Organisational
Behaviour
Chapter 8
Culture in organisations
Objectives:
• Discuss what is meant by the term ‘culture’.
• Outline the main theories on organisational
culture
• Critically discuss their applicability to the
effectiveness of an organisation
• Examine approaches to the management of
culture
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Two meanings of culture
1. The growing of organisms – e.g. horticulture,
laboratory cultures
2. A metaphor indicating the values, norms and
behaviours of a human community
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Organisational Culture
Culture is an emergent property of a complex system
• It is the consequence of countless interactions
between individuals and groups within a community
• Cultures often contain sub-cultures within them
where a group will see itself as somehow different
from other groups
• Sometimes we can see counter-cultures where a
group feels that its interests are not served by the
prevailing norms and behaviours (also see in-groups
and out-groups in the chapter on groups)
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Organisational Culture
As we shall see, culture is difficult to understand and to study:
• It is complex
• There is no generally agreed definition as to what it is and
how we measure it
• Can we develop a culture in an organisation which will
facilitate its activities?
• Is culture an objective thing which can be managed and
controlled (and therefore predictable)?
• Or is it part and parcel of a community’s being, resistant to
being managed?
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
The work of Edgar Schein
Schein is generally considered to be the main
precursor of interest in the study of organisation
culture. He referred to culture as an ‘empirical
abstract’. That is to say, we can clearly observe
the elements of an organisation’s culture, even
though we may find it difficult to describe or
measure it in its entirety.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
The work of Edgar Schein
Schein saw culture as an inverted pyramid:
Artefacts
Values
Assumptions
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
The work of Edgar Schein
• Artefacts – the observable features of culture, material
objects, dress, behaviour, etc.
• Values – those values an organisation espouses. It is often
important to check that the values espoused by management
are the same as those experienced by staff
• Assumptions – These are our deep thoughts (often
unconscious) about ourselves and other people. They
influence our values. Where values arise from shared
assumptions, they are very powerful
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Deal and Kennedy’s work on culture
Deal and Kennedy suggest that there
are a number of influences which
contribute to an organisation’s culture
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Deal and Kennedy’s work on culture
• Values and beliefs: None of us goes into a job without a set of
values and schemata with which we make judgements about everything
around us including matters relating to the organisation and the work it
does
• Rituals: These are the regular ceremonial activities we find within an
organisation
• Heroes: We use them in several ways: as figures of admiration whom
we would like to emulate; as examples of sacrifice for something good; as
super beings who rise above the mundane and achieve great things
• The informal cultural network: In this informal system, Deal
and Kennedy identify key roles that disseminate the culture, interpret
events in the context of the culture and reinforce the values of the culture.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Deal and Kennedy’s roles for disseminating
culture
– Storytellers: These people interpret events and convert them into
coherent stories that relate to and develop the culture of the group.
This category also includes ‘gossipers’ who put their own spin on
events
– Whisperers: These are people who can communicate directly and
informally with those at the top of the organisation. It is a way of
getting messages to the top, bypassing the formal communication
process.
– Spies: Whether deliberately placed or self-appointed, we sometimes
find that there are people in the organisation who provide informal
information to senior managers about things which formal reports do
not communicate
– Priests: These tend to be members of the organisation of long
standing, who identify strongly with the organisation, and who
consequently interpret events according to the organisation’s values.
They play an important part in reinforcing those values.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Deal and Kennedy’s culture types
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Johnson and Scholes cultural web
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Culture and structure
Harrison suggests that culture is strongly linked
to an organisation’s structure.
He classified cultures according to the two
variables: formalization and centralisation. This
produced a four quadrant model with the four
culture types placed as we can see in the
following diagram
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Culture and structure
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Can culture be managed?
Interest in organisation culture arose because leaders of
organisations became convinced that a strong, unifying culture
would be to their competitive advantage. Behind such an
assertion lies the assumption that culture can be managed. If
that is the case, then managers can bring about changes to an
unsatisfactory culture so that an organisation can reap the
competitive rewards of such a change. However, there is little
agreement about what the term really means.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Two contrasting views of culture
1. Culture as an emergent property of an organisation: it is a
self-organising, emergent property of a complex human
system. it represents what the organisation is. Because of its
complexity, it is difficult to be sure of what effect
interventions by the leaders of the organisation will have
2. Culture as an organisational resource: If, on the other hand
culture is something that an organisation has, like its
structure and policies, then these are subject to change at
the behest of managers in just the same way as those
structures and policies. This is the ‘functionalist’ view of
culture. In this view, a culture is an organisation’s asset (or
liability) and needs to be maintained, nurtured and
controlled to deliver competitive advantage.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Morgan’s cultural metaphors
According to the work of Gareth Morgan, this
uncertainty about the nature of culture arises
because of how we frame our understanding of an
organisation. Moreover, if this framing is different
for different members, then there will be little
agreement about what the organisation is really
‘like’. Morgan proposes several metaphors which
we use to understand organisations. By exploring
these metaphors, we might be able to arrive at a
more general consensus about an organisation
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Morgan’s cultural metaphors
• Organisms: This metaphor sees the organisation as being
located within its environment, and needing to respond and
react to its environment in order to survive
• Brains: Visualising the organisation as a brain suggests that
there is a central, controlling command structure, which Is
constantly communicating with its limbs and organs
• Cultures: Morgan unequivocally takes the view that culture
emerges through the interpretation of symbols and the
perception of meaning. These are likely to differ between
individuals and groups within the same organisation.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Morgan’s cultural metaphors
• Political systems: A political system is one where there is
disagreement and competition about both the goals of the
organisation and how to achieve them
• Psychic prisons: When Morgan uses this metaphor for an
organisation he is implying the loss of psychological freedom that
individuals can experience in an organisation. This can come about
when there is a mismatch between an individual’s personal values
and those of management
• Flux and transformation: The metaphor of flux and transformation
is one which chimes well with our times. It implies an environment
which is almost chaotic in its unpredictability and requires
organisations to be endlessly adaptable merely to survive.
• Instruments of domination: This metaphor sees organisations
acting as instruments of domination in their outward-facing
organisational activities and as instruments of domination in their
internal structures
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Peters and Waterman’s eight characteristics of
an ‘excellence’ culture
•
Bias for Action: Make clear decisions and act on them.
•
Close to the Customer: Keep open communication with customers and learn from them.
•
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship: Give people space to innovate and take risks.
•
Productivity through people: Influence staff to want to work productively and develop their skills.
•
Hands-on, Value-Driven: Have a clear management philosophy, which managers are committed to, that
is communicated and acted on.
•
Stick to the Knitting: Focus on the core activities of the business.
•
Simple Form, Lean Staff: Keep the structure simple and uncluttered, with the staff needed to carry out
the work, but no more.
•
Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties: Keep overall strategies and values at the forefront of the
organisation while allowing staff to respond autonomously to day to day problems.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)