L15 Organisation Culture

Key concepts :

a) organization culture
b) dominant culture
c) strong culture
d) cultural  dimensions
d) cultural artefacts
e) ways to strengthen/cjhange org. culture.


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Focus on :

a) cultural dimensions
b) cultural artefacts.
c) ways to strengthen/change org culture.

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We know that having a well designed organisation structure alone (last lesson) is not good enough for a company to performance at peak.

The company also need to have a strong culture.

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So what is organisation culture ?.

•Organzational culture — basic pattern of shared values & assumptions governing way employees within an organisation think about and act on problems and opportunities. ( Key word : shared values/assumptions)

•Dominant culture is the core values widely shared by organization’s members and gives an organisation its distinct personality. (Example: PBL approach pedagogy is a dominant culture of Republic Polytechnic)

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•A Strong culture exists when an organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared. (Example : Singapore Airlines core value of Service Over and Above the Rest [SOAR] is a strong culture) As such, a strong culture has a great influence on the behavior of its members because it acts as:soical glue.

Social glue - ie keep the employees together, shared values, proud to be working for the company.

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Dominant culture : the culture the organization wants to convey to the employees.
Strong culture : the employees believe and practice the org. culture - ways/values/believe.


Eg : in an organisation that market eco friendly product/services :

if the culture is dominant, the employees understand what is eco friendly etc.

if the culture is strong the employees practise eco friendly habits/values/behaviour at work - eg : they bring their own cups for coffee and don't use disposal, they separate their garbage for recycling, the manager don't drive, they cycle/walk or take public transport to office.

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Organisation cultural dimension :

describe the different aspects of an organisation culture, the summation form the company organisation culture.




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Note : Innvonation +risk taking : ie does the company encourage their employees to come up with innovative ideas/ways to solve problems/handle customers enquiries or reward those who do things in the same/standard way (ie low innovative culture.)


Note : stability : ie does the company prefer not to have many changes in the process, ways of doing things etc (stable) or encourage employees to make changes in the way they work, deal with customers etc.
Most IT companies has low stability because they faced dynamic environment.


Note : A company with aggressive org. culture, employees are encourage to compete with each other - for sales, for resources etc.

Agresiveness IS NOT how aggressive the company is in marketing their product/services.

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What is artefacts ?.

Organisation culture is invisible and intangible.

Thus, it manifest (ie show itself) through artefacts (tangible things).

Artefacts show/indicate the type of org. culture.

Artefacts can also be used to inculcate/aligned organisation culture.



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DIFFERENT TYPE OF ARTEFACTS :

a) Physical structure
b) Symbols
c) Organisation language
d) Stories and legend
e) Ritual
f) Ceremonies.

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a) Physical structure.

physical things - building, colour of building, table , chair, office layout etc.

EXAMPLE : a company that has an innovative culture or want to encourage innovative employees may have very informal office chair/tables, open layout, no room office.

b) SYMBOLS - logo, color, mascot display the organisation culture

check out the logo for different kind of company - check out government office logo (very formal, stiff, stable) vs private company like Apple, Facebook (informal, risk taking etc.)


c) ORGANISATION LANGUAGE.

the language used internally by employees, usually only understood by those who work in the company. it also form a sort of short cut (eg in RP, UT means examination, online, 45-60 minutes) Those who are not in RP will not undertand the word/language used.

Staff feel closer/"understand" each other through this language, which then act as social glue.


Note in social setting : teens often have their own words/phrase(language) that their parents will not understand. eg : LOL, emo.......


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d) STORIES/LEGENDS.

usually of how the company was founded, or stories of senior management achievement etc are used to convey the org. values.

Famous stories : Steve Job/Bill Gates are college drop out. Hewlett Packard started their business in their parent garage.

values/org.culture conveyed ? - risk taking. (ie they did not finish formal education.)


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E) RITUALS.

regularly/daily/prescribed way of doing things unique to the organisation.

eg : weekly/monthly department lunch with manager.
coffee break where everyone bring their own food to share (could be a ritual).


F) CEREMONIES.

usual formal event, organised  for specific purpose/function, NOT frequent.

eg: award ceremony, installation ceremonies (eg : new CEO/new manager), annual dinner and dance.

usually speech/awards are given out to reward the type of behaviour the company wants to inculculate/encourage.


Note: if your org culture is to encourage/support inovation/risk taking, the the company may give award for most creative employee, most innovative ideas from employees etc.

the ceremonies and the award served to encourage innovation and risk taking in employees and this become a shared value in the organisation.


   
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STRATEGY to change or strengthen culture . (see 6P, slide 22)

 

What this slide show is 4 different ways that can be use to change or strengthen the org. culture.

Eg : action/behaviour of founder/leader : Richard Branson believe in a strong risk taking culture and often take part in antics. eg : once he dressed up as a stewardess for Virgin Airline.

Aligning artefacts : eg : if we want to develop a org culture of stability, we can align physical strucutres eg our tables/chairs/furnitures to be formal and use the same the design/model for years after years.