Lecture 6 slides Flashcards
(22 cards)
Organizational culture
The accumulated shared learning of a group as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration;
which has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, feel, and behave in relation to those problems. This accumulated learning is a pattern or system of beliefs, values, behavioral norms that come to be taken for granted
as basic assumptions and eventually drop out of awareness.
Core characteristics of a culture
- stability: culture defines the group, it is a stabilizing force
- depth: culture is unconscious, taken-for-granted truths
- breadth: culture covers all aspects of an organization
- patterning/integration, culture ties, rituals, values and behaviours together
Phases of group development
- forming (orientation phase): come together to fulfill a task/reach a goal. focus on the self: inclusion, influence, acceptance and identity
- storming (power or conflict phase): people in the group test each other, who has influence, emotional about tasks and ways of working. Resistance against group identity, conflicts arise and are resolved
- norming (affection phase): cohesion increases, differences between group members are understood, accepted and valued. Roles and norms are determined, shared mental models are developed, task conflicts are avoided. Focus is on interpersonal relations and task activity in the group.
- performing: functional personal relations exist, effective work process and optimal use of the various resources each brings to the group
What is the influence of a founder/leader?
- having a vision/choose a mission which gives direction
- select group members-> choose people who share vision
- give initial answers/solutions to questions about how to work together and to engage with the environment, based on their own assumptions, values and beliefs.
- if these answers work then culture develops
When are founders most influential?
- in new groups
- when there is uncertainty
- later leaders influence the changes that are made, which is dependent on how or by whom and why they got selected
What are the two main problems of org culture?
- external adaptation is in order to survive
- internal integration is in order to be able to adapt and ensure survival potential
Basic assumptions of external adaptation
Mission (stakeholders’ interests, finding the right balance, manifest vs latent functions, identity and strategy)
Goals (make mission concrete, basis for allocating resources, determine short-term survival tactics)
Means (how to achieve mission and reach goals, hard to change, consensus leads to stability but danger of choosing the familiar)
Measurement (what, when how, what to do when corrections are needed, informal/formal reporting, which criteria to use)
Correction and repair (how to gather and distribute info, how to respond to it, cutting losses is difficult as reactions to crises demonstrate deepest culture aspects, and reaction strategy when something goes unexpectedly well)
What does external adaptation deal with?
- what needs to happen in which way
- to what extent and how do we change if the environment changes
- how to ensure that we adapt in time to survive as an organization
- focuses on tasks and activities
Internal integration basic assumptions
Common language and categories of thought (semantic, qualitative, connotative, meanings, with interpretations of events)
Identity and boundaries (how are ingroups determined)
Power, authority and status (managing aggression and mastery needs, face, psychological safety)
Trust and openness, code of conduct (before and during task execution, level of interdependence, macro-cultural differences)
Rewards and punishments (old employees socialize younger ones, crediting vs blaming, perception of rewards + punishments)
Explain the unexplainable (social consensus on which things work, myths and prejudice, stories)
What does internal adaptation deal with?
- deals with intragroup issues and interpersonal relations
- collaboration with each other
- how to treat each other
- depending on the situation, focus will be more on external adaptation or on internal integration
What are embedding mechanisms?
- primary embedding mechanisms: shape culture, tools for leaders, work simultaneously, not sequentially
- secondary embedding mechanisms: must be consistent with primary ones, reinforce and stabilize cultures of what is informally learned, or may be obstacles for change for leaders or a source of internal conflict
Primary embedding mechanisms tools
- systematic attention (consistency, not intensity, emotions)
- handling of incidents/crises
- allocation of resources (who determines targets, part of available resources or borrowing)
- modeling and active coaching
- remuneration and rewards allocation
- selection, recruitment, promotion, excommunication system
Second embedding mechanisms, the indirect tools
- Organizational design and structure
- Systems and procedures
- Ceremonies and rituals
- Physical environment
- Stories and legends
- Formal philosophy, published vision, mission and values
Types of organizational structures
- formal structure: the official, explicit division of responsibilities, definitions of how work is to be done and defined among organizational members
- informal structure: the unofficial divisions, definitions and relations that emerge over time in an organization
Organizational structure timeline
19th century: craft form
End 19th century: industrial revolution
20th century: rational economic view: workers are lazy, people are motivate by money
Taylorism/scientific management
Managerial theory ( divisionalization principle, scalar principle, exception principle)
Weber’s ideal bureaucracy: division of labour, hierarchy of authority, written rules/documents, separation home and office, appointment on qualifications
1920-30: hawthorne studies
Halfway 20th century: contingency theory
End 20th century: holacracy
Classical organization theories
- One best design universally applicable
- Prescriptive, from practice
- Workers ignored/neglected
Technology types
- Small-batch, large-batch, process
- Thompson’s interdependencies (bundled, sequential, reciprocal)
- Perrow’s uncertainties of input & means-ends relations
3 dimensions of formal structure
Complexity: horizontal is specialization, vertical is hierarchy, spatial is physical locations
Formalization: codification vs compliance, professionalization
Centralization: power or strategic decision-making authority
Thompson’s interdependence typology
- Pooled; sharing resources → mediating technology
- Sequential; building on to each other’s work in a logical order → long linked
technology - Reciprocal; mutually build on each other’s work in and not-standardizable way→ intensive technology
- in line with close system approach, every type of tech is reflected in the formal organizational structure
Perrow’s dimensions of technological uncertainty (level of predictability)
This determines formal organizational structure. Routineness is high interdependence and low uncertainty. High variability of input + no knowledge of means end relations= high uncertainty
High variability of input + sound knowledge of means-end relations= moderate uncertainty
Low variability of input and no knowledge of means-end relations= moderate uncertainty
Low variability of input and sound knowledge of means-end relations= low uncertainty
Contingency factors closed system approach
- Size
- Technology (=internal processes that jointly create the product or science)
-> Small-batch, large batch, continuous
-> Level and type of interdependence: pooled, sequential, reciprocal
-> Level and type of technological uncertainty (Perrow, 1967) - Internal or organizational culture
Contingency factors open system approach
- social pressure from the environment (institutional theory-> formal structures can get halo, external demands and environmental issues)
- national culture (and industry/professional culture)
