Organizational Culture is a group of internal values and behaviors in an organization. It includes experiences, ways of thinking, beliefs and future expectations. It is also intuitive, with repetitive habits and emotional responses. We also call it Corporate Culture.
“Culture is the set of important understandings that members of a community share in common.” It consists of a basic set of values, ideas, perceptions, preferences, concept of morality, code of conduct etc. which create a distinctiveness among human groups.
“The organisational culture is a system of shared beliefs and attitudes that develop within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members.”
Charectaristics of Organisational Culture
1. Individual Autonomy:
The degree of responsibility, freedom and opportunities of exercising initiative that individuals have in the organisation.
2. Structure:
The degree to which the organisation creates clear objectives and performance expectations. It also includes the degree of direct supervision that is used to control employee behaviour.
3. Management Support:
The degree to which, managers provide clear communication, assistance; warmth and support to their subordinates.
4. Identity:
The degree to which, members identify with the organisation as a whole rather than with their particular work group or field of professional expertise.
5. Performance Reward System:
The degree to which reward system in the organisation like increase in salary, promotions etc. is based on employee performance rather than on seniority, favouritism and so on.
6. Conflict Tolerance:
The degree of conflict present in relationships between colleagues and work groups as well as the degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflict and criticisms openly.
7. Risk Tolerance:
The degree to which, employees are encouraged to be innovative, aggressive and risk taking.
Cultural Typology:
Goffee and Jones have identified four distinct cultural types. They argue that these four culture types are based on two dimensions which they call sociability and solidarity. Sociability refers to high concerns for people i.e. it is people oriented and focuses on processes rather than on outcomes. The second dimension i.e. solidarity is however task oriented.
These two dimensions create four distinct cultural types:
1. Networked Culture:
Networked culture is high on sociability and low on solidarity. Which means that the organisation treats, its members in a quite friendly manner and there is open sharing of information. However, this culture type may lead to poor performance as the focus is on the people rather than on tasks.
2. Mercenary Culture:
It is low on sociability and high on solidarity. The organisations with mercenary culture are task oriented and believe in competition. The people are highly focussed and goal oriented but, this type of culture may at times lead to frustration and stress among poor performers.
3. Fragmented Culture:
Fragmented culture is low on both sociability and solidarity. There is little or no identification with the organisation. It is the individual members’ commitment, productivity and quality of work which is of utmost importance. This type of culture however suffers from lack of collegiality.
4. Communal Culture:
It is high on both sociability and solidarity. The organisations with communal culture value both people and tasks. Work accomplishment is from committed people, and there is a relationship of trust and respect.
The following diagram explains the four cultural typology:
The following conditions must be present only then a cultural change can take place:
1. Dramatic Crisis:
Any dramatic crisis in the organisation like a major financial setback, loss of a major customer, or a technological breakthrough by a competitor may force the management to look into the relevance of the existing culture.
2. New Top Leadership:
If some top executives leave the organisation and new leadership takes over, they may provide an alternative set of key values or a new culture. This new leadership may be more capable of responding to the crisis.
3. Young and Small Organisation:
When the organisation is new and its size is small, it will be easier for the management to change the culture.
4. Weak Culture:
Weak cultures are more amenable to change than strong ones. The higher the agreement among the members on the organisational values, the more difficult it will be to change.
If the above mentioned conditions which support the cultural change are present, the following suggestions can be considered for implementing the change:
(i) The top management people should become the positive role models. They should set the examples through their own behaviour.
(ii) As employees learn the culture through stories, symbols and rituals, the old stories, rituals and symbols should be replaced by creating new ones which are currently in vogue.
(iii) Adding new members, particularly at the higher level, is a powerful strategy to change the culture, provided the new members bring in new culture.
(iv) The socialization processes should be redesigned to align with the new values.
(v) Reward system establish and reinforce specific cultural behaviours and therefore, a change in culture can be initiated and supported by change in corporate reward systems.
(vi) Unwritten norms and beliefs should be replaced with formal rules and regulations that are tightly enforceable.
