1. Culture and Behaviour
By Dr Amanda Marshall-Ponting – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License

2. Culture and behaviour

3. Structure of the work package
Introductory presentation
Reflective questions & problem scenarios
Background reading materials
Presentation
Solutions and worked examples
This learning package has five main components.
This component, the presentation, mirrors the structure of the Background document.

4. Structure of the work package
Culture: What is it & why is it important in the work place?
Experiencing culture in the work place
Describing, measuring & managing culture
Changing organisational culture & behaviour
Theoretical models & key debates
Tests, reflective questions & problem scenarios
Additional reading
There are four main subject content areas as shown which identify and describe the key models and debates. Exercises are signposted at relevant points which allow you to test your understanding of a particular section. You can complete the exercises as you work through the Background document, once you have completed it, of once you have completed some additional reading. The choice is yours.

5. Culture, what is it?
“...the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time”
(Cambridge dictionary, 2011)
And
“...the set of shared meanings held by the team members that make team work possible”
(Thompson, 2000)
Both definitions emphasise the importance of the COLLECTIVE. This will determine who may belong to the group and will allow one group to be differentiated from another.
Sources of culture can be national; regional; ethnic and religious; gender; generational; social class (which will affect education, environmental, vocational and resource opportunities); and organisational.

6. Culture, why is it important?
Interest in culture increased as studies aimed to understand the success of Japanese companies in the 1970s
Two assumptions were made in 1980s and 90s studies:
Organisational performance depends upon alignment to its strategy
Belief that management can manipulate culture to achieve its goals
These two assumptions are now criticised. However, the importance of this subject has not diminished

7. Culture, why is it important?
Size and contribution construction sector makes to the UK’s GDP:
Over 2.5 million people employed in construction in 2009
8% of GDP from construction
Increasing globalisation and the rise of multi-national companies
However, the importance of this subject has not diminished due to the importance of the construction sector in the UK, and increasing globalisation of many business sectors.

8. Experiencing culture in the workplace
This section discusses how we can start to explore culture:
The impacts that assumptions and beliefs have upon culture
The objects that illustrate culture
How culture and its artefacts shape behaviour
The Iceberg model will be introduced
You will be able to reflect upon your company’s culture

9. Experiencing culture in the workplace
EXERCISE: You can test your cultural awareness using the quiz in section 1 of the Exercises document. The answers can be found in section 1 of the Solutions document.

10. Culture: The iceberg analogy
Language
Rituals
Methods
Techniques
Laws & customs
Norms
Roles
Beliefs
Philosophy
Values
Attitudes
Myths
Expectations
Doing
Thinking
Feeling
10% of the iceberg shows and the other 90% is what the currents have an effect upon.

11. Culture: The iceberg analogy
This has 2 main parts and the latter help us to understand the former:
The visible part – components we come into direct contact with
Language, food, music, architecture, behaviours
The hidden part – behavioural drivers
Motivations, gender differences, attitudes
Culture will affect internal and external relationships and has formal and informal components

12. Experiencing culture in the workplace: culture and behaviour
Organisation A
Organisation B
Operates on the assumption that:
ideas come ultimately from individuals
people are responsible, motivated and capable of governing themselves
the truth in practice can only be arrived at by fighting things out in groups
such fighting is possible because the organisations members see themselves as a family that take care of themselves
Therefore it is safe to fight and be competitive.
There are open office landscapes, few closed doors, people milling about, intense conversations and arguments and a general air of informality.
truth comes from older, wiser and higher-status members
people are capable of loyalty and discipline in carrying out directions
relationships are lineal and vertical
each person has a niche in the organisation that cannot be invaded
the organisation is responsible for taking care of its members
There is a hush in the air and everyone is on an office with closed doors. Nothing is done without appointment and prearranged agenda. When people of different ranks are present there is real deference and obedience and an air of formality permeates everything.
This table illustrates two different cultures and some of the behaviours associated with them. Neither is right or wrong and any described culture may not suit all people at any given point in time. As demonstrated in the paper by Jermier, Slocum, Fry and Gaines (1991) in the additional reading list, groups may adapt to the formal culture and develop their own sub-cultures.
(Schein, 1984)

13. Experiencing culture in the workplace: Your organisation
EXERCISE: You can explore your organisation’s culture by completing exercise 2. This exercise asks you to reflect upon the culture of your organisation, how its values are expressed, the assumptions it makes and how the culture is manifested

14. Measuring & managing organisational culture & behaviour
This section discusses how we can describe culture
Models are presented by:
Charles Handy (1985)
Geert Hofstede (1980)
Some implications for cross cultural management are presented

15. Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures
In his book Understanding Organizations Charles Handy (1985) argues that there are four main types of culture:
Power
Role
Task
Person
They can be represented pictorially.

16. Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures
Central power source with influence radiating from the centre
A shared understanding of the organisation’s approach is essential
Competition & trust important
Power orientation, risk taking
Low morale & high turnover
Small, entrepreneurial organisations
e.g. property, finance, trading
companies
The power culture (Handy)

17. Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures
Bureaucracy stereotype: its strength is its specialities & a focus upon procedures
Coordination by small number of senior management
Emphasis upon role rather than individual performance
Successful in stable, predictable markets
– slow response to change
Good security
e.g. Civil service, auto & oil
industries, life insurance
The role culture (Handy)

18. Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures
Flexible, matrix organisation structure
Emphasis upon getting the job done – right people & resources brought together to achieve this
Team culture empowered to make own decisions; agreeable team climate essential
Prevalent in competitive markets
E.g. management consultancies,
advertising agencies
Use of political influence causes morale
drop and role or power culture
The task culture (Handy)

19. Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures
Rare but many organisations incorporate its values placing individual at centre
Few organisations can exist with this culture – control & management hierarchies are impossible
Any structure exists to assist its members
Expert power
e.g. University professors
The person culture (Handy)

20. Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures
EXERCISE 3 asks you to reflect upon Handy’s (1985) model by considering the advantages and disadvantages of working in organisations with each of the four types of culture he identifies and to identify which culture you would prefer to work in.
Some points for consideration are included in section 3 of the Solutions document.

21. Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
116,000 IBM employees from 40 countries completed Hofstede’s questionnaire
The job and procedures were the same: Hofstede concluded variations in responses were due to cultural attitudes & values
Four underlying cultural dimensions were identified:
power distance – acceptance of unequal power distribution
Uncertainty avoidance – tolerance of ambiguity/uncertainty
Individualism – emphasis upon individual vs. collective achievement
Masculinity – tendency towards assertiveness, acquisition
Each country was described as high or low for each dimension and then grouped into eight clusters (Nordic, Germanic, Anglo, Latin, European, Far Eastern, Arab, near Eastern).

22. Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
Implications of culture on structure, behaviour, expectation & values
Rating
Dimension
Low
High
Power distance
Less centralisation; flat organisational pyramids; smaller wage differentials; manual & clerical jobs equal
Greater centralisation; tall org. pyramids; more supervisory personnel; white-collar jobs valued more than blue-collar jobs
Masculinity
Sex roles minimised; no interference with personal lives; more women in more qualified jobs; reward of soft, intuitive skills; social rewards valued
Clear sex role differentiation; organisations may interfere to protect interests; fewer women in qualified jobs; aggression, competition, justice rewarded; work valued as central life interest
Individualism
Organisation as “family”; org. defends employee interests; practices based on sense of loyalty, duty, group participation
Org. more impersonal; employees defend own self-interests; practices encourage individual initiative
Uncertainty avoidance
Less structuring of activities; fewer written rules; more generalists; variability; greater willingness to take risks; less ritualistic behaviour
More structuring activities; more written rules; more specialists; standardisation; less willingness to take risks; more realistic behaviour

23. Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
Example countries for each cultural dimension
Dimension
Low
High
Power distance
Australia, Israel, Denmark, Sweden
Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, India, Brazil
Masculinity
Sweden, Denmark, Thailand, Finland, Yugoslavia
Japan, Australia, Venezuela, Italy, Mexico
Individualism
Venezuela, Columbia, Taiwan, Mexico, Greece
U.S., Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Netherlands
Uncertainty avoidance
Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, U.S., India
Greece, Portugal, Japan, Peru, France

24. Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
Exercise 4 uses five scenarios to test your understanding of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model. A worked example is included in section 4 of the Solutions document.

25. Changing organisational culture
This section focuses on the difficulties of cultural and behavioural change
The McKinsey Group’s 7S model illustrates the interrelatedness of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ culture components
Communities of practice, informal groups enabled by new technologies, are introduced

26. Changing organisational culture: McKinsey 7S model
This model has been used by academics and practitioners to analyse culture
If organisational change is to be successful changes will be needed to all components
‘Hard’, tangible components are easier to change than ‘soft’ ones
structure
systems
style
staff
shared
values
strategy
skills

27. Changing organisational culture: McKinsey 7S model
Systems: Support daily activities & implement strategy. Technology is allowing processes to become simpler, decisions to be taken more widely with greater customer emphasis
Skills: Numbers & types of personnel and their competencies and abilities that help it to be distinctive from its competitors
Style/Culture: Distinct, this includes values & norms which develop over time. There is an increasing preference for openness, innovation & smaller command chains
Strategy: organisational plan of action. Focussed upon where the organisation is, where it wants to be, how it will get there
Staff: Growing importance of human resources in knowledge economy with much effort placed on hiring, training & mentoring to achieve competitive advantage
Shared values: Commonly held fundamental ideas about the company they maintain coherence in teams & focus upon goals
The purple boxes show the ‘hard’ component; the turquoise box the ‘soft’ components.
Structure: Shape of the business. Dependent upon its objectives & culture, it dictates the way it operates & performs

28. Changing organisational culture: Communities of practice
Self-selecting membership, meeting like-minded people
Creatively share knowledge & expertise, enabled by technology
Community decides structure & protocols
Some organisations more open to their use than others

29. Changing organisational culture: Communities of practice
Characteristic
Description
Purpose
Membership
Size
Scope
Structure
Meeting frequency
Ethos
Topics covered
Source of cohesion
Outputs
Organisational support
Typical habitat
Assessment
Lifespan
Adding value, sharing knowledge, building member capabilities
Diverse, self-selecting
Can be hundreds
Narrow or wide; can span several organisations
Self-organising
Whenever necessary
Informal, sharing
Anything defined useful by members
Members commitment to topic
Knowledge sharing, new understanding
Funding, overcoming obstacles to community encounters
Knowledge driven organisations
Stories told by members about performance improvement
As long as members want it
(Wenger & Snyder, 2000)

30. Conclusions
This presentation has provided an overview of the culture and behaviour learning package.
To deepen your understanding, you should work through:
Background document
Exercises and reflective questions
Additional reading

31. Reading
Key texts
Handy, C.B. (1985) Understanding organizations (3rd ed.) Penguin Books, London.
Hofstede, G. (1991) Cultures and Organisations: software of the mind. McGraw-Hill, London.
Schein (1984) Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture, Sloan Management Review.
Waterman Jr., R.H., Peters, T.J., and Phillips, J.R. (1980) Structure is not organisation. Business Horizons, 23 (3) pp14-16.
Additional reading
Gordon, G.G. and DiTomaso, N. (1992) Predicting corporate performance from organizational culture. Journal of Management Studies, 29 (6), pp
Jermier, J.M., Slocum, J.W., Fry, L.W. and Gaines, J. (1991) Organizational subcultures in a soft bureaucracy: Resistance behind the myth and façade of an official culture. Organization Science, 2 (2), pp
Ling, F., Ang, A. and Lim, S. (2007) Encounters between foreigners and Chinese: Perception and management of cultural differences. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 14 (6), pp
Ogbonna, E. and Harris, L.C. (2002) Organizational culture: A ten year, two-phase study of change in the UK food retailing sector. Journal of Management Studies, 39 (5), pp