Group 2: Chap 16 – Organizational Culture

Organization culture is the system of shares meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from
other organizations. There is seven characteristics: innovation and risk taking; attention to detail; outcome
orientation; people orientation; team orientation; aggressiveness; stability. Organizational culture shows how
employees perceive the characteristic of an organization not whether they like them, that is descriptive term.
Dominant culture is the culture that express the core value that are shared by the majority of the organization’s
member. Dominant culture expresses the core value (the primary or dominant values that are excepted
throughout the organization). Subcultures is the minicultures within an organization, typically define by
department designations and geographical separation. Moreover, strong culture has score values are intensely
held and widely share.
Life is a game, and cultures defines the rules of the game. First, it has a boundary-defining role: it creates
distinctions between organizations. Second, it conveys a sense of identity for organization members. Thirds,
culture facilitates commitment to something larger than individual self-interrest. Fourth, it enhaces the stability
of the social system. Culture is the social glue that helps hold the organizations together by providing standards
for what employees should say and do. Finally it is a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and
shapes employees’s attitudes and behavior. This last function is of particular interest to us. As diving deeper,
we have to learn about organizational climate which is the shared perceptions organizational members have
about their organization and work environment. Culture again creates and defines organizational climate, this
aspect of culture is like team spirit at the organizational level. When everyone has the same general feelings
about what’s important or how well things are working, the effect of these attitudes will be more than the sum
of the individual parts. And overtime, the ethical work climate(EWC), or the shared concept of right and
wrong behavior, develops as part of the organizational climate. The ethical climate reflects the true values of
the organization and shapes the ethical decision making of it members. To create a truly sustainnable business,
an organization must develop a long-term culture and put its values into practice. In other words, there needs to
be a sustainable system for creating sustainability – organization practices that can be sustained over a long
period of time because the tools or structures that support them are not damamged by the processes.
Moreover , next is “culture and innovation”. The most innovative companies are often characterized by their
open , unconventional, collaborative , vision driven , accelerating cultures. The key to its continuing
innovation is a culture of caring , which drives it to develop medicines that save victims of rare diseases even
when the patients affected are few, the cost of development is prohibitively high, and the probability of success
is low. Culture can also significantly contribute to an organization’s bottom line in many ways. One strong
example is found in the case of Childnet . Culture acan enhance organizational commitment and increase the
consistency of employee behavior , which clearly benefits an organization. When an organization undergoes
institutionalization that ism it becomes valued for it self and not for the goods or services it produces it takes
on a life of its own, apart from its founder or members. Culture is a liability when shared values don’t agree
with those that further the organization’s effectiveness. Hiring new employees who differ from the majority
inrace , age, gender, disability, or other characteristics creates a paradox…Finally, when management looked
at acquisition or merger decisions, the key decision factors were potential financial advantage and product
synergy.

The customs, practices, and general way of doing things of an organization are primarily because of what it has
done before and how good it has been in doing it. In maintaining a society, three powers play a particularly
important role: 1. Selection practices: Selection thus becomes a two-way street, allowing employers and
candidates to prevent a mismatch and preserve the ethos of a company by eliminating, for better or worse,
those who might attack or compromise its core values. 2. Actions of top management: Senior executives
create expectations through words and attitudes that filter through the company regarding, for example,
whether risk-taking is desirable, how much freedom managers give workers, what is suitable apparel, and what
behaviors merit pay increases, promotions, and other incentives. 3. Socialization methods: A mechanism that
adapts the workers to the culture of the company. Socialization will help mitigate the issue by reporting to
many workers that their new positions are different than expected. We can think of socialization as a process
with three stages: 1. Prearrival: The phase of learning in the process of socialization that happens before the
company joins a new employee. 2. Encounter: The stage in the process of socialization in which a new
employee sees what the company really is like and faces the likelihood of diverging perceptions and reality. 3.
Metamorphosis: The stage in the socialization process in which a new employee changes and adjusts to the
job, work group, and organization.
Next, “How employees learn culture?”. Culture is transmitted to employees in a number of ways. The most
significant are stories, rituals, symbols, and language. Stories: Organizational “stories” typically contain a
narrative of significant events or people including such things as the organization’s founders, rules breaking,
reactions to past mistakes, and so forth. These stories provide prime examples that people can learn from. To
help employees learn the culture, organizational stories anchor the present in the past, provide explanations and
legitimacy for current practices, and exemplify what is important to the organization. Rituals: Corporate
rituals are repetitive sequences of activates that express and reinforce the values of the organization, what goals
are most important, and which people are important and which ones are superfluous. Members of the
organization who have achieved success are recognized and rewarded on such occasions. Symbols: These
feelings you get demonstrate the power of material symbols in creating an organization’s personality. Material
artefacts created by an organization also speak of its cultural orientation and make a statement about the
company. These material symbols convey to employees who is important, the degree of equality desired by top
management and the kind of behaviour that are expected and appropriate. Language: Many organizations and
units within organizations use language as a way to identify members of a culture. By learning this language,
members attest to their acceptance of the culture and their willingness to help to preserve it.
An Ethical Culture: Despite differences across industries and cultures , ethical organizational cultures share
some common values and processes . Therefore , managers can create a more ethical culture by adhering to the
following principles : be a visible role model, communicate ethical expectations, provide ethical training,
visibility reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones and provide protective mechanisms. A positive
culture: a positive organizational culture emphasizes building on employee strengths, rewards more than it
punishes, and encourages individual vitality and growth. Let's consider each of these areas. Building on
Employee Strengths does not ignore problems, it does emphasize showing workers how they can capitalize on
their strengths. Rewarding More Than Punishing Although most organizations are sufficiently focused on
extrinsic rewards such as pay and promotions, they often for- get about the power of smaller (and cheaper)
rewards such as praise. Encouraging vitality and growth No organization will get the best from employees
who see themselves as mere cogs in the machine ,a positive culture recognizes the difference between a job
and a career. Limit of positive culture: though many companies have embraced aspects of a positive
organizational culture, it is a new enough idea for us to be uncertain about how and when it works best. A
Spiritual Culture: What Is Spirituality? Workplace spirituality is not about organized religious practices. It's
not about God or theology. Workplace spirituality recognizes that people have an inner life that nourishes
and is nourished by meaningful work in the context of community. Characteristics of a Spiritual
Organization The concept of workplace spirituality draws on our previous discussions of values, ethics,
motivation, and leadership. Although research remains preliminary, several cultural characteristics tend to be
evident in spiritual organizations: Benevolence, strong sense of purpose, trust and respect, open-mindedness.
Achieving Spirituality in the Organization Many organizations have grown interested in spirituality but
have experienced difficulty putting principles into practice. Several types of practices can facilitate a spiritual
workplace, including those that support work-life balance. Criticisms of Spirituality Critics of the spirituality
movement in organizations have focused on three issues. First is the question of scientific foundation. What
really is workplace spirituality? Is it just a new management buzzword? Second, are spiritual organizations
legitimate? Specifically, do organizations have the right to claim spiritual values? Third is the question of
economics: Are spiritual- ity and profits compatible?
Organizational culture often reflects national culture. The management of ethical behavior is one area where
national culture can rub against corporate culture. Creating the multinational organizational culture can initiate
strife between employees of traditionally competing countries. As many organizations seek to employ workers
in overseas operations, management must decide whether to standardize many facets of organizational culture.

In reflection, employees form an over- all subjective perception of the organization based on factors such as
the degree of risk tolerance, team emphasis, and support of individuals. This overall perception represents, in
effect, the organization's culture or personality and affects employee performance and satisfaction, with
stronger cultures having greater impact.