Organizational Culture
Meaning, Definitions, ,Components, Levels, Types, Functions and Process
Meaning
Organizational culture is the collection of shared (stated or implied) beliefs, values, rituals, stories, myths and specialized language that foster a feeling of community among organization members. Organizational culture is an important dimension of the organization’s internal environment and sets the to me of managerial behavior.
It is important to study organizational culture because it conveys some important assumptions and norms governing values, attitudes and goals of organizational members.
Definitions
According to Stephen P. Robbins
A system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations.
According to John P. Compbell
Organisation culture is concerned with how employees perceive the six basic characteristics (i) individual (ii) autonomy (iii) structure (iv) reward (v) consideration (vi) conflict
According to Garlic A. Forehand and Haller Glimer
The cultural characteristics of an organization are relatively enduring over time and relatively static in their propensity to change.
According to O’Reilly
Organizational culture is the set of assumptions, beliefs, values and norms that are shared by an organization’s members.
Components
Here are some key components of organizational culture:
1. Values and Beliefs:
These are the core principles that guide the organization, such as innovation, customer service, integrity, or teamwork.
2. Norms and Behaviors:
These include the unwritten rules and behaviors that are accepted and encouraged within the organization, such as dress code, work hours, communication styles, and decision-making processes.
3. Symbols and Language:
The culture is often expressed through symbols (like logos, office layouts) and language (jargon, slogans, or the way employees talk to one another).
4. Leadership Style:
Leadership plays a key role in shaping culture. Leaders model behaviors and set expectations that others follow, which can reinforce or reshape the culture.
5. Rituals and Traditions:
Regular events or traditions, such as team-building exercises, company celebrations, or recognition awards, help reinforce the culture and build a sense of community.
6. Subcultures:
Within larger organizations, different departments or teams may develop their own subcultures that align or differ from the overall organizational culture.
Types of Organizational Culture:
- Clan Culture: Focuses on collaboration, teamwork, and a family-like environment.
- Adhocracy Culture: Values innovation, creativity, and risk-taking.
- Market Culture: Competitive, results-oriented, with a focus on achieving targets and growth.
- Hierarchy Culture: Structured and controlled, with a focus on efficiency and stability.
A healthy organizational culture often leads to higher employee engagement, better performance, and improved overall outcomes for the organization.
Levels of Organization culture
Organizational culture can exist on several levels:
1. Shared Assumptions
These are the deepest level of organisational culture representing beliefs about human nature and reality which are taken for granted.
2. Cultural Values
The next level of tulrure is that of cultural values, which represents (i) collective beliefs, (ii) assumption, and (iii) feelings about what things are good, normal, rational, valua ble and so on. Cultural values might be very different in different organisations, in some, employees may care deeply about money, but in others, they may care more about technological innovation or employee well-being. These values tend to persist over time even when organisa tional membership changes.
3. Shared Behaviours
These refer to those norms which are more visible and easier to change as compared to values.
4. Cultural Symbols
This is the most superficial level of organizational culture which may consist of symbol-words, gestures, pictures or other physical objects which convey a particular meaning within a culture.
Features/Characteristics of Organizational Behaviour
1. Member Identity
The degree to which employees identify with the organisa tion as a whole rather tha n with their type of job or field of professional expertise.
2. Individual initiative
The degree of responsibility, freedom and independence that individuals have.
3. Management support
The degree to which managers provide clear communication, assistance and support to their subordinates.
4. Group Emphasis
The degree to which work activities are organised around groups, rather than individuals.
5. People Focus
The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people witltin the organisation.
6. Integration
The degree to which units within the organisation are encouraged to operate in a (i) coordinated or (ii) interdependent manner.
7. Control
The degree to which (i) rules, (ii) regulations and (iii) direct supervision are used to oversee and control employee behaviour.
8. Risk Tolerance
The degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative and risk seeking.
9. Reward Criteria
The degree to which rewards such as (i) salary increases and (ii) promotions are allocated according to employee performance rather than seniority, favouritism, or other non-performance factors.
10. Conflict tolerance
The degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticisms openly.
11. Means-ends orientation
The degree to which management focuses on (i) results or (ii) outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve those outcomes.
12. Open System Focus
The degree to which the organization (i) monitors and (ii) responds to changes in the external environment.
13. Communication patterns
The degree to which organizational communications are restricted to the formal hierarchy of authority.
14. Stability
The extent to which the organization emphasizes in maintaining status quo rather than change.
15. Aggressiveness
The extent to which people in the organization are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing.
Types of Culture
According to Harrison an Handy, organization culture are of the following types:
1. Power culture
2. Role culture
3. Task culture
4. People culture
1. Power culture
Power culture typically a central hub of power with functional influences emanating as spokes. In such a culture, the powerful hub exercises control through a group of key individuals. The general atmosphere is power oriented and there is a general lack of restrain for risk taking among employees.
2. Role Culture
This culture is built on the basis of defined jobs, rules and procedures. This culture operates according to logic and rationality, and its strength lies in its functions or specialists. The top managemen t is characterised by a small span of control and the organisation tends to operate within a stable enviromnent where creative or innovative behaviour is discouraged as a rule. This culture type is helpful in establishing stability. Role cultures offer clarity to the individuals about what is expected of them. but on the other hand, they also might discourage creativity.
3. Task Culture
This culture is team or project oriented and adaptable. The focus is on problem-solving by pooling the required resources and people from the various parts of the firm on a temporary basis. The source of power therefore, is the expertise and the ability to work in teams, rather than the formal authority. the matrix organization is one structural form of the task culture.
4. People Culture
In people culture, the individual is all important. In such an organizational culture, the organization is subservient to the needs of the individuals in it. Typically, groups of professionals, such as architects, lawyers, doctors, and consultants may associate themselves with this type of culture.
Functions of Culture
Culture performs a number of functions within an organization. They are as follows:
1. It has a boundary-defining role and it creates distinctions between one organization and other .
2. It conveys a sense of identify for organizations members.
3. It facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than one’s individual self-interest.
4. In enhances social system stability. It is the social glue that helps the organization together by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say and do.
5. It serves as a sense making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour of employees.
Process of creation on Organizational Culture
Organisational culture is a long-term proposition that must satisfy the members’ needs and values and match the cultural requirements of the society of which the organisation is a part.
Therefore, the organisation has to develop a culture which is conducive to both members in it and social culture. Organisational culture canbe created by following the following steps:
1. Establishing values
2. Creating vision
3. Operationalizing values and vision
4. Socialization of employees
1. Establishing values
The first step in creating organisational culture is establishment of values which will govern members of the organisation. Values define what is right and what is wrong, what is desirable and what is undesirable, and so on. Values of an organisation are created by those who establish the organisation, and in one way, organisational values depend on the values of the founders and other key personnel who are responsible for managing the organisation. These values decide, to a very great extent, what business, the organisation should be in. Values also determine how organisational activities will be carried out, that is, what type of practices will be followed. Peters and Waterman have described what type of values are followed by excellent companies. These are as follows:
i. A belief in being the best.
ii. A belief in the importance of the details of execution.
iii. A belief in the importance of people as individuals.
iv. A belief in superior quality and service.
v. A belief that most members of the organisation should be innovative.
vi. A belief in the importance of informality to enhance communication.
vii. A belief in and recognition of the importance of economic growth and profits.
2. Creating vision
Vision represents the imagination of future events and prepares the organisation for the same.
It implies that the organisation should create projections about where it should go in the future and what major challenges lie ahead. On the basis of six-year study by Collins and Porras, they have concluded that companies may be grouped into two categories on the basis of success of long-lasting high performance. These are visionary companies and comparison companies. A visionary company is characterized by the following features:
i. A visionary company holds a distinctive set of values from which it does not deviate.
ii. It expresses its core purpose in enlightened terms which provides challenges for actions.
iii. It develops a visionary scenario of its future, decides actions accordingly, and implement these.
Thus, vision is derived from values that have been set at the first step of creating organisational culture. A good vision, defined in a proper way, helps the organisational members in several ways:
i. It inspires and exhilarates them.
ii. It helps in the creation of a common identity and a shared sense of purpose.
iii. It creates competitiveness, originality, and uniqueness.
iv. It fosters risk taking and experimentation.
v. It fosters long-term thinking.
3. Operationalising values and vision
Till values and vision are not operationalised, that is, these are not put into action, these remain just the thinking of those who have created these. For putting values and vision in action, the organisation can undertake the following activities:
i. It is better that the organisation prepares a written statement containing its values and vision and communicates these to organisational members. Many companies adopt the practice of including this statement in employee handbook which is distributed to all new employees.
ii. The organisation should design its structure that facilitates employees to take those actions that have been envisaged by values and vision.
iii. Various organisational processes should be prescribed in such a way that these inspire employees to adhere to organisational values and vision. While prescribing these processes, care should be taken that there is enough flexibility required for creativity and innovation.
iv. In selection of employees, care should be taken that their values match organizational values. In fact, many progressive companies are of the opinion that people can be made to learn; their skills can be developed; but their values cannot be changed. Therefore, it is desirable to hire those whose values match those of the organization.
v. Reward system should be such which encourages employees to engage in behaviours that are compatible with organisational values and vision. There should be enough provisions in the reward system which reinforce these behaviours and punish contradictory behaviours.
4.Socialisation of employees
To ensure that culture of an organisation is adopted by its employees, socialisation of employees is required. The term socialisation has been drawn from sociology where it is used as a process by which an individual develops into a functioning member of the group according to its standards, conforming to its modes, observing its traditions, and adjusting himself to the social situations. Same meaning of socialisation is used in the context of work organisations.
Thus, socialisation is an adaptive process that takes place as new employees attempt to learn and inculcate values and norms that are part of the organisational culture. Though socialization is more critical at the initial stage of an employee’s career, it being an adaptive process, goes in some form throughout his career in the organisation, both in terms of job content and context as these go on changing from time to time. However, here, we are more concerned with socialisation of new employees as no matter how effectively they are recruited, they are not fully indoctrinated in the organisational culture.
Socialisation Process
In general, a process consists of various related activities with definite beginning and end. Since socialisation is an adaptive process, it consists of various activities, known as stages.
Maanen and Schein have conceptualised socialisation process made up of three stages:
i. Pre-arrival Stage
Pre-arrival stage of socialisation recognises that every individual arrives in the organisation with a set of values, norms, and expectations. These cover both the work to be done and the organisation. For example, in professional education, such as management. the students acquire certain ideas regarding the nature of their future job and the organisation
These ideas are supplemented from what they learn from their friends and others acquaintances. At the recruitment stage, most of the organisations give job previews which help the prospective employees to learn more about the job and the organisation. To the extent these
job previews are realistic, these create more realistic expectations.
ii. Encounter Stage
Upon entry into the organisation, the new employee enters the encounter stage. Here, the individual confronts with the realities of the situation in terms of his job and the job performance environment, such as superior, peers, subordinates, and organizational culture. If the expectations of the individual are in tune with the organisational realities, he adapts organisational culture quickly. However, where the expectations and realities differ, the new employee must undergo socialisation that will detach him from his previous assumptions and replace them with another set that the organisation deems necessary. In other extreme, the new employee may become totally disillusioned with the realities of his job and resign.
iii. Metamorphosis Stage
This is the completion phase of socialisation process in which the new employee works out any problem discovered during the encounter stage. He reconciles with the values and norms of the organisation and brings necessary changes in his role behaviour to suit them. He tries to internalise these values and norms. The new employee feels accepted by his peers as a trusted and valued individual and feels self-confident that he has the competence to do his job effectively. The completion of socialisation process is indicated by the following features:
i. Feeling of competence in the new employee for the job,
ii. Feeling of commitment to the organisation, and
iii. Feeling of confident about himself.
Methods of Socialisation with Organisation
Organisational norms and values transmitted in employees in a number of ways, the more important being stories, rituals, material symbols, and language.
i. Stories
Learning organisational norms and values through stories includes circulation of informal and oral narration of events about the organisation, its founder, rules in practice and other organisational practices. These storles reflect the true perspective of the organisation rather than what has been written in organisational documents. Boje has observed that these stories anchor the present in the past and provide explanation and legitimacy for current practices.
ii. Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organisation, what goals are most important, which people are important, and which are expendable. For example, many organisations have rituals, such as organising functions to honour top performers which convey that high performance is held as extreme important.
iii. Material Symbols
Various material symbols used by the organisation convey specific meanings. For example, status of a person in the organisation can be distinguished on the basis of various facilities provided to him at the workplace. It is quite common to provide rooms of different sizes, tables of different sizes, name plates of different sizes, etc. However, in today’s context, many organisations have emphasised the concept of common culture in which all employees, irrespective of their category, wear the similar dress, or take their lunch in the same canteen, and so on. For example, Maruti Udyog Limited has adopted this practice. Such a practice conveys the feeling of equality which generates commitment.
iv. Language
Many organisations use language as a way to identify members of a culture or subculture. By learning this language, members attest to their acceptance of the culture and, in so doing, help to preserve it. Organisations, over time, often develop unique terms to describe equipment, offices, key personnel, suppliers, customers, etc. that relate to its business. Once assimilated by the new employees, this terminology acts as a common denominator that unites members of a given culture.
Socialisation Options
There are several options for socialising new employees. These are formal and informal, individual and collective, fixed and variable, serial and random, investiture and divestiture. Let us have a brief discussion of these.
i. Formal and Informal
Formal socialisation occurs when a new employee learns about the organisation and its practices in a programme conducted by the organisation at a place away from the employee’s workplace. This programme is usually referred to as orientation programme. In informal socialisation, the new employee is directly placed at his work and he learns about the organisation and its practices through his peers, superiors, and subordinates.
ii. Individual and Collective
In individual socialisation, each new employee is socialized individually. This practice is followed mostly in professional offices. In collective socialisation. new employees are socialised in a group. In an orientation programme, generally, collective socialisation is adopted.
iii. Fixed and Variable
Fixed and varlable socialisation refer to the time schedule in which newcomers make the transition from outsider to insider. A fixed schedule establishes a slandardised stages of transition. It may include putting a newcomer as a trainee or as a probationer for a specifed period of time. After expiry of this period, he is inducted into the organisation provided his performance Is satisfactory. In variable schedule, no time period is lied for transition but it depends on the performance of the newcomer.
iv. Serial and Random
Inserrial socialsiation, the trainer who trains and encourages newcomers acts as a role model, and the newcomers try to internalize his behavior. In apprenticeship and mentoring, role concept is used. In random socialsiation, role model is deliberately withheld and newcomers are left free on their own to figure things out.
v. Investiture and Diverstiture
In investiture socialisaton, it is assumed that the newscomer’s qualifications and qualities are the necessary ingredients for success in the job. Therefore , these qualifications and qualities are confirmed and supported. Divestiture socialsiaiton tries to strip certain characteristics of the newcomer through fraternity to shape him into the proper role.
