1. Organizational Culture
Dr. Fred Mugambi Mwirigi
JKUAT

2. What Is Organisational Culture?
“a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organisation from other organisations.”
This system of shared meaning is a set of key characteristics that the organisation values. Research suggests seven primary characteristics:
Innovation and risk taking
Attention to detail
Outcome orientation
People orientation
Team orientation
Aggressiveness
Stability

3. Definition contd.
Organisational culture is concerned with how employees perceive its characteristics, not if they like them. Research on organisational culture has sought to measure how employees see their organisation.
Culture by definition is elusive, intangible, implicit, and taken for granted.
Every organisation develops a core set of assumptions, understandings, and implicit rules that govern day-to-day behaviour in the workplace.

4. What Differentiates Organizational Cultures?
Individuals with different backgrounds or at different levels in the organisation will tend to describe the organisation’s culture in different terms.
There can be subcultures. Most large organisations have a dominant culture and numerous sets of subcultures

5. Dominant vs. sub cultures
A dominant culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority:
An organisation’s culture is its dominant culture.
This macro view of culture that gives an organisation its distinct personality.
Subcultures tend to develop in large organisations to reflect common problems, situations, or experiences that members face and
Are defined by department designations and geographical separation
will include the core values plus additional values unique to members of the subculture.
The core values are essentially retained but modified to reflect the subculture.

6. The value of org. cultures
If organisations had no dominant culture and were composed only of numerous subcultures, the value of organisational culture as an independent variable would be significantly lessened
It is the “shared meaning” aspect of culture that makes it such a potent device for guiding and shaping behaviour.
We cannot ignore the reality that many organisations also have subcultures that can influence the behaviour of members.

7. Strong vs. Weak Cultures
Strong cultures have a greater impact on employee behaviour and are more directly related to reduced turnover
This is because the high degree of shared-ness and intensity creates an internal climate of high behavioural control.
A specific result of a strong culture should be lower employee turnover
Also, a strong organisational culture increases behavioural consistency. A strong culture can act as a substitute for formalisation
High formalisation in an organisation creates predictability, orderliness, and consistency

8. Organisational Culture vs. National Culture
National or societal cultures must be taken into account if accurate predictions are to be made about organisational behaviour in different countries
Research indicates that national culture has a greater impact on employees than does their organisation’s culture
The national culture has a strong bearing on the development of the organization’s culture

9. The Functions of Culture
It has a boundary-defining role. It creates distinctions between one organisation and others- creates identity
It conveys a sense of identity for organisation members.
Culture facilitates commitment to something larger than one’s individual self-interest.
Culture is the social glue that helps hold the organisation together. It enhances social system stability.
Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour of employees.

10. Can Culture be a Liability?
There are potentially dysfunctional aspects of culture. Culture can create:
Barriers to change- Culture is a liability when the shared values are not in agreement with those that will further the organisation’s effectiveness. This is most likely to occur when an organisation’s environment is dynamic
Barrier to diversity- Strong cultures put considerable pressure on employees to conform. They limit the range of values and styles that are acceptable.

11. How a Culture Begins and develops
The ultimate source of an organisation’s culture is its founders.
The founders of an organisation traditionally have a major impact on that organisation’s early culture:
They had the vision; they are unconstrained by previous customs or ideologies.
The small size of new organisations facilitates the founders’ imposition of the vision on all organisational members.

12. Contd. Culture creation occurs in three ways:
First, founders hire and keep only employees who think and feel the way the way they do.
Second, they indoctrinate and socialise these employees to their way of thinking and feeling.
Third, they reinforce it. The founders’ own behaviour acts as a role model that encourages employees to identify with them and thereby internalise their beliefs, values, and assumptions.
When the organisation succeeds, the founders’ entire personality becomes embedded in the culture of the organisation.

13. Keeping a Culture Alive
Three forces play a particularly important part in sustaining a culture:
selection practices
the actions of top management
socialisation methods- Socialisation is process by which the organisation helps new employees adapt to its culture

14. How Employees Learn Culture
Stories- stories anchor the present in the past and provide explanations and legitimacy for current practices.
Rituals- these are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organisation, what goals are most important, which people are important, and which are expendable.
Material Symbols- e.g unique layouts of offices and other office equipment
Language- Organisations, over time, often develop unique terms to describe equipment, offices, key personnel, suppliers, customers, or products that relate to its business.

15. What can management do to create an ethical culture?
Be a visible role model. Employees will look to top-management behaviour as a benchmark for defining appropriate behaviour.
Communicate ethical expectations. Ethical ambiguities can be minimised by creating and disseminating an organisational code of ethics.
Provide ethical training. Use training sessions to reinforce the organisation’s standards of conduct; to clarify what practices are and are not permissible; and to address possible ethical dilemmas.

16. Contd.
Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones. Performance appraisals of managers should include a point-by-point evaluation of how his or her decisions measure against the organisation’s code of ethics.
Provide protective mechanisms. The organisation needs to provide formal mechanisms so that employees can discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical behaviour without fear of reprimand. This might include creation of ethical counsellors, ombudsmen, or ethical officers.

17. Managerial Actions that Improve Org. Culture
Selection of employees
Training and Socialisation
Structural Design- Organisation structures need to give employees more control.
Empowerment
Leadership
Performance Evaluation
Reward Systems

18. Spirituality and Organisational Culture
Workplace spirituality is not about organised religious practices. It is not about God or theology.
Workplace spirituality recognises that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community.
Historical models of management and organisational behaviour had no room for spirituality. The myth of rationality assumed that the well-run organisation eliminated feelings.
An awareness of spirituality can help you to better understand employee behaviour.

19. What differentiates spiritual organisations from their non-spiritual counterparts
Strong Sense of Purpose- Spiritual organisations build their cultures around a meaningful purpose.
Focus on Individual Development - Spiritual organisations recognise the worth and value of people. They are not just providing jobs. They seek to create cultures in which employees can continually learn and grow.
Trust and Openness - Spiritual organisations are characterised by mutual trust, honesty, and openness. Managers aren’t afraid to admit mistakes. They tend to be extremely upfront with their employees, customers, and suppliers.

20. 4. Humanistic work practices- Managers in spiritually based organisations include flexible work schedules, group and organisation-based rewards, narrowing of pay and status differentials, guarantees of individual worker rights, employee empowerment and job security.
5. Toleration of Employee Expression - They allow people to be themselves—to express their moods and feelings without guilt or fear of reprimand.

21. Thank you