THEORIES OF

ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE AND CHANGE
CRIS Q. DE LEON, MBA
DBA 1202
DBA 605
DR. GINA BONIFACIO
 LEARNING Objectives

1. Define and characterize organizational

culture
2. Familiarize oneself with strong and weak
work cultures
3. Differentiate components of organizational
culture
 LEARNING Objectives

1. Identify the dimensions of organizational

culture
2. Differentiate the four types of organizational
culture and relate it to one’s own
organization.
 OUTLINE
Organizational Strong and Weak
Culture Defined Cultures
01 Overview 02 What is 03 Characteristics of
organizational strong and weak
culture? cultures

Deconstructing Dimensions of Four

Culture: Organizational Organizational
04 Beliefs, behaviors, 05 Culture 06 Culture Types
and outcomes
“Culture eats strategy
for breakfast”
- Peter Drucker
Humans are animals suspended
in webs of significance that
they themselves have spun. An
organization doesn't have a
culture, it is a culture—a unique
system of shared meanings.
ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE DEFINED
What is organizational culture?
 Organizational Culture is a
system of shared assumptions,
values and beliefs that governs
how people behave in
organizations.
 Organizational Culture includes an
organization's expectations,
experiences, philosophy, and values that
hold it together, and is expressed in its
self-image, inner workings, interactions
with the outside world, and future
expectations.
It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs,
customs, and written and unwritten
rules that have been developed over
time and are considered valid.
 BASIC ASSUMPTIONS about
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Human nature. Are people inherently good or bad,
mutable or immutable, proactive or reactive? These
basic assumptions lead to beliefs about how
employees, customers and suppliers should interact
and how they should be managed.
The organization's relationship to its
environment. How does the organization define its
business and its constituencies?
 BASIC ASSUMPTIONS about
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Appropriate emotions. Which emotions should people be
encouraged to express, and which ones should be suppressed?
Effectiveness. What metrics show whether the organization and
its individual components are doing well? An organization will be
effective only when the culture is supported by an appropriate
business strategy and a structure that is appropriate for both the
business and the desired culture.
 TIMELINE: ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
1951
Dr. Elliot Jacques
The term organizational
culture, or culture in the
organizational context, was
first introduced by Dr. Elliott
Jaques in his book The
Changing Culture of a
Factory.
1998 2001
Dr. Elliot Jacques Eric Flamholts
In 1998 Dr. Jaques
In a 2001 journal article,
wrote Requisite
“Corporate Culture and the
organizational: a total
Bottom Line”, Eric Flamholts
system of effective
identified and validated a model
managerial
of organizational culture
organization and
components that drive financial
managerial leadership
results.
for the 21st century.
Through decades of empirical research,
scholars have established abundant links
between organizational culture and
organizational performance. While
previously businesses were either unaware of
culture’s importance or believed it too
difficult to manage, today organizations
recognize that it can be used for competitive
advantage.
A culture is A culture is weak
considered strong when its beliefs,
when there is behavioral rules,
traditions, and rituals
cohesion around
are not apparent to its
beliefs, behavioral
members or there is
rules, traditions, incongruence
and rituals. between stated values
and behavior.
Strong cultures typically With no knowledge of
feature their beliefs, what the organization
behavioral rules, stands for or how things
traditions, and rituals in
are actually done (rather
public displays so that
employees can use these than how policy
cultural elements for indicates things should
decision making be done), weak cultures
throughout the work against the success
organization. of an organization.
 CHARACTERISTICS of a
STRONG CULTURE

More than one strong Organizational Unfaltering commitment by the

leader who commitment to organization to support its
articulates beliefs, operating its key stakeholders —
behavioral rules, business as directed business partners,
traditions, and rituals by the culture. suppliers, employees,
that are aligned with customers, and
customer needs, shareholders (if any) —
strategic direction, and by extension the
and competitive community, society, and
environments. environment.
 A STRONG CULTURE HAS…

More than one strong Organizational Unfaltering commitment by the

leader who commitment to organization to support its
articulates beliefs, operating its key stakeholders —
behavioral rules, business as directed business partners,
traditions, and rituals by the culture. suppliers, employees,
that are aligned with customers, and
customer needs, shareholders (if any) —
strategic direction, and by extension the
and competitive community, society, and
environments. environment.
 CHARACTERISTICS of a

STRONG CULTURE
Culture-reinforcing Tools
01
Intensely People Oriented
02
Results Oriented
03
Emphasis on Achievement
04 And Excellence
 CHARACTERISTICS of a

WEAK CULTURE
Narrow/Isolated Thinking
01
Resistance to Change
02
Political Internal
03 Environment

Unhealthy Promotion
04 Practices
CATALYZING Organizational Culture Change
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital
Trends 2016 report, based on a
survey of over 7,000 business and
human resources leaders, found
82 percent of respondents view
“culture as a potential competitive
advantage,” while only 28 percent
believe they “understand their
culture well” and 19 percent
believe their firm has the “right
culture.”
 Organizational Culture Change: STEPS

• Reframe the cultural

• Role model and
narrative
• Diagnose, name, communicate cultural • Reinforce a new
and validate the change belief system
culture of the
organization
FOUR
TYPES
of
ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
So is it possible to really know a company’s culture?
While admittedly it would be a daunting (and some
might claim impossible) task to fully account for all
components of a company’s culture, the dominant
attributes can generally be identified. In focusing on
“effective organizations”, research has uncovered
many critical dimensions. John Campbell (1974) and
his fellow researchers identified thirty–nine
important indicators.
While such a list is helpful, it is still impractical for
organizations to account for so many dimensions.
Realizing this, Robert Quinn and John Rohrbaugh
(1983) reviewed the results of many studies on this
topic and determined that two major dimensions
could account for such a broad range. Their
Competing Values Framework combines these two
dimensions, creating a 2x2 matrix with four clusters.
Further work on defining how each
of the four quadrants (formed by
combining these two dimensions) is
related to company characteristics was
conducted by Kim Cameron and Robert
Quinn (1999). Each quadrant represents
those features a company feels is the
best and most appropriate way to
operate.
 In other words these quadrants
represent their basic assumptions,
beliefs, and values—the stuff of culture.
None of the quadrants—Collaborate
(clan), Create (adhocracy), Control
(hierarchy), and Compete (market)—
is inherently better than another just
as no culture is necessarily better than
another. But, some cultures might be
more appropriate in certain contexts
than others.
FOUR Quadrants

40%
60%
FOUR Quadrants

40%
60%
FOUR Quadrants

40%
60%
FOUR Quadrants

40%
60%
 What good are these categories?

These organizational categories are helpful in that

they provide a foundation upon which space
planners can begin to structure their solutions and
thus account for the important role that culture
plays. Each of the different organization types has
different cultural attributes and preferred methods
and concerns for work.
“You can choose courage or
you can choose comfort, but
you can't have both."
What kind of environment
do you want to create?
Thank you!