Organizational Culture

by Meinrad C. Bautista, Ph.D. on July 8, 2018

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

Professor: Peter Menorca Asturias, Ph.D.

Culture Strength
Maintaining an Organizational Culture
Changing an Organizational Culture

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 16-1
“Culture trumps vision”

Do you agree with this statement?

Why?

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 Learning Objectives

2. To know how to 3. To understand

1. To be aware of the
maintain an changes in
culture strength
organizational culture organizational culture
• Strong Culture • ASA
• Weak Culture • New Employee On- • Steps in changing an
boarding organizational
• Leadership culture
• Reward System

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 1. Culture: Strong vs. Weak

There are four components to an organization’s

culture: Beliefs, behavioral rules, traditions, and
rituals.

The strength of any culture comes from the

degree of agreement among its people about the
importance of specific beliefs, behavioral rules,
traditions, and rituals.

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 Strong Culture

A culture is considered strong when there is cohesion

around beliefs, behavioral rules, traditions, and
rituals. Strong cultures typically feature their beliefs,
behavioral rules, traditions, and rituals in public
displays so that employees can use these cultural
elements for decision making throughout the
organization.

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 Characteristics of a strong culture

Strong cultures better lend themselves to high

performance. High-performance cultures are results
oriented and tend to establish an environment where
there is a constructive pressure to perform.

1. Culture reinforcing tools

2. Intensely People Oriented
3. Results Oriented
4. Emphasis on Achievement and Excellence

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 1. Culture reinforcing tools

These include things like ceremonies, symbols,

language, behavioral rules, and policies. Strong cultures
use these tools to produce extraordinary performance
from ordinary people. Strong cultures use ceremonies
and symbols to emphasize what the company
values. Ceremonies and symbols help recognize and
celebrate high-performance employees and help create
an emotional bond among all employees. Language
used in slogans and policies help illustrate the
company’s primary values and provide a shared
understanding among workers.
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 2. Intensely people oriented
Organizations with strong cultures display their concern for
their employees in a variety of ways.
These includes:
• Treating employees with dignity and respect
• Granting employees enough autonomy to excel and
contribute
• Holding managers at every level accountable for the
growth and development of people who report to them
• Using of a full range of rewards and consequences to
reinforce high-performance behavior
• Setting clear performance standards for all employees
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 3. Results oriented

High-performance cultures invest more time and

resources to ensure that employees who excel and
achieve performance targets are identified and
rewarded. Controls are put in place to collect, analyze,
and interpret employee performance data. Quantitative
measures of success are used to select and reward
employees who perform outstandingly.

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 4. Emphasis on achievement And
excellence
High-performance cultures create an atmosphere
where there is constructive pressure to be the
best. Management pursues practices and policies, and
invests necessary resources to inspire people to do
their best.

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 Weak Culture

A culture is weak when its beliefs, behavioral

rules, traditions, and rituals are not apparent to
its members or there is incongruence
(incompatibility) between stated values and
behavior. This can happen for a variety of reasons.
With no knowledge of what the organization
stands for or how things are actually done, weak
cultures work against the success of an
organization.

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 Characteristics of a weak culture

Weak cultures often produce low performance. Weak

cultures also have several unhealthy characteristics that
can serve as obstacles to an organization’s ability to
meet its goals and achieve success.

1. Narrow or Isolated Thinking

2. Resistance to Change
3. Political Internal Environment
4. Unhealthy Promotion Practices

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 1. Narrow or Isolated Thinking

This characteristic is evident when an organization

avoids looking outside itself for best practices and
approaches. People in these organizations believe they
have all the answers. It is this type of inward thinking
that can prevent an organization from making
necessary procedural and cultural changes.

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 2. Resistance to change

This characteristic is evident when an organization is

suddenly confronted with a rapidly changing
environment. The organization focuses on maintaining
the status quo, avoiding risk, and not making
mistakes. It is the leadership in the culture that allows
these factors to pervade and paralyze the organization
rather than focusing on innovation and success.

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 3. Political Internal Environment

In a politically charged culture, issues and problems

get resolved along the lines of power. Vocal support or
opposition, personal lobbying, and the formation of
coalitions interested in a particular outcome
suppresses change. This type of internal environment
produces low performance because it sacrifices what is
best for the organization for the particular desire/self-
interest of particular players.

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 4. Unhealthy Promotion Practices

This characteristic is evident when an organization

promotes a dedicated or long-time employee to
management who is hard-working and good at day-to-
day operations, but lacks leadership skills, vision, and
the ability to think strategically. This type of
promotion can create a vacuum regarding an
organization’s ability to develop a long-term vision,
build new competencies, and generate new strategies.

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Culture Strength (Video Sample)

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 Maintaining an Organizational
Structure
An organization's culture is made up of comparatively
stable characteristics. It grows over many years and is
rooted in intensely held values to which employees are
forcefully committed.
The culture has been maintained through Attraction-
Selection-Attrition (ASA), Employee on-boarding
(socialization), Leadership (Top management) , and
Organizational Reward systems. It determines what
types of people are hired by an organization and what
types of people are left out.

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Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA)

Attraction
Employees find culture attractive

Selection
Companies look for people who are fit in
their corporate culture

Attrition
Employee turnover

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 New Employee On-boarding
On-boarding pertains to the process through which new
employees learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and
behaviors required to function effectively within an
organization.
When the organizational employees socializing the new
people, inviting as a part of their family, they will feel
accepted by their peers and confident regarding their ability
to perform, and also they can share the assumptions,
norms, and values that are the part of the organization's
culture.
Example: Orientation Program for newly hired

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 Leadership

Leadership is significantly helpful in creating and

modifying the organization's culture. There is a direct
agreement between the leader's style and an
organization's culture. For example, when leaders
motivate and praise the employees in the firm by
their knowledge , skills, initiatives, the corporate
culture tends to be more supportive and people-
oriented.

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 Reward System
According to Thomas (1994) SMART presents criteria for building
effective reward systems

Specific. A line of sight should be maintained between rewards and

actions.
Meaningful. The achievements rewarded should provide an important
return on investment to both the performer and the organization.
Achievable. The employee's or group's goals should be within the
reach of the performers.
Reliable. The program should operate according to its principles and
purpose.
Timely. The recognition/rewards should be provided frequently
enough to make performers feel valued for their efforts.
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Maintaining an Organizational Culture
(Video Sample)

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 Changing an Organizational Culture

This is something every leader eventually faces.

“culture trumps vision”
Many leaders confuse culture with vision and strategy, but they
are very different. Vision and strategy usually focus on products,
services, and outcomes, but culture is about the people—the
most valuable asset in the organization. The way people are
treated, the way they treat their peers, and their response to
their leaders is the air people breathe. If that air is clean and
healthy, people thrive and the organization succeeds, but to the
extent that it is stagnant, discouraging, or genuinely toxic, energy
subsides, creativity lags, conflicts multiply, and production
declines.

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Leaders often wonder why they can’t get traction in making the
changes they know are necessary. They articulate a new vision.
They change a few policies. They might even replace a few key
people. But nothing substantive changes.

The problem is that culture is largely invisible to those inside of

it. It’s like water to a fish or air to a bird. It’s simply the
environment we live in.

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 Six steps you can take to change the
culture of your business
1. Become aware of the culture
2. Access your current culture
3. Envision a new culture
4. Share the vision with everyone
5. Get alignment from your leadership team
6. Model the culture you want to create
(Internal or External Culture)

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Changing an Organizational Culture
(Video Sample)

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 References

Grodnitzky, G. (2015). Culture: Weak vs. Strong. Retrieved from

http://drgustavo.com/culture-weak-vs-strong on September
22, 2015.
Primary Methods for maintaining organizational culture.
Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/primary-
methods-of-maintaining-organizational-culture-business-
essay.php on March 23, 2015
Hyatt, M. (n.d.). How Do You Change Organizational Culture?
Retrieved from https://michaelhyatt.com/changing-
organizational-culture/

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