F) Ch. 5: Cultural Approaches
Espoused values
"what ought to happen", thought process and attitude
Assumptions
assumed values of employees that can not be measured but do make a difference to the org.
Schiens Deffinition of Culture
-culture is a GROUP PHENOMENON and is always striving toward patterning and integration -culture is a PATTERN OF BASIC ASSUMPTIONS: basic assumptions are the core of culture and values, behaviors and so are better seen as reflections of that culture -culture is EMERGENT & DEVELOPMENTAL: cultures are learned or developed as a group meets internal and external challenges
Organizational Cultures are emergent
-cultures are developed socially through the interaction of organizational members, important because communication is "constitutive of culture" -communcation proccesses viewed as "cultural performances" .. described as a. interactional: participation of multi. org. members b. contextual: embedded in org. situations & history c. episodic: nameable & distinctive events d. improvisational: no scripts
Prescriptive views of Cultures: Impact & problems Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life -Deal & Kennedy & In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies -Peters & Waterman
-enormous impact because they provided prescriptions for managerial practice -2 main problems *short sighted to assume there is one single cultural "formula" for achieving org. success * prescriptive approaches treat culture as a "thing" that an organization "has"
Methods For Studying Organizational Culture: Ethnography's 4 types of cultural tales
-etnographer observation: participant/non participant obersvations, archival analysis, talk with employees about values, heroes, metaphors, rules & stories -observations allow ethnographer to create a "mini-theory" that is grounded in the observations of a particular organization -once developed ethnography can be written as one of 4 "cultural tales" 1. realist tale 2. confessional tale 3. impressionist tale 4. critical tale
Scheins Model of Org. Culture analysis & critique
-might be seen as an "onion" with deeper & interconnected levels -critics say the model oversimplifies culture & role of communication -provides a helpful heuristic (experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery), speed up process of finding satisfactory solution
The High Reliability Organization
-organizations that engage in production or services that require extrondinary attention to avoiding major errors because they could lead to the destruction of the org. and/or larger public. ex: airplane flight deck -high reliability org. must insist on: a. error free behavior b. a strong value for skilled performance c. high degree of discretion d. appreciation for the tension between system operator & system expert
Organizational Cultures are Complicated: use a variety of "markers" to investigate culture
-rites -values -belief system -metaphors -stories -hallway talk
Alternative Approaches To Culture (4)
-seek to understand the complex ways culture is developed and maintained -make the distinction between prescriptive approaches and approaches taken by scholars *culture is complicated *culture is emergent *culture is not unitary *culture is ambiguous
"Excellent Culture" : Peters & Watermans 8 themes emphasize...
1. a bias for action 2. close relations to the customer 3. autonomy and entrepreneurship 4. Productivity through people 5. Hands on value driven 6. Stick to the knitting 7. Simple form, lean staff 8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties
"Strong Cultures" 4 Key components (Deal & Kennedy) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life
1. values 2.heores 3.rites and rituals 4. cultural network: comm systems that institutionalize & reinforce
Organizational Cultures are not unitary
It is impossible to characterize an organization as having a single culture; organizations are characterized by a multitude of subcultures that may co-exist in harmony, conflict, or indifference to each other. -Martins Differntiation approach: inconsistencies are expected and often seen as desirable
organizational cultures are ambiguous
There is not always a clear picture of the organization's culture--or even of its various subcultures. . -Fragmentation Perspective on Culture: examining org. culture with the idea there might be multiple manifestations of culture that are difficult to interpret
Artifacts
characteristics of an org. that can be easily viewed
The Iceberg Metaphor (prescriptive)
icebergs float on top of the water and are visible to the eye, but often beneath the surface they can go down hundreds of feet, there is much more to them than what can be seen. -above: org. structure, vision & strategies, states values, processes -below:"the way things are really done around here", norms, value, shared assumptions, unwritten rules, symbols & stories
realist tale
like a documentary, complete & relative objective account of observations
critical tale
narrative with the goal of uncovering deep power structures implicit in organizational functioning
impressionist tale
narrative, information slipped into story which could stand on its own dramatic merits
culture
refers to an organization's values, beliefs, and behaviors. In general, it is concerned with values and beliefs on the basis of which people interpret
Edgar Scheins Model of Org. Culture
schein- management scholar & consultant -interested in the role of leaders in development and management of culture -developed a model of culture that conceptualizes cultures as the assumptions, values, behaviors, and artifacts exhibited in attempt to adapt with internal & external contingencies in org.
confessionalist tale
talks personally about cultural experience in org
