AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 1
AB1601: Organizational Behavior and Design
Chapter 13: Organizational Culture (Pg. 262 – 287)
Definition: Values and assumptions shared within an organization
1. Elements of Organizational Cultures:
Question: Describe the elements of organizational culture and discuss the importance of
organizational subcultures.
Shared values
- Values: Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses
of action in a variety of situations (Chp 1 & 2)
- Shared Values: Values that people within organization or work unit have in common
and place near the top of their hierarchy of values
Shared assumptions
- Definition: Nonconscious, taken-for-granted perceptions or ideal prototypes of
behavior that are considered the correct way to think and act towards problems and
opportunities.
- Requires observing employees, analyzing their decisions, debriefing them on their
actions to surface the assumptions
Espoused Values Enacted Values
Definition: Values that corporate leaders Definition: Values that actually guide and
hope will eventually become organization’s influence decision and behavior
culture – to guide organization’s decisions - Apparent when watching employees in
and actions action, including decisions, where they
- Usually socially desirable focus attention and resources, how they
- Present a positive public image behave towards stakeholders and
- Employees’ diverse personal values might outcomes of decision and behavior.
conflict with espoused values
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
,AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 2
Content of organizational culture
- Models oversimplify diversity of cultural values
- Models and measures ignore shared assumptions
o Assumptions are harder to measure than shared values
- Models incorrectly assume organizations have a fairly clear, unified culture that is
easily decipherable
- Dominant culture: Values and assumptions shared most consistently and widely by
organization’s members
Organizational subcultures
- Enhance dominant culture by espousing parallel assumptions and values
- Counterculture – Embrace values or assumptions that directly oppose the
organization’s dominant culture
2 Important Functions of Subculture
Maintain standards of performance and Emerging values that keep firm aligned
ethical behavior with stakeholders
- Employees holding counterculture values - Companies eventually need to replace
are important source of surveillance and existing dominant values with those more
critical review suited for changing environment
- Encourages constructive conflict - Suppressed subcultures may take
- Encourages creative thinking about how organization longer to discover, develop,
organization should interact with its and adopt the emerging desired culture
environment
- Supports ethical conduct – Prevents
employees from blindly following one set
of values
- Question the “obvious” decisions and
actions of majority – makes everyone
more mindful of consequences of actions
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
,AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 3
2. Artifacts:
Question: Describe 4 categories of artifacts through which corporate culture is deciphered.
Definition: Observable symbols and signs of an organization’s culture
- Represent and reinforce organizational culture
4 Categories of Artifacts
Organizational stories and legends Organizational language
- Recount heroic deeds or ridicule incidents - Organizational culture particularly stands
- Serves as powerful social prescriptions of out if employees habitually use
the way things should (or not) be done customized phrases and labels
- Adds human realism to corporate - Language can also capture less
expectations, individual standards and complimentary cultural values
firing criteria - Muppet client example
- Produces emotions → Improve listener’s
memory of lesson
- Most effective – Describe real people,
assumed to be true, known by employees
throughout organization
Rituals and ceremonies Physical structures and symbols
Rituals - Size, shape, location and age reflect and
- Programmed routines of daily influence organization’s culture
organizational life that dramatize an Collaborative and creative cultures
organization’s culture - Value more teamwork and flexibility
- Repetitive, predictable events that have - Space design is informal and enables
symbolic meaning of underlying cultural spontaneous group discussion
values and assumptions Controlling and competitive cultures
Ceremonies - More structural office arrangements
- Planned activities conducted specifically - Provide more space for individuals than
for benefit of audience teamwork
- Public reward or punishment
3. Meaning and Potential Benefits of a Strong Culture:
Question: Discuss the importance of organizational culture and the conditions under which
organizational culture strength improves performance.
- Strength of culture refers to how widely and deeply employees hold company’s
dominant values and assumptions
Strong Culture Weak Culture
- Employees across all subunits understand - Dominant values held mainly by a few
and embrace dominant values people at the top of the organization
- Values and assumptions are - Culture is difficult to interpret from
institutionalized through well-established artifacts
- Long lasting - Cultural values and assumptions are
unstable over time or highly varied across
organization
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
, AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 4
Context: Control system will regulate your behavior without you knowing.
Dealing with snakes (real ones)
A: Straightaway kill
B:
1. Talk about snake
2. Invite organization to teach us more about snake
3. Come up with strategy to kill snake
4. Analyze situation
5. Write form to request for tools to kill snake
6. Kill snake
Different cultures. A: Just do it - Easier to apologize instead of asking for permission, B:
Analytical
Exercising individualism that is different from organizational culture will backfire on you. The
culture will regulate your behavior.
Important Functions of Strong Cultures
Control system - Social control that influences employee decisions and behavior
- Pervasive
- Operates nonconsciously
- A compass to point everyone to the same direction
Social glue - Bonds people together to make them feel part of the organizational
experience
- Employees motivated to internalize organization’s dominant culture
because it fulfills their need for social identity
- Attracts new staff and retains top performers
- Common thread that holds employees together in global
organizations
Sense making - Helps employees make sense of what goes on and why things
happen in the company
- Easier to understand what is expected of them
- Clearer role perceptions and less role-related stress
Contingencies of organizational culture and effectiveness
Culture content is aligned Environment depends on employee talent:
with external environment - - Requires an employee centric culture
Environment of strong competition and standardized
product:
- Efficiency-focused culture
Dominant values are congruent with environment:
- Employees are more likely to engage in decisions and
behaviors that improve organization’s interactions with
environment
Dominant values misalign with environment:
- Strong culture encourages decisions and behavior that
undermine the organization’s connection with
stakeholders
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
AB1601: Organizational Behavior and Design
Chapter 13: Organizational Culture (Pg. 262 – 287)
Definition: Values and assumptions shared within an organization
1. Elements of Organizational Cultures:
Question: Describe the elements of organizational culture and discuss the importance of
organizational subcultures.
Shared values
- Values: Stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses
of action in a variety of situations (Chp 1 & 2)
- Shared Values: Values that people within organization or work unit have in common
and place near the top of their hierarchy of values
Shared assumptions
- Definition: Nonconscious, taken-for-granted perceptions or ideal prototypes of
behavior that are considered the correct way to think and act towards problems and
opportunities.
- Requires observing employees, analyzing their decisions, debriefing them on their
actions to surface the assumptions
Espoused Values Enacted Values
Definition: Values that corporate leaders Definition: Values that actually guide and
hope will eventually become organization’s influence decision and behavior
culture – to guide organization’s decisions - Apparent when watching employees in
and actions action, including decisions, where they
- Usually socially desirable focus attention and resources, how they
- Present a positive public image behave towards stakeholders and
- Employees’ diverse personal values might outcomes of decision and behavior.
conflict with espoused values
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
,AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 2
Content of organizational culture
- Models oversimplify diversity of cultural values
- Models and measures ignore shared assumptions
o Assumptions are harder to measure than shared values
- Models incorrectly assume organizations have a fairly clear, unified culture that is
easily decipherable
- Dominant culture: Values and assumptions shared most consistently and widely by
organization’s members
Organizational subcultures
- Enhance dominant culture by espousing parallel assumptions and values
- Counterculture – Embrace values or assumptions that directly oppose the
organization’s dominant culture
2 Important Functions of Subculture
Maintain standards of performance and Emerging values that keep firm aligned
ethical behavior with stakeholders
- Employees holding counterculture values - Companies eventually need to replace
are important source of surveillance and existing dominant values with those more
critical review suited for changing environment
- Encourages constructive conflict - Suppressed subcultures may take
- Encourages creative thinking about how organization longer to discover, develop,
organization should interact with its and adopt the emerging desired culture
environment
- Supports ethical conduct – Prevents
employees from blindly following one set
of values
- Question the “obvious” decisions and
actions of majority – makes everyone
more mindful of consequences of actions
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
,AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 3
2. Artifacts:
Question: Describe 4 categories of artifacts through which corporate culture is deciphered.
Definition: Observable symbols and signs of an organization’s culture
- Represent and reinforce organizational culture
4 Categories of Artifacts
Organizational stories and legends Organizational language
- Recount heroic deeds or ridicule incidents - Organizational culture particularly stands
- Serves as powerful social prescriptions of out if employees habitually use
the way things should (or not) be done customized phrases and labels
- Adds human realism to corporate - Language can also capture less
expectations, individual standards and complimentary cultural values
firing criteria - Muppet client example
- Produces emotions → Improve listener’s
memory of lesson
- Most effective – Describe real people,
assumed to be true, known by employees
throughout organization
Rituals and ceremonies Physical structures and symbols
Rituals - Size, shape, location and age reflect and
- Programmed routines of daily influence organization’s culture
organizational life that dramatize an Collaborative and creative cultures
organization’s culture - Value more teamwork and flexibility
- Repetitive, predictable events that have - Space design is informal and enables
symbolic meaning of underlying cultural spontaneous group discussion
values and assumptions Controlling and competitive cultures
Ceremonies - More structural office arrangements
- Planned activities conducted specifically - Provide more space for individuals than
for benefit of audience teamwork
- Public reward or punishment
3. Meaning and Potential Benefits of a Strong Culture:
Question: Discuss the importance of organizational culture and the conditions under which
organizational culture strength improves performance.
- Strength of culture refers to how widely and deeply employees hold company’s
dominant values and assumptions
Strong Culture Weak Culture
- Employees across all subunits understand - Dominant values held mainly by a few
and embrace dominant values people at the top of the organization
- Values and assumptions are - Culture is difficult to interpret from
institutionalized through well-established artifacts
- Long lasting - Cultural values and assumptions are
unstable over time or highly varied across
organization
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
, AB1601 Textbook Chapter 13 4
Context: Control system will regulate your behavior without you knowing.
Dealing with snakes (real ones)
A: Straightaway kill
B:
1. Talk about snake
2. Invite organization to teach us more about snake
3. Come up with strategy to kill snake
4. Analyze situation
5. Write form to request for tools to kill snake
6. Kill snake
Different cultures. A: Just do it - Easier to apologize instead of asking for permission, B:
Analytical
Exercising individualism that is different from organizational culture will backfire on you. The
culture will regulate your behavior.
Important Functions of Strong Cultures
Control system - Social control that influences employee decisions and behavior
- Pervasive
- Operates nonconsciously
- A compass to point everyone to the same direction
Social glue - Bonds people together to make them feel part of the organizational
experience
- Employees motivated to internalize organization’s dominant culture
because it fulfills their need for social identity
- Attracts new staff and retains top performers
- Common thread that holds employees together in global
organizations
Sense making - Helps employees make sense of what goes on and why things
happen in the company
- Easier to understand what is expected of them
- Clearer role perceptions and less role-related stress
Contingencies of organizational culture and effectiveness
Culture content is aligned Environment depends on employee talent:
with external environment - - Requires an employee centric culture
Environment of strong competition and standardized
product:
- Efficiency-focused culture
Dominant values are congruent with environment:
- Employees are more likely to engage in decisions and
behaviors that improve organization’s interactions with
environment
Dominant values misalign with environment:
- Strong culture encourages decisions and behavior that
undermine the organization’s connection with
stakeholders
C1 - Introduction to Field of Organizational Behaviour, C2 - Individual Behaviour, Personality, and Values, C3 - Perceiving Ourselves and others in organization, C4 - Workplace Emotions,
Attitudes and Stress, C5 - Employee Motivation, C6 - Team Dynamics, C9 - Power and Influence in Workplace, C10 - Conflict and Negotiation in Workplace, C11 - Leadership in Organizational
Setting, C13 - Organizational Culture, C14 - Organizational Change
