Organizational

Culture Seminar
 Organizational culture in news

Ford CEO Alan Mullaly

Uber's toxic organizational culture

Volkswagen: the scandal explained

Wells Fargo-fake bank and credit card accounts
 New way to Manage : Rational and cultural management
Rational management
Hard
Rational argument based on facts and figures
Management through budgets, strategy and targets
Management control imposed on workers via rules,
procedures, and systems of accountability
Formal communication through newsletters, emails,
etc.
Formal authority structures and hierarchy
Control, monitoring and evaluation
Based on Peters and Waterman, 1982)
Cultural management
Soft
Emotional appeal through shared values
Managed through shared values and purpose
Workers control themselves through shared beliefs and
values
Informal communication through symbols and stories
Reliance on informal opinion leaders, traditions, accepted
practices, and sense of mission
Trust, commitment, and autonomy
HANDY’S FOUR
CULTURAL
CATEGORIES
Deal and Kennedy’s Typology of Cultures
Tough Guy/ Macho culture
• Key values: speed and
emotional resilience
• Highly individualistic, high
pressure culture
• Operations are risky
• Feedback is rapid
• Short-term outlook
• Tough and competitive
employees
Work hard/ play hard culture Bet-your-company culture
• Values customers • Attention to detail and precision
are key values
• Emphasises fun and action
• Long-term orientation
• Performance measured by
results • Relentless pressure
• Risks are small but feedback is • Technical expertise valued
quick • Knowledge is shared and
• Emphasis on volume can interdependence encouraged
override attention to detail • High-risk and slow feedback
Process Culture
• Very bureaucratic
• Status orientated and formal
• Low-risk, slow feedback
• Inflexible and potentially stifling
culture
 Deal and Kennedy’s Typology of Cultures

Organisational culture depends on:

• The degree of risk associated with the organisation’s

activities
• The speed at which organisations and their employees
receive feedback on the success of decisions or strategies
Schein’s cultural iceberg
E.g. staff uniform,
building and physical
environment;
Relatively
straightforward, not
going to change the
culture dramatically

E.g. What people say in Can be changed

particular situations, through training new
mission statements, members how to
strategies and goals behave

Very difficult to change

E.g. values that guide
as often unconscious and
behavior; Value shared and
completely taken for
therefore reinforced;
granted
© Schein, Organizational
Culture and Leadership, 2010,
Fundamental aspects of life
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
 Can managers control culture?
Yes
• Managers are powerful social
actors
• Shape the symbols and practices
of the organization
• Management gurus
• Managers set the agenda
• Managers have organizational
power
No
• Culture is too complex to be
managed
• Cannot simply change peoples’
world view
• People are complex social actors
• Many competing factors and
subgroups
• Deeply rooted in the unconscious