Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cross Cultural
Psychology
Culture & Organization
011)
Suneela Saif
(06010611-012)
Saba Saleem
(06010611-014)
032)
Hina Akram (06010611-
033)
Information
Any kind of information from other members of one species through social learning
that is capable of effecting behavior of individuals.
Group of individual
Culture is people who are existing within same kind of shared context. They respond
too many of the same cultural ideas, advertisements, similar practice or in news papers.
Component of culture
Culture refers to the following Ways of Life, including but not limited to:
• Language: the oldest human institution and the most sophisticated medium of
expression.
• Arts & Sciences: the most advanced and refined forms of human expression.
• Thought: the ways in which people perceive, interpret, and understand the world
around them.
• Spirituality: the value system transmitted through generations for the inner well-
being of human beings, expressed through language and actions.
• Social activity: the shared pursuits within a cultural community, demonstrated in a
variety of festivities and life-celebrating events.
• Interaction: the social aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take of
socialization, negotiation, protocol, and conventions.
1. Symbolic Composition
Systematic Patterning
2. Learned Transmission
Societal Grounding
Culture is observable only in the form of personal behavior but can be abstracted from
individuals' actions and attributed to the social groups to which they belong. Accordingly,
anthropologists underemphasize the importance of individual responsibility and creativity
and focus on the common denominator of collective identity and symbols. This position
counters some modern understandings of the importance of individual rights and actions.
However, a few reflections show that society defines and constrains our behavior in many
unperceived ways. We can best understand the social aspect of culture by realizing that the
central function of human symbolization is communication and requires adherence to
understood conventions.
What is an organization?
The concept of an organization
Features of an organization
Composed of individuals and groups of individuals
Oriented towards achievement of common goals
Differential functions
Intended rational coordination
Continuity through time
“Sequential or spatial (or both) form in which a body of knowledge, data, people,
things, or other things, is purposefully arranged”.
In simply;
“When two or more people get together and agree to coordinate their activities in order
to achieve their common goals, an organization has been born”.
Organizational Theory
Study of organizational designs and organizational structures, relationship of
organizations with their external environment, and the behavior of managers and
technocrats within organizations. It suggests ways in which an organization can cope with
rapid change.
Organizational structure
Organizational structure is the formal system of task and reporting relationships
that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate to achieve an
organization's goals.
• Behavior
• Motivation
• Performance
• Teamwork and cooperation
• Intergroup and Interdepartmental relationships
Organization design
Organization design is the process of aligning an organization's structure with its
mission. This means looking at the complex relationship between tasks, workflow,
responsibility and authority, and making sure these all support the objectives of the
business.
Organizational change
“the process by which organizations move from their present state to some desired
future state to increase their effectiveness is called organization change”.
Organizational culture
The set of shared values and norms that control organizational
members’ interactions with each other and with suppliers, customers, and other people
outside the organization”.
Organizational Effectiveness
o Control: external resource approach
Method evaluates how effectively an organization manages and
controls its external environment
o Innovation: internal system approach
Method allows managers to evaluate how effectively an organization
functions and operates
o Efficiency: technical approach
Method evaluates how efficiently an organization converts a fixed
amount of resources into finished goods and services
Senior management may try to determine a corporate culture. They may wish to
impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of
the organization.
Individual Initiative
Direction
The degree to which the organization creates clear objectives and performance
expectations.
Integration
The degree to which units within the organization are encouraged to operate in a
coordinated manner.
Management Support
The degree to which the managers provide communication, assistance, and support
to their subordinates.
Control
The number of rules and regulation and the amount o supervision that is used to
averse and control employee behavior.
Identity
The degree to which members identity with the organization as a whole rather than
with their particular work groups or field of professional expertise.
Reward System
The degree to which reward allocations are based on employee performance citeria
in contrast to seniority, favoritism, and so on.
Conflict Tolerance
The degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticism
openly.
Communication Pattern
Dimensions of Culture
1. Innovation
2. Stability
3. People orientation
4. Outcome orientation
5. Easygoingness
6. Detail orientation
7. Team orientation
8. Communications
9. Training & Development
10. Rewards
11. Decision-making
12. Risk taking
13. Planning
14. Teamwork
15. Management practices
Functions of Culture
• Supports the organization’s business strategy.
• Prescribes acceptable ways for managers to interact with external constituencies.
• Makes staffing decisions.
• Sets performance criteria.
• Guides the nature of acceptable interpersonal relationships in the company
• Selects appropriate management styles.
Four Functions of Organizational Culture
Organization
al identity
Sense-making
Organizational culture Collective
device
commitment
Social system
stability
1. Bureaucratic Culture
Research
Clan cultures are more successful when the business environment is largely stable. For
example, a company that intends on providing the same service year after year does not
need to consult with its consumers on a daily basis. What it needs to do is reduce its labor
and training costs. A Clan culture will do this, as employees are likely to take lower pay
and stay around longer if they are receiving the emotional and social support that a Clan
culture provides. A foundation must be internally focused enough to provide a level of
participation among staff and to mirror its values of inclusiveness, but this focus must be
counterbalanced by a commitment to also be outwardly focused and learn lessons that only
community members and other external stakeholders can offer.
Research
3. Entrepreneurial Culture
High level of risk taking, dynamism and creativity characterize and entrepreneurial
culture. There is a commitment to experimentation, innovation and being on the leading
edge. This culture does not just quickly react to changes in the environment its creates
change. Effectiveness means providing new and unique products and rapid growth.
Individual initiative, flexibility and freedom foster growth and are encouraged and well
rewarded.
In late 2000and throughout much of 2001, many of the dotcom companies failed
because their leaders lacked the management competencies to build the companies and
manage external relationships with financial backers. Entrepreneurial cultures usually are
associated with small to mid-sized companies that are still run by a founder, such as
Microsoft, dell, and many Silicon Valley stats-ups. Innovation and entrepreneurship are
values held by the founder.
Research
Wing S. Chow , Vivienne W.M. Luk had Examines the managerial attitude of women
managers in China and Hong Kong. Measures particularly their preference of managerial
practices and identifies the key job motivators, vital management skills, and reasons for job
promotion. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey method and the results reveal
that the general practices of managers in China are not as mature as those in Hong Kong. In
job motivation, findings show that Hong Kong women managers view their jobs in terms
of career development, whereas the Chinese respondents seek immediate monetary reward.
The mutually exclusive findings regarding management skills between these two groups
are that Hong Kong managers concentrate on planning and Chinese managers concentrate
on directing. However, results disclose that the reasons for job promotion for both groups
are similar. In management practices, Hong Kong managers are more assertive than their
Chinese counterparts.
4. Market Culture
The achievement of measureable and demanding goals, especially those that are
financial and market based ( e-g sales growth, profitability, and market share) characterize
a market culture.
In a market culture, the relationship between individual and organization is contractual.
That is, the obligations of each party are agreed upon in advance. In this sense, the control
orientation is formal and quite stable. The individual is responsible for some level of
performance, and the organization promises a specified level of reward in return. The
contract, renewed annually if each party adequately performs its obligations, is utilitarian
because each party uses the other to further its own goals. Rather than promoting a feeling
of membership in a social system, the market culture values independence and
individuality and encourages members to pursue their own financial goals. For example,
the store manager at pizza hut who increase sales will make more money, and the firm will
earn more profits through the greater sales volume generated.
Strong vs. Weak Cultures
The argument is that strong cultures have a greater impact on employee
behavior and are more directly related to reduce turnover:
• The organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared.
• A strong culture will have a great influence on the behavior of its members because the
high degree of shared-ness and intensity creates an internal climate of high behavioral
control.
One specific result of a strong culture should be lower employee turnover. A high
agreement about what the organization stands for builds cohesiveness, loyalty, and
organizational commitment.
Strong
Organizational Social Glue
Culture
Aids
Sense-Making
People have an emotional connection to their work. This has further developed attitude
for success. They thrive on an environment of personal growth and others who have the
same Attitude. When working on the plane "ATTITUDE", people work at the level
"GROUP". They take on additional tasks and even apply more effort to their job. Unlike
those working at the level of individual, they do not need to be told what to do, only to be
guided to a direction.
The Pinnacle of greatness comes when the individuals see their work as their purpose.
People see a greater purpose to the work they do, something greater than the individual, or
the group. The organization is the vehicle to doing and becoming something greater then
themselves. When working on the plane of "SELF ACTUALIZATION", people work at
the level of "Organization". At this level of commitment, an individual will do for the
organization the same he would do for himself. The individual and the organization (and
all its components and people) are one.
This culture cultivates distrust and fear, people blame each other to avoid being
reprimanded or put down, this results in no new ideas or personal initiative because
people don't want to risk being wrong. The majority of commitment here is at the level of
''Individual''.
2) Multi-directional Culture
This culture cultivates minimized cross-department communication and cooperation.
Loyalty is only to specific groups (departments).Each department becomes a clique and is
often critical of other departments which in turn create lots of gossip. The lack of
cooperation and ''multi-direction'' is manifested in the organizations inefficiency. Of
The majority
Personal commitment in this culture borders on the level of Individual and level of
Group.
People in this culture believe in product or service of the organization, they feel good
what their company is trying to achieve and cooperate to achieve it. People here are
passionate and seem to have similar goals in the organization. They use personal resources
to actively solve problems and while they don't always accept the actions of management
or others around them, they see their job as important. Almost everyone in this culture is
operating at level of group.
People view the organization as an extension of themselves; they feel good about what
they personally achieve through the organization and have exceptional cooperation.
Individual’s goals are aligned with the goals of the organization and people will do what it
takes to make things happen. In this culture, Leaders do not develop followers, but develop
other leaders. Almost everyone in this culture is operating at the level of organization.
Culture Maintenance
Once an organizational culture has evolved to a higher level, the challenge lies in
maintaining it. To continuously develop an organization's people as well as new staff, there
are practices within the organization that act to maintain it by giving employees a similar
set of experiences. Three forces play a very important role in sustaining culture: selection
practices, the actions of top management, and socialization method.
I. Selection:
The explicit goal of the selection process is to identify and hire individuals who have
knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the jobs within the organization successfully.
Typically, more than one candidate will be identified who meets any given job
requirements. When that point is reached, it would be naïve to ignore that the finial
decision as to who is hired will be significantly influenced by the decision maker’s
judgement of how well the candidates will fit into the organization. This attempt to ensure
a proper match, results in the hiring of people who have values essentially consist with
those of the organization. Also the candidates can self select themselves out of the
applicant pool in case there is a conflict between organizational values and theirs.
III. Socialization:
Socialization refers to the process that adapts employees to the organization’s culture.
Since the new employees are unfamiliar with the organization, they are potentially likely to
disturb the beliefs and customs that are in place. Thus, socialization becomes important.
E.g. all new employees at starbucks, the large coffee chain, go through 24-hours of
training. Classes are offered on everything necessary to turn the new employees into
brewing consultants. They learn the starbucks philosophy, the company jargon and even
help customers make decisions about beans, grind, and espresso machines. The result is
employees who understand starbucks culture and who project an enthusiastic and
knowledgeable interface with customers.
Socialization can be conceptualized as a process made up of three stages:
I. Pre Arrival Stage: The period of learning in the socialization process that occurs
before a new employee joins the organization.
II. Encounter Stage: The stage in which the employees sees what the organization is
really like and confronts the possibility that expectations and reality may diverge.
Where expectations and reality differ, the new employee must undergo that detach
him from the previous assumptions and replace them with another set that the
organization deems desirable.
III. Metamorphosis Stage: The stage in which a new employee changes and adjusts to
the job, work group, and the organization.
Prearrival + Encounter
+Metamorphosis
When one wants to change an aspect of the culture of an organization one has to
keep in consideration that is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very
hard to change and employees need to get used to the new way of organizing. For
companies with a overstoring and specific culture it will be even harder to change.
Cummings and Worley give the following six guidelines for cultural change.
In order to make a cultural change effective a clear vision of the firm’s new strategy,
shared values and behaviors in needed. This vision provides the intention and direction for
the culture change.
In order to show that the management team is in favor of the change, the change has to be
notable at first at this level. The behavior of the management needs to symbolize the kinds
of values and behaviors that should be realized in the rest of the company.
Changes in culture can lead to tensions between organizational and individual interests,
which can result in ethical and legal problems for practitioners. This is particularly relevant
for changes in employee integrity, control, equitable treatment and job security.
• Infrastructure (the
systems and processes for
directing and managing
work)
While implementing change at the “higher” levels is possible, as the following graphic
suggestions, the durability of the change is short-lived without change at the underlying
cultural level.
Selection and
socialization
Strengthening Culturally
rewards
consistent
Organizational
Managing the cultural
Culture Stable workforce
network
We cannot ignore the reality that many organizations also have subcultures that can
influence the behavior of members.
Culture as a Liability
1. We are treating culture in a nonjudgmental manner.
2. Culture enhances organizational commitment and increases the consistency of employee
behavior, but there are potentially dysfunctional aspects of culture.
3. Barrier to change:
• Culture is a liability when the shared values are not in agreement with those that
will further the organization’s effectiveness. This is most likely to occur when an
organization’s environment is dynamic.
• This helps to explain the challenges that executives at companies like Mitsubishi,
General Motors, Eastman Kodak, Kellogg, and Boeing have had in recent years in adapting
to upheavals in their environment.
4. Barrier to diversity:
• Hiring new employees who, because of race, gender, disability, or other
differences, are not like the majority of the organization’s members creates a paradox.
• Management wants new employees to accept the organization’s core cultural
values but, at the same time, they want to support the differences that these employees
bring to the workplace.
• Strong cultures put considerable pressure on employees to conform. They limit
the range of values and styles that are acceptable.
• Organizations seek out and hire diverse individuals because of their alternative
strengths, yet these diverse behaviors and strengths are likely to diminish in strong
cultures.
• Strong cultures, therefore, can be liabilities when:
b. They effectively eliminate the unique strengths that diverse people bring to the
organization.
b. They support institutional bias or become insensitive to people who are different.
5. Barrier to acquisitions and mergers:
• Historically, the key factors that management looked at in making
acquisition/merger decisions:
a. Financial advantages
b. Product synergy
• Cultural compatibility has become the primary concern. Whether the acquisition
actually works seems to have more to do with how well the two organizations’ cultures
match up.
Conclusion
As the world is getting more flat and individuals more complex, there is be less
distinction among cultures and executives are becoming international.
Cultures are not only able to create an environment, but they also adapt to diverse
and changing circumstances. As organizations begin to experience a revolution in
structures, the study of culture and the implications for change will become more
important. Understanding of work group subcultures within an organization’s culture will
influence strategies for changing organizational culture and overcoming resistance to
change programs.
Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R. & Moran, S. V. (2007). Managing Cultural Differences. Global
Leadership Strategies for the 21st Century. Seventh Ed. British Library Cataloguing.