1. Organizational Culture, Socialization, & Mentoring
Chapter 3
Organizational Culture, Socialization, & Mentoring

2. Organizational Culture
A set of values, beliefs, & assumptions shared by members of an organization
Culture influences employee attitudes & behavior
Culture can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage
Managers can influence (but not control) culture

3. Where does culture come from?
Founder’s values
Industry dynamics
National culture
Attraction – Selection – Attrition cycle

4. Understanding Organizational Culture
Antecedents
Organizational Culture
Observable artifacts
Espoused values
Basic assumptions
Organizational Structure & Practices
Reward systems
Organizational
design
Group & Social Processes
Founder’s values
Industry & business
environment
National culture
Senior leaders’
vision and behavior
Socialization
Mentoring
Decision
making
Group
dynamics
Communication
Influence &
empowerment
Leadership
This figure shows the importance of organizational culture on individual, group and organizational behavior. The roots of an organization’s culture are driven by the founder’s and senior leaders’ values, the culture of the nation, and the particular industry and business environment.
Now, let’s look at the organizational culture box specifically to understand what it is comprised of.
Collective Attitudes & Behavior
Work attitudes
Job satisfaction
Motivation
Organizational Outcomes
Effectiveness
Innovation &
stress

5. Layers of Organizational Culture
Observable Artifacts
Physical manifestation of values:
Acronyms
Manner of dress
Stories
Rituals, etc.

6. Cultural Artifact

7. Layers of Culture (continued)
Espoused Values: explicitly stated set of preferred values
Concepts or beliefs
Pertain to desirable end-states or behaviors
Transcend situations
Guide the behaviors and decision-making
Ordered by relative importance
Enacted values: values that actually exist

8. Layers of Culture (continued)
Basic Assumptions
Unobservable underlying assumptions
Taken for granted – not explicitly stated or analyzed
People may not be conscious of them
Resistant to change
Inconsistent behavior is hard to imagine

9. Four Functions of Organizational Culture
The four functions of organizational culture are to establish who the company is and what it stands for, to drive energy around what is really important, to promote social system stability, and to shape behavior by helping members make sense of their surroundings. Decisions made by the company that are consistent with the culture are easy for employees to understand.
Give members an organizational identity. Culture helps to establish who the company is and what is stands for. Ideally, employees should be proud to belong to a company who shares their values.
Facilitate collective commitment – drive energy around what is really important. At Southwest, employees know they’ll be taken care of if they take care of their customers.
Promote social system stability – a positive culture is more likely to be able to resolve conflict using a problem-focused approach rather than person-focused or blaming mentality.
Shape behavior by helping members make sense of their surroundings. Decisions made by the company that are consistent with the culture are easy for employees to understand. Performance is rewarded that is aligned with that corporate strategy and values.
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10. Four Functions of Org. Culture
Organizational Identity
Establishes the company’s business philosophy
Ideally, employees will share the values
Facilitate Collective Commitment
Everyone knows what’s really important
Peer pressure
Social System Stability
Helps you know what to expect from others
Sensemaking
Helps individuals make sense of novel situations

11. Competing Values Framework
The Competing Values Framework is a framework for categorizing organizational culture.
As you can see, this framework is based on two continuum’s of organizational effectiveness. One axis pertains to whether an organization focuses its attention and efforts on internal dynamics and employee or outward toward its external environment and its customers and shareholders.
The second axes shows an organization’s preference for flexibility or control and stability. These axes create four types of organizational cultures that are based on different core values and criteria for assessing organizational effectiveness.
The first is the clan culture. This culture is characterized has having an internal focus and valuing flexibility. This type of organization encourages collaboration between employees and is committed to having a cohesive work group and high job satisfaction.
The adhocracy culture has an external focus and values flexibility. This type of culture fosters creation of innovative products and services by being adaptable, creative, and fast to respond to changes in the market place. Centralized power and authority would not be effective structures in an adhocracy. These organizations promote creativity, innovation, and knowledge sharing.
The market culture has a strong external focus and values stability and control. This type of culture focuses on the customer over employee development and satisfaction because the goal of managers is to drive towards productivity, profits, and customer satisfaction. This culture rewards employees who deliver results.
The hierarchy culture has an internal focus and a formalized, structured work environment. It will tend to have reliable internal processes and control mechanisms (e.g., Dell whose focus is on cost-cutting and efficiency.)
This categorization shows how an organization’s core values affect it’s culture. Many companies struggle with attempting to embody conflicting values (e.g., Ritz Carlton values both employees and customers by empowering employees and providing high quality customer service)
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12. Opposing/Competing Values
One company can have aspects of all four CVF culture types
The CVF culture types compete or contradict each other
Create paradoxes
Too much (too little) of any one culture type can create weaknesses
Managing the paradoxes is the key

14. Changing Culture Changing people’s minds & values
Can target artifacts, values, or assumptions
Must be aligned with vision & strategic plan
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast. You can have the best plan in the world, and if the culture isn’t going to let it happen, it’s going to die on the vine”
Mark Fields, President, The Americas, Ford Motor Co.

15. Culture Change Mechanisms
Formal statements
Design of physical work space
Slogans
Training
Rewards
Stories
Measurement & Control
Leader reactions to crisis
Organizational Structure

16. Organizational Socialization
Process by which new employees learn an organization’s culture
Three-Phase Model of Organizational Socialization

17. Phase I: Anticipatory Socialization
Occurs before you join the company
Perceptions about different companies or different industries
Unrealistic expectations are a danger
Realistic Job Preview (RJP)
RJP is related to lower expectations, higher performance, and less turnover.

18. Phase II: Encounter Once you start the new job Orientation programs
Training
Org. policies & procedures
Norms, values, culture, expectations

19. Phase III: Change & Acquisition
New employee masters their new job
Requires a good understanding of expectations
Confidence

20. Mentoring A good tool to ingrain the culture in new employees
Gives new employees a social connection to the organization
What mentors do:
Coach, give exposure, protect, get challenging assignments, role model

21. Developing Networks Diversity of development relationships
The number of different people that you’re networked with
The various social systems from which the relationships come
i.e., work, school, family, etc.
Developmental relationship strength
The quality of those relationships

22. Developmental Networks Associated with Mentoring
Developmental Relationship Strength
Weak Ties
Strong Ties
Low Range
• D2
• D2
Key:
D = developer
P = protege
D1 •
D1 •
• P
• P
Developmental Relationship Diversity
Receptive
Traditional
Mentoring is not a one-person function but rather a multi-person function.
This figure describes mentoring relationships based on two dimensions—the diversity of the relationship and the strength of the relationship. The diversity dimension has to do with the number of different people the person is networked with as well as the variety of social systems from which the networked relationship stem. The strength dimension reflects the quality of relationships among the individual and those involved in his or her developmental network.
A receptive network is composed of a few weak ties from one social system such as an employer or professional association. A traditional network is made up of a few strong ties between an employee and developer that all come from one social system. The opportunistic network is characterized by weak ties with a diverse set of developers. And the entrepreneurial network is characterized by strong ties with a diverse set of developers.
People who have an entrepreneurial network tend to change their careers and benefit from personal learning more than people with receptive, traditional, or opportunistic networks.
D1 •
• D2
D1 •
• D2
High Range • P • P
D3 •
• D4
D3 •
• D4
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Opportunistic
Entrepreneurial

23. Importance of Social Networks
Mentored employees have:
Higher pay, more promotions, more organizational knowledge, better job performance, more skilled
People with the broadest digital networks were 7% more productive than those without such networks