final organizational culture (miscellaneous)

8/12/2019 Final Organizational Culture (Miscellaneous)

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AbstractOrganizational culture the personality of an organization that guides how employees think and acton the job is central to the values, beliefs, inter-personal behaviours, and attitudes to stakeholdersthat determine how the organization does its job. Culture is a key factor not only in achievingorganizational goals, but in attracting and keeping desirable employees, creating a positive publicimage, and building respectful relationships with stakeholders.This paper explores what organizational culture is, why it is important, and how to change anestablished culture so that it is better aligned with changes in organizational objectives and workpractices.

1. What is organizational culture?In his seminal 1992 work entitled Organizational Culture and Leadership , Edgar H. Schein, ProfessorEmeritus in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered adefinition of what he called an empirically based abstraction.Organizational culture, he said, is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by agroup as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well

enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way toperceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems

The definition applies to organizations of virtually every kind families, social clubs, work groups,companies, governments, and nations. Over time, each such group develops a set of tacit and explicitunderstandings, beliefs and practices. It might not be easy to explain exactly what the culturalcharacteristics of a particular group are, but all of its members understand and conform instinctivelyto its expectations.

A) WHAT ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE IS Organisational Culture isa) a pattern of basic assumptionsb) invented, discovered, or developed by a given groupc) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integrationd) that has worked well enough to be considered valid and thereforee) is to be taught to new members as thef) correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to these problems.

Organisational Culture is also a set of inter-related beliefs, shared by most of the employees of acompany about how one should behave at work and what activities are more important than

others. Organisational Culture can be deliberately determined or simply allowed to evolve.Organisational Culture should be identified during formulation of strategy and led by leadershipand top management example

B) LEVELS OF CULTURE1) Artifacts observable aspects like physical layout, dress code, way people address each other,

mission statements(form), etc.2) Espoused Values documented norms, charters, ideologies3) Assumptions Cultures Essence


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C) FUNCTIONS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTUREAll organisations face and learn to cope with set of external and internal tasks that call for

- external adaptation- internal integration- anxiety reduction

D) WHAT CONSTITUTES STRONG ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE The ideal organizational culture for a given company depends on the strategy of company and

kinds of competitive forces its businesses are dealing with. A strong culture emerges over time whena fit exists among the environment forces of change, the organisations mission and strategy and theorganizational structure. The result is external adaptation, internal integration and anxiety reduction.

1. What sort of culture do you want to foster?- high levels of attention and service when dealing with customers?- moderation and cost-control when spending?- a family-like co-operative?- guaranteed life time employment or hire and fire?

2. The st rength of an organizations culture is a function ofa) Strength and degree of internal consistencyb) Stability of group (low turnover)c) Length of time group has existed (continuity)d) Intensity of groups experiences of learninge) Mechanisms by which learning has taken place (learning organisation (single-loop, deutero,

double loop learning)

f) Strength/clarity of assumptions held by founders/leadersg) Success in external adaptationh) Success in anxiety-reduction (u/a ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling and behaving)

E) CONTENT OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

1) All culture derived from 5 universal human problems, each with limited options a) HumanNature Orientation: what is the character of innate human nature? Good or Evilb) Relational Orientation: what is the modality of mans relationship to other men? C ollateral,Individualistic or Linealc) Time Orientation: what is the temporal focus of human life? Past, Present Futured) Activity Orientation: what is the modality of human activity? Doing or Beinge) Man- Nature Orientation: what is mans relation to nature? Mastery over Nature, Harmonywith Nature or Subjugation to Nature

2) Organisations operationalise a strong culture with a coping mechanisim/managementleadership system


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3. Why might cultural change be necessary?

When an organization is faced by a changing marketplace or regulatory environment, or has identifiedthe need for a shift in strategic direction, the implementation of a new technology, or theintroduction of new processes, the established culture may impede progress unless it, too, ischanged. For that reason, the success of major organizational change initiatives are almost alwaysdependent on internal cultural change.

What are some of the main reasons that a regulatory organization such as the IAEA might considerembarking on a cultural change initiative? The reasons might include:

Circumstances change for instance, the organization finds that it is encountering more instances offalse or incomplete declarations that require a different attitude when conducting inspections;

Stakeholder expectations change for instance, the organization encounters greater skepticismabout its conclusions, requiring a culture that places even greater emphasis on the quality of itsprocesses while permitting more transparency about how it performs its functions;

The demographics of the organization change for instance, the proportion of young people in thework force grows, or a larger percentage of new employees arrive with limited background in nuclearphysics, requiring new approaches to knowledge transfer;

The organizations objectives change requiring new skills, processes and attitudes to meet theobjectives;

New technologies are deployed requiring new cultural attitudes to realize the benefits;

Ingrained attitudes are producing negative outcomes What our division does is our business letother divisions get on with their own business; It is better to hoard information than share it;Performance isnt rewarded; I have an advanced degree , therefore I already know everything Ineed to know. Attitudes such as these are indicative of a culture in need of change.In situations such as those identified above, a formal change management process may help toincrease the probability of success, maximize employee and key stakeholder involvement and buy-inat appropriate times, and increase the change competencies in the organization.

4. What is involved in changing organizational culture?An organizations culture comes into being over a period of time. A newly formed group has noculture. Only a mature organization has had time for a set of widely shared understandings andbehaviours to take root. It follows that an established culture cannot be changed overnight. It hasalso been said that organizational culture cannot be changed directly. What can be changed areprocesses and behaviours. As employees are informed, trained and equipped to do things in newways, the culture in which they are embedded changes as a matter of course.


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As illustrated in Figure 1, successful organizational change initiatives are usually implemented over a3-5 year time span in an intensive, incremental process that begins simply with awareness of the needfor change and eventually leads to internalization of new patterns of thinking and doing.

5. Why do culture change initiatives often fail?The unfortunate truth is that many organizational change initiatives fail to achieve their objectives.This is often due to the inherent resistance of organizational culture to change.Arguments often offered as to why change should not take place include: Its best to stick to ourtried-and- true approaches; This is the wrong time to be attempting a major change; Weredifferent; Our people will instinctively do the right thing; and many others.However, there may be other reasons for the failure of an organizational change initiative. Theseinclude:

Lack of management ownership (managers may be as heavily invested in the existing culture as otherstaff members)

- and punishments for failure to live upto expectations.

6. What is needed to succeed?Clearly, change leaders must commit themselves to well-reasoned, carefully planned, vigorous changemanagement activities including opportunities for staff members to practice new approaches incontrolled settings if behaviour, and eventually culture, are to be changed.Essentials for success include:

level

-management ownership of the process

-going support for change at the staff level

Getting the culture right is challenging but well worth the rewards of success.

final organizational culture (miscellaneous)

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