Organizational Culture

Dr. Jean-Malik Dumas, MBA

Alignment for Implementation

People

Culture Leadership

Strategic
Goals

Supporting
Structure
Activities

Incentives

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Organizational culture

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Organizational structure and culture

Structure: the skeleton,

the muscles

Culture: the psyche

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Organizational culture

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Organizational culture

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Perspectives of researchers

• Levels

• Types

• Characteristics

• Dimensions (Hofstede)

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Schein---levels

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Types

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Types of company culture (Source: Cameron and Quinn 2011)

Characteristics of organizational culture

• Innovation and risk taking

• Attention to detail
• Outcome orientation
• People orientation
• Team orientation
• Aggressiveness
• Stability
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Dimensions (Hofstede et al.)

• Process-oriented vs Results-oriented
• Employee-oriented vs Job-oriented
• Parochial vs Professional
• Open system vs Closed system
• Loose control vs tight control
• Normative vs Pragmatic

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Some possible dimensions

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Definition organizational culture

• “a system of shared meaning held by members that

distinguishes the organization from other
organizations” (Robbins & Judge)

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Shared meaning

Question:

–All the members of the organization consider the grey desks

ugly. Is that a shared meaning?

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Shared meaning

Question:

–Most employees of an organization value being direct and

open. Is that a shared meaning?

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 Values

• Basic convictions that: “a specific mode of

conduct or end-state of existence that is
personally or socially preferable to an
opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-
state” (Robbins)

• Contains 2 elements:
–A judgmental element--- what is right, good or
desirable?
–An intensity attribute: How important is it?

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Values

• Individual values:
• For instance:
• Freedom
• Self respect

• Values within the organization:

• For instance:
• Being team oriented
• Being competitive

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Norms

• “Acceptable standards of behavior that are shared by

the group’s members”

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Strong and weak cultures

Strong organizational culture Weak organizational culture

Core values shared by most members Core values are hardly shared or existent

High behavioral control Low behavioral control

Should reduce turnover Probably more turnover (depends on preference

of employees)
High agreement about what the organization Less agreement about what the organization
represents represents
Higher sense of identity with the organization Lower sense of identity with the organization

Less Flexible More flexible

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One culture or subcultures?

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One culture or subcultures?

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What do organizational cultures do?

• Boundary-defining role
• Creates sense of identity
• Facilitates commitment
• Enhances stability
• Sense-making and control
• But also:
• Might induce institutionalization
• Might be a barrier to change
• Might be a barrier to diversity
• Might be a barrier to M&A’s

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Organizational climate

• “The shared perceptions organizational members have about their

organization and work environment” (Robbins & Judge)

• Difficult to distinguish from organizational culture but the general consensus

seems to be that organizational climate is a concept that deals with more
direct observable issues is relatively temporary and subject to direct control.
(Denison, 1996)

Outsiders

Visible Organizational climate

Organizational culture
Shared values

Basic assumptions Insiders 25

Organizational culture: How do you create it and can it
be sustained?

• Founders create
– Hire
– Indoctrinate and socialize Top
management
– Encourage to identify

• Sustaining
Philosophy Selection Organization
of founders criteria Culture

– Selection Socialization

– Top management
– Socialization
• Onboarding

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Socialization process

Outcomes
Productivity

Pre-arrival Encounter Metamorphosis Commitment

Turnover

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Socialization explained

• Organizational socialization process – Collective

versus individual

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q87Jm_jW3r8

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How can you learn the organizational culture as an
employee?

• Stories
• Rituals
• Material symbols
• Language
• Observing
– How can you get promoted?
– What behavior/attitude is frowned upon?
– Who has a lot of influence on the procedures?
– Who has a lot of influence on the policy?

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Factors shaping managerial behavior

Corporate culture

Formal Structure,
Systems, Plans and
Policies
Leadership – Efforts The behavior of a
to articulate and firm’s management
implement a business
vision and strategy

Competitive and
regulatory
environment

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Source John P. Kotter

Common pattern of emergence – Corporate
culture

Top Management – The ultimate - Founders

Founders develop and attempt to implement a
vision/philosophy and/or business strategy

Organizational behavior
Implementation works. People behave in ways that are
guided by the philosophy and strategy

Results
The firm succeeds by most measures and that success
continues over a period of years

Culture
A culture emerges that reflects the vision, strategy and
Experiences people had in implementing them

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Source John P. Kotter

 The power of corporate culture
– What
Back to basicsCulture is culture?
is a property of groups, and can be thought of as the accumulated learning
that a given group has acquired during its history.
Culture applies only to that portion of the accumulated learning that is passed on to
newcomers and can be referred to as a pattern of basic assumptions, invented,
discovered, or developed by a given group, as it learns to cope with its problems of
external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be
considered valid and, therefore is to be taught to new members as the correct way
to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.
Culture is thus powerful and ubiquitous, especially so because much of what we
learn in groups is "overlearned," and, therefore, drops out of awareness until
someone calls our attention to it. Thus the patterns of assumptions that I am calling
the culture are largely unconscious in day to day activity, but can be called up into
consciousness if someone raises the right set of questions.
• Organizational Culture, Edgar H. Schein,
Sloan School of Management, MIT,
December, 1988

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 Culture strength and market value
Culture strength and market value growth

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How does culture determines performance?

• - lack of flexibility
• + better goals alignment
• + motivation (identification)
• + reinforcing characteristices needed in an industry
• + reinforces learning &/or -limits it
• + creates common ground – known routines
• - resistance to change
• - may reinforce bad behavior (9-5 mentality)
• - may reduce autonomy
• + brings coherence
• - may limit innovation

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Control Levers

Obtaining Commitment Staking Out

to the Grand Purpose the Territory

BELIEFS BOUNDARY
SYSTEMS SYSTEMS

Core Risks to
Values Be Avoided
Business
Strategy
Critical
Strategic
Performance
Uncertainties
Variables
INTERACTIVE DIAGNOSTIC
CONTROL CONTROL
SYSTEMS SYSTEMS
Positioning INTERNAL CONTROLS Getting the
for Tomorrow Job Done
Safeguarding Information and Assets
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Source : Robert Simons Harvard Business School