MO221 STUDY GUIDE EXAM SCRIPT 2026
COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS
◉ Elements of Organizational Culture Answer: -Surface artifacts of
organizational culture: physical structures, language, rituals and
ceremonies, stories and legends
-Deeper elements of organizational culture: Shared values (conscious
beliefs, evaluate what is good or bad/right or wrong), shared
assumptions (unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, implicit mental
models, ideal prototypes of behavior)
-problems with org culture models and measures: oversimplify diversity
of possible values, ignore shared assumptions, assume company cultures
are clear and unified)
◉ Artifacts: Physical Structures Answer: -building structure: may shape
and reflect culture
ex: Oakley's "interplanetary headquarters" looks like a vault,
representing the eyewear and clothing company's protective culture
-office design conveys cultural meaning: furniture, office size, wall
hangings, cubicles, open space, meeting space
◉ Artifacts: Organizational Language Answer: -words used to address
people, describe norms, customers, etc
-leaders use phrases and special vocabulary as cultural symbols
ex: McKinsey's "obligation to dissent"
,-language also found in subcultures
ex: Whirlpool's "Powerpoint Culture"
◉ Artifacts: Rituals and Ceremonies Answer: -rituals: programmed
routines
ex: every employee receives a plant on the first day of spring
-ceremonies: planned activities for an audience
ex: CEO personally announces winning new account and celebrates with
champagne and food
◉ Artifacts: Stories and Legends Answer: -social prescriptions of
desired (undesired) behavior
-provides a realistic human side to expectations
-most effective stories and legends: describe real people, assumed to be
true, known throughout the organization, are prescriptive
ex: FedEx, Alibaba
◉ Values Congruence Answer: similarity of person's values with orgs
(benefits: accelerated org socialization, higher job satisfaction, more
loyalty, positive org citizenship, lower stress and turnover)
◉ Organizational Culture Strength Answer: -how widely and deeply
employees hold the company's dominant values and assumptions
-most employees understand and embrace the culture
-institutionalized through artifacts
,-long lasting: may originate with founder or founders
◉ Tokens and Homogeneous Cultures: Diversity in the C Suite Answer:
-tokens: a few in group/org, numerical minorities often treated as
representatives of a category, treated as symbols rather than individuals
◉ Attraction - Selection - Attrition Answer: - in org, culture strength
increases through
1) Attraction: applicants self select based on compatible values
2) Selection: firms select applications with compatible values
3) Attrition: employees with incompatible values quit/removed
◉ Benefits of Strong Corporate Cultures for Management Answer:
Strong organizational culture -> social control, social glue, improves
sense making
◉ Risk of Strong Cultures Answer: 1) culture content misaligned with
environment: when misaligned, may lead to poor decisions and
behaviors in relations with stakeholders
2) culture strength is at level of cult which locks people into mental
models, suppresses subcultures and dissenting values
3) culture becomes rigid and maladaptive: lack of external focus, low
interest in continuous improvement of internal work processes, lack of
learning orientation
, ◉ "Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace" Answer: -what are the
dangers of worrying more about impression management than asking
questions or pointing out errors?
-psychological safety: members of highly successful teams all say that
they feel comfortable sharing their honest ideas and taking risks
-have little fear of judgement and criticism, readily discuss mistakes and
work to correct them
-better teams make MORE mistakes, not fewer. They are open to
discussing them due to a climate of openness
-this is not a tradeoff for excellence. You free people up to really engage
and not be afraid of each other
-if you have no uncertainty and no interdependence, you dont need
psych safety, but if you do its a necessity
"People have to feel safe to bring their brains to work" -Amy Edmonson
-3 things to create psych safety
1) frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem
(provide rationale for speaking up: "We cant know what will happen, we
have to have everyones brain/voices)
2) Acknowledge your own fallibility (create safety for speaking up, "I
may miss something, I need to hear from you"
3) Model curiosity: create a necessity for speaking up: ask a lot of
questions
◉ Takeaways: Importance of Culture Answer: -culture impacts
behavior: this is why companies put so much thought into crafting it
-it is the environment: B=f(I and E)
COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS
◉ Elements of Organizational Culture Answer: -Surface artifacts of
organizational culture: physical structures, language, rituals and
ceremonies, stories and legends
-Deeper elements of organizational culture: Shared values (conscious
beliefs, evaluate what is good or bad/right or wrong), shared
assumptions (unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, implicit mental
models, ideal prototypes of behavior)
-problems with org culture models and measures: oversimplify diversity
of possible values, ignore shared assumptions, assume company cultures
are clear and unified)
◉ Artifacts: Physical Structures Answer: -building structure: may shape
and reflect culture
ex: Oakley's "interplanetary headquarters" looks like a vault,
representing the eyewear and clothing company's protective culture
-office design conveys cultural meaning: furniture, office size, wall
hangings, cubicles, open space, meeting space
◉ Artifacts: Organizational Language Answer: -words used to address
people, describe norms, customers, etc
-leaders use phrases and special vocabulary as cultural symbols
ex: McKinsey's "obligation to dissent"
,-language also found in subcultures
ex: Whirlpool's "Powerpoint Culture"
◉ Artifacts: Rituals and Ceremonies Answer: -rituals: programmed
routines
ex: every employee receives a plant on the first day of spring
-ceremonies: planned activities for an audience
ex: CEO personally announces winning new account and celebrates with
champagne and food
◉ Artifacts: Stories and Legends Answer: -social prescriptions of
desired (undesired) behavior
-provides a realistic human side to expectations
-most effective stories and legends: describe real people, assumed to be
true, known throughout the organization, are prescriptive
ex: FedEx, Alibaba
◉ Values Congruence Answer: similarity of person's values with orgs
(benefits: accelerated org socialization, higher job satisfaction, more
loyalty, positive org citizenship, lower stress and turnover)
◉ Organizational Culture Strength Answer: -how widely and deeply
employees hold the company's dominant values and assumptions
-most employees understand and embrace the culture
-institutionalized through artifacts
,-long lasting: may originate with founder or founders
◉ Tokens and Homogeneous Cultures: Diversity in the C Suite Answer:
-tokens: a few in group/org, numerical minorities often treated as
representatives of a category, treated as symbols rather than individuals
◉ Attraction - Selection - Attrition Answer: - in org, culture strength
increases through
1) Attraction: applicants self select based on compatible values
2) Selection: firms select applications with compatible values
3) Attrition: employees with incompatible values quit/removed
◉ Benefits of Strong Corporate Cultures for Management Answer:
Strong organizational culture -> social control, social glue, improves
sense making
◉ Risk of Strong Cultures Answer: 1) culture content misaligned with
environment: when misaligned, may lead to poor decisions and
behaviors in relations with stakeholders
2) culture strength is at level of cult which locks people into mental
models, suppresses subcultures and dissenting values
3) culture becomes rigid and maladaptive: lack of external focus, low
interest in continuous improvement of internal work processes, lack of
learning orientation
, ◉ "Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace" Answer: -what are the
dangers of worrying more about impression management than asking
questions or pointing out errors?
-psychological safety: members of highly successful teams all say that
they feel comfortable sharing their honest ideas and taking risks
-have little fear of judgement and criticism, readily discuss mistakes and
work to correct them
-better teams make MORE mistakes, not fewer. They are open to
discussing them due to a climate of openness
-this is not a tradeoff for excellence. You free people up to really engage
and not be afraid of each other
-if you have no uncertainty and no interdependence, you dont need
psych safety, but if you do its a necessity
"People have to feel safe to bring their brains to work" -Amy Edmonson
-3 things to create psych safety
1) frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem
(provide rationale for speaking up: "We cant know what will happen, we
have to have everyones brain/voices)
2) Acknowledge your own fallibility (create safety for speaking up, "I
may miss something, I need to hear from you"
3) Model curiosity: create a necessity for speaking up: ask a lot of
questions
◉ Takeaways: Importance of Culture Answer: -culture impacts
behavior: this is why companies put so much thought into crafting it
-it is the environment: B=f(I and E)
