Chapter 3
organizational culture and
environment: the constraints
The usefulness of management
• The omnipotent view
– The view that managers are directly
responsible for an organization’s success or
failure.
• The symbolic view
– The view that much of an organization’s
success or failure is due to external forces
outside managers’ control.
• Realty suggests a synthesis.
The organizations’ culture
• Organizational culture: the shared values,
principles, traditions, and ways of doing things
that influence the way organizational members
act.
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Attention to detail
Outcome orientation
People orientation
Team orientation
Aggressiveness
Stability
Innovation and risk taking
Strong and weak culture
Strong culture
Weak culture
Values widely shared
Values limited to a few people—
usually top management
Culture conveys consistent messages
about what’s important
Culture sends contradictory messages
about what’s important
Most employees can tell stories about
company history/heroes
Employees have little knowledge of
company history or heroes
Employees strongly identify with
culture
Employees have little identification
with culture
Strong connection between shared
values and behaviors
Little connection between shared
values and behaviors
How about the culture in your class? In Wuhan? In China?
The source of culture
• Founders and history.
• How an organization’s culture continues?
• How employees learn culture?
– Stories
– Rituals
– Material symbols
– Language
Current organizational culture
issues facing managers
• Creating an ethical culture
• Creating an innovation culture
– Challenge and involvement, trust and
openness, idea time, playfulness/humor,
conflict resolution, debates, risk taking
• Creating a customer-responsive culture
Spirituality and organizational
culture
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•
•
•
•
Strong sense of purpose.
Focus on individual development.
Trust and openness.
Employee empowerment.
Toleration of employee expression.
environment
• External environment
– Those factors and forces outside the
organization that affect the organization’s
performance.
• Internal environment
– Mermber of organization
– management
Specific and general
global
economics
Public
pressure
groups
suppliers
The
organization
demographics
Political
government
competitors
customers
sociocultural
technological
legal
Stakeholder vs. shareholder
• Stakeholder
– Any constituencies in the organization’s
environment that are affected by the
organization’s decision and actions.
– Balance of stakeholder
• Shareholder
– Owner of the organization’s assets.
– Maximiazation of shareholder interest.
employees
customers
unions
Social and
political action
group
shareholders
organization
competitors
suppliers
governments
Which one is most important?
Could you give more stakeholder in China?
Trade and
industry
associations