组织行为学精要第7版chap164521.pdf

Chapter 16 Organization Culture 195 CHAPTER 16-ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE CHAPTER OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter,students should be able to:1.Define the common characteristics making up organizational culture.2.Contrast strong and weak cultures.3.Identify the functional and dysfunctional effects of organizational culture on people.4.List the factors that maintain an organizations culture.5.Clarify how culture is transmitted to employees.6.Describe spirituality and characteristics of a spiritual culture.7.Contrast organizational culture with national culture.8.Explain the paradox of diversity.LECTURE OUTLINE I.DEFINING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE A.Organizational Culture 1.Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations.2.This system of shared meaning is,on closer examination,a set of key characteristics that the organization values.3.Seven primary characteristics are:a)Innovation and risk taking.The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks.b)Attention to detail.The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision,analysis,and attention to detail.c)Outcome orientation.The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve those outcomes.d)People orientation.The degree to which management decisions take into considera-tion the effect of outcomes on people within the organization.e)Team orientation.The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals.f)Aggressiveness.The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easy going.g)Stability.The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.4.Each of these characteristics exists on a continuum from low to high.5.Appraising the organization on these seven characteristics,gives a composite picture of the organizations culture.a)Exhibit 16-1 demonstrates how these characteristics can be mixed to create highly diverse organizations.B.Culture Is a Descriptive Term 1.Organizational culture is concerned with how employees perceive the seven char-acteristics,not whether they like them.2.This point differentiates the concept of organizational culture from that of job satisfaction.3.Research on organizational culture has sought to measure how employees see their organization.Research on job satisfaction seeks to measure affective responses to the work environment.It is concerned with how employees feel about the organizations expectations,reward practices,methods for handling conflict,and the like.4.Organizational culture is descriptive,whereas job satisfaction is evaluative.Part IV The Organization System 196 C.Do Organizations Have Uniform Cultures?1.Organizational culture represents a common perception held by the organizations members.2.There can be subcultures within any given culture.3.Most large organizations have a dominant culture and numerous sets of subcultures.a)A dominant culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organizations members.(1)It is this macro view of culture that gives an organization its distinct personality.b)Subcultures tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems,situations,or experiences that members face.(1)These subcultures are likely to be defined by department designations and geographical separation.4.If organizations had no dominant culture and were composed only of numerous subcultures,the value of organizational culture as an independent variable would be significantly lessened.D.Strong Vs.Weak Cultures 1.It has become increasingly popular to differentiate between strong and weak cultures.2.The argument is that strong cultures have a greater impact on employee behavior and are more directly related to reduced turnover.3.A strong culture is characterized by the organizations core values being both intensely held and widely shared.a)The more members who accept the core values and the greater their commitment to those values,the stronger the culture is.b)A strong culture will have a greater influence on the behavior.4.One specific result of a strong culture should be low employee turnover.a)A strong culture demonstrates high agreement among members about what the or-ganization stands for.II.WHAT DOES CULTURE DO?A.Cultures Functions 1.It has a boundary-defining role;that is,it creates distinctions between one organization and others.2.It conveys a sense of identity for organization members.3.Culture facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than ones individual self-interest.4.It enhances social system stability.5.Culture is the social glue that helps hold the organization together by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say and do.6.Finally,culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behavior of employees.a)Culture defines the rules of the game.7.Who is offered a job,who is appraised as a high performer,and who gets a promotion are strongly influenced by the individual-organization fit,that is,whether the applicants or employees attitudes and behavior are compatible with the culture.B.Culture as a Liability 1.Culture enhances organizational commitment and increases the consistency of employee behavior.2.From an employees standpoint,culture is valuable because it reduces ambiguity.Chapter 16 Organization Culture 197 3.Culture is a liability when the shared values do not agree with those that will further the organizations effectiveness.a)This is most likely to occur when the organizations environment is dynamic.b)When the environment is undergoing rapid change,the organizations entrenched culture may no longer be appropriate.c)Consistency of behavior is an asset to an organization in a stable environment.III.CREATING AND SUSTAINING CULTURE A.How a Culture Begins 1.An organizations current customs,traditions,and general way of doing things are largely due to what it has done before and the degree of success it had with those endeavors.a)The ultimate source of an organizations culture is its founders.2.The founders of an organization.a)They have a vision of what the organization should be.b)They are unconstrained by previous customs for doing things or ideologies.c)The small size of any new organization further facilitates the founders imposition of their vision on all organizational members.d)The organizations culture results from the interaction between the founders biases and assumptions and what the original members learn subsequently from their own experiences.3.Microsofts culture is largely a reflection of co-founder and current CEO,Bill Gates.a)Gates himself is aggressive,competitive,and highly disciplined.b)Those are the same adjectives often used to describe the software giant he heads.4.Other contemporary examplesAkio Morita at Sony,Fred Smith at Federal Express,Mary Kay at Mary Kay Cosmetics,and Richard Branson at the Virgin Group.B.Keeping a Culture Alive 1.Once a culture is in place,practices within the organization act to maintain it by exposing employees to a set of similar experiences.a)An organizations human resource practices reinforce its culture.2.Three forces play a particularly important part in sustaining a cultureselection practices,the actions of top management,and socialization methods.3.Selection a)The explicit goal of the selection process is to identify and hire individuals who have the knowledge,skills,and abilities to perform the jobs within the organization successfully.b)With multiple candidates,the final decision about who is hired will be significantly influenced by the decision makers judgment of how well the candidates will fit into the organization.c)This results in the hiring of people who have common values.d)The selection process also gives applicants information about the organization.e)Candidates who perceive a conflict between their values and those of the organization can self-select themselves out of the applicant pool.f)ExampleW.R.Gore&Association,maker of Gore-Tex fabric.4.Top Management a)The actions of top management have a major impact on an organizations culture.b)What they say and how they behave establish norms that filter down through the organization.c)ExampleXerox Corp.chief executive from 1961 to 1968,Joseph C.Wilson.Part IV The Organization System 198(1)An aggressive,entrepreneurial type,he oversaw Xeroxs staggering growth on the basis of its 914 copier,one of the most successful products in American history.(2)Wilsons replacement as CEO was C.Peter McColough,a Harvard MBA with a formal management style.(a)He instituted bureaucratic controls and a major change in Xeroxs culture.(3)By the time McColough stepped down in 1982,Xerox had become stodgy and formal,with lots of politics and turf battles and layers of watchdog managers.(4)His replacement was David T.Kearns,who believed that the culture he had inherited hindered Xeroxs ability to compete.(a)He trimmed Xerox down by cutting 15,000 jobs,delegated decision making downward,refocused the organizations culture,and so on.(5)The current CEO,Paul Aliaire,has again sought to reshape Xeroxs culture.(a)He has reorganized the corporation around a worldwide marketing department,has unified product development and manufacturing divisions,and has replaced half of the companys top management team with outsiders.5.Socialization a)No matter how good a job the organization does in recruiting and selection,new employees are not fully indoctrinated in the organizations culture.b)New employees are potentially the most likely to disturb the beliefs and customs that are in place.c)The organization will,therefore,want to help new employees adapt to its culture.This adaptation process is called socialization.d)ExampleMarine boot camp.e)The most critical socialization stage is at the time of entry into the organization.(1)Employees who fail to learn the essential or pivotal role behaviors risk being labeled nonconformists or rebels and,ultimately,being expelled.6.Socializations three stagespre-arrival,encounter,and metamorphosis.a)The first stage encompasses all the learning that occurs before a new member joins the organization.b)In the second stage,the new employee sees what the organization is really like and confronts the likelihood that expectations and reality may diverge.c)In the third stage,the relatively long-lasting changes take place.The new employee masters the skills required for his or her job,successfully performs his or her new roles,and makes the adjustments to his or her work groups values and norms.7.Exhibit 16-2 depicts this process.a)The pre-arrival stage occurs before the employee joins the organization;he or she arrives with an established set of values,attitudes,and expectations.(1)These cover both the work to be done and the organization from prior socialization in training and in school.(2)The selection process is part of pre-arrival,organizations use it to inform prospective employees about the organization as a whole and to ensure the inclusion of the right type.b)Entry into the organization begins the encounter stage.(1)Now the individuals confront the possible dichotomy between their expectationsabout their job,co-workers,boss,and the organization in general and reality.(2)If expectations were accurate,the encounter stage is a reaffirmation.(3)Often this is not the case.Where expectations and reality differ,new employees must undergo socialization that will detach them from previous assumptions and replace them with an“acceptable”set.Chapter 16 Organization Culture 199(4)At the extreme,new members may become totally disillusioned with the actualities of their job and resign.c)New members must work out any problems discovered during the encounter stage.They may have to go through changes,or the metamorphosis stage.(1)Exhibit 16-3 presents an organizations socialization options for fostering metamorphosis.(2)Metamorphosis and the entry socialization process are complete when new members have become comfortable with the organization and their job.(3)They have internalized the norms of the organization and their work group,and they understand and accept those norms.(4)New members feel accepted by their peers as trusted and valued individuals.(5)Exhibit 162 shows,successful metamorphosis should have a positive impact on the new employees productivity and their commitment to the organization and reduce their propensity to leave the organization.C.Summary:How Cultures Form 1.Exhibit 16-4 summarizes how an organizations culture is established and sustained.a)The original culture is derived from the founders philosophy.b)This strongly influences the criteria used in hiring.c)The actions of the current top management set the general climate of what is acceptable behavior and what is not.d)Employee socialization depends on the degree of success achieved in matching new employees values to those of the organization in the selection process and top managements preference for socialization methods.IV.HOW EMPLOYEES LEARN CULTURE A.Stories 1.ExampleHenry Ford II was chairman of the Ford Motor Co.remember“Its my name thats on the building.”?The message was clear:Henry Ford II ran the company.2.ExampleNordstrom refunding a customers money for tires,a product the story didnt sell because,“but we do whatever we need to do to make the customer happy.I mean it when I say we have a no-questions-asked return policy.”Nordstrom then picked up the telephone and called a friend in the auto parts business to see how much he could get for the tires.3.Stories such as these contain a narrative of events about the organizations founders,rule breaking,rags-to-riches successes,reductions in the workforce,relocation of employees,reactions to past mistakes,and organizational coping.These stories anchor the present in the past and provide explanations and legitimacy for current practices.B.Rituals 1.Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization,what goals are most important,which people are important and which are expendable.2.Examplecollege faculty 3.ExampleMary Kay Cosmetics annual award meeting.a)A cross between a circus and a Miss America pageant,the meeting takes place over a couple of days in a large auditorium,on a stage in front of a large,cheering audience,with all the participants dressed in glamorous evening clothes.b)Saleswomen are rewarded with an array of flashy gifts-gold and diamond pins,fur stoles,and pink Cadillacs-based on their success in achieving sales quotas.Part IV The Organization System 200 c)This“show”acts as a motivator by publicly recognizing outstanding sales performance.d)The ritual aspect reinforces Mary Kays personal determination and optimism.e)It conveys to her salespeople that reaching their sales quota is important and that thro