CULTURA ORGANIZATIONALA

Organizational culture: a structured, strategic, long term identity and communication

layer within the organization that refers to its customs, ideals, principles, symbols, rituals,
values, beliefs, heroes and actors.

Components:
1. The History
 The power of corporate origin stories
 The story of how it all started
 A shared mythology
 Induction programmes

2. The values and beliefs

 Represent the identity of the organization
 Beliefs are shared convictions
 Values are abstract ideas based on which people form groups
 The connection between values, beliefs and profitability
 The values and beliefs systems are often top down not bottom up

3. Rituals and ceremonies

 A way to make values accessible, tangible, shared
 Repetitive actions reflecting the values and beliefs of a group, the celebration of a belief
 Ex: after every project, the team can sit down to debrief and discuss the lessons each
employee learned from the process
 Rituals: repetitive, common, ingrained into the daily routine
 Ceremonies: exceptional, sacred within the organisation; repetitive but seasonal (the
company picnic, Christmas party)

4. The stories
 The oral culture of the organization
 Narrate the central values of the organisational culture, often from the point of view of
the employee

5. The heroic figures

 Elevate employees, managers, leaders to a symbolic status THE HERO
 These figures embody the values of the organisational culture, they transmit knowledge,
are aspirational and inspirational

6. The cultural network(informal players of the OC)

 The storytellers
 The gossipers
 The whisperers
 The spies
 The strategic coalitions

JACK WELCH DISCOURSE

- Self confidence in employees
- Fuck birocracy?
- Simplicity in thought and actions
Principles:
1. Integrity
2. Change(embrace it)
3. Customer
4. Size and structure
5. Self confidence, simplicity and speed
6. Leadership
7. Treaining and critical thinking(black belt task for management)
8. People
9. Informality
10. Global learning company

THE IMPACT OF OC
- Communication/ brand coherence
- Better performance/ individual and systematic
- Employee retention mechanism

 Deal, E. T., A. A. Kennedy, New Corporate Cultures, Basic Books, 2000, Part I:
„Corporate Cultures and Performance”, Ch. 1. “Cultures Come of Age”, pp. 31-53.
Foundations of OC
- Anthropology- understanding values and beliefs and how they affect the structure
and functioning of the society
- Sociology – focusing on the causes and consequences of culture and the cultures
myths and rituals
- Social psychology- explaining why organizational culture affects employees so
strongly
- Economics- most organizations value their culture only if it helps the organization to
become productive and profitable

Values of OC
a. Common threads
- Involving organizational values- right/wrong, acceptable/unacceptable
- Values are taken for granted, not really written down
- Organizational values are transferred to employees values
- Values are transmitted symbolically
- Attempts of promoting the values
- A set of shared meanings
- Leading people in understanding and acting according to acceptable visions, values,
positions and standards
Traits of OC
- Innovation (risk orientation)
- Attention to detail (precision orientation)
- Emphasis on outcome (Achievement Orientation)
- Emphasis on people (fairness orientation)
- Teamwork (collaboration orientation)
- Agressiveness (Competitive orientation)
- Stability (rule orientation)
Learning- high flexibility, low
independence
Enjoyment high independence, low
flexibility
Purpose high flexibility, low independece
Caring high independence, low flexibility
Results high independence, low stability
Authority low independece, high stability
Order High independence, low stability
Safety low indepence, high stability

APPROACHES TO OC
1. Management excellence – 8 attributes of successful firms through motivating
employees to feel as winners
 Bias for action-without postponing
 Close to customer-true appreciation
 Autonomy and entrepreneurship- risk and creativity
 Productivity through people- respect
 Hands on management- direct connection
 Stick to the knitting-to the reputed brand
 Simple form, lean staff- easy controlled
 Loose and tight organisations- culture focus

2. Rites and rituals

 Values- organisations are effective if they are consistent with their key cultural aspects
 Heroes- organisations need heroes, visions and successful role models
 Rites and Rituals- the symbolism of rites and rituals are one of most powerful cultural means
 Cultural network- reinforcing corporate values passing information through informal networks

3. Culture as a variable dictating performance and leadership

 Smircich- culture as a variable, correlation of performance and leadership
 Managers and employees actions are in direct connection with cultural aspects
 Leadership is connected with cultural traits such as rituals, norms, values, symbols, heroes
 However, the former theories of gaining effectiveness through empowering a strong culture are
not yet generally accepted
 Changing organizational culture is viewed as a part of the overall organizational change
 Also, organizational performance and employees behavior are determined by cultural aspects

4. Tasks and relationships
2 types of OC - Task oriented
Relationship oriented

HOFSTEDES CULTURAL MODEL

„Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind”(60s-70s, IBM employees)
- Developed a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and
organizational cultures: THE CULTURAL DIMENIONS THEORY

1. Identity
- The relationship between the individual and the group (Collectivism vs. Individualism)
- It has to do with wheather peoples self image is defined in terms of I or WE
- In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family
only
- In Collectivist societies people belong to groups that take care of them in exchange for loyalty

2. Power distance
- The degree of inequality between the people that is assumed to be a natural state of affairs
(Small power distance vs. Large power distance)
- Defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations
within a country expect and accept that power is distributet unequally

3. Gender
- An unequal role distribution between men and women coincides with a tougher society in
which there is more emphasis on achievement and fighting than on caring and compromise
- A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by
competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner/best in field-
a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organizational behaviour.
- A low score(feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring
for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of
success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what
motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine)

4. Truth (Uncertainty avoidance vs. Uncertainity tolerance)

 How people in a culture cope with the unpredictable and the ambiguous. It has to do with the
anxiety as a basic human feeling, or in other words with the fear of the unknown.
 Sould we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and
different cultures have learnt to deal with this in different ways.
 The extent to which the members of a culture feel threarened by ambiguous or unknown situations
and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score

5. Term orientation (Long term vs. short term)

 Sacrifice the pleasures of today for the benefit of future
 The dimensions describe how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while
dealing with the challenges of the present and future, societies prioritise these two existential goals
differently
 Normative societies which score low on this dimension, prefer to maintain time honoured
traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion (STO)
 Those with a culture which scores high, on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach: they
encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future.

6. Indulgence (indulgent vs. restrained)

 This dimension is defined as the extend to which people try to control their desired and impulses,
based on the way they were raised
 Relatively weak control is called INDULGENCE and relatively strong control is called
RESTRAINT.
 One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children
are socialized. Whithout socialization wo do not become human

  One extreme Other extreme

Dimension

Identity Collectivism Individualism

Hierarchy Small power distance Large power distance

Gender Femininity Masculinity

Truth Strong Uncertainty Weak Uncertainty Avoidance

avoidance
Term orientation Long-term orientation Short-term orientation

     

Indulgence Restraint Indulgent

  Obsessed with Sound Space Time Stereotypes

Synthetic culture
Individualism Individual freedom Loud Far Any  Hurried, loners

Collectivism Group harmony Soft Close Any  Never alone, devious 

Large power d Respect for status Soft Far Any Seek to please

Small power d Equality between people Loud Close Any Unruly, jealous

Masculine  Winning Loud Close Any Macho, competitive

Feminine Caring for the weak Soft Close Any Sexless, complaining

  Obsessed with Sound Space Time Stereotypes

Synthetic culture

Uncertainty Certainty Loud Far Past  Rigid, arguing

avoidance
Uncertainty Exploration Soft Close Now, Unprincipled,
tolerance future odd
Long-term Long-term Soft Far Future Dull,
virtue workaholics
Short-term Face Soft Close Past, now Big spenders

ROMANIA
- Power distance
 Scores high on this dimension(90) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which
everybody has a place and which needs no further justification
 Hierarcy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular,
subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat

2. Invidualism
- Collectivistic society with a score of 30
- This is manifested in a close long term commitment to the member group, be that a family,
extended family, or extended relationships
- Loyality in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over rides most other societal rules and
regulations
- The society fosters strong relationships where everybody takes responsibility for fellow
members of their group
- In collectivist societies offence leads to shame and loss of face, employer/employee
relationships are perceived in moral terms(Like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions
take account of the employees in group, management is the management of groups
3. Masculinity/femininity
- Feminine society with a score of 42
- In feminine countries the focus is on working in order to live, managers strive for consesnsus,
people value equality solidarity and quality of their working lives
- Conflicts are solved by compromise and negotiation
- Incentives such as free time and flexibility are favoured
- Focus on well being, status is not shown

4. Uncertainity avoidance
- High preference for avoiding uncertainity with a score of 90
- Countries exhibiting high uncertainity avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour and
are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas
- In these cultures there is an emotional need for rules (even if the rules never seem to work) time is
money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality are the
norm, innovation may be resisted, security is an important element in individual motivation

5. Long term orientation

- Score: 52

6. Indulgence
- Culture of restraint with a score of 20
- Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism
- Also, in contrast to indulgent societies, Restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure
time and control the gratification of their desires
- People with this orientation have the perception that their actions are retrained by social norms and
feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
Directions
- Top down(vertical)
- Bottom up(vertical)
- Lateral/peer (horizontal)

Objectives
- Inform
- Motivate
- Engage
- Contribute to induction
- Manage the OC

Tactics
A. Documents/comm. Materials
- Internal/employee newsletter
- Company magazines
- Company blog
- Bulletin boards
- Memos
- Bday cards
- Databases
- Branded materials
- Videos

B. Events
 Picnics
 Parties
 Award festivities
 Conferences
 Workshops,seminars
 Teambuildings
 Community involvement
 Meetings
 Brainstormings
C. Platforms
 Intranet
 Whatsapp/facebook/other platform groups
 Password section on company website
 Office branding

D. Services
 Support groups
 Support facilities(kindergarden, laundromat, food court/kitchen)
 Relaxation services
 Relaxation spaces
 Creativity spaces +
