What is meant by an organizational culture? - Chapter 17

Organizational culture consists of the norms and values that influence how employees think, feel and behave towards each other and towards people outside the organization. Values are general criteria and standards that people use to determine which types of behavior and situations are desirable and undesirable. Values can be divided into terminal and instrumental values. Terminal values determine the desired outcome of behavior. Instrumental values specify the desired form of behavior that must be followed up. Standards are specified to ensure that people follow the values. Norms are largely informal, which means that the most crucial standards are not documented. Instead, employees internalize the norms and values automatically during the socialization process.

How does the socialization process work?

The socialization process consists of both formal training programs of the organization and informal observations and cooperation that leads to the introduction and internalization of the organizational culture.

Every organization has its own rituals and stories. Rites of passage mark the entry, promotion, and departure of employees. Rites of integration such as team outings lead to building and reinforcing the bond between employees. Rites or enhancement offer the opportunity to publicly emphasize the contribution of individual employees and thus increase involvement and motivation.

Language also plays an important role in the socialization process. Every organization conveys a specific message through media reports, the type of language used at work and the name of the organization. Not only spoken language, but also the clothing style and appearance of the office is part of language, a kind of non-verbal communication.

How does organizational culture arise?

What does an organizational culture result from? There are four important factors that interact with each other in forming the culture.

The first factor consists of the characteristics of the people within an organization. This concerns both personality factors and professional characteristics. According to the ASA model, discussed extensively in an earlier chapter, an organization attracts certain types of people to create a typical organizational personality. The founder of an organization has a big influence on this. In this process, there is danger that the capacity to deal with change will be prevented. In addition, groupthink can arise if the similarities between the people within an organization are too strong.

The second factor is the ethics of an organization. The ethics of an organization consists of the moral values, ideas, and rules that are drawn up for dealing with people inside and outside the organization. Ethical values are an indispensable part of the organizational culture because they help determine how the members of the organization deal with specific situations. Ethical values are formed by social, professional and individual ethics.

The third factor in the development of the organizational culture is the working relationship. Factors that can strengthen working relationships are working towards a common goal and the possibility of promotion.

The fourth and final factor is the organizational structure. Different types of organizational structures lead to different organizational cultures. For example, a mechanistic structure leads to a conservative culture, while an organic structure leads to a culture characterized by autonomy and freedom.

Adaptivity

A distinction can be made between adaptive and inert organizational cultures. In an adaptive culture, norms and values help stimulate growth and change; an inert culture is an organization with norms and values that lead to stagnation and a lack of motivation. According to Peters and Waterman, there are three types of values that lead to an adaptive organizational culture: bias for action, having a mission, and a motivating way of working within the organization.

What is the influence of national culture?

The culture of an organization is significantly influenced by national culture. According to Hofstede, there are five dimensions on which national cultures differ from each other.

1. The first dimension is individualism versus collectivism or the extent to which individual or collective achievements and interests come to the fore.
2. The second dimension is power distance, which refers to the differences in well-being that are caused by physical and intellectual differences.
3. The third dimension is a performance culture versus a caring culture, where a performance culture values competition, success, and personal responsibility, while in a caring culture the quality of life and care for the weak are central.
4. The fourth dimension is uncertainty avoidance, characterized by rigidity and intolerance.
5. The fifth and final dimension is long-term orientation versus short-term orientation, which means that goals in the field of work and life are focused on the short or long term.