PR 605 Lecture Notes - Lecture 59: Sensemaking, Organizational Culture

• School: Ball State University
• Department: Public Relations
• Course: PR 605
• Professor: Ingrid Cummings

Document Summary

First, culture has a boundary defining role of creating distinctions between different organizations. Second, it shows a sense of organizational identity for the members of the organization. Third, culture creates commitment to something bigger than the employee"s self-interest. Culture is the glue that holds the organization together by giving standards for employees to know what they should say and do. Lastly, culture is a sense-making and control mechanism that acts as a guide for employees and shapes their behavior and attitude. A strong culture supported by formal rules and regulations is one that makes sure employees act uniformly and in a predictable manner. Today, there is a trend of decentralized organizations to make culture more important than ever before. Ironically, though, this also makes it harder to create and establish a strong culture in an organization. Through decentralization, when formal authority and control systems are reduced, culture"s shared meaning can put everyone in the same direction.