisms or levers include: • Formal statements of organizational philosophy, mission, vision, values, and materials used for recruiting, selection, and socialization. • The design of physical space, work environments, and buildings. • Slogans, language, acronyms, and sayings. • Deliberate role modeling, training programs, teaching, and coaching by others. • Explicit rewards, status symbols, and promotion criteria. • Stories, legends, and myths about key people and events. • The organizational activities, processes, or outcomes that leaders pay attention to, measure, and control. • Leader reactions to critical incidents and organizational crises. • The rites and rituals used to celebrate important events or achievements. • The workflow and organizational structure. • Organizational systems and procedures. • Organizational goals and the associated criteria used throughout the employee cycle.

Phase 1: Anticipatory socialization

Occurs before an individual actually joins an organization Information learned about careers and organizations Learned from: • Current employees • Social media • Internet Realistic job previews: mitigate unrealistic expectations formed during this phase • Higher performance • Lower quit rates • Anticipatory socialization: occurs before an individual actually joins an organization. • It is represented by the information people have learned about different careers, occupations, professions, and organizations. • The information for anticipatory socialization comes from many sources, including the organization's current employees, the Internet, and social media. • Unrealistic expectations about the nature of the work, pay, and promotions are often formulated during Phase 1. • Because employees with unrealistic expectations are more likely to quit their jobs in the future, organizations may want to use realistic job previews. • Realistic job preview (RJP): presents recruits a realistic idea of what lies ahead by presenting both positive and negative aspects of the job.

Clan culture

One that values internal focus and flexibility rather than stability and control.

Three Levels of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture operates on three levels: (1) observable artifacts; (2) espoused values; and (3) basic underlying assumptions. Each level varies in terms of outward visibility and resistance to change, and each level influences another level. Observable artifacts: The physical manifestation of an organization's culture • Level 1: Observable Artifacts • Artifacts: physical manifestations of an organization's culture. • Artifacts are the most visible level of culture and include such things as acronyms, manner of dress, awards, myths and stories told about the organization, published lists of values, observable rituals and ceremonies, special parking spaces, decorations, and pictures and images handing on walls. • Artifacts are easier to change than the less visible aspects of organizational culture. Espoused versus enacted values Level 2: Espoused Values It is important to distinguish between values that are espoused versus those that are enacted. • Espoused values: the explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization. o Espoused values are generally established by the founder of a new or small company and by the top management team in a larger organization. o Because espoused values represent aspirations that are explicitly communicated to employees, managers hope that those values will directly influence employee behavior, but this does not always happen. • Enacted values: the values and norms that actually are exhibited or converted into employee behavior. o Enacted values represent the values that employees ascribe to an organization based on their observations of what occurs on a daily basis. o It is important for managers to reduce gaps between espoused and enacted values because they can significantly influence employee attitudes and organizational performance. Basic underlying assumptions: Organizational values that have become taken for granted • Basic underlying assumptions: organizational values that have become so taken for granted over time that they become assumptions that guide organizational behavior. o These basic underlying assumptions represent deep-seated beliefs that employees have about their company and thus constitute the core of organizational culture. o These basic underlying assumptions are highly resistant to change. o More companies have basic underlying assumptions about sustainability. • Sustainability: a company's ability to make a profit without sacrificing the resources of its people, the community, and the planet.

Basic underlying assumptions

Organizational values that have become so taken for granted over time that they become assumptions that guide organizational behavior.

Types of Organizational Culture

Organizations can possess characteristics associated with each culture type, but they tend to have one type of culture that is more dominant than the others. Clan (Collaborate) • Clan culture: a culture that has an internal focus and values flexibility rather than stability and control. • Clan cultures resemble family-type organizations in which effectiveness is achieved by encouraging collaboration, trust, and support among employees. • Clan cultures are very "employee-focused" and strive to instill cohesion through consensus and job satisfaction and commitment through employee involvement. • Clan organizations devote considerable resources to hiring and developing their employees, and they view customers as partners. Adhocracy (Create) • Adhocracy culture: a culture that has an external focus and values flexibility. • Adhocracy cultures foster the creation of new products and services by being adaptable, creative, and fast to respond to changes in the marketplace. • Adhocracy cultures do not rely on centralized power and authority relationships, and they encourage employees to take risks, think outside the box, and experiment with new ways of getting things done. • Adhocracy-type cultures are decreasing in the United States as many companies are becoming risk averse, even though "reasonable" risk taking is needed to create new businesses, products, and ultimately jobs. Market (Compete) • Strong external focus and stability and control valued • Competition • Strong desire to deliver results and accomplish goals • Market culture: a culture that has a strong external focus and values stability and control. • Market cultures are driven by competition and a strong desire to deliver results and accomplish goals, and because they are focused on the external environment • Customers and profits take precedence over employee development and satisfaction. • The major goal of managers with this type of culture is to drive toward productivity, profits, and customer satisfaction. Hierarchy (Control) • Internal focus, formalized and structured work environment • Stability and control valued over flexibility • Efficiency, timeliness, and reliability • Hierarchy culture: a culture that has an internal focus and values stability and control over flexibility. • Hierarchy cultures are characterized by reliable internal processes, extensive measurement, and the implementation of a variety of control mechanisms. • Effectiveness in a company with this type of culture is likely to be assessed with measures of efficiency, timeliness, quality, safety, and reliability of producing and delivering products and services.

Onboarding programs

Programs helping employees to integrate, assimilate, and transition to new jobs by making them familiar with corporate policies, procedures, culture, and politics and by clarifying work-role expectations and responsibilities.

Organizational systems and procedures and organizational goals

Reflected in how an organization manages • Communication • Recruitment • Selection • Development • Promotion • Layoffs • Retirements

Change and acquisition phase

Requires employees to master important tasks and roles and to adjust to their work group's values and norms.

The Organizational Socialization Process

What research tells us • Effective onboarding programs result in increased retention, productivity, and rates of task completion for new hires. • Many organizations use socialization tactics to reinforce a culture that promotes ethical behavior. • Managers need to help new hires integrate with the culture to overcome stress associated with a new environment. • Support for the stage model is mixed, different techniques are appropriate for different people at different times. • Managers should pay attention to the socialization of diverse employees. • Managers should avoid a haphazard, sink-or-swim approach to organizational socialization because formalized socialization tactics positively affect new hires. • Managers should consider how they might best set expectations regarding ethical behavior during all three phases of the socialization process. • Although there are different stages of socialization, they are not identical in order, length, or content for all people or jobs. • Managers should pay attention to the socialization of diverse employees.

E

Which level of organizational culture is the hardest to change? a) artifacts b) transactional c) enacted values d) espoused values e) basic underlying assumptions

Phase 2: Encounter

• Employees come to learn what the organization is really like. • Organizations use onboarding programs. • Encounter phase: employees come to learn what the organization is really like. • This second phase begins when the employment contract has been signed. • This is a time for reconciling unmet expectations and making sense of a new work environment. • Organizations use a combination of orientation and training programs to socialize employees during the encounter phase, including onboarding. • Onboarding: programs to help employees integrate, assimilate, and transition to new jobs by making them familiar with corporate policies, procedures, culture, and politics and by clarifying work-role expectations and responsibilities.

Subcultures

• Often not a single homogeneous culture • Rather, multiple subcultures that either intensify the existing cultural understanding and practices or diverge from them • Subcultures often form around: o Functional or occupational groups or work roles o Divisions or departments o Geographical areas o Products, markets, technology o Levels of management—senior management versus supervisors o Work role—firefighter versus emergency medical technician • Many organizations don't have a single homogeneous culture, but rather develop subcultures. • Organizational subcultures are distinctive clusters of ideologies, cultural forms, and other practices that identifiable groups of people in an organization exhibit. • Subcultures tend to form along functional/occupational groups; geographical areas; products, markets, or technology; divisions or departments; levels of management; or work roles. • While subcultures develop naturally, you don't want highly different subcultures to develop because they can lead groups to focus on different goals, customers, or values, which lowers unit and organizational performance.

Outcomes Associated with Organizational Culture

• Organizational culture is related to measures of organizational effectiveness. • Employees are more satisfied and committed to organizations with clan cultures. • Innovation and quality can be increased by building characteristics associated with clan, adhocracy, and market cultures. • Financial performance is not strongly related to organizational culture. • Market cultures tend to have more positive organizational outcomes.

Leader reactions to critical incidents

• People learn and pay attention to emotions exhibited by leaders. • Positive emotions spread. • Negative emotions travel faster and further.

Design of physical space, work environments, and buildings

• Physical spacing among people and buildings • Location of office furniture • E.g., open office or flexspace

Rites and rituals

• Planned and unplanned activities and ceremonies • Used to celebrate important events or achievements

Stories, legends, or myths

• Powerful way to send messages about values and behaviors that are desired

Explicit rewards, status symbols

• Strong impact on employees due to highly visible and meaningful nature • Strongest way to embed culture

Role modeling, training, coaching

• Structure training to provide an in-depth introduction about organizational values and basic underlying assumptions

Competing Values Framework

• This gives us four types of organizational culture, each with different core values and different sets of criteria for assessing organizational effectiveness. • Competing values framework (CVF): provides a practical way for managers to understand, measure, and change organizational culture. • The CVF indicates that organizations vary along two fundamental dimensions or axes: • The first dimension is the extent to which an organization focuses its attention and efforts on internal dynamics and employees or outward toward its external environment and its customers and shareholders. • The second dimension is the organization's preference for flexibility and discretion or control and stability. • Combining these two axes creates four types of organizational cultures that are based on different core values and different sets of criteria for assessing organizational effectiveness: clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market. • Figure 14.4 shows the strategic direction associated with each cultural type along with the means and goals it pursues. • Culture varies along two axes of competing values: flexibility and discretion versus stability and control, and internal focus and integration versus external focus and differentiation. This leads to four categories of organizations, each with its own unique character. o Clan (Collaborate). Means are cohesion, participation, communication, empowerment. Ends are morale, people, development, commitment. o Adhocracy (Create). Means are adaptability, creativity, agility. Ends are innovation, growth, cutting-edge output. o Market (Compete). Means are customer focus, productivity, enhancing competitiveness. Ends are market share, profitability, goal achievement. o Hierarchy (Control). Means are capable processes, consistency, process control, and measurement. Ends are efficiency, timeliness, smooth functioning.