UNDERSTANDING CULTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS.pptx

The lecture outlines the need to understand the culture of organizations. It identified 12 basic reasons for this understanding. Cultural impacts are potent and patterned; they have a “demand quality" to them; and they invite us to project our own assumptions if the data are not clear.

1. Understanding Culture of Organizations Jonathan Anaglo, PhD 1

2. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD There are three basic reasons why organizational culture must be better understood: Organizational cultures are highly “visible” and “feelable.” The phenomenon of culture is real and has impact, whether we are talking about a total society, an occupation, an organization, a group within an organization, or just a meeting. Any phenomenon so real should be better understood. 2

3. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 2. Individual and organizational performance, and the feelings that people in an organization have about that organization, cannot be understood unless one takes into account the organization’s culture. There are now many claims that organizational culture can determine the degree of effectiveness of the organization, either through its “strength” or through its "type" 3

4. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 3. Organizational culture as a concept has been misunderstood and confused with "other concepts, such as “climate,” “philosophy,” “ideology,” “style,” “how people are managed,” and the like. If we are to get any benefit from the concept, we must first build a common frame of reference for analyzing it and must use it in a theoretically appropriate manner. 4

5. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 4. It defines your company’s internal and external identity Your organizational culture will ring across all aspects of your business because it represents the  way  you do business. It’s simultaneously your identity and your image, which means it determines how your people and customers perceive you. 5

6. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 5. Organizational culture is about living your company’s core values Your culture can be a reflection (or a betrayal) of your company’s core values. How you conduct business, manage workflow, interact as a team, and treat your customers, all add up to an experience that should represent who you are as an organization and how you believe a company should be run. In short, your culture is the sum of your company’s beliefs in action. A strong organizational culture keeps your company’s core values front and center in all aspects of its day-to-day operations and organizational structure. 6

7. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 6. Your culture can transform employees into advocates (or critics) One of the greatest advantages of a strong organizational culture is that it has the power to turn employees into advocates. One way is to recognize good work. A culture that celebrates individual and team successes, that gives credit when credit is due, is a culture that offers a sense of accomplishment. And that’s one way to turn employees into advocates. 7

8. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 7. A strong organizational culture helps you keep your best people Unsurprisingly, employees who feel like they’re part of a community rather than a component in a wheel are more likely to stay at your company. In fact, that’s what most job applicants are looking for in a company. 8

9. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 7. A strong organizational culture helps you keep your best people Ask any top performer what keeps them at their company, and you’re bound to hear this answer: the people. It’s because a workplace culture focused on people has profound appeal. It helps improve engagement, deliver a unique employee experience, and makes your people feel more connected. One way to attract top performers who are natural culture champions is to hire for cultural fit. 9

10. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 8. Culture impacts performance and employee well-being Reports show that organizational culture directly impacts performance and, more importantly, your employee’s well-being . A healthy culture addresses both areas by finding an appropriate balance based on company values. 10

11. WHY CULTURE MUST BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD 8. Culture impacts performance and employee well-being Does your company stress performance so much that you feel like your physical and mental health are being overlooked? There  might  be instances when that may not be a problem, but for the vast majority of cases, it’ll have a negative effect on your company. 11

12. Visibility and Feelability of Culture Cultural impacts are potent and patterned; they have a “demand quality" to them; and they invite us to project our own assumptions if the data are not clear. Potency Patterning “ Demand ” Quality Over projection 12

13. Visibility and Feelability of Culture Cultural 13

14. Potency . (Effectiveness, powerful, influence) Anyone who has ever traveled knows how potent the impact of different cultures can be. We encounter a new language, strange customs, unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells, and unpredictable behavioral responses from “locals” that make it hard to relax. Typically, all our senses and sensibilities become involved immediately when we enter a new culture. 14

15. Potency . What we encounter are the culture’s "artifacts," its visible and feelable manifestations, and these have powerful impacts Though the effect is often less intense, the same range of sensory surprises is likely to occur when we move into an organization that has a culture different from the one to which are accustomed. 15

16. Potency . This phenomenon is fairly evident to people who move from one company to another, but is also often felt within a given company, when an individual moves from one functional department to another, or from one geographical region to another, suggesting that cultural phenomena even operate at a subgroup level within an organization. We speak of crossing organizational “boundaries” and of the need to be “socialized” into the new group. 16

17. Potency . As “consumers,” we often note these sensory differences when we compare stores, banks, airlines, or restaurants. Establishments look and feel different from one another, and the service people in different stores or restaurants behave differently toward us, sometimes in puzzling ways that strike us as rude, impersonal, or inconsiderate. 17

18. Potency . The rules by which things get duplicated in different organizations vary, often to our frustration because we cannot translate how to get what we want. At the Action Company, I learned that if I wanted to make a point, I had to fight for airtime; at Multi I learned that if I got the floor, it was hard to relinquish because people expected me to make some major points. 18

19. Potency . But what justifies calling such differences, however vivid and visible they may be, “cultural” phenomena? What makes us attribute such differences to anything more than the individual personalities we encounter? Why do we talk about the entire bank, or restaurant as being pleasant or unpleasant, rather than simply attributing such qualities to individual encounters with individual personalities? 19

20. Patterning Psychologically we experience such artifactual occurrences as something more than the effect of individual personalities because we observe that a number of people in the organization seem to behave in the same way, we observe that others in the setting treat the behavior as normal and expected, and we experience the behavior not as random or unmotivated but as purposive and patterned. 20

21. Patterning We sense that there is some meaning in what people are doing, that there is as purpose to it that others in the situation seem to understand even if we ourselves cannot interpret than purpose. 21

22. Patterning We tend to deal with this kind of situation by making attributions to the organization as a whole: “they” are cutting down on costs, “they” are trying to compete by giving better service, “they” are an organization in which it must be fun to work, or not fun to work, and so on. ( cultural patterns in Ghana) Furthermore, when we observe that the behavior of a number of people is coordinated into a larger pattern, that there is a consistency among a number of separate elements, we are led to generalizations about how formal or informal a given organization is, how autocratic, bureaucratic, or participative it is, or how open or closed it seems to be. 22

23. Patterning In any given restaurant or bank, the physical layout, the furniture, the attire and demeanor of the employees, the sound level, and dozens of other cues often reinforce each other, giving the impression of a pattern. e. g., Papaye, Absa. Such impressions of "patterning” are based on expectations derived from previous experiences with similar situations. 23

24. Patterning We can see the operation of this mechanism most clearly when we examine how we react no oddness. If we go to a restaurant and encounter, on the one hand, wooden plank tables and, on the other hand, waiters dressed in tuxedos (dinner jacket), we feel puzzled, possibly uncomfortable. If we notice that others in the setting seem to treat as normal the things that strike us as odd, we try to figure it out by looking for a higher-order pattern that would “explain” the incongruity. 24

25. Patterning Why do we look for such patterns? Why is it not enough simply to register what is out there? First of all , it is inherently anxiety provoking to deal with randomness or meaninglessness, because we cannot predict, and therefore prepare for, what may come next. If there is intrinsically no order in our perceptual world, or too little, or too much stimulation, we invent patterns or meaning even if we have to hallucinate (have illusions) them. 25

26. Patterning Second , we look for patterns in the collective behavior of others because we are acutely aware from observing ourselves how much of our own behavior is patterned, even though the patterns may be invisible to others. We try to present ourselves to others in a consistent and consistent fashion and to convey our own interpretation of the situation. 26

27. Patterning We naturally assume, therefore, even if we cannot decode the meaning initially, that others “know what they are doing and why they are doing it," or at least are acting out patterns that at one time had conscious meanings and intents, even if now they are just unconsciously motivated habits. Ghanaian in Togo If the behavior of others is ambiguous, we are still capable of attributing to them motives and meanings that make sense to us. 27

28. Patterning Experiments on attribution have shown that when we attempt to explain someone else’s behavior we are likely to see it as motivated and patterned, rather than situationally determined or “random” . When we explain our own behavior, on the other hand, we can see the situational forces that modify the basic motivational patterns, and thus can see more “randomness” in it. 28

29. Patterning It is probably harder to attribute such situational contingencies to others because we have a need to predict and control. We can do such predicting and controlling of our own situation because we know what is happening. If we try to predict and control others, we need to look for more patterned explanations. 29

30. Patterning Or, to put it another way, we can tolerate exceptions from predicted patterns in our own behavior because we know what the pattern is from which we are deviating. Knowledge of that pattern is what makes the exception definable and tolerable. 30

31. Patterning When we observe behavior in others and cannot decipher the pattern, we must first put our energy into seeking the pattern before we can even consider the situational exceptions to it. The tendency, then, is to project whatever patterns we have in our own culture as an initial hypothesis about what may be going on in the person from another culture. 31

32. Patterning To illustrate this point, I recall vividly my own first impressions of the intense debate and conflict in group meetings at the Action Company. I was puzzled, perplexed, and made anxious by this behavior because it seemed like open warfare among the individual members of the group; yet they apparently tolerated it, liked each other, and in other ways indicated that they considered the behavior normal and “OK.” 32

33. Patterning I initially attributed individualistic aggressiveness to their behavior because it was the pattern most similar from my own experience. Only when I noticed other behavior that was incongruous with such aggressiveness, such as the degree of affection among group members, was I alerted to the need to find other explanations for the pattern. 33

34. “ Demand ” Quality. experience a new cultural situation, a need to respond, react, “do the right thing” fit into the situation, remove the tension of uncertainty, etc. We find it difficult just to observe the situation Instead, we need to determine what is expected of us. Accra to Bolga 34

35. “ Demand ” Quality. When we experience a new cultural situation, we feel a need to respond, react, “do the right thing” fit into the situation, remove the tension of uncertainty, gain acceptance, establish communication, or the like. We find it difficult just to observe the situation and tolerate the feelings of alienation and tension that it may arouse. Instead, we need to determine what is expected of us. 35

36. “ Demand ” Quality. Such anxiety can turn into anger if we sense a pressure to conform without knowing how, or if we sense that conformity might undermine our own sense of identity. In other words, experiencing a new cultural situation is rarely an ordinary or neutral experience. 36

37. “ Demand ” Quality. If we understand and successfully cope, we feel very happy; if we do not understand, we feel at least some caution and a vague sense of danger because inaccurate decoding can offend others and lead to embarrassment for ourselves. 37

38. “ Demand ” Quality. The most emotional examples of misunderstanding and consequent embarrassment often revolve around basic human functions, such elimination, and around the rules of deference and demeanor in interpersonal situations. 38

39. “ Demand ” Quality. Case Study A friend related with humor and pain an incident in which a visitor from another country, unfamiliar with American family-style service, was passed the plate of cookies during morning coffee, said thank you, and proceeded with great effort to eat every single cookie on the plate. No one knew how to correct the situation without causing more embarrassment than was already present. 39

40. Over projection In a new cultural situation, we tend to attribute meaning and purpose to all aspects of the setting, possibly even exaggerating the degree to which the setting actually reflects clear intent on the part of other participants. To take a trivial but common example, American tourists in Paris often regard French waiters as “rude” because of their brusque behavior and their lack of helpfulness. Tips system in America is another example 40

41. Over projection Because waiters in the United States generally seem to be friendly and helpful, these tourists expect all waiters to behave similarly. When they do not, their behavior is interpreted as "rude.” Instead, according to French friends of mine, the pattern of doing a minimal amount is merely a reflection of a French cultural norm of “individualism” - take care of yourself and expect others to take care of themselves - a norm particularly likely to operate in the urban environment of Paris. 41

42. Over projection The behavior is, in fact, relatively unmotivated, but the American-attributing more to the behavior pattern than is actually there - interprets it as an intent to be rude or to put down the tourist. 42

43. Over projection At the Action Company, a comparable situation arises when a young manager is hired from an organization where people are more polite to each other than they are at Action. The newcomer may feel personally threatened by the harsh, aggressive, confrontive behavior of senior managers. Projecting aggression onto behavior that is thought of within Action as normal problem solving, the newcomer often reacts in a cautious, passive way. 43

44. Over projection And, of course, the more cautious the newcomer becomes, the more likely he is to fail to conform to the norms of the company. Socialization into the Action Company involves the discovery that one must stand up to confrontation and be able to hold one’s own at all times. Even feeling sorry for oneself is unacceptable and letting others see that one is sorry for oneself is at prescription for failure. 44

45. Over projection Because such additional projections often reflect our own prior cultural biases rather than the intentions of others, we should be very careful not to attribute too much to stimuli even though they may be very potent. Nor should we assume that, even if we knew the meaning, we would know what to attribute it to. 45

46. Over projection That is, for any given potent stimulus, we have no way of knowing initially whether we are dealing with ethnicity and nationality, the culture of an occupation such as one encounters when one deals with doctors or policemen the culture of an organization, some subcultural element within the organization reflecting common geography, common tasks, or other common elements that may have led to culture formation, or the idiosyncrasies of a given individual. 46

47. Thanks 47