Organisational Culture
Yu Fu
Email: yu.fu@heig-vd.ch
Learning objectives
• What is organisational culture?
• How do you understand an organisational
culture?
• How can the organisational culture be
managed?
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Organisational Culture
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A system of beliefs, customs, values, and
attitudes shared and transmitted by
members of a particular group or
organisation.
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The system of shared meaning is, on
closer examination, a set of key
characteristics that the organisation values.
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Primary Characteristics
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Innovation and risk taking
Attention to details
Outcome orientation
People orientation
Team orientation
Aggressiveness
Stability
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Organisational Culture
• Innovation and risk taking (3M)
• Outcome orientation (Bausch & Lomb)
• Aggressiveness: to enable people and
businesses throughout the world to realise
their full potentials (Microsoft)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSSeDJPVfrY
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Comparison of Two Competing
Perspectives on Organisational Culture
VARIABLE
• Something the
organisation “has”; a
tool, skill, or lever
• Inform workplace of
values
• Change occurs through
management directive
and intervention
ROOT METAPHOR
• Something the
organisation “is”;
expressive form
• Create sustain and
influence culture
• Change occurs through
natural evolution; all
members influence
culture
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Organisational Culture
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Culture is SHARED
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Culture is INTANGIBLE
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Culture AFFECTS HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
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Communicative creations
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Historical
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Organisational Culture
Artifacts
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Stories/legends
Rituals/ceremonies
Organisational language
Physical structures/décor
Visible
Shared values
• Conscious beliefs
• Evaluate what is good or bad, right
or wrong
Invisible
(below the surface)
Shared assumptions
• Unconscious, taken-for-granted
perceptions or beliefs
• Mental models of ideals
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Elements of Culture
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Artifacts: things representing group beliefs &
culture.
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Values: beliefs about use of time and hard work;
the way things ought to be (according to founder).
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Basic assumptions: core beliefs of the group,
relationship between individuals and group,
supervisor-supervisee relationships, risk-taking,
new worker orientation, benefits.
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Functions of Organisational Culture
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Culture provides a sense of identity to members
and increases their commitment to the
organisation
Culture is a sense-making device for organisation
members
Culture reinforces the values of the organisation
Culture serves as a control mechanism for
shaping behaviour
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Do Organisations Have Uniform Cultures?
• Organisational culture represents a
common perception held by the
organisation’s members.
• Most large organisations have a dominant
culture and numerous sets of subcultures.
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Organisational Culture
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A dominant culture expresses the core
values that are shared by a majority of the
organisation’s members.
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Subcultures tend to develop in large
organisations to reflect common problems,
situations, or experiences that members
face.
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Problems associated with subcultural
divisions within the larger culture
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Subordinate groups are likely to form into
a counterculture pursuing self-interests.
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The firm may encounter extreme difficulty
in coping with broader cultural changes.
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Embracing natural divisions from the
larger culture may lead to difficulty in
international operations.
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What Organisational Culture Does
FUNCTIONS
• Provides an external
identity
• Creates a sense of
commitment
• Acts as source of
high reliability
• Defines an
interpretive scheme
• Acts as a social
control mechanism
DYSFUNCTIONS
• Can create barriers to
change
• Can create conflict
within the organisation
• Subcultures can
change at different
rates than other units
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Wal-Mart, Inc.
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Wal-Mart’s headquarters almost screams out
frugality and efficiency. The world’s largest
retailer has a spartan waiting room for suppliers,
rather like a government office waiting areas.
Visitors pay for their own soft drinks and coffee. In
each of the building’s inexpensive cubicles,
employees sit at inexpensive desk finding ways to
squeeze more efficiencies and lower costs out of
suppliers as well as their own work processes.
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ICICI Bank
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India’s second largest bank exudes a performanceoriented culture. Its organisational practices place a
premium on training, career development, goal
setting, and pay-for-performance, all with the intent
of maximizing employee performance and customer
service.
“We believe in defining clear performance for
employees and empowering them to achieve their
goals “ says ICICI Bank executive director Kalpana
Moraria. “This has helped to create a culture of high
performance across the organisation.
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Convergence or Divergence?
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Industrialisation
Emphasis on
standardisation
Organisational strategies
for managing culture
globally
Emphasis on consistency
across borders
– MNCs
– Global institutions
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Use of organisational
culture as a competitive
tool
Impact of diverse national
cultures on organisational
culture
Benefits in specific and
culturally sensitive ways
– Seniority
– Job security
– Group versus
individual
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National culture influences
• Widely held common assumptions may be
traced to the larger culture of the host
society.
• National cultural values may become
embedded in expectations of organisation
members.
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National culture influences
• National culture must be taken into
account if accurate predictions are to be
made about organisational behaviour in
different countries.
• The research indicates that national
culture has a greater impact on employees
than does their organisation’s culture.
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Culture-Free Approach
It argues that technology, policies, rules,
organisational structure, and other variables
that contribute to efficiency and effectiveness
make national culture irrelevant for
management.
• McDonald’s fast food service
• World Disney
• IKEA
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Implications for Managers
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For managerial effectiveness, it is helpful to
analyse organisational cultures in order to
coordinate activities or change them;
Understand what levels of culture can be
influenced and how;
Know how national culture and organisational
culture can interact to influence management
philosophy and employee behaviours.
Person-culture fit for individual career success
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EXERCISES: What Does Our Culture
Reveal About Us?
1. pick an organisation to examine—social
group, the college or university, a
workplace, and so on.
2. Evaluate that organisation’s culture in
terms of the list of signs that reveal its
culture.
3. Draw a conclusion as to the nature of its
culture.
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