Explain workplace spirituality and identify a spiritual organization. What are the characteristics of this spiritual organization?
Consider some of the “old-timers” within the organization you work or have worked. Have they discussed stories that shaped the organization’s culture throughout the years? Has the organization’s culture changed with the change in times and technology? How has this impacted the “old-timers” or how have they impacted the change?

Chapter 16

Organizational Culture

After studying this chapter you should be able to:

Describe the common characteristics of organizational culture.

Compare the functional and dysfunctional effects of organizational culture on people and the organization.

Identify the factors that create and sustain an organization’s culture.

Show how culture is transmitted to employees.

Describe the similarities and differences in creating an ethical culture, a positive culture, and a spiritual culture.

Show how national culture may affect the way organizational culture is interpreted.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture:

A system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations

Organizational culture is an important concept in studying how organizations behave. Culture is defined as a common perception held by the members of the organization or a sense of shared meaning.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

Innovation and risk taking

Attention to detail

Outcome orientation

People orientation

Team orientation

Aggressiveness

Stability

Seven primary characteristics define organizational culture. They are: innovation and risk taking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness, and stability.

Culture Is a Descriptive Term

Culture

Organizational culture is concerned with how employees perceive an organization’s culture, not whether or not they like it

Descriptive

Job Satisfaction

Measures affective responses to the work environment: concerned with how employees feel about the organization

Evaluative

Culture is concerned with the way employees perceive their culture, not whether they like it or not. Job satisfaction, in contrast, is evaluative in nature and gets at how employees respond to certain factors in their work context.

Do Organizations Have Uniform Cultures?

The dominant culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization’s members

Subcultures tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems, situations, or experiences of members

Subcultures mirror the dominant culture but may add to or modify the core values

Most large organizations have both a dominant culture and several subcultures. The dominant culture reflects the core values that are shared by the majority of employees in the organization. Subcultures reflect common problems or experiences shared by employees in the same department or location.

Strong versus Weak Cultures

In a strong culture, the organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared

Strong cultures will:

Have great influence on the behavior of members

Increase cohesiveness

Result in lower employee turnover

A strong culture is one in which the core values are intensely held and shared by most.

Strong cultures will have a great influence on the behavior of members and increase cohesiveness, which should result in lower employee turnover.

Culture versus Formalization

High formalization creates predictability, orderliness, and consistency

A strong culture achieves the same end without the need for written documentation

Formalization and culture are two different roads to a common destination. The stronger an organization’s culture, the less management needs to be concerned with developing formal rules and regulations to guide employee behavior. Those guides will be internalized in employees when they accept the organization’s culture.

The Functions of Culture

Defines boundaries

Conveys a sense of identity

Generates commitment beyond oneself

Enhances social stability

Sense-making and control mechanism

Cultures take on distinct functions. Cultures define the boundary between one organization and others. They also convey a sense of identity for the members of the organization. If the cultures are strong they can facilitate a continuous commitment to something larger than self-interest over an extended period of time. Cultures also help people know what to expect in the organization and can thereby enhance the stability of the social system. Culture can also serve as a sense-making and control mechanism for fitting employees into the organization.

Culture Creates Climate

Organizational climate:

The shared perceptions organizational members have about their organization and work environment

Positive climate is linked to higher customer satisfaction and financial performance

A person who encounters a positive climate for performance will think about doing a good job more often and will believe others support her success.

Climates can interact with one another to produce behavior.

Climate also influences habits.

The Ethical Dimension

Ethical work climate (EWC):

Shared concept of right and wrong behavior in the workplace that reflects the true values of the organization and shapes the ethical decision making of its members

EWC reflects the true values of the organization and shapes the ethical decision making of its members.

The ethical climate theory (ECT) and the ethical climate index (ECI) to categorize and measure the ethical dimensions of organizational cultures.

Five climate categories – instrumental, caring, independence, law and code, and rules – are most prevalent in organizations.

Each explains the general mind-set, expectations, and values of managers and employees in relationship to their organizations.

Culture and Sustainability

Sustainability:

Organization practices that can be sustained over a long period of time because the tools or structures that support them are not damaged by the processes

Concepts of sustainable management have their origins in the environmental movement, so processes that are in harmony with the natural environment are encouraged. Social sustainability practices address the ways social systems are affected by an organization’s actions over time, and, in turn, how changing social systems may affect the organization.

Culture and Innovation

Culture and innovation:

Innovative companies are characterized by their open, unconventional, collaborative, vision-driven, and accelerating cultures

Culture as an asset:

Culture can contribute to an organization’s bottom line

Start-up firms often have innovative cultures by definition because they are usually small, agile, and focused on solving problems in order to survive and grow.

Culture as a Liability

Institutionalization

Behaviors and habits go unquestioned – can stifle innovation

Barriers to change

Culture is slow to change – even in a dynamic environment

Barriers to diversity

Culture seeks to minimize diversity

Can embed prevalent bias and prejudice

Barriers to acquisitions and mergers

Cultural incompatibility can be a problem

Culture can also be a hindrance to an organization. A company can become institutionalized when people value the organization more than what they provide. When cultures are strong, they can become a barrier to change, as their values may not align with the values needed to embrace or facilitate the change. Cultures that may pressure employees to conform can be a barrier to hiring, developing, and promoting a diverse workforce. Finally, if a merger or acquisition occurs, one of the most difficult things to do is to merge the two cultures. Many mergers fail because of culture clashes.

How a Culture Begins

Ultimate source of an organization’s culture is its founders

Founders create culture in three ways

Hiring and keeping those who think and feel the same way they do

Indoctrinating and socializing those employees to their way of thinking and feeling

Acting as a role model and encouraging employees to identify with them

Cultures start from the very beginning of the organization with the founders. Founders will tend to hire and keep employees who view things in a similar fashion. They will also try to get employees to think about things the way they do and socialize them to their point of view and ways of doing things. This is done so that the founders’ behavior will become the behavior to model after in order to succeed in the organization and to fit in.

Keeping a Culture Alive

Selection: seek out those who fit in

Top management: establish norms of behavior by their actions

Socialization: help new employees adapt to the existing culture

A culture is kept alive in three main ways. The first is to find those who fit into the culture and hire them. Second, it is critical that top management establish norms of behavior by how they act. Finally, socialization into the culture helps new employees adapt to the way things are done.

A Socialization Model

Pre-arrival: initial knowledge about the organization and own unique ideas

Encounter: exposed to the organization

Metamorphosis: member changed to fit within the organization

The socialization process involves a few steps. The employee will learn about the organization through literature, interviews, and other people in the prearrival stage. Once the employee starts interacting with other employees, the employee enters the encounter stage, where he or she sees what the organization is really like. Expectations are measured against reality during this stage, and a misalignment may emerge. During the third stage, metamorphosis, the new employee adjusts to the organization and work.

Entry Socialization Options

Formal: new workers separated for training

Collective: group basis

Fixed: planned activities

Serial: role models used

Divestiture: strip away characteristics to build up new ones

Informal: new workers immediately put to work

Individual: one-on-one

Variable: no timetables

Random: on your own

Investiture: accepts and confirms existing characteristics

There are a number of possible socialization programs. Each organization needs to select one that best fits its culture. When the socialization process matches an organization’s culture, it will have positive outcomes, including higher productivity, greater commitment, and lower turnover.

Summary: How Cultures Form

Success in employee socialization depends on management’s selection of socialization methods and the closeness of new employees’ values to those of the organization

Organizational cultures begin with the founder of the organization, continue through the hiring of people who see things similarly, and are enforced through top management and socialization.

How Employees Learn Culture

Culture is transmitted to employees through:

Stories: provide explanations

Rituals: reinforce key values

Material symbols: convey importance, degree of egalitarianism desired, and appropriate behaviors

Language: identify and segregate members

Employees learn the organizational culture through a number of avenues. They can gain an understanding of culture by hearing stories that present the past and provide explanations for current practices. Rituals, or repetitive sequences of activities, can reinforce the key values of the organization and provide insight into the culture. Material symbols such as dress codes, formal or informal, office size or style, and perks for key employees can denote who is important in an organization.

Language is another way to learn about organizational culture, as employees will express themselves in certain ways to indicate membership in the organization.

Creating an Ethical Organizational Culture

A strong culture with high risk tolerance, low-to-moderate aggressiveness, and a focus on means as well as outcomes is most likely to shape high ethical standards

Managers must be visible role models

Communicate ethical expectations

Provide ethical training

Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones

Provide protective mechanisms

As cultures are created, it is important to incorporate ethics into cultural norms early on. Certain characteristics will help develop high ethical standards, such as a high tolerance for risk so people are not afraid to make mistakes; low to moderate aggressiveness, so that unethical behaviors are avoided; and a focus on the means as well as the outcomes, so that ethics is embedded in both.

Managers must be visible role models and communicate ethical expectations. Training on ethical behavior and guidelines must be done. Ethical acts must be rewarded, while unethical acts need to be punished. In addition, protective mechanisms must be in place to assist the workers in behaving ethically.

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

A positive organizational culture emphasizes:

Building on employee strengths

Rewarding more than punishing

Encouraging vitality and growth

Recognizing outside context

A positive organizational culture is one that builds on employee strengths so that employees can develop and grow. It also rewards more than it punishes, so employees are not afraid to try new things and feel good about what they are contributing. Finally, it emphasizes individual vitality and growth, so that employees are operating at full potential.

A Spiritual Culture

Workplace spirituality: recognizes that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community

Characteristics of a spiritual organization:

Benevolence

Strong sense of purpose

Trust and respect

Openmindedness

What do Southwest Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, The Men’s Wearhouse, Tyson Foods, Wetherill Associates, and Tom’s of Maine have in common?

They’re among a growing number of organizations that have embraced workplace spirituality.

Not everyone supports spirituality in organizations. Critics question its scientific foundation, point out that it can make some employees uneasy, and wonder whether spirituality and profits are comparable objectives.

The Global Context

Organizational culture can reflect national culture and it can transcend national boundaries

Managers need to be culturally sensitive:

Talk in a low tone

Speak slowly

Listen more

Avoid discussing religion and politics

Ethical decision making can be culture-bound

Organizational culture still exists within a local culture, and that can’t be ignored. It is important that managers increase their ability to become more culturally sensitive through active listening, adjusting communication to the culture in which they are operating, and avoiding controversial topics in their discussions.

The management of ethical behavior is one area where national culture can rub up against corporate culture.

Impact on Employee Performance and Satisfaction

This exhibit shows the impact of organizational culture.

Implications for Managers

Realize that an organization’s culture is relatively fixed in the short term.

Hire individuals whose values align with those of the organization; these employees will tend to remain committed and satisfied.

Understand that employees’ performance and socialization depend to a considerable degree on their knowing what to do and not do.

You can shape the culture of your work environment.

Understand the cultural relevance of your organization’s norms before introducing new plans or initiatives overseas.

Cultures begin with the founders of the organization and are very difficult to change once they become embedded. In order to maximize employee outcomes, it is important to hire people who fit in the organization and help them become socialized into the corporate culture. Managers can reinforce culture through their actions.

If you want to change an established culture, it will take a long time.

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