what is organizational culture? how do you understand an organizational culture? what is innovation...

What is organizational culture?

How do you understand an organizational

culture?

What is innovation and why is it so

important?

How to manage organizational culture and

innovation?

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 15-2

Organizational culture

The system of shared actions, values, and

beliefs that develops within an

organization and guides the behavior of its

members.


External adaptation

Knowing the mission and goals.

Knowing the tasks and methods to achieve

them.

Methods of coping with success and

failure.


Important aspects of external adaptation

Separating, or prioritizing, eternal forces

based on their importance.

Developing ways to measure

accomplishments.

Creating explanations for not meeting goals.


External adaptation questions:

What is the real mission and what are our goals?

How can we contribute to reaching those goals?

What external forces are important?

How do we measure results?

What do we do if specific targets are not met?

How do we tell others how good we are?

How will we know when to quit?


Internal integration

The creation of a collective identity.

Finding ways of matching methods of

working and living together.


Recall the

orientation you

received during

your first day or

week with a new

organization

Was it formal or informal?

Were the rules described

or written in a manual?

What were you told about

your department?

How did you meet your

team mates? (individually,

collectively, during lunch)


Important aspects of working together:

Deciding who is a member and who is not.

Developing an informal, common

understanding of what is acceptable or

unacceptable behavior.

Separating friends from enemies.


Internal integration questions:

What is our unique identity?

How do we view the world?

Who is a member?

How do we allocate power, status, and

authority?

How do we communicate?

What is the basis for friendship?


Subculture

A group of individuals with a unique

pattern of values and philosophy that are

not inconsistent with the organization’s

dominant values and philosophy .


Counterculture

Groups where the pattern of values and

philosophies outwardly reject those of the

larger organization or social system.


Problems associated with importing

societal subgroups from the larger

society Subgroups may naturally form into a counterculture.

The firm may encounter extreme difficulty in coping

with broader cultural changes.

Embracing natural divisions from the larger culture

may lead to difficulty in international operations.


Layers of cultural analysis

Observable culture.

Shared values.

Common cultural assumptions.


Sagas

Heroic accounts of organizational

accomplishments.

Rites

Standardized and recurring

activities that are used at special

times to influence organizational

members .


Cultural symbols

Any object, act, or event that serves to

transmit cultural meaning (i.e. the color

brown and the nickname “Big Brown” is

associated with UPS).


Shared values

Help turn routine activities into valuable

and important actions.

Tie the organization to the important

values of society.

May provide a very distinctive source of

competitive advantage.


Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Shared Values

15-19

Organizational myths

Unproven and often unstated beliefs that

are accepted uncritically.

Enable managers to redefine impossible

problems.

Facilitate creativity.

Allow managers to govern.


Characteristics of strong cultures A belief that ritual and ceremony are important to

members and to building a common identity.

A well-understood sense of the informal rules and

expectations so that employees and managers

know what is expected of them.

A belief that what employees and managers do is

important and that it is essential to share

information and ideas.



Innovation

The process of creating new ideas and

putting them into practice.

15-22


Product innovations

Introduce new goods or services to better

meet customer needs.

Process innovations

Introduce of new and better methods and

operations.

15-24

Innovation is a continual process of:

Exploration

An emphasis on freedom and radical thinking

provides an opening for big changes.

Exploitation

A focus on refinement and reuse of existing

products and processes.


Management philosophy

Links key goal-related strategic issues with

key collaboration issues to determine a

series of general ways by which the firm

will manage its affairs.


A well-developed management

philosophy :

Establishes generally understood boundaries for

all members of the firm.

Provides a consistent way for approaching new

and novel situations.

Helps hold individuals together by assuring

them a known path to success.


Strategies for managing organizational

culture Managers help modify observable culture, shared

values, and common assumptions directly.

Through reward systems

Steady state (hierarchical, ‘clan’ cultures)

Evolution and change (growth, market culture)

By setting the tone of the organization.


Common mistakes in changing culture

Trying to change people’s values from the

top down without also changing how the

organization operates.

Attempting to revitalize an organization by

dictating major changes and ignoring

shared values.


Organizational lag

The dominant cultural patterns are

inconsistent with emerging innovations.

Cultural change is hampered by a legacy

of established behaviors, with an over-

reliance on rule-following and

reinforcement of old patterns of behavior.


Techniques for overcoming ‘cultural

lag’ and promoting innovation:

Demonstrate how current behaviors can be

applied to new innovations.

Balance rule changing with rule following.


what is organizational culture? how do you understand an organizational culture? what is innovation...

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