Organisation Culture - Links & Articles

Organizational Culture is a pdf version of some instructor's notes based on a chapter in Principles of Organizational Behaviour by Robin Fincham & Peter Rhodes.

'Doing' Organizational Culture in the Saturn Corporation by Terry Mills, Craig Boylstein and Sandra Lorean is an extensive account of the organisation's culture, focusing on how story telling is crucial to the creation and maintenance of culture.

Systematically Describing An Organization's Culture: A Case Study Of The Pima County Arizona, Pretrial  Services Agency by Neil Vance explores the use of Ed Schein's approach to culture.

'Measuring' Culture [Return]

Anyone who has read my "Describing Culture" will know that I am very sceptical about the notion of measuring culture. However, many people do it and presumably find it helpful so I include the following links:

An Organizational Culture Assessment Using the Competing Values Framework: A Profile of Ohio State University Extension by Angel Berrio uses the popular competing values framework to discover that Ohio State, in common with two-thirds of US educational establishments, has a 'Clan' culture. The value of this finding is not discussed.

Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases by Geert Hofstede et al 1990, looks at a 20 cultures in organisations across Denmark and the Netherlands. They found that differences could be rated by variances on six independent dimensions: process-oriented vs. results-oriented; employee-oriented vs. job-oriented; parochial vs. professional; open system vs. closed system; loose vs. tight control; normative vs. pragmatic.

My own Organisational Culture Check List takes an anthropological perspective and may be helpful if you are wondering where to look for clues to make sense of an organisation's culture.

Culture & Teams [Return]

Teams are an essential part of modern organisational life. Their impact on organisational culture has been much debated.

A Cultural Shift Helps SoC Teams Work Together by Luke Collins looks at the impact of culture on changing working practices in the electronics industry.

Aligning Organizational Culture Through Team Learning by Alan Slobodnik & Kristina Wile is a slide presentation, with lots of systems diagram, is basically an advert for an approach to facilitating self-managed teams.

Effective Cross-Cultural Teams: An Examination of Three Manufacturing Firms in Australia and New Zealand by David Thomas & Elizabeth Ravlin explores the effect of different cultures of orientation on the operation of teams.

Metaphors and Meaning: An Intercultural Analysis of the Concept of Teamwork by Cristina Gibson & Mary Zellmer-Bruhn looks at different understandings of the notion of teamwork across different national and organisational cultures.

Culture & Performance [Return]

An Exploration of Industry, Culture and Revenue Growth by Edward Christensen and George Gordon also looks at the relationship between culture and performance. Their approach is heavily influenced by Geert Hofstede (see below).

Corporate Culture: The Key to Safety Performance by Judith Erickson. The author's PhD dissertation research, upon which this article is based, was a synthesis of corporate culture (primarily Edgar Schein), organizational behaviour, and safety management literatures.  The most salient finding: The way in which employees are treated is the most predictive factor of the level of safety performance (p<.01)."  Like me, Judith is sceptical of the notion of 'safety culture'. My own experience of consulting in hazardous industries suggests that a 'safety culture' can lead to a general sense of risk-aversion which can hinder innovation and strategic thinking.

The Strength of Corporate Culture and the Reliability of Firm Performance by Jesper B.Sorensen explores the notion, put forth by the McKinsey theorists (Deal and Kennedy; Peters and Waterman) that 'strength' of culture is important in business performance.

Culture and Mergers & Acquisitions [Return]

Mergers and acquisitions are usually made for reasons of 'synergy'. In practice they stand or fall on two key issues: culture and power. If half the resources which were devoted to redesigning organisational structures were put into an appreciative exploration of the strengths of the two cultures there would be a lot more success in these ventures.

A Brand-New Culture for the Merged Firm by Kenneth Smith looks at the possibility of 'discarding' the cultures of the constituent parts of the merged organisation and creating a new culture together. He looks at three components of organisational culture: values, work rituals and leadership. He argues that the best approach is "to define which culture and leadership capabilities are required to be successful in the restructuring industry and then to plan and manage the selection and development of leaders to arrive ultimately at the intended culture."

Hidden Sore Points That Can Thwart a Culture Match by Paula Love and Steve Gibson looks at some of the cultural issues which can arise when two organisations come together.

Culture and Equality Issues [Return]

Cracks in the Glass Ceiling: Dealing With Sex Discrimination in Corporate Culture by Charlene Marmer Solomon looks at the ways in which corporate cultures need to change if they are to keep the most talented of their female employees.

Issues of Culture and Oppression in Organizations by Sharon Kaiser takes a searching look at the politics of organisational culture, exploring how culture can oppress and suppress minority workers.

Perceptions of Organizational Culture and Women's Advancement in Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Examination by Linda Bajdo and Marcus Dickson offers some reflections on the role of 'male-dominated' cultures and the existence of the so-called glass ceiling.

Towards an Inclusive Organizational Culture by Anne Buchanan assumes that organisational culture can be made more inclusive by examining specific policies and practices. This may be effective but will also experience painful failure if there are more deep-seated patterns of meaning and value.

Women in a Male-dominated Industry: Factor Analysis of a Women Workplace Culture Questionnaire Based on a Grounded Theory Model by Bodil Bergman and Lillemor Hallberg accepts that most culture questionnaires are male-oriented and develops an instrument suitable for measuring women's perceptions of corporate culture.

Culture Theory [Return]

Cultural Theory and Organizations: Analytical Method and Cases by Yochanan Altman and Yehuda Baruch uses an anthropological approach (Mary Douglas' Grid and Group theory as outlined in Natural Symbols) to try to understand some of the issues in organisational culture.

Masking the Need for Cultural Change: the Effects of Emotion Structuration by Jamie L. Callahan looks at the importance of addressing the issues of emotion in organisational life.

Symbols in Organizational Culture by Anat Rafaeli and Monica Worline explores the importance of symbols in organisational life. "We refer to symbols as visible, physical manifestations of organizations and indicators of organizational life." They argue that symbols both reflect organisational culture and trigger internalised values and norms. They also provide a frame for conversations about experience as well as integrators of organisational systems of meaning.

The Use of Organizational Culture and Structure to Guide Strategic Behavior:  An Information Processing Perspective by John O'Neill, Laura Beauvais & Richard Scholl, "presents a descriptive model explaining the roles and relationships of organizational culture and organizational structure in guiding employee behavior toward strategic objectives.  Using an information-processing view, we propose that organizational culture and structure direct the behavior of employees through the reduction of uncertainty and equivocality.  Furthermore, we propose that differing levels of both cultural and structural influences are implemented in different organizational types based on the level of skill, originality, and training required of the tasks being performed by members of the organization, and based on the geographical dispersion of the employees themselves.  We present the concept of the “cosmopolis,” which is an organization rich in both cultural and structural elements.  Implications for both research and managerial practice are discussed."

An Empirical Investigation Into the Impact of Organizational Culture and Marketing Strategy on Firm Performance by Thomas baker & Jon Hawes, "presents a conceptual discussion of the fit between organizational culture and marketing strategy and a study undertaken to determine the type of culture and strategy which should befit together in order to achieve optimal organizational performance."

The Integration of Internal Marketing Into the Organizational Culture of Service Firms by Tracy Suter notes that, "The purpose of this paper is to show how internal marketing can impact the culture of an organization. The role of internal marketing is to develop an organizational culture based on quality customer service at every level of the organization."

Reinventing Organizational Culture Across International Boundaries by Wellford Wilms, Deone Zell & Dennis Cuneo looks at a successful joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.