organizational culture excavating your organization for improved performance

Organizational Culture Excavating Your Organization for Improved Performance

Leadership: Culture Changers (to better fit with the external environment Management: Changed by culture regardless of organizational impact Organizational Culture is the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, considered the correct way of thinking about and acting on problems and opportunities facing the organization. Organizational culture defines what is important and unimportant in the company. You might think of it as the organizations DNA-invisible to the naked eye, yet a powerful template that shapes what happens in the workplace. -McShane and Von Glinow What is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture cannot exist independently from organizational members. Shapes members and is shaped by members Dynamic, not static Competing Values and Assumptions Cultures have sub-cultures Emotionally ChargedComplexity Counter-Cultures: Employees who are part of the counter-culture serve a role as creative thinkers and question askers regarding the dominant cultures relationship to its environment.

1. Strong Cultures: When most employees across all sub-units hold dominant assumptions and enacted values 2. Environmental fit Culture is not good or bad by itself. Neither is it effective or ineffective. Cultures utility depends on an ever fluid dynamic between the organizational culture and the organizations external environment. 3. Adaptive Cultures: External Focus Pay attention to improvement of internal processes Strong Sense of Ownership Proactive and quick Organizational Culture and Performance

Cultural Levels Artifacts: Material Symbols, Language, Rituals, Stories Espoused Values: Strategies, Goals, Public Statements, other meetings Underlying Assumptions: DNA, invisible, not up for debate, enacted values

Artifacts Actual physical items that collectively communicate culture. Material symbols: Actual physical items that collectively communicate culture. Language: How organizational members address each other, describe customers, express frustration, etc., are all symbols and perpetuators of organizational values. Organizational leaders use phrases, metaphors, and other vocabularies to communicate shared values and community. Rituals and Ceremonies: These are the routines of daily organizational life that indicate an organizations culture and values. Traditions usually begin with a purpose but soon to serve an identity affirming purpose. Stories and Legends: Communicates culture when they describe real people, are true, and are well known. Also, stories teach us what to do or not to do.

Espoused and Enacted Values Espoused Values do not represent an organizations culture. Rather, they establish the public image (internal and external) that leaders want to display. Often articulated when you ask an organizational member about an artifact Often articulated when you ask an organizational member about an artifact Often these lists of values are ambiguous and even contradictory Often these lists of values are ambiguous and even contradictory Espoused Values, if effective and actualized, become enacted values and can eventually get deeply rooted enough to become assumptions. Espoused Values, if effective and actualized, become enacted values and can eventually get deeply rooted enough to become assumptions. The Most Central Issue for leaders, therefore, is how to get at the deeper levels of culture, how to assess the functionality of the assumptions made at that level, and how to deal with the anxiety that is unleased when those levels are challenged. Schein, 2004

Underlying Assumptions Basic assumptions have become so taken for granted that one finds little variation within a social unit. In fact, if an enacted value becomes an assumption organizational members will find based on any other assumption practically inconceivable Human Nature Human Activity Time and Space Reality and Truth The power of culture comes about through the fact that assumptions are shared and, therefore, mutually reinforced. If one does not decipher the pattern of basic assumptions that may be operating, one will not know how to interpret the artifacts correctly or how much credence to give to the articulated values. Schein, 2004

Underlying Assumptions 1. Innovation and risk taking. The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks. 2. Attention to detail. The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail. 3. Outcome orientation. The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve them. 4. People orientation. The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the organization. 5. Team orientation. The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals. 6. Aggressiveness. The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing. 7. Stability. The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth. 8. Theory X/Theory Y. How are people viewed and perceived 9. Work Accomplishment. How should work get done?

Cultural Levels Artifacts: Material Symbols, Language, Rituals, Stories Espoused Values: Strategies, Goals, Public Statements, other meetings Underlying Assumptions: DNA, invisible, not up for debate, enacted values

Assumptions and the Public Paradox The Paradox In the public sector, culture, or sources of organizational behavior, can be traced to the paradox which includes both a philosophical expression of high ideals and aspirations (a positive force) and a distrusting statement of constraints and limited powers (a negative force). -Whorton and Worthley, 1981 Positive Force: Public Service Motivation, Common Good, Organizational Purposes Negative Force: Legislative Constraint, Bureaucracy, Public Perceptions of Government work (and workers).

Assumptions and the Public Paradox 3 Implications of the Paradox 1. Leading in the Public Sector is more complicated than in less paradoxical environments 2. Public Managers tend to underplay or disclaim their accomplishments 3. Improving public management will benefit from understanding Org Culture and the Paradox.

Deciphering Culture Risks of Internal Analysis: Blinded by the obvious The organization might not be ready to receive feedback Outsider Risks: Only able to observe artifacts. Hawthorne Studies/Heisenberg Principle

Conditions for Culture Change A dramatic crisis This is a shock that undermines the status quo and calls into question the relevance of the current culture. Examples are a surprising financial setback, the loss of a major customer, and a dramatic technological breakthrough by a competitor. Turnover in leadership New top leadership, which can provide an alternative set of key values, may be perceived as more capable of responding to the crisis Young and small organizations The younger the organization the less entrenched its culture will be. Its also easier for management to communicate new values when the organization is small. Weak culture The more widely held a culture is and the higher the agreement among members on its values, the more difficult it will be to change. Weak cultures are more amenable to change than strong ones. When the cultures are our own, they often go unnoticed-until we try to implement a new strategy or program which is incompatible with their central norms and values. Then we observe, first hand, the power of culture. Kotter and Heskett

How Leaders Embed and Transmit Culture Primary Embedding Mechanisms : What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control regularly How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises How leaders allocate resources Deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching How leaders allocate rewards and status How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate Secondary Articulation and Reinforcement Mechanisms Organizational Design and Structure Organizational Systems and procedures Rites and rituals of the organizations Design of physical space, facades, and buildings Stories about important events and people Formal statements of organizational philosophy, creeds, and charters

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument

The Clan Culture A very friendly place to work where people share a lot of themselves. It is like an extended family. The leaders, or head of the organization, are considered to be mentors and, maybe even parent figures. The organization is held together by loyalty or tradition. Commitment is high. The organization emphasizes the long-term benefit of human resource development and attaches great importance to cohesion and morale. Success is defined in terms of sensitivity to customers and concern for people. The organization places a premium on teamwork, participation, and consensus.

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument The Adhocracy Culture A dynamic, entrepreneurial, and creative place to work. People stick their necks out and take risks. The leaders are considered to be innovators and risk takers. The glue that holds the organization together is commitment to experimentation and innovation. The emphasis is on being on the leading edge. The organizations long term emphasis is on growth and acquiring new resources. Success means gaining unique and new products or services. Being a product or service leader is important. The organization encourages individual initiative and freedom.

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument The Hierarchy Culture A very formalized and structured place to work. Procedures govern what people do. The leaders ride themselves on being good coordinators and organizers, who are efficiency minded. Maintaining a smooth-running organization is most critical. Formal rules and policies hold the organization together. The long-term concern is on stability and performance with efficient, smooth, operations. Success is defined in terms of dependable delivery, smooth scheduling, and low cost. The management of employees is concerned with secure employment and predictability.

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument The Market Culture A results oriented organization. The major concern is getting the job done. People are competitive and goal-oriented. The leaders are hard drivers, producers, and competitors. The are tough and demanding. The glue that holds the organization together is an emphasis on winning. Reputation and success are common concerns. The long-term focus is on competitive actions and achievement of measurable goals and targets. Success is defined in terms of market share and penetration. Competitive pricing and market leadership are important. The organizational style is hard-driving competitiveness.

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument

O.C.A.I. - Leaders Research respected since the 1940s suggest that frontline supervisors are critical to the success of any change effort HBR, 1996

O.C.A.I. - HR The Effective HR manager must ensure, according to Ulrichs research, that some elements of each of the four cultures is represented in the organization It provides a way to make the HR function more strategic, more inclusive, and more rational. -Cameron and Quinn

O.C.A.I. - TQM One review of the TQM literature pointed out that a large percentage of total quality initiatives fail. Either quality does not improve, or the initiatives are abandoned after a short time. Two of the major reasons for this are partial deployment and failure to integrate TQM and culture change. -Cameron and Quinn

Reach Consensus on the Current Culture Reach Consensus on the Desired Culture Determine What Changes will Mean and not Mean Identify Illustrative Stories Develop a Strategic Action Plan Develop an Implementation Plan A Brief Formula for Culture Change A change in culture, in the end, depends on the implementation of behaviors by individuals in the organization that reinforce the new cultural values and are consistent with them. It is possible to identify a desired culture and to specify the strategies and activities designed to produce change, but without the change process becoming personalized, without individuals being willing to engage in new behaviors, without an alteration in the managerial competencies demonstrated in the organization, the organizations fundamental culture WILL NOT change. -Cameron and Quinn

Effective cultures are universally applicable Only top management is responsible for organizational culture Talking about changes to the culture will change the culture Organizational culture is easy to change Organizational culture does not matter. Pay is all that matters Organizational culture is easy to see and to comprehend Organizational Culture Myths

Organizational Culture Excavating Your Organization for Improved Performance

organizational culture excavating your organization for improved performance

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