ORGS 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Organizational Culture, Effective Action, Centrality

• School: York University
• Department: Organization Studies
• Course: ORGS 2010
• Professor: Heather Colquhoun

Document Summary

Cultural perspective focuses on social and personal identities carried by people. Cultural understandings are collectively shaped and rooted in the past: limitations of managers, structural authority, influence, and rationality best describe human behaviour, emphasis that people must learn these things to be fully functioning members of org. Schien"s model of culture: pyramid going from top to bottom, 1. Artifacts/behaviours (symbols) what you observe: 2. Espoused values what you are told (normative: 3. Basic assumptions what participants take for granted (cognitive) Centrality of symbolism meanings guide behaviour. This is at heart of cultural perspective of orgs. Part of all aspect of the organization. Leadership itself can be seen as symbolic action. Symbolism is the elementary process to make org behaviour possible and meaningful. Structure represents institutional conditions that characterize a given society. Culture represents the values, beliefs, norms, etc. to societal culture.