PGP-SS/10-12

Organizational Culture
OB Project Report
Organizational culture reflects the values, beliefs, and norms that characterize an organization as a whole.

Submitted to:Dr. Subhash Gupta

Mradul Agrawal
Roll no. 26 Sec:- SB1

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture can be viewed as an important concept in organizational psychology and social psychology.

Organizational Culture Definition:

What is organizational culture? There are many possible definitions of organizational culture. Below is one organizational culture definition:

Organizational culture reflects the values, beliefs, and norms that characterize an organization as a whole.

This definition suggests that organizational culture reflects what is common, typical, and general for the organization. Values, beliefs, and behaviors that are uncommon in the organization, or specific to a particular subgroup within an organization, would not be considered to be part of the culture of the organization.

Organizational culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization."[1] This definition continues to explain organizational values, also called as "beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines, or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.

Culture and organizational behavior were not always two topics that were considered side by side of one another. In fact, this concept which may seem common place, and even common sense now, first gathered steam only a little over twenty years ago. In the 1980s, there was a large push in the area of theory to pay attention to organizational culture as an important factor in individual organizational success.

Many experts started arguing that developing a strong organizational culture was essential for maximum success. Most people agree that a solid connection is there, although there remains some degree of argument as to how influential it really is.

The behavior found within a successful organization will in part be due to, and continually nourished by, a healthy organizational culture. It's extremely important to know what type of behavior culture has the greatest impact and how culture works to control the behavior of members of that particular organization. The culture will affect the organization, just as the

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

opposite is true. Behavior is a learned habit, and the process of socialization that teaches new employees the habits of those workers already there is one of the major parts of organizational culture.

The behavior of individuals within a culture will depend greatly on the behavior that is encouraged by the higher ups, and by the general organizational culture that any corporate entity has.

There are always decisions that have to be made about a business that leans the culture, and therefore the behavior of the employees there, one direction of the other (though most fall somewhere in the middle). The following are some examples of the different conflicting emphasis that can clash with each other in determining the behavior of the employees.

Social Focus vs. Task Focus. The emphasis here determines whether decisions are made on the condition of improving relationships as the bottom line, or if having the assigned tasks finished is most important.

Individual vs. Team. This is pretty self explanatory. Do you encourage team players, or do you only need individual cogs to do their part?

Cost Control vs. Happy Customers. This is where many businesses can go wrong. This determines how concerned individual employees and supervisors should care about happy customers and general service as opposed to minimizing operating costs, sometimes at the price of customer service.

Organizational Culture
y

PGP-SS-10-12

Power distances. Is the CEO unreachable to all but the other executives? Does your manager have complete power over you, or is she/he like a co-worker who simply has final say? This can change attitudes drastically.

These are only a few of the factors of organizational culture that affect organizational behavior and vice versa. The two influence each other, and often times the culture will help to dictate the behavior, and the behavior will come back around to reinforce the organizational culture. The relationship between culture and organizational behavior is undeniable. To the benefit of some, but to the detriment of others.

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Elements of Organizational Culture:

There are many possible elements of organizational culture. The above definition includes three of the elements of organizational culture.

Organizational Values. Values reflect what we feel is important. Organizations may have core values that reflect what is important in the organization. These values may be guiding principles of behavior for all members in the organization. The core values may be stated on the organization's website. For example, an organization could state that their core values are creativity, humor, integrity, dedication, mutual respect, kindness, and contribution to society.

Organizational Beliefs. Beliefs that are part of an organization's culture may include beliefs about the best ways to achieve certain goals such as increasing productivity and job motivation. For example, an organization may convey the belief that the expression of humor in the workplace is an effective way to increase productivity and job motivation.

Organizational Norms. Norms reflect the typical and accepted behaviors in an organization. They may reflect the values and beliefs of the organization. They may reflect how certain tasks are generally expected to be acomplished, the attributes of the work environment, the typical ways that

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

people communicate in the organization, and the typical leadership styles in the organization. For example, the work environment of a company may be described as relaxed, cheerful, and pleasant. Moreover, the organization may have a participative decision making process in which many people in the organization are able to express their views concerning important decisions. Also, an organization may have many meetings to discuss ideas.

G. Johnson described a cultural web, identifying a number of elements that can be used to describe or influence Organizational Culture:

 

The Paradigm: What the organization is about; what it does; its mission; its values. Control Systems: The processes in place to monitor what is going on. Role cultures would have vast rulebooks. There would be more reliance on individualism in a power culture.

Organizational Structures: Reporting lines, hierarchies, and the way that work flows through the business.

Power Structures: Who makes the decisions, how widely spread is power, and on what is power based?

Symbols: These include organizational logos and designs, but also extend to symbols of power such as parking spaces and executive washrooms.

Rituals and Routines: Management meetings, board reports and so on may become more habitual than necessary.

Stories and Myths: build up about people and events, and convey a message about what is valued within the organization.

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Types of Organizational Culture

Following are the main types of organization structures found today: Normative Culture In a normative organization, the organization stresses on implementing the organizational procedures in a correct way, and according to the norms and rules defined. This kind of culture is perceived to portray, a high standard of business ethics.

Pragmatic Culture In contrast to normative cultures, stress is laid on satisfying the wish of their clients. In this type of organizational structure, no norms are set by the company, and utmost importance is given to the needs of the client.

Academy Culture In this kind of culture, employees are highly skilled, and the organization provides an environment for the development and honing of employee skills. Examples of this kind of culture are hospitals, universities, large corporations, etc. Employees tend to stay with the organization and grow within it.

Organizational Culture
Baseball Team Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

In this kind of culture, the employees are "free agents" and are highly prized. These employees find employment easily in any organization and are very much in demand. There is, however, a considerable amount of risk that is attached to this culture, as it is also fast paced. Examples of this kind of culture are advertising, investment banking, etc.

Club Culture Usually the employees stay with the organization for a long time and get promoted to a senior post or level. These employees are hand picked, and it is imperative that they possess the specific skills required and desired, by the organization. Examples of this kind of organization are law firms, the military, etc.

Fortress Culture Employees are not sure if the will be laid off or not by the organization. Very often, this organization undergoes massive changes. Few examples of this type of culture are loans and savings, large car companies, etc.

Tough-Guy Culture or Macho Culture The most important aspect of this kind of culture is big rewards and quick feedback. This kind of culture is mostly associated with quick financial activities like brokerage and currency trading. It can also be related with activities, like a sports team or branding of an athlete, and also the police team. This kind of culture is considered to carry along, a high amount of stress, and people working within the organization are expected to possess a strong mentality, for survival in the

Organizational Culture
organization.

PGP-SS-10-12

Work Hard/Play Hard This type of organization does not involve much risk, as the organizations already consist of a firm base along with a strong client relationship. This kind of culture is mostly opted by large organizations which have strong customer service. The organization with this kind of culture is equipped with specialized jargons and is qualified with multiple team meetings.

Bet Your Company Culture In this kind of culture, the company makes big and important decisions over high stakes endeavors. It takes time to see the consequence of these decisions. Companies that postulate experimental projects and researches as their core business, adopt this kind of culture. This kind of culture can be adopted by a company designing experimental military weapons for example.

Process Culture This type of culture does not include the process of feedback. In this kind of culture, the organization is extremely cautious about the adherence to laws and prefer to abide by them. This culture provides consistency to the organization and is good for public services.

Patterns of Organizational culture

Organizational culture can vary in a number of ways. It is these variances that differentiate one organisation from the others. Some of the bases of the differentiation are presented below :

10

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

1. Strong vs weak culture : Organizational culture can be labelled as strong or weak based on sharedness of the core values among organizational members and the degree of commitment the members have to these core values. The higher the sharedness and commitment, the stronger the culture increases the possibility of behavior consistency amongst its members, while a weak culture opens avenues for each one of the members showing concerns unique to themselves.

2. Soft vs hard culture : Soft work culture can emerge in an organisation where the organisation pursues multiple and conflicting goals. In a soft culture the employees choose to pursue a few objectives which serve personal or sectional interests. A typical example of soft culture can be found in a number of public sector organisations in India where the management feels constrained to take action against employees to maintain high productivity. The culture is welfare oriented; people are held accountable for their mistakes but are not rewarded for good performance.

Consequently, the employees consider work to be less important than personal and social obligations. Sinha (1990) has presented a case study of a public sector fertilizer company which was established in an industrially backward rural area to promote employment generation and industrial activity. Under pressure from local communities and the government, the company succumbed to overstaffing, converting mechanised operations into manual operations, payment of overtime, and poor discipline. This resulted in huge financial losses (up to 60 percent of the capital) to the company.

3. Formal vs informal culture : The work culture of an organisation, to a large extent, is influenced by the formal components of organizational culture. Roles, responsibilities, accountability, rules and regulations are components of formal culture. They set the expectations that the organisation has from every member and indicates the consequences if these expectations are not fulfilled.
11

Organizational Culture
.

PGP-SS-10-12

Content of Organizational Culture Organizations differ in their cultural content; that is, the relative ordering of beliefs, values, and assumptions. Consider the following companies and theirapparent dominant cultures: Nokia Corp.Responsive and collegial best describes the corporate culture of Nokia Corp. The Helsinki, Finland, conglomerate is a leader in popular cellular telephones. But dont expect employees to personally take credit for their own successes. Unlike the me first cultures found in other high technology firms, Nokia emphasizes understated collegiality. We dont snap our suspenders, says Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila.6 Amazon.comFrugality is clearly a corporate value at Amazon.com. Beyond the online booksellers popular web site is a drab 1960s four-story headquarters in downtown Seattle. Everyones desks are made from doors (total cost: $130). Monitors are propped up on telephone books to avoid paying for monitor stands. Extra chairs are considered an extravagance. By watching your overhead you can spend more on business expansion, explains Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.7 Mattel, Inc.Mattel makes Barbie dolls, but its corporate culture is so competitive that some say that it looks more like a war zone for GI Joe. It has always been a place where people are pitted against each other, says a former Mattel executive. Its a shark pond. You throw people in and see if they can swim fast enough to stay alive.8

12

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Responsive and collegial. Frugal. Competitive. How many corporate cultural values are there? No one knows for certain. There are dozens of individual and cross-cultural values, so there are likely to be just as many organizational values. Some writers and consultants have attempted to classify organizational cultures into a few categories with catchy labels such as clubs and fortresses. Although these typologies might reflect the values of a few organizations, they oversimplify the diversity of cultural values in organizations. Worse, they tend to distort rather than clarify our attempts to diagnose corporate culture

The importance of organizational culture

Hofstede (1997) said that culture influence how people behaviour and think, so, it is important to understand culture within an organization; whereas Jim Grieves (2000) strongly supported that organizational development can promote humanistic values, so, earlier in 1982, Deal and Kennedy advocated that organization development should be combined with organizational culture effectively, in order to make people work efficiently. When we talk about the role of organizational culture in an organization, it is normally better to start from two perspectives which were provided by E. C. Martins and F. Terblanche (2003): the functions of organizational culture and the influence that organizational culture has on the different processes in the organization. Normally, the functions of organizational culture manifest itself in two aims: first, creating the feeling of identity among personnel and commitment to the organization; second, creating a competitive edge to enable the members (especially new members) in the organization to well understand acceptable behaviour and social system stability (Martins, 2000).
13

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

It is the fact that organizational culture can offer a shared system of meanings, which forms the basis of communication and mutual understanding. If the organizational culture doses not fulfill these functions in a satisfactory way, the culture may significantly reduce the efficiency of an organization (Furnham & Gunter, 1993). On the other hand, organizations use different resources and processes to guide behaviour and change. Organizational culture is playing an indirect role in influencing behaviour by using reasonable managerial tools, such as strategic direction, goals, tasks, technology, structure, communication, decision making, cooperation and interpersonal relationships, and so forth, which are all designed to do things (Martins & Terblanche, 2003). In order to become an efficient organization, the importance of culture should not be neglected (Schneider & Barsoux, 1997), because culture has an impact on how the organization is run. Earlier in the year of 1986, Gareth Morgan argued that an organization is basically a human nature operation, so he stressed the need to build organizations around people rather than techniques.

Additionally, according to Campbell and Stonehouse(1999), culture can also have influence on: employee motivation; employee morale and good will; productivity and efficiency; the quality of work; innovation and creativity and the attitude of employees in the workplace. In terms of an organizations development, organizational culture can be used as different tools to help the organization reach success. First, organizational culture is a powerful tool for improving business performance (Brown, 1995), it can also be a competitive advantage against the organizations competitors, for example, some companies like Hewlett-Packard and IBM, the organizational culture within the two companies has become a competitive advantage

14

Organizational Culture
over their competitors.

PGP-SS-10-12

Secondly, organizational culture can be a tool of management control. Managers could use selected rites, stories, symbols and common values to control and direct employee behaviour. From the future perspective, this form of control could be cheaper and could build commitment to the organization and its goals. Hence, Buchanan and Huczynski (1997) argued that management today is moving from bureaucratic control to humanistic control. In the current society, organizations are seeking to satisfy their members needs by providing satisfying work tasks or a pleasant team working life through internal control, and all those aims could be achieved with the help of their organizational culture, and only with a complete and pleasant understanding of organizational culture, individuals would more willing to commit themselves to their organizations. Similarly, Hellriegel et al (2001) also add that organizational culture has the potential to enhance organizational performance, individual satisfaction, problems solving, and so on. However, not all scholars agree with the above opinions about cultures roles. Some researchers argue that organizational culture is partly the outcome of society factors. Johnson and Scholes (1999) have pointed out, that significant value of society change is becoming more and more complex and is out-of-date, and therefore, those right things or decisions, such as strategies, which were acceptable and successful in the past, may not be used today. Whats more, more employees have begun to feel that organizational cultures established many years ago are out of step with the contemporary values, thus, the need to determine which

15

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

attributes of an organizations culture should be preserved and which should be modified is constant.

Approaches to describe Organizational Culture

Several approaches have been used to classify organizational culture. Some are described below: Hofstede (1980[2]) demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groupings that affect the behavior of organizations. Hofstede looked for national differences between over 100,000 of IBM's employees in different parts of the world, in an attempt to find aspects of culture that might influence business behavior. Hofstede identified four dimensions of culture in his study of national influences:

Power distance - The degree to which a society expects there to be differences in the levels of power. A high score suggests that there is an expectation that some individuals wield larger amounts of power than others. A low score reflects the view that all people should have equal rights.

 

Uncertainty avoidance reflects the extent to which a society accepts uncertainty and risk. Individualism vs. collectivism - individualism is contrasted with collectivism, and refers to the extent to which people are expected to stand up for themselves, or alternatively act predominantly as a member of the group or organization. However, recent researches have

16

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

shown that high individualism may not necessarily mean low collectivism, and vice versa[citation
needed]

. Research indicates that the two concepts are actually unrelated. Some people and cultures

might have both high individualism and high collectivism, for example. Someone who highly values duty to his or her group does not necessarily give a low priority to personal freedom and self-sufficiency


Masculinity vs. femininity - refers to the value placed on traditionally male or female values. Male values for example include competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions.

[edit]Deal and Kennedy Deal and Kennedy[3] defined organizational culture as the way things get done around here.In relation to its feedback this would mean a quick response and also measured organizations in ition, such as oil prospecting or military aviation.

The Process Culture occurs in organizations where there is little or no feedback. People become bogged down with how things are done not with what is to be achieved. This is often associated with bureaucracies. While it is easy to criticize these cultures for being overly cautious or bogged down in red tape, they do produce consistent results, which is ideal in, for example, public services.

[edit]Charles Handy Charles Handy[4] (1985) popularized the 1972 work of Roger Harrison of looking at culture which some scholars have used to link organizational structure to organizational culture. He describes Harrison's four types thus:

17

Organizational Culture


PGP-SS-10-12

a Power Culture which concentrates power among a few. Control radiates from the center like a web. Power and influence spread out from a central figure or group. Power desires from the top person and personal relationships with that individual matters more than any formal title of position. Power Cultures have few rules and little bureaucracy; swift decisions can ensue.

In a Role Culture, people have clearly delegated authorities within a highly defined structure. Typically, these organizations form hierarchical bureaucracies. Power derives from a person's position and little scope exists for expert power. Controlled by procedures, roles descriptions and authority definitions. Predictable and consistent systems and procedures are highly valued.

By contrast, in a Task Culture, teams are formed to solve particular problems. Power derives from expertise as long as a team requires expertise. These cultures often feature the multiple reporting lines of a matrix structure. It is all a small team approach, who are highly skilled and specialist in their own markets of experience.

A Person Culture exists where all individuals believe themselves superior to the organization. Survival can become difficult for such organizations, since the concept of an organization suggests that a group of like-minded individuals pursue the organizational goals. Some professional partnerships can operate as person cultures, because each partner brings a particular expertise and clientele to the firm.

[edit]Edgar Schein Edgar Schein,[5] an MIT Sloan School of Management professor, defines organizational culture as: "A pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems"(Schein, 2004, p. 17).
18

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

According to Schein, culture is the most difficult organizational attribute to change, outlasting organizational products, services, founders and leadership and all other physical attributes of the organization. His organizational model illuminates culture from the standpoint of the observer, described by three cognitive levels of organizational culture. At the first and most cursory level of Schein's model is organizational attributes that can be seen, felt and heard by the uninitiated observer - collectively known as artifacts. Included are the facilities, offices, furnishings, visible awards and recognition, the way that its members dress, how each person visibly interacts with each other and with organizational outsiders, and even company slogans, mission statements and other operational creeds. The next level deals with the professed culture of an organization's members - the values. At this level, local and personal values are widely expressed within the organization. Organizational behavior at this level usually can be studied by interviewing the organization's membership and using questionnaires to gather attitudes about organizational membership. At the third and deepest level, the organization's tacit assumptions are found. These are the elements of culture that are unseen and not cognitively identified in everyday interactions between organizational members. Additionally, these are the elements of culture which are often taboo to discuss inside the organization. Many of these 'unspoken rules' exist without the conscious knowledge of the membership. Those with sufficient experience to understand this deepest level of organizational culture usually become acclimatized to its attributes over time, thus reinforcing the invisibility of their existence. Surveys and casual interviews with organizational members cannot draw out these attributesrather much more in-depth means is required to first identify then understand organizational culture at this level. Notably, culture at this level is the underlying and driving element often missed by organizational behaviorists.
19

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Using Schein's model, understanding paradoxical organizational behaviors becomes more apparent. For instance, an organization can profess highly aesthetic and moral standards at the second level of Schein's model while simultaneously displaying curiously opposing behavior at the third and deepest level of culture. Superficially, organizational rewards can imply one organizational norm but at the deepest level imply something completely different. This insight offers an understanding of the difficulty that organizational newcomers have in assimilating organizational culture and why it takes time to become acclimatized. It also explains why organizational change agents usually fail to achieve their goals: underlying tacit cultural norms are generally not understood before would-be change agents begin their actions. Merely understanding culture at the deepest level may be insufficient to institute cultural change because the dynamics of interpersonal relationships (often under threatening conditions) are added to the dynamics of organizational culture while attempts are made to institute desired change. [edit]Robert A. Cooke The Organizational Culture Inventory: Culture Clusters Robert A. Cooke, PhD, defines culture as the behaviors that members believe are required to fit in and meet expectations within their organization. The Organizational Culture Inventory measures twelve behavioral of norms that are grouped into three general types of cultures:

Constructive Cultures, in which members are encouraged to interact with people and approach tasks in ways that help them meet their higher-order satisfaction needs.

Passive/Defensive Cultures, in which members believe they must interact with people in ways that will not threaten their own security.

20

Organizational Culture


PGP-SS-10-12

Aggressive/Defensive Cultures, in which members are expected to approach tasks in forceful ways to protect their status and security.

[edit]The Constructive Cluster The Constructive Cluster includes cultural norms that reflect expectations for members to interact with others and approach tasks in ways that will help them meet their higher order satisfaction needs for affiliation, esteem, and self-actualization. The four cultural norms in this cluster are:

   

Achievement Self-Actualizing Humanistic-Encouraging Affiliative

Organizations with Constructive cultures encourage members to work to their full potential, resulting in high levels of motivation, satisfaction, teamwork, service quality, and sales growth. Constructive norms are evident in environments where quality is valued over quantity, creativity is valued over conformity, cooperation is believed to lead to better results than competition, and effectiveness is judged at the system level rather than the component level. These types of cultural norms are consistent with (and supportive of) the objectives behind empowerment, total quality management, transformational leadership, continuous improvement, re-engineering, and learning organizations. [edit]The Passive/Defensive Cluster Norms that reflect expectations for members to interact with people in ways that will not threaten their own security are in the Passive/Defensive Cluster.
21

Organizational Culture
The four Passive/Defensive cultural norms are:

PGP-SS-10-12

   

Approval Conventional Dependent Avoidance

In organizations with Passive/Defensive cultures, members feel pressured to think and behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way they believe they should in order to be effective. People are expected to please others (particularly superiors) and avoid interpersonal conflict. Rules, procedures, and orders are more important than personal beliefs, ideas, and judgment. Passive/Defensive cultures experience a lot of unresolved conflict and turnover, and organizational members report lower levels of motivation and satisfaction. [edit]The Aggressive/Defensive Cluster The Aggressive/Defensive Cluster includes cultural norms that reflect expectations for members to approach tasks in ways that protect their status and security. The Aggressive/Defensive cultural norms are:

   

Oppositional Power Competitive Perfectionistic

Organizations with Aggressive/Defensive cultures encourage or require members to appear competent, controlled, and superior. Members who seek assistance, admit shortcomings, or
22

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

concede their position are viewed as incompetent or weak. These organizations emphasize finding errors, weeding out mistakes, and encouraging members to compete against each other rather than competitors. The short-term gains associated with these strategies are often at the expense of long-term growth

Organizational culture and change

Much has been written about changing organizational culture. It's an exciting topic because of the enormous potential benefits derived from changing an organization's culture. While exciting because of its enormous potential, attempting to change organizational culture can lead to enormous frustration.

It is important to understand how deeply the roots of organizational culture go. Organizational culture is rooted in the shared tacit assumptions of the organization. These tacit beliefs drive behavior throughout the organization.

Edgar Schein believes organizational culture provides members of the organization "stability, consistency, and meaning." The change agent who threatens those three things will surely meet strong resistance.

23

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Schreyoegg, Oechsler, and Waechter (three German researchers) believe organizational culture provides members with a worldview: how to perceive, how to conceptualize, and how to make decisions.

In my book, "Strategic Organizational Change," I offered six reasons for organizational culture's stubborn resistance to change:

1. It is implicit rather than explicit

2. It is woven into everyday practice

3. It leads to uniform thinking and behavior

4. It is historically rooted

5. It guides all decision making

6. It is used to socialize newcomers

The main reason changing organizational culture is so difficult is that it resides in the dark, unexamined recesses of the corporate mind. The unexamined assumptions that make up the organizational culture have not been questioned in years.

We know that most organizational culture change efforts fail. We know that organizational culture changes that succeed only do so after a frustrating uphill-battle against the status quo. We know that powerful organizational members have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

24

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

So, my question to you is this: Should an organization spend its limited resources (time, energy, and money) to change the organization's culture? My answer is "yes." Let me explain.

Organizational culture change is necessary to support almost all organizational change efforts (strategic, structural, or process). Organizational change efforts will fail if organizational culture remains fundamentally the same. The effectiveness of organizational change efforts requires embedding improvement strategies in the organizational culture.

Changes in procedures remain superficial and short-lived unless there are fundamental changes in values, ways of thinking, and approaches to problem solving. The resisting forces will simply renew their efforts to re-establish the old status quo.

Cameron and Quinn bluntly state, "The status quo will prevail. We repeat! Without culture change, there is little hope of enduring improvement in organizational performance."

Cameron and Quinn offer the following hints for change agents:

1. Find something easy to change first.

2. Build coalitions of supporters.

3. Set targets for incremental completions.

4. Share information/reduce rumors.

5. Define how results will be measured.

6. Reward desired behaviors.

25

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Organizational cultural change can be slow and frustrating, but the benefits can include dramatically improved organizational performance

IMPLICATIONS FOR CULTURE MANAGEMENT AND CHANGE

There exist two basic approaches to culture and, by implication, strategy: conforming (maintaining order and continuity) and transforming (changing and breaking existing patterns) (Bate 1994). As demonstrated by the subsequent poor performance of many of Peters and Watermans (1982) so-called excellent companies, the effectiveness of the chosen approach to organizational culture and strategy at any given time is dependent upon contextual factors relating

26

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

to both the internal and the external environment (Bate 1994). Thus, context determines a culture needs to be maintained or changed, but the strategies adopted are very much determined by the paradigm and perspective subscribed to by the manager or change agent.

In dealing with the management of organizational culture, it is firstly necessary to identify as fully as possible the attributes of the existing or new target culture the myths, symbols, rituals, values and assumptions that underpin the culture. Subsequently, action can be instigated in any of several key points of leverage (Allen 1985; Davis 1985; Trice & Beyer 1985; Kilman et al. 1986; Schneider & Rentsch 1988): recruitment, selection and replacement culture management can be affected by ensuring that appointments strengthen the existing culture/s or support a culture shift; removal and replacement may be used to dramatically change the culture; Socialisation induction and subsequent development and training can provide for acculturation to an existing or new culture and also for improved interpersonal communication and teamwork, which is especially critical in fragmented organizational cultures; Performance management/reward systems can be used to highlight and encourage desired behaviours which may (or may not) in turn lead to changed values; Leadership and modelling by executives, managers, supervisors can reinforce or assist in the overturning of existing myths, symbols, behaviour and values, and demonstrates the universality and integrity of vision, mission or value statements;

27

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

Participation of all organisation members in cultural reconstruction or maintenance activities and associated input, decision-making and development activities is essential if long-term change in values, and not just behaviours, is to be achieved; Interpersonal communication satisfying interpersonal relationships do much to support an existing organizational culture and integrate members into a culture; effective teamwork supports either change or development in and communication of culture; and structures, policies, procedures and allocation of resources need to be congruent with organizational strategy and culture and objectives. The above constitute a number of many strategies and leverage points that can be used in organisations to manipulate an organisation in terms of its overall culture and the sub-cultures that are contained within. The management of culture is based on a sophisticated understanding of the tacit and explicit aspects that make-up the existing culture.

Organizational culture at apple Inc

The Apple corporate culture has been constantly changing with the changes in its CEOs in the past. But originally, the Apple culture is not that of the typical 70's company that is riddled with corporate rigidities. Thus, stiffness and regulation is just not on the list of policies that are set in place. It was said that even Steve Jobs, the company's CEO, would walk around the office barefoot even when Apple was already among the top corporations in the world.

28

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

This somehow reflects the casual and free atmosphere in the Apple headquarters. Apple is also very permissive in terms of dress codes, in fact they have none, have flexible working periods and the hierarchy of roles is blurred.

This also created an atmosphere that encouraged geeks to work hard and not the count the time they gave to Apple. There is a collective intensity and enthusiasm to bring out the best products possible to outwit competition. It is said that the management issues in Apple revolved around how to make employees stop working and remind them that they have families and live outside of the Apple headquarters.

This is very typical of a fledgling technology company of the 90s and beyond such as Google. And to think, Apple has been there since the 70s, it is clearly ahead of the times. This relatively different corporate culture was also used by the company to differentiate itself from its rivals.

However, it is said that things have changed within Apple. Along with the rise in its fortunes, it also began to take the form of a regular corporate environ. Some degree of control and regulations were introduced and in return, employees began to count time rendered as they are slowly being replaced with new ones as the hard core Apple originals retired or left the company for good.

The changes in the chief executive, each of them have differing ideas on how Apple should be run, also led to changes in the organizational culture. Thus, some of the original character of Apple that made them the most admired company in the States was somehow lost. But Apple never lost touch of its reputation for nurturing individuality and excellence among its people, especially upon the return of Steve Jobs as chief executive.

29

Organizational Culture

PGP-SS-10-12

This draws the countries' most talented and technologically capable people to its employ. Proof to this is the creation of the Apple Fellows Program. This is a recognition given to those individuals who made extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to the corporation. Among those who were inducted into the program were original geek and technical wiz Steve Wozniak, Bill Atkinson, Steve Capps, Alan Kay, Guy Kawasaki and Rich Page.

Another thing that is clearly Apple is its secrecy. Surely, they are a bunch of people that is unhappy to share technology secrets, even to its employees, as rumors have it. Every upcoming Apple product is always shrouded in secrecy prior to the formal.In the past, it has seen to be an effective way of upping the excitement of consumes in each release of new product. When iPhone was launched, the queues outside the stores are just phenomenal.

30