Organizational Culture
Shared social knowledge within an organization regarding the rules, norms, and values that shape the attitudes and behaviors of its employees
3 components of culture
The basic underlying assumptions, espoused values, observable facts
Observable facts
Manifestations within an organization that employees can easily see or talk about
Symbol
Picture or image that conveys a message (observable fact)
Physical structure
The organization's buildings and internal design (observable facts)
Language
The jargon or slang used within an organization (observable fact)
Stories
Anecdotes, accounts, and legends passed down from cohort to cohort (observable facts)
Rituals
The daily or weekly planned routines that occur within an organization (observable facts)
Ceremonies
Formal events, generally performed in front of an audience of organizational members (observable facts)
Espoused values
Beliefs, philosophies, and norms that a company explicitly states
Basic underlying assumptions
Taken-for-granted beliefs and philosophies that are so integrated that employees simply act on them rather than question the validity of their behavior in a given situation
General culture types
Solidarity, sociability, adaptive, aggressive, people-oriented
Solidarity
Degree to which members think and act alike (general culture)
Sociability
How friendly employees are with one another (general culture)
Adaptive
Degree to which members seek out opportunity and the organization allows for decentralized decision making (general culture)
Aggresive
How competitive or easy-going an environment is (general culture)
People-oriented
Extent to which organizations consider the effects that decisions have on its members (general culture)
Specific culture types
Customer service, safety, diversity, sustainability, creativity
Culture strength
Extent to which employees definitely agree about the way things are supposed to happen within an organization
Culture variety
The degree to which different cultures arise within a single organization
Subculture
A culture created within a small subset of the organization's employees
Counterculture
When a subculture's values do not match those of the larger organization
Culture maintenance
Keeping culture alive and prevalent within a company - utilize ASA framework
ASA Framework
Attraction, Selection, Attrition - Culture maintenance
Attraction
What interest potential employees
Selection
Who does the company choose
Attrition
Why do employees leave the company
Socialization
Primary process by which employees learn the social knowledge that enables them to understand and adapt to the organization's culture - anticipatory stage, encounter stage, understanding and adaption
Managing socialization
Realistic job previews, orientation programs, and mentoring
Culture change
Shifting the organization's culture to make work/life better for employees
Leadership change
Changing top level management to shift culture
Mergers and acquisitions
Buying out another company or merging with another company to change company culture
Person-organization fit
Degree to which a person's personality fits with the organizational culture
External forces for Organizational change
Technology, market, social trends, and politics
Internal forces for organizational change
Nature of the workforce, leadership/management change, problems with current structure, and avoid stagnancy
Planned change
Change that is structured and implemented from top-down
3-stage model for planned change
Unfreezing > Changing > Refreezing
Unfreezing
Creating motivation to change culture
Changing
Providing employees new information to affect and shift the whole company culture
Refreezing
Supporting the new culture by integrating the changes into everyday policies, rules, and behaviors