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Organizational Culture: How Organization’s Create and

Transmit a Culture

Copyright © 2008 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill/IrwinOrganizational Behavior, Core Concepts

12Organizational Behavior

core concepts

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Learning Objectives

• Discuss the layers and functions of organizational culture.

• Define the general types of organizational culture and identify their associated normative beliefs.

• Explain how organizations embed their cultures.

• Summarize the process of organizational socialization in terms of three phases.

• Describe methods for socializing employees.• Discuss the role of mentors in organizations.

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Organizational Culture

• Organizational culture – set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit

assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments

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Organizational Culture

• Shaped by four components:– Founder’s values– Industry and business environment– National culture– Senior leaders vision

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Layers of Organizational Culture

• Observable artifacts– Consist of the physical manifestation of an

organization’s culture– Acronyms, manner of dress, awards, myths

and stories, published lists of values, observable rituals and ceremonies, special parking spaces, and decorations

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Layers of Organizational Culture

• Values – concepts or beliefs that pertain to desirable

end states, transcend situations, guide selection of behavior and are ordered by relative importance

• Espoused values – represent the explicitly stated values and

norms that are preferred by an organization

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Question?

What represents the values and norms that actually are exhibited or converted into employee behavior?

A. Espoused values

B. Valued behavior

C. Enacted values

D. Basic assumptions

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Layers of Organizational Culture

• Enacted values – represent the values and norms that actually

are exhibited or converted into employee behavior

– Based on observable behavior

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Layers of Organizational Culture

• Basic assumptions– Constitute organizational values that have

become so taken for granted over time that they become assumptions that guide organizational behavior

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Functions of Organizational Culture1. Give members an organizational

identity

2. Facilitate collective commitment

3. Promote social system stability

4. Shape behavior by helping members make sense of their surroundings

Figure 2-2

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Types of Organizational Culture

• Constructive

• Passive-defensive

• Aggressive-defensive

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Organizational Culture

• Normative beliefs – thoughts and beliefs about expected

behavior and modes of conduct

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Types of Organizational Culture

• Constructive– Employees are encouraged to interact with

others and to work on tasks and projects in ways that will assist them in satisfying their need to grow and develop

– Associated with achievement, self-actualizing, humanistic-encouraging, and affiliative

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Types of Organizational Culture

• Passive-defensive– Overriding belief that employees must

interact with others in ways that do not threaten their own job security

– Associated with approval, conventional, dependent, and avoidance

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Types of Organizational Culture

• Aggressive-defensive– Encourages employees to approach tasks in

forceful ways in order to protect their status and job security

– Associated with oppositional power, competitive, and perfectionistic

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Outcomes Associated with Organizational Culture1. Significantly correlated with employee

behavior and attitudes2. Congruence between an individual’s values

and the organization’s values was associated with organizational commitment, job satisfaction, intention to quit, and turnover

3. Did not predict financial performance4. Mergers frequently failed due to incompatible

cultures

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Embedding Organizational Culture

• Organizational members teach each other about the organization’s preferred values, beliefs, expectations, and behaviors

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Embedding Organizational Culture

• Formal statements of organizational philosophy, mission, vision, values, and materials used for recruiting, selection and socialization

• The design of physical space, work environments, and buildings

• Slogans, language, acronyms, and sayings

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Embedding Organizational Culture

• Deliberate role modeling, training programs, teaching and coaching by managers and supervisors

• Explicit rewards, status symbols, (e.g., titles) and promotion criteria

• Stories, legends, and myths about key people and events

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Embedding Organizational Culture

• The organizational activities, processes, or outcomes that leaders pay attention to, measure, and control

• Leader reactions to critical incidents and organizational crises

• The workflow and organizational structure

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Embedding Organizational Culture

• Organizational systems and procedures

• Organizational goals and the associated criteria used for recruitment, selection, development, promotion, layoffs, and retirement of people

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Organizational Socialization

• Organizational Socialization – process by which a person learns the

values, norms, and required behaviors which permit him to participate as a member of the organization

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Phase 1: Anticipatory Socialization

• Occurs before an individual joins an organization

• Involves the information people learn about different careers, occupations, professions, and organizations

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Phase 2: Encounter

• Employees learn what the organization is really like and reconcile unmet expectations

• Onboarding – programs aimed at helping employees

integrate, assimilate, and transition to new jobs

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Phase 3: Change and Acquisition

• Requires employees to master important tasks and roles and to adjust to their work group’s values and norms

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Practical Application of Socialization Research1. Managers should avoid a haphazard

approach to organizational socialization

2. Managers play a key role during the encounter phase

3. Organization can benefit by training new employees to use proactive socialization behaviors

4. Managers should pay attention to the socialization of diverse employees

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Question?

What is the process of forming and maintaining developmental relationships between a supervisor and a junior person?

A. Senior leadership

B. Mentoring

C. Socialization

D. Orientation

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Mentoring

• Mentoring – the process of forming and maintaining

developmental relationships between a mentor and a junior person

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Functions of Mentoring

• Psychosocial Functions- Role modeling- Acceptance-and-confirmation- Counseling- Friendship

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Developmental Networks that Underlie Mentoring

• Diversity of developmental relationships– reflects the variety of people within the

network an individual uses for developmental assistance

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Network Diversity

• Two sub-components– Number of different people is networked with– Various social systems from which the

networked relationships stem

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Developmental Networks Associated with Mentoring

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Developmental Networks that Underlie Mentoring

• Developmental relationship strength– reflects the quality of relationships among

the individual and those involved in his developmental network

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Personal and Organizational Implications• Job and career satisfaction are likely to

be influenced by the consistency between an individual’s career goals and the type of developmental network at his disposal

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Personal and Organizational Implications• A developer’s willingness to provide

career and psycho-social assistance is a function of the protégé’s ability, potential, and the quality of the interpersonal relationship