Critically discuss the following statement with reference to relevant theory and practice: ‘Gender equality is not just good for women in organizations it is good for all organizational members’.
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The organization as culture
Week 2 Lecture
Session Aims
To identify and understand the different levels of organizational culture.
To examine different perspectives on organizational culture.
To appreciate the difference between culture as something an organization has and something an organization is.
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For organizations to do things….
Organizations depend upon the coordinated efforts of numerous individuals.
They exist in environments that affect their ongoing success or failure.
The practices and rules that make them up can change over time.
Sometimes these changes happen as the result of deliberate design choices by individuals inside or outside the organization.
Sometimes they happen through gradual processes over time that no one is specifically aware of.
Lecture analysis: What values do Google have?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9No-FiEInLA
Culture Comes to Organizations: 1960s and 1970s
Up until the 1960s confidence in Western (especially American) management techniques and industrial processes was relatively unquestioned.
But through the 1970s Japan emerged as a global industrial forces.
Growth of Japanese automobile and electronics industries: (e.g. Sony formed in 1946, Toyota formed in 1937).
Japanese ‘economics miracle’ - After being devastated by WW2, by 1968 it was the world’s second biggest economy.
... all in a country with no natural resources, and a relatively small land mass.
Morgan. G. (2006) Images of Organizations, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Culture Comes to Organizations: 1980s
By the 1980s Western businesses wanted to learn from the success of Japanese businesses and began to investigate what different in their management practices:
Focus on quality management.
Close inter-corporate relationship (Keiretsu).
Focus on organizational culture of consensus and cooperation.
Morgan. G. (2006) Images of Organizations, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
William Ouchi (1981) Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge
Collectivism rather than individualism.
Strong set of uniform cultural values.
Focus on gaining employee commitment and consensus.
Fostering employee loyalty/long term employment.
Extensive communication and collaboration.
Use of informal methods of control.
Broad concern for employee well being.
The Rise of Corporate Culturalism
Two key books were published that put culture on the agenda for Western organizations:
Deal and Kennedy (1982) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life.
Peters and Waterman (1982) In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies.
Culture promised a way to manage employee commitment and motivation on an organization wide scale through social integration within the organization.
It became widely accepted that having the right corporate culture could increase corporate performance – especially if that culture was ‘strong’ and uniform.
Corporations began to try to define the values and norms that they wanted to inform the behaviour of their employees ... and then to get employees to internalize them.
Not Any Strong Culture is Seen to be a Source of Success (1)
Peters and Waterman (1982) identified 8 ‘basic principles that identified the cultures of ‘excellent’ organizations:
A bias for action: A preference for doing something – anything – rather than sending a question through cycles and cycles of analyses and committee reports.
Staying close to the customer: learning his [or her] preferences and catering to them.
Autonomy and entrepreneurship – breaking the corporation in to small companies and encouraging them to think independently and competitively.
Productivity through people – creating in all employees the awareness that their best efforts are essential and that they will share in the rewards of the company’s success.
Peters, R. and Waterman, D. (1982) In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper Collins.
Not Any Strong Culture is Seen to be a Source of Success (2)
5. Hands-on, value-driven – insisting that executives keep in touch with the firm’s essential business.
6. Stick to the knitting – remaining with the business that the company knows best.
7. Simple form, lean staff – few administrative layers, few people at the upper levels.
8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties – fostering a climate where their is dedication to the central values of the company combined with a tolerance for all employees who accept these values.
Peters, R. and Waterman, D. (1982) In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper Collins.
Culture
Culture stresses the way “things are done” around here and therefore ‘know how’.
Way things are done are embodied in habits and conventions of practice that:
Are not always explicit and overt.
But have a powerful effect on shaping the thinking, moods and behaviours of people in the organisation.
Often we know how to do something without really knowing that we do it – becomes part of ‘who we are’ and our practices.
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Culture: A Definition
Schein, E. (1984) Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture, Sloan Management Review, 25(2).
“Organizational culture is a pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which 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 those problems”.
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Schein’s Three Levels of Culture
Artefacts and Behaviours
e.g. Ceremonies, courses, architecture, furniture, policies, common practice, dress norms
Espoused Values
The values espoused by the organization’s leaders as expressed in strategies, goals, value statements etc.
Basic Assumptions
The often unstated and taken-for-granted reality of an organization’s culture
e.g. Relationship to environment, nature of reality, truth, human activity and relationships
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Organizational Culture: What Google Says About Itself in 2016
“It’s really the people that make Google the kind of company it is. We hire people who are smart and determined, and we favor ability over experience.
Although Googlers share common goals and visions for the company, we hail from all walks of life and speak dozens of languages, reflecting the global audience we serve. And when not at work, Googlers pursue interests rangingfrom cycling to beekeeping, from frisbee to foxtrot.
We strive to maintain the open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions.
In our weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings—not to mention over email or in the cafe—Googlers ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other execs about any number of company issues. Our offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play.”
http://www.google.com/corporate/culture.html
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM_ahdt90Sk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM_ahdt90Sk 3:21
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Questions
What does this video tell you about Google’s culture in terms of:
Artefacts and behaviours
Values
Basic assumptions
If this is how Google portrays it’s formal corporate culture, what do you think this suggests about the real experience of working for Google?
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Artefacts of Organizational Culture
Formal Documents - e.g. Policies, job descriptions, organizational charts
Stories – The stories people tell each other about ‘how things are done round here’
Rituals – Institutionalized patters of behaviour e.g. Christmas parties, retirement dinners, town hall meetings
Humour – Jokes about the organization or fellow employees
Physical arrangements – Architecture, interior design, dress norms
“Culture consists of the patterns of meaning that link these manifestations together, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in bitter conflicts between groups, and sometimes in webs of ambiguity, paradox and contradiction”
Martin, J. (2005) Organizational Culture, in N. Nicholson, P. Audia and M. Pillutla (Eds.) The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behaviour 2nd Ed., pp. 272-278. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Physical Structures
Rituals/ Ceremonies
Stories
Language
Heroes
Beliefs
Values
Assumptions
Artefacts of
Organizational
Culture
Organizational
Culture
Elements of Organizational Culture
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McDonald’s Values
We place the customer experience at the core of all we do
Our customers are the reason for our existence. We demonstrate our appreciation by providing them with high quality food and superior service, in a clean, welcoming environment, at a great value. Our goal is QSC&V for each and every customer, each and every time.
We are committed to our people
We provide opportunity, nurture talent, develop leaders and reward achievement. We believe that a team of well-trained individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, working together in an environment that fosters respect and drives high levels of engagement, is essential to our continued success.
We believe in the McDonald’s System
McDonald’s business model, depicted by the “three-legged stool” of owner/operators, suppliers, and company employees, is our foundation, and the balance of interests among the three groups is key.
We operate our business ethically
Sound ethics is good business. At McDonald’s, we hold ourselves and conduct our business to high standards of fairness, honesty, and integrity. We are individually accountable and collectively responsible.
We give back to our communities
We take seriously the responsibilities that come with being a leader. We help our customers build better communities, support Ronald McDonald House Charities, and leverage our size, scope and resources to help make the world a better place.
We grow our business profitably
McDonald’s is a publicly traded company. As such, we work to provide sustained profitable growth for our shareholders. This requires a continuing focus on our customers and the health of our system.
We strive continually to improve
We are a learning organization that aims to anticipate and respond to changing customer, employee and system needs through constant evolution and innovation.
But ... Not everyone agrees
Corporate Vs. Organizational Culture
“A culture devised by management and transmitted, marketed, sold or imposed on the rest of the organization [...] the rites, rituals, stories and values which are offered to organizational members as part of the seductive process of achieving membership and gaining commitment”
“the culture which grows or emerges within the organization and which emphasizes the creativity of organizational members as culture makers, perhaps resisting or ironically evaluating the dominant culture”
Organizational Culture
Corporate Culture
Linstead, S. and Small, R.G. (1992) On Reading Organizational Culture, Organization Studies, 13(3) 331-355.
Gap words to live by
British Employees of US Clothing Chain Re-write the Corporate Mission Statement
Everyone Counts
Every difference makes a difference
Own it, do it, done it
Less is more...simplify
Take the smart risk
Do it better everyday
Do the right thing
Everyone Counts the days until they leave
Every difference makes a difference apart from indifference
Own it, do it, done it EH?
Our wages Less is more...simplify
Take the smart risk and quit
Do it better everyday and still feel shit
Do the right thing and leave
Gap words to live by
Staff contributions in italics
Grugulis, I. And Wilkinson, A. (2002) Managing Culture at British Airways: Hype, Hope and Reality, Long Range Planning, 35: 179-184
Selling Culture: Recruitment Commercial for Ernst and Young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIq9o1H1yo&feature=related
If you joined Ernst and Young and were shown this video on your first day, what would you think of their culture?
Cultural Perspectives
“Culture is characterized by consistency, organization wide consensus, and clarity”
Organizations are “composed on overlapping, nested subcultures that coexist in relationships of intergroup harmony, conflict, or indifference”
“Clarity, consistency and consensus are idealized oversimplifications– ambiguity is the defining feature of cultures”
INTEGRATION
DIFFERENTIATION
FRAGMENTATION
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Martin, J. (2005) Organizational Culture, in N. Nicholson, P. Audia and M. Pillutla (Eds.) The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior 2nd Ed., pp. 272-278. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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Culture as ‘Has’ and ‘Is’ (Smircich)
Cultural Integration
Cultural consistency occurs because top management espouse and reinforce a set of values/mission that generate organization wide consensus
Members of the organization understand and agree with the values and they inform their behaviour
This is further reinforced by hiring senior managers with similar values as well as socializing new employees into them
Anyone who thinks differently to this is viewed as being outside of the culture
These ‘strong cultures’ are seen to be key to profitability
Conflict or ambiguity is seen to be a deterioration of the culture
Martin, J. (2005) Organizational Culture, in N. Nicholson, P. Audia and M. Pillutla (Eds.) The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior 2nd Ed., pp. 272-278. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Cultural Differentiation
Espoused organizational values and informal norms are usually inconsistent – they elicit a mixture of compliance and resistance
Organization is best viewed as a collection of subcultures
Consensus only exists within subcultures – but across the organization there is ambiguity
Subcultures often align with functional, occupational or hierarchically defined groups
Different groups respond to top management's cultural initiatives differently
More senior groups are often more likely to adhere to the formal corporate values
Martin, J. (2005) Organizational Culture, in N. Nicholson, P. Audia and M. Pillutla (Eds.) The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior 2nd Ed., pp. 272-278. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Cultural Fragmentation
Organizational culture is by nature ambiguous – it includes multiple meanings, paradox, irony and contradiction
This ambiguity pervades all aspects of the organization
There are may plausible interpretations of issues such that the possibility of a single shared culture is impossible
Culture comprises of a flux of issue specific networks that emerge and then disappear
Culture is “like a room full of spider webs, constantly being destroyed and rewoven”
Change rather than consistency is the norm
Martin, J. (2005) Organizational Culture, in N. Nicholson, P. Audia and M. Pillutla (Eds.) The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior 2nd Ed., pp. 272-278. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Why do Organizations Want a Strong Culture?
The management of culture is usually based on the desire to produce strong and consistent cultures where the behaviour of individual employees is informed by a managerially sanctioned common set of values, behaviours and assumptions across the organization.
This desire for a strong culture is justified based on:
Leads to competitive advantage as it enables people to identify with the company so as to be a source of individual commitment.
Provide an advanced form of managerial control directed at peoples values, beliefs and ideologies.
Enable organisations to better use their human resources by taping into their unexploited human potential.
Enables managers to align individual behaviour with corporate strategy.
But, can we automatically assume that ‘shared’ culture is either possible or desirable?
Alvesson, P. and Berg, P.O. (1992) Corporate Culture and Organizational Symbolism, Berlin: de Gruyter.
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Creating workspaces that reflect cultural values: HOMEWORK
Think about the ways organizations design organizations to reflect their values:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Glzoslt1w
References
Smircich, L., 1983. Concepts of culture and organizational analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, pp.339-358.
For next week: think about what types of organizations you couldn’t work for.
