MGMT1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Job Satisfaction, Organizational Culture, Dominant Culture
Week 10 – Organisational Culture
Definition
Schein (1990) – culture refers to:
• A pattern of basic assumptions
• Invented, discovered or developed by a group/organisation
• As it learns to cope with the problems of external adaptation to the environment and
internal integration/ coordination
• That has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore,
• Is taught to new members as
• The correct way to think, feel and perceive in relation to those problems.
Cultural Strength
Strength of an organizational culture is influenced by:
• Agreement with the cultural values as a whole (intensity)
• Number of members sharing the values (breadth)
A strog ulture is he the ore alues are itesel held ad idel shared. Eg. Googles
employees and values of creativity, flexibility, openness and teamwork. A strong culture provides
individuals with a sense of success and fulfillment, and organizational objectives as it signals
appropriate behaviour.
Do organisations have uniform cultures?
➢ Dominant culture - a culture that expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of
the organisations members. [Gives an organisation its distinct personality]
➢ Subcultures – minicultures within an organisation, typically defined by department
designations and geographical separation. [Slight modification or addition to dominant
culture eg. Working day or night, working in the marketing or finance department]
Functions of Culture
1. Decreases anxiety -> Culture reinforces how employees should behave/ act/ think meaning
employees dont hae jo aiguit, dereasig aiet.
2. Defines boundaries between organisations.
3. Identity -> sese of idetit eg. Googler
4. Generates commitment
5. Enhances stability of the social system -> low voluntary turnover
6. Regulatory mechanism – guides and shapes employees attitudes and behaviour.
Iceberg Model of Organisational Culture
- Physical artifacts: safety posters, dress codes, level of technology used,
physical layout of work spaces, ceremonies
- Activities and Routines eg. Are meetings structured/formal with set agenda or
not, is there a time keeper, minute-keeper or are they scheduled?
- Underlying values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations they need not be
spoken/conscious eg. Diversity, innovation, environmental sustainability
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Theoretical Frameworks
1. Trompenaars on Corporate Culture
- Guided Missile is very Anglo-saxon/American.
- Eiffel Tower – German (structure, management by job
description and expertise -> very important for
hierarchy)
- Family – Latin/Asian (management by subjectivism)
- Incubator eg. Small consulting firms. (Value learning,
organized chaos)
2. Hofstede (2002)
Consists of six dimensions that capture the differences in
orgaizatioal ultures praties:
- Process-oriented vs. results-oriented – avoid risks, spend limited effort on a job because
they are more concerned with process, each day is fairly similar as they are concerned with
maintaining stability/predictability vs. comfortable in unfamiliar situations, place emphasis
on performance than proess, get the jo doe, eah da is a e hallege.
- Employee-oriented vs. job-oriented – value people/personal problems particularly when
making decisions, take responsibility for employee welfare, decisions are more likely to be
made by groups vs. strong pressure to get the job done, organizational is primarily
interested in job achievement/performance and important decisions are made by a central
figure.
- Parochial vs. professional – [Asian vs. Western] organisations norms cover behaviour at
home as well as work, when hiring organisations take into account family background,
people feel the organisation will take care of them/ high job security vs. people feel their
persoal lies are their o usiess, orgaisatios dot ditate eteral ehaiour, people
hired on the basis or competence and value for self career-planning.
- Open vs. Closed – welcomes newcomers, belief that almost anyone could fit in a
organisation and employees feel accepted quite quickly vs. people report organisation is
secretive even among insiders, feeling of only certain/special fit in the organisation and new
people need a long time to become comfortable
- Loose vs. tight - loose internal structure, a lack of predictability, relaxed sense of time, and
little control and discipline; there is a lot of improvisation and surprises vs. cost conscious,
punctual and serious (lack of humour/acceptance of jokes)
- Normative vs. pragmatic – focused on rules, high standards regarding ethics and honesty vs.
market driven or customer focused, meet customer needs at all costs
3. Competing Values Framework
- Tension between flexibility vs. control and the
internally facing org. and the externally facing
org.
- Open systems model – [CREATE] value
flexibility, innovation, adaptability, acquisition
of resources, break-through solutions, external
focus oriented to expansion/external market
eg. Steve Jobs. Downfall – risk taker.
- Internal process model – [CONTROL] safety is
paramount, right vs. wrong way, process,
methodology, data, elimination of variation
from processes and information management.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Schein (1990) culture refers to: a pattern of basic assumptions, as it learns to cope with the problems of external adaptation to the environment and. Invented, discovered or developed by a group/organisation internal integration/ coordination: that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, the correct way to think, feel and perceive in relation to those problems. Strength of an organizational culture is influenced by: agreement with the cultural values as a whole (intensity, number of members sharing the values (breadth) A stro(cid:374)g (cid:272)ulture is (cid:449)he(cid:374) the (cid:272)ore (cid:448)alues are i(cid:374)te(cid:374)sel(cid:455) held a(cid:374)d (cid:449)idel(cid:455) shared. Google(cid:859)s employees and values of creativity, flexibility, openness and teamwork. A strong culture provides individuals with a sense of success and fulfillment, and organizational objectives as it signals appropriate behaviour. Dominant culture - a culture that expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organisations members. Subcultures minicultures within an organisation, typically defined by department designations and geographical separation.
