Chapter 5 Cultural Approaches Flashcards
What is Culture?
a complicated patchwork of values, symbols, and behaviors that define “America” in various ways for various people.
What are the artifacts and qualities of a culture?
Values
Practices and behaviors
Symbols
Rites and rituals
Is culture what an organization has, or is?
Culture is the assumptions, values, behaviors, and artifacts that an organization exhibits as it attempts to adapt to internal and external organizational contingencies
What makes culture a useful metaphor?
It simply made sense to see organizations as complex arenas of stories and values rather than as entirely rational institutions. Cultural metaphor also opened up new and fruitful areas of research.
Organizations with the components of “strong cultures” improve performance and are better places to work. The components are:
Values and beliefs: Stability, innovation, growth, flexibility, social responsibilities, safety, etc.
Heroes: Which members do the organization hold up as models?
Rites and rituals: Ceremonies, rewards, awards, promotions, etc.
Cultural network: Communication system for cultural values
Culture as Something an Organization Has
Studied “themes” of “excellent cultures”
E.g. quick action, customer focused, innovation, personal relationships, etc.
These books are popular, but not generally accepted academically
They prescribe, not explore, describe, or explain
There is no single “formula” for cultural success
They objectify culture (something an organization has)
Culture as Something an Organization IS
Each culture is as unique as each individual
Unique practices, values, stories, artifacts
Unlike other cultural approaches, this approach sees culture as:
More complex, something that evolves over time, not a single “thing,” and very ambiguous
Culture - Complicated
more than the obvious;
Small talk, communication rules, stories
Culture - Emergent
socially created over time;
Communication isn’t the medium of culture, it is the culture (transactional, continuous, contextual, improvised, episodic)
Culture - Multiple
no “one” culture in an organization;
Multiple subcultures
Culture - Ambiguous
difficult to clearly interpret; Rapid change (people too), organizational threats and opportunities, new technologies complicate culture even more
Schein’s “Culture”
“… basic shared assumptions that a group learned as it solved problems”
Only groups have culture
We are always seeking patterns of behavior
Cultural patterns become relatively enduring and resistant to change
Emergent process: culture changes as problems change and processes change (cell phone, Internet, etc.)
Culture is a socializing force
Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture; Level 1
behaviors and artifacts: physical and social environment organizational members create
Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture; Level 2
Espoused values: individual and group preferences (what we say “should” happen, what is “supposed” to be right, normal, etc.)
Only individuals have values, not organizations
Not all values have equal weight (depends on the “who”)
Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture; Level 3
basic assumptions: taken granted assumptions about how things work
Relationships, time, space, truth, etc.
Taken for granted due to reinforcement over time
“We’ve always done it this way”
We rarely talk or even think about these
Level 3 causes Level 2 causes Level 1
