HRMN 495-Mini Case Study 5

Learning Topic

Organizational Culture Organizational culture is the sum of the beliefs, values, and assumptions

that represent shared meaning among members of an organization,

guiding their behavior. It is related to the organization's identity, much like

an individual's personality. Every organization has a culture and every

organization's culture is unique. Here, we examine the meaning of culture

in work organizations and its important features. By understanding the

nature and levels of culture, we can learn how to maintain it and how to

work toward necessary changes.

The Concept of Organizational Culture

A famous management expert once said, "an organization is a body of

thought thought by thinking thinkers" (Weick, 1979). This is a word puzzle

that is meant to make us think, and it does. After all, one of the most

common definitions of work organization, found in many textbooks, is

that it is a goal‐directed system of cooperative effort. This standard

definition says nothing about thinking. Instead, it focuses on a rational

approach to collaborative work, driven by official goals that come down

from top management.

In contrast, body of thought implies that an organization is not something

tangible, but rather that it is whatever we think it is—it is cognitive rather

than physical in nature. This conceptualization of our organization comes

from the ways that it has been thought about over time as it has evolved.

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UMGC (n.d.). Organizational Culture. Retrieved from https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/scor/uncurated/tlp/2218-tlp640/learning-topic- list/organizational-culture.html?ou=693701#

Further, this conceptualization comes from "thinking thinkers," or the

people who have reflected on their work and how it is done most

effectively in this organization, and who continue to do so. The culture

continues to evolve even today as people make sense of what they do

together.

For example, do we work in offices with walls and doors or in open

cubicles? Which way works best? What meaning does an open cubicle

have for us? Accessibility and open communication, or lack of trust and

little privacy? If our organization has both, who gets offices rather than

cubicles and why is that? What does that tell us about who and what are

valued? The answers to these questions are not apparent in our standard

definition of organization, but they tell us a great deal about the

organization as it is perceived by its members. These answer will be

unique in every organization—the physical cubicles may look the same,

but could mean very different things in different organizations.

From the perspective of organizational culture, many aspects of an

organization are symbols that have meaning for members of the

organization. The organization itself is subjective in nature, defined by the

group of people in it. In sum, organizational culture can be seen as the

beliefs, values, and assumptions that represent shared meaning among

members of an organization and that guide their behavior. It becomes

part of the identity of an organization, much like an individual's

personality. An organization's culture can lead to better organizational

effectiveness and performance (e.g., customer satisfaction and sales in a

for‐profit setting) (Boyce, Nieminen, Gillespie, Ryan, & Denison, 2015).

The Creation of a Culture

For a deeper understanding of culture and how it emerges in a group or

organization, we can consider the following explanation of an

organization's culture (Schein, 1984, p. 3):

Organizational culture is the pattern of basic assumptions that a

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given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to

cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal

integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered

valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way

to perceive, think, and feel in relation to these problems.

From this, we learn that the assumptions inherent in culture emerge from

problem solving and that this process is not only about how best to

coordinate activities internally (internal integration) but also about how

best to adapt to the organization's external environment. The approaches

that work well are adopted and then taken for granted as the correct way

to solve these problems in this organization. For example, if people learn

that teamwork is more effective than solo endeavors all the time, then

this will become a "taken for granted" practice in this organization, or an

assumption. Members will be expected to work together effectively in

teams to get things done. In another organization, there may be no

willingness and regular practice to work on teams, if they have learned

from their own past experiences that teams were not effective for their

problems.

Often culture develops early on, when an organization forms. In this case,

the founders and early leaders of an organization have a great influence

on how problems are solved and what is valued. If an organization stays

relatively small and is privately owned, this is likely to continue. In larger

organizations, this becomes more complex as subcultures develop and top

executives come and go. Each leader will influence the culture by

example, through actions and policy changes. However, the original

culture itself at the level of unstated assumptions has great momentum to

persist and changes slowly, if at all, unless deliberate and dramatic actions

are taken to hasten a desired new set of values. Values and norms for

behavior grow out of the group's problem‐solving successes and failures.

This is a key reason why desired culture change imposed by top

management is not an easy process and may take a long time.

The roots of organizational culture rest in how people in groups develop

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their own unique social reality. In the 1950s, social psychologist Solomon

Asch performed an experiment that revealed how a member of a group

would choose to incorrectly misstate the length of a line after six others

before (unbeknownst to him working for the researcher) had knowingly

misstated its length. Forty percent of the time, this error would occur.

However, when no one else was present to speak beforehand stating an

incorrect length, individual research participants were incorrect only one

percent of the time. This experiment became famous because it revealed

the powerful impact of social pressure for someone to conform to a

group. The culture in an organization has this control effect on its

members and is a way that the group ensures compliance with its values.

Functions of Culture

Organizational culture emerges from a group's shared understanding of

reality. It binds them together, creating a shared identity. This common

identity provides clarity and, in some cases, helps people stay motivated

to work together toward common goals. It overrides self‐interest and

guides their behavior in specific ways. As you might imagine, however, a

culture where there are unfettered political conflicts, coercive practices,

and so forth can lead members to engage in such behaviors and may be

demotivating rather than motivating. Every culture will call for a different

approach based on what is valued by that culture and its unwritten rules.

An example of how culture works can be seen in the issue of workplace

civility. Nearly two‐thirds of people now experience rudeness at work

(Porath, 2016 as cited in Meinert, 2017). This presents costs for

organizations in the form of lower productivity, increased stress, higher

turnover, and more absenteeism. Among other measures, actions for

fostering a more civil culture include rewarding civil behavior, coaching

managers and employees, holding people at all levels accountable for

their behavior, and modeling civil behavior yourself (Meinert, 2017). As

people learn that civility helps them solve problems more readily and be

more effective in their work, it can take hold and become a core value in

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the culture.

Levels of Culture

Since culture is made up of shared meanings taken for granted and held

among group members, it is not readily discernible, especially if you are

an outsider new to an organization. Like personality, it can only be known

by engaging with the person and learning more. If you want to fit into an

organization as a newcomer or seek to change its culture as a manager,

being able to diagnose the current culture is vital.

Culture exists at three levels.

• Top level: artifacts. The physical and social environment in the

organization, this includes elements such as the formal organizational

structure, jargon, stories people tell, rituals (such as annual budgeting

cycles, holiday parties, etc.), clothing and uniforms, symbols (such as

logos, flags, etc.), the physical workplace features, longstanding

traditions such as civil service rankings, etc.

This top level is easy to observe but its meaning is not obvious in most

cases. It offers clues to guide further inquiry, but usually does not give

clear answers about what is valued.

• Middle level: values and beliefs. The preferences that members

espouse; what they say they believe in and how things should be

done.

This middle level provides more insight to the culture based on what

members say is important in this organization. By asking, we can begin to

understand the official reasons why they do the things that they do (e.g.,

work on teams rather than solo). However, what people say is important

is not always what is truly important to them, so to accurately understand

a culture, we must probe further.

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• Lower level: basic assumptions. At this level, we can begin to

understand the assumptions that truly drive day to day behaviors—

why certain choices have been made and continue to be made.

At this lower level, the unconscious assumptions may or may not match

up to the stated values at the middle level. These assumptions about how

the organization does things are so ingrained and subconscious that they

are not easy to identify. Only with in‐depth questioning of members in a

variety of roles throughout the hierarchy and many observations of

behaviors can we begin to understand culture at this level. For example,

we may discover that everyone works on teams because, in this

organization, they don't trust one another to do a good job when working

alone; however, this may not have been the reason that was given when

they were first asked (middle level).

Identifying Culture

Identifying the culture in a group or larger organization is a process of

careful observation and speaking with members of the organization at all

levels. Here are just some of the questions that you might pursue to gain

insight to its culture.

• How do its members describe the organization? Do they use any

particular metaphor or image?

• What is the physical impression and feeling that you have walking

around in the organization?

• What are the dos and don'ts (norms)?

• Do the official espoused values match the ones that seem to be in

use?

• What jargon or buzzwords tend to be used a lot and what is their

meaning?

• What are the stories that are told to newcomers about the

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organization in the past and its people, such as good or bad leaders

or troublesome employees?

• What do executives focus on in their communications?

• How is performance measured and who (individuals and groups) is

rewarded most and most often?

• How do managers react when there is a perceived crisis?

• How do people treat one another? With respect or incivility?

• How much professional development and coaching is done?

• Who gets excluded from important meetings or rewards? Why?

• Who is listened to? Why?

Subcultures

Large organizations have many subcultures because different groups

within the organization have evolved and learned what works for them

over time. In fact, there may be greater variation in the subcultures of a

large organization than there are differences between the culture of the

large organization and another organization. This means that

understanding the culture in a large organization requires a lot of

investigation of the different subcultures since they are likely quite

different from one another, even though all will be influenced to some

extent by the larger culture.

Subcultures often emerge from specific work groups. For example, the

Information Technology (IT) group may develop norms that call for

informality. They may have a flat structure, dress casually, work odd hours

in solitude, and work well into the night to solve a problem. In contrast,

the Human Resources (HR) group might have strict norms about following

policy at all costs, due the legal implications of their work. They may dress

more formally, work regular 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours, have a clear and rigid

chain of command, and have an open door attitude for any employee to

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come in with a problem. This is not to say though that all IT and HR

groups will have these same characteristics; while there may be some

similarities, it depends on the group culture that has evolved in the

specific organization.

Maintaining Culture

Culture is maintained over time if its values and norms continue to help

the group solve its problems. There is a risk of obsolescence for a culture,

especially if the external environment of the group or organization is

dynamic—undergoing rapid change—and is uncertain and unpredictable.

For example, if an organization's culture does not value client input, but

an aggressive competitor initiates a service that does a great job of

meeting client needs and is able to listen to the clients to continuously

adapt its services, the organization closed to input may find itself at a

disadvantage with its outdated culture. An obsolescent culture may be

maintained for some time before declining performance effects are traced

back to the culture, and changes are made. Sometimes new management

helps to illuminate the need for change and to try new ways of doing

things (i.e., solving the problems they face).

The selection of new employees is another example of how current

values are maintained in a culture. If homogeneity is valued over diversity,

new hires will mirror existing staff. They may have the same values; share

similar cultural and educational backgrounds; and be similar in terms of

racial, ethnic, and gender identities. It is common for people to

unconsciously as well as intentionally hire those like themselves, a key

reason why members of minority groups (and women) frequently face

difficulty being hired into prestigious roles and rising in the hierarchy of

many organizations. If diversity is valued by the organization, however,

this cultural value will encourage hiring people from different

backgrounds and with diverse characteristics, skill sets, and perspectives.

Culture is also maintained as new employees are socialized into an

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organization. Consider the example of how new military recruits go

through a rigorous process of basic training. A formal new employee

orientation is one way that this onboarding process is done in other

organizations. Also consider what messages new staff members receive

about the culture when there is no formal introduction and they are

simply given a difficult task and a deadline. Are they learning merely that

they have independence in problem solving, or are they also learning that

the management of the organization is uncaring and does not value

supporting others? New employees may not know at first which

interpretation is most accurate, but they will learn as time passes, through

observation and conversation with coworkers.

References

Boyce, A. S., Nieminen, L. G., Gillespie, M. A., Ryan, A. M., & Denison, D.

R. (2015). Which comes first, organizational culture or

performance? A longitudinal study of causal priority with

automobile dealerships. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(3),

339–359. doi:10.1002/job.1985

Meinert, D. (2017, March 20). How to create a culture of civility. Society

for Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/hr‐

today/news/hr‐magazine/0417/pages/how‐to‐create‐a‐culture‐

of‐civility.aspx

Porath, C. (2016). Mastering civility: A manifesto for the workplace.

Grand Central Publishing.

Schein, E. H. (1984). Coming to a new awareness of organizational

culture. Sloan Management Review, 25(2), 3.

Weick, K. E. (1979). Cognitive processes in organizations. Research in

Organizational Behavior, 1(41).

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