Through our class presentations and readings, we learned about a variety of healthy and not-so-

healthy cultures.

a) Why are manifestations of culture important?

Manifestations of an organizational culture are as important as the culture itself. When trying to

bring organizational success, leaders leverage the culture of the company to bring about execution

performance and social control to achieve quality. In order to do so they must also identify with

the same culture and largely confirm to its manifestations along with their two meanings:

 The instrumental meanings are the ways that values and beliefs are reflected in what the

organization can do and how it does it e.g. Cars offered by Rolls Royce are simplistic in their

visual appeal but still have a class of their own like their customers who are handpicked by the

company through dinner parties, and personally signed letters from the CEO. This is very much

in line with their behavioral philosophy “pursuing collaboration, seeking simplicity, embracing

agility, and being bold”.

 The expressive meanings are the psychological and sociological meanings and effects of those

same elements on the members. They create a "symbolic field and seek to protect stability.

They enable the group to maintain its collective identity and offer a recognizable identity to

“the outside world”. They often involve the creation of symbols that have important meanings

to the members and are easily identified by others as being associated with that organization.

A very common example is company jerseys that employees also wear outside of work.

At times, leaders can also use these manifestations of cultures to bring about the changes in culture

they think is necessary. For example a plant manager attempted to convey the concept of

egalitarianism in the plant by installing a round table, as a symbol, in the conference room. The

idea was that there were no "heads"; everyone should expect to contribute equally.