Föreläsning 15 - BOM225

Organisational culture
- Defined as s ‘the customary and traditional way of thinking and doing things shared by
employees within the organization’
- Reflects the collective thinking in an organization
- Integrates and unifies the employees and works as an inner compass to guide employee
behavior
- Provides a sense of organizational identity, how an organization identifies itself.

Elements that can be used to describe organizational culture:

- Organizational structure
- Powerstructures
- Symbols – Things that are used by members of an
organization to make meaning (i.e. logos,
uniforms, how employees dress, office layout and
design)
- Routines/ rituals - organizationally specific ‘ways
we do things’ / guides people’s behavior (i.e.
Management meetings, reports)
- Stories/myths – Inform about the organization.
Usually told to new employees (i.e. Company heroes(role models))
- Storytelling

Organizational culture is about internal environment but external and task

environment have direct influence on how organization behaves.

Formal organization - Collection of work groups that have been

consciously designed by management to maximize efficiency and achieve
organizational goals.

Informal organization - The network of relationships between members of

an organization that form of their own accord, based on common interests
and companionship.

Visible culture - Can be seen at the surface level.

- Artefacts such as dress, office layout, symbols, slogans, ceremonies.

Invisible culture - deeper values and shared understandings that cannot be seen directly.
- Expressed values - our way of doing -
- Underlying assumptions and deep beliefs, such as “Theory X and Y”.
Cultural dimensions theory by Geert Hofstede

Power distance index

- Describes the extent to which the less powerful members of an organization or institution
accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
- In countries with low power distance;
- Equality, everyone can express (are expected to express) their ideas easily,
- In countries with high power distance;
- Hierarchy and inequality in the families, organizations, etc.
- Distance between superiors and subordinates.

Individualism vs collectivism
Individualistic culture
- “I” culture vs “my” culture
- Individualistic culture;
- Focus on the needs of oneself, individual is at the center

Colletivistic culture
- Emphasis on relationship and loyalty, belonging to a group, focusing on “we” over than “I”.

Motivation Towards Achievement and Success

In a high-score culture;
- More emphasis on strength, courage, and competition
- Wanting to be the best (Decisive)
- Achievement orientation

In a low-score culture;
- More emphasis on cooperation, nurturing, and quality of life
- Liking what you do (Consensus-oriented)
- Lagom
Uncertainty Avoidance Index
Looks at the society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.

In a high uncertainty avoidance culture;

- Low tolerance to ambiguity and risk-taking.
- Search for clear guidelines, rules and regulations

In a low uncertainty avoidance culture;

- People can cope with unclear situations, dynamic environments
- More tolerance to change

Long-term vs short-term orientation

- Looks at the choice of focus for people's efforts: the future or the present and past.
- It is about the way societies link with their past, present and future.

In long-term orientation culture;

- The focus is on the future
- Value persistance, perseverance, and being able to adapt

In short-term orientation culture

- The focus is on the present or past
- Value tradition, current social hierarchy and fulfilling social obligations

Indulgence vs restraint
- Added in 2010 as the last dimension.
- Focus on the themes around happiness.

- In indulgent culture;
- Focus more on individual well being
- High importance of leisure time, freedom of speech
- Smiling as a norm

- In restraint culture;
- Positive emotions are less freely expressed
- Low importance of leisure, freedom of speech
- Smiling as suspect

Why understanding organizational culture is important?

- Competitive advantage derived from innovation and customer services
- Consistent and efficient employee performance
- Team cohesiveness
- High employee motivation and engagement
- Strong company alignment towards goal achievement

- Project-based nature of the construction sector

- Multiple stakeholders (internal/ external)
- Multinational work activities
- Partnerships
 - Consolidation in the construction sector (Mergers and Acquisitions)
- Towards diversity and equality

Employees vs Human capital

Employees - People involved in productive work in organizations.
Human capital - Knowledge, skills and other attributes of employees that contribute to the
development of a business and economy.

The human capital perspective treats employees as economic assets, asserting that individuals are
valuable investments in a form of capital. Although it emphasizes the training, development and
appraisal of employees, it is crucial to be mindful of the potential risk of reducing employees solely to
the economic asset.

The importance of employees in the construction sector

- Construction work is labour intensive
- Construction industry is a project-based industry
- Construction projects consist of several employees coming from different organizations and
cultural backgrounds
- Managing diverse employees and organizational cultures is a key capability of managers

Implementing a diverse workplace

- Diversity simply means hiring from different human qualities or various cultural groups
- Creating an organizational culture that values diversity
- Supporting multicultural teams
- Providing diversity awarenesstraining

In the construction sector

- Ensure equality and diversity (i.e. age, ethnicity, disability, gender)
- Decentralization, local employment
- Better stakeholder management
- Adaptability to change