ORGANIZATIONAL

CULTURE AND
ENVIRONMENT
MGTS ZC211, Principles of
Management
21/1/2017 MGTS ZC211
Session 03 by Mr. Anjani
Session 03 Srikanth Koka
 Learning Outcomes
3.1 The Manager: Omnipotent Or
Symbolic?
Contrast the actions of managers according to the
omnipotent and symbolic views.
Identify the two constraints on managerial discretion.

3.2 Organizational Culture

Identify the seven dimensions of organizational culture.
Discuss the impact of a strong culture on organizations
and managers.
Explain how a culture is formed and maintained.
Describe how culture affects managers.
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 Learning Outcomes

3.3 The Environment

List the components of the specific and general
environments.
Explain the two dimensions of environmental
uncertainty.
Identify the most common organizational stakeholders.
List the four steps in managing external stakeholder
relationships.

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 Omnipotent or Symbolic?
Omnipotent View of Management
Managers are directly responsible for an
organizations success or failure.
The quality of the organization is
determined by the quality of its managers.
Managers are held accountable
for an organizations performance,
yet it is difficult to attribute
good or poor performance
directly to their influence.

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 Omnipotent or Symbolic?
Symbolic View of Management
Much of an organizations success or
failure is due to external forces outside
of managers control.
The ability of managers to affect
outcomes is influenced and constrained
by external factors.
The economy, customers, governmental
policies, competitors, industry conditions,
technology, and the actions of
previous managers
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 Exhibit 31 Parameters of Managerial Discretion

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 The Organizations Culture
Organizational Culture
A system of shared meanings and common
beliefs held by organizational members that
determines, in a large degree, how they act
towards each other.
The way we do things around here.
Values, symbols, rituals, myths, and practices
Implications:
Culture is a perception.
Culture is shared &descriptive.

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 Exhibit 32 Dimensions of Organizational Culture

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 Strong Versus Weak
Cultures
Strong Cultures
Are cultures in which key values are deeply and
widely held.
Have a strong influence on organizational
members.
Factors Influencing the Strength of Culture
Size of the organization
Age of the organization
Rate of employee turnover
Strength of the original culture
Clarity of cultural values and beliefs

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 Exhibit 33 Contrasting Organizational Cultures

Dimension Organization A Organization B

Attention to Detail High Low
Outcome Orientation Low High
People Orientation Low High
Team Orientation Low High
Aggressiveness Low High
Stability High Low
Innovation and Risk Taking Low High

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 Benefits of a Strong Culture
Creates a stronger employee
commitment to the organization.
Aids in the recruitment and
socialization of new employees.
Fosters higher organizational
performance by instilling and
promoting employee initiative.

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 Organizational Culture
Sources of Organizational Culture
The organizations founder
Vision and mission
Past practices of the organization
The way things have been done
The behavior of top management
Continuation of the Organizational Culture
Recruitment of like-minded employees who fit
Socialization of new employees to help them
adapt to the culture

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 Exhibit 35 How an Organizations Culture
Is Established and Maintained

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 Exhibit 34 Strong Versus Weak Organizational
Cultures

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 How Employees Learn
Culture
Stories
Narratives of significant events or actions of
people that convey the spirit of the organization
Rituals
Repetitive sequences of activities that express
and reinforce the values of the organization
Material Symbols
Physical assets distinguishing the organization
Language
Acronyms and jargon of terms, phrases, and
word meanings specific to an organization
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 Exhibit 36 Managerial Decisions Affected by
Culture

Planning
The degree of risk that plans should contain
Whether plans should be developed by individuals or teams
The degree of environmental scanning in which management
will engage
Organizing
How much autonomy should be designed into employees jobs
Whether tasks should be done by individuals or in teams
The degree to which department managers interact with each
other

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 Exhibit 36 Managerial Decisions Affected by
Culture
(contd)
Leading
The degree to which managers are concerned with increasing
employee job satisfaction
What leadership styles are appropriate
Whether all disagreementseven constructive onesshould
be eliminated
Controlling
Whether to impose external controls or to allow employees to
control their own actions
What criteria should be emphasized in employee performance
evaluations
What repercussions will occur from exceeding ones budget

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 Defining the External
Environment
External Environment
Those factors and forces outside the organization
that affect the organizations performance.
Components of the External Environment
Specific environment: external forces that
have a direct and immediate impact on the
organization.
General environment: broad economic, socio-
cultural, political/legal, demographic,
technological, and global conditions that may
affect the organization.

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 Exhibit 39 The External Environment

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 How the Environment
Affects Managers
Environmental Uncertainty
The extent to which managers have
knowledge of and are able to predict
change their organizations external
environment is affected by:
Complexity of the environment: the
number of components in an organizations
external environment.
Degree of change in environmental
components: how dynamic or stable the
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 Exhibit 311 Environmental Uncertainty
Matrix

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 Stakeholder Relationships
Stakeholders
Any constituencies in the organizations
environment that are affected by the
organizations decisions and actions

Why Manage Stakeholder Relationships?

It can lead to improved organizational
performance.
Its the right thing to do, given the
interdependence of the organization and its
external stakeholders.

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 Stakeholder Relationships
1. Identify the organizations external
stakeholders.
2. Determine the particular interests and
concerns of the external stakeholders.
3. Decide how critical each external
stakeholder is to the organization.
4. Determine how to manage each
individual external stakeholder
relationship.
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 Exhibit 312 Organizational Stakeholders

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 Terms to Know
omnipotent view of
management external
symbolic view of environment
management specific environment
organizational general environment
culture environmental
strong cultures uncertainty
socialization environmental
complexity
stakeholders

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 Case1

Apex Construction has hired Wendell

Phillips to provide management
consulting for the organization.
Wendell's first assignment involves
helping the company to improve
productivity by recommending ways
to strengthen managers supervisory
skills.

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POM Session 1
 Question 1
Wendell notices that the company's
top executives share a belief that
managers are directly responsible for
the organization's success or failure.
This belief reflects a(n) ________ view
of management.

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POM Session 1
 Solution
Omnipotent

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 Question 2
Wendell interviews many middle-
level managers and discovers that
they share a different view of
management. These individuals
believe that external factors
constrain managers' influence over
outcomes. The mid-level managers
have a ________ view of
management.
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POM Session 1
 Solution
Symbolic

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 Case 2
Mary has been asked by the
company president to change the
organizational culture to reflect the
company's new organizational goals.
As executive vice president, she
certainly understands the goals, but
is really not sure that she
understands what to do about the
culture.
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 Question
Mary asked employees if they knew
what constituted "good employee
behavior." She found that very few
understood, and most had a variety
of ideas. This is one indication that
her company ________.

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 Solution
Has a weak culture

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 Case 3
At the present time, your organization is
faced with many changes. One of these is the
election of a new president and Congress.
Another concerns new requests from
customers for changes to the look of your
product design. A third involves changes in
the ages and education levels of your
customer base. Your customers have also
recently expressed a desire to have your
product manufactured using a newly
discovered type of plastic.

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 Question 1
The changes in the presidency and
Congress represent which of the
following environmental factors for
your organization?

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 Solution
General environment

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 Question 2
The change in how customers want
your product to look in design is an
example of which of the following
types of factors?

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 Solution
Specific environment

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 Question 3
The changes in the ages and
education levels of your customers
are an example of which of the
following conditions?

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 Solution
Demographic

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Printed in the United States of America.

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THANKYOU

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus