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Exhibit 10-1 Layers of Culture
Levels of Culture
• Artifacts
– Aspects of an organization’s
culture that you see, hear, and feel
• Beliefs
– The understandings of how objects
and ideas relate to each other
• Values
– The stable, long-lasting beliefs about
what is important
• Assumptions
– The taken-for-granted notions of how
something should be in an organization
Characteristics of Organizational
Culture
• Innovation and risk-taking
– The degree to which employees are
encouraged to be innovative and take risks.
• Attention to detail
– The degree to which employees are
expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention
to detail.
• Outcome orientation
– The degree to which management focuses
on results or outcomes rather than on technique and process.
• People orientation
– The degree to which management decisions
take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people
within the organization.
• Team orientation
– The degree to which work activities
are organized around teams rather than individuals.
• Aggressiveness
– The degree to which people are aggressive
and competitive rather than easygoing.
• Stability
– The degree to which organizational
activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast
to growth.
Do Organizations Have Uniform
Cultures?
• Organizational culture
represents a common perception held by the organization
members.
• Core values or dominant (primary) values are accepted
throughout the organization.
– Dominant culture
• Expresses the core values
that are shared by a majority of the organization’s
members.
– Subcultures
• Tend to develop in large organizations to reflect
common problems, situations, or experiences.
Keeping a Culture Alive
• Selection
– Identify and hire individuals who
will fit in with the culture
• Top Management
– Senior executives establish and communicate
the norms of the organization
• Socialization
– Organizations need to teach the culture
to new employees
Culture’s Functions
• Social glue that
helps hold an organization together
– Provides appropriate standards for
what employees should say or do
• Boundary-defining
• Conveys a sense of identity for organization members
• Facilitates commitment to something larger than
one’s individual self-interest
• Enhances social system stability
• Serves as a “sense-making” and control
mechanism
– Guides and shapes the attitudes and
behaviour of employees
Culture as a Liability
• Culture can have dysfunctional aspects in some
instances
– Culture as a Barrier to Change
• When organization is undergoing
change, culture may impede change
– Culture as a Barrier to Diversity
• Strong cultures put considerable
pressure on employees to conform
– Culture as a Barrier to Mergers and
Acquisitions
• Merging the cultures of
two organizations can be difficult, if not impossible
Conditions for Culture Change
• A dramatic crisis
• Turnover in leadership
• Young and small organizations
• Weak culture
How Employees Can Change Unethical
Behavior
• Secretly or publicly reporting unethical actions
to a higher level within the organization.
• Secretly or publicly reporting unethical actions
outside the organization.
• Secretly or publicly threatening an offender or
responsible manager with reporting unethical actions.
• Quietly or publicly refusing to implement an unethical
order or policy.
Actions
Organizations Can Take to Develop an Ethical Culture
• Be realistic in setting values and goals regarding
employee relationships.
• Encourage input from organization members regarding
appropriate values and practices for implementing the
culture.
• Do not automatically opt for a “strong”
culture.
• Provide training on adopting and implementing
the organization’s values.
Exhibit 10-6 Suggestions for Changing Culture
• Have top-management
people become positive role models, setting the tone through
their behaviour.
• Create new stories, symbols, and rituals to replace
those currently in vogue.
• Select, promote, and support employees who espouse
the new values that are sought.
• Redesign socialization processes to align with
the new values.
Exhibit 10-6 Suggestions for Changing Culture
(cont’d)
• Change the reward system to encourage acceptance
of a new set of values.
• Replace unwritten norms with formal rules and
regulations that are tightly enforced.
• Shake up current subcultures through transfers,
job rotation, and/or terminations.
• Work to get peer group consensus through utilization
of employee participation and creation of a climate with
a high level of trust.
Exhibit 10-7 Lewin’s
Three-Step Change Model
Implementing
Change
• Unfreezing: getting ready for change
– Minimizing resistance
• Moving: making the change
– Changing people (individuals and groups);
Tasks; Structure; Technology
• Refreezing: stabilizing the change
– Reinforcing outcomes, evaluating results,
making constructive modifications
Exhibit 10-8
Unfreezing the Status Quo
Unfreezing
• Arouse dissatisfaction with the current
state
– Tell them about deficiencies in organization
• Activate and strengthen
top management support
– Need to break down power centres
• Use participation
in decision making
– Get people involved
• Build in rewards
– Tie rewards to change/use recognition, status
symbols, praise to get people to go along
Moving
• Establish goals
– E.G. Make business profitable by end of
next year
• Institute smaller,
acceptable changes that reinforce and support change
– E.G. Procedures and rules, job descriptions,
reporting relationships
• Develop management
structures for change
– E.G. Plans, strategies, mechanisms that
ensure change occurs
• Maintain open, two-way
communication
Refreezing
• Build success experiences
– Set targets for change, and have everyone
work toward targets
• Reward desired behaviour
– GOOD - reward behaviour that reinforces
changes
– BAD - reward old system (e.g., people relying
on old systems while computerization is going on)
• Develop structures
to institutionalize the change
– Organizational retreats, appropriate computer
technology, performance appraisals that examine change
efforts
• Make change work
Exhibit 10-9 Sources of
Individual Resistance to Change
Cynicism About Change
• Feeling uninformed about what was happening
• Lack of communication and respect from one’s
supervisor
• Lack of communication and respect from one’s
union representative
• Lack of opportunity for meaningful participation
in decision-making
Exhibit 10-11 Sources of
Organizational Resistance to Change
Overcoming Resistance to
Change
• Education and Communication
– This tactic assumes that the source
of resistance lies in misinformation or poor communication.
• Participation
– Prior to making a change, those opposed
can be brought into the decision process.
• Facilitation and
Support
– The provision of various efforts to facilitate
adjustment.
Overcoming Resistance to
Change
• Negotiation
– Exchange something of value for a lessening
of resistance.
• Manipulation and
Cooperation
– Twisting and distorting facts to make them
appear more attractive.
• Coercion
– The application of direct threats or force
upon resisters.
Summary and Implications
• Employees form an overall subjective perception
of the organization based on such factors as degree of
risk tolerance, team emphasis, and support of people.
– This overall perception becomes, in
effect, the organization’s culture or personality.
– These favourable or unfavourable perceptions
then affect employee performance and satisfaction, with
the impact being greater for stronger cultures.
• Just as people’s personalities tend to be
stable over time, so too do strong cultures.
– This makes strong cultures difficult
for managers to change.
Summary and Implications
• One of the more important managerial implications
of organizational culture relates to selection decisions.
– Hiring individuals whose values don't align
with those of the organization is not good.
• Change must be managed, it is not an easy process
• Individuals and organizations resist change
– To be successful at change, it is necessary
to break down the resistance to change
OB at Work
For Review
1. Can an employee survive in an organization if he or
she rejects its core values? Explain.
2. How can an outsider assess an organization’s
culture?
3. What defines an organization’s subcultures?
4. How can culture be a liability to an organization?
5. What benefits can socialization provide for the organization?
For the new employee?
For Review
6. Describe four cultural types and the characteristics
of employees who fit best with each.
7. How does Lewin’s three-step model of change deal
with resistance to change?
8. What is the difference between driving forces and restraining
forces?
9. What are the factors that lead individuals to resist
change?
10. What are the factors that lead organizations to resist
change?
For Critical Thinking
1. Contrast individual personality
and organizational culture. How are they similar? How
are they different?
• Is socialization brainwashing? Explain.
• Can you identify a set of characteristics that
describes your college’s or university’s culture?
Compare them with several of your peers. How closely do
they agree?
• “Resistance to change is an irrational response.”
Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
Breakout Group Exercises
• Form small groups
to discuss the following:
1. Choose two courses that
you are taking this term, ideally in different faculties,
and describe the culture of the classroom in each. What
are the similarities and differences? What values about
learning might you infer from your observations of culture?
2. Identify artifacts of culture in your current or previous
workplace. From these artifacts, would you conclude that
the organization had a strong or weak culture?
3. Reflect on either the culture of one of your classes,
or the culture of the organization where you work, and
identify aspects of that culture that could be changed.
How might some of these changes be made?
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