Lecture 8: Organisation Culture and Change

Question 1

What are the three aspects of organisational culture

Answer 1

Observable artefacts

Exposed values

Assumptions

Question 2

What are the basic assumptions

Answer 2

• Taken for Granted Ways of Seeing the
  World
• Unspoken assumptions about how
  problems are to be solved, about the
  environment, about human activity
• ‘Non-debatable’ or “Truisms”
• Difficult to ‘pin down’
• E.g., Quality, Stability, Morality, Predictability, Innovativeness, Profitability, Customers, Employees

Question 3

What are values?

Answer 3

• Accumulated beliefs and norms
  about how work should be done, how things ‘ought’ to be done,
  how people ‘ought’ to behave, how others ought to be treated.
• E.g., Honesty, citizenship, hard
  work, obedience, loyalty, collegiality

Question 4

What is culture transmission?

Answer 4

Socialization
* Learning organisations values, norms, ways of
behaving
* Induction & Training
* Rituals and Ceremonies
* Reward and control systems
* Stories
* Role modelling

Question 5

What is classifying culture?

Answer 5

Innovation and risk-taking
Attention to detail
Outcome
People
Team orientation
Aggressiveness
Stability

Question 6

What is Handy’s (Harrison’s) Cultures?

Answer 6

• Power culture
• Role Culture
• Task Culture
• Person Culture

Question 7

What is power culture?

Answer 7

• Very centralised power cluster with high control

Question 8

What is role culture?

Answer 8

Bureaucratic, hierarchical, rule driven, procedural, predictable. people stick rigidly to job description

Question 9

What is task culture?

Answer 9

Focus on getting job
done rather than
prescribed way of doing
things, organic, flexible,
creativity, contribution
over formal authority

Question 10

What is Person culture

Answer 10

Focus on individual’s
desires and goals,
minimal structure

Question 11

What are the different cultures?

Answer 11

• Dominant cultures
• Subcultures
• Counter-cultures

Question 12

What are the advantages of a strong culture?

Answer 12

• Unites and motivates staff
• Increases internal integration (working
  together)

Kotter & Heskett (1992) survey of 207 firms
* Cultural strength had moderate correlations with economic success
* Stronger correlations in stable environments (contingency effects)

Question 13

What are the disadvantages of a culture?

Answer 13

• Conformist attitudes – insularity, less diversity
• Slow to change, less innovative
• Fail to challenge ‘orthodoxy’
• Especially problematic if unethical cultures develop, e.g., GFC – investment banking

Question 14

What is culture important?

Answer 14

• Provides insight into organisation – how
  things are done and why
• Person-organisation fit (selection, stress/motivation)
• Performance
• Peters and Waterman (1982)/Deal and
  Kennedy (1982) suggest that culture is central to organisational success
• Hansen and Wernerfelt (1989) argue
  culture is more important in driving
  profit that economic factors
• Must understand culture if you want to
  introduce change in your organisation

Question 15

What is organisational change?

Answer 15

Change is ever present in organisations
and seems to be increasing

Managers list their ability (or inability)
to manage change as number one
obstacle to increased competitiveness
of their organisation (Hanson, 1993)

Question 16

What are the differences between soft and hard changes?

Answer 16

Soft:
- Culture
- Leadership style
- interpersonal behaviour
- Team orientation
- Knowledge and skills

Hard:
- Strategy
- Structure
- Technology
- Processes
- Physical location

Question 17

What is the difference between episodic and continuous change?

Answer 17

Episodic:
* Tends to be infrequent,
discontinuous and
intentional
* Often precipitated by
severe external
challenges or by
changes in key
personnel who wish to
make their mark

Continuous:
* Developmental, ongoing, incremental and partly unplanned
* Approach is processual, based on assumption that small incremental changes will cumulatively add up to
substantial change

Question 18

What is the difference between transformational and incremental change?

Answer 18

Transformational
* Intended to have a
radical impact on the
organisations
strategies, structures,
people, processes or
values

Incremental:
* Concerned with improving efficiency or effectiveness but within the existing framework or strategy and organising

Question 19

Why is culture not always successful?

Answer 19

Most organisational scholars conclude that
managers are good at managing the technical
aspects of change but poor at managing the
people aspects.
- Culture
- Psychological reactions