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Organisation Culture - Links &Articles

For a New Paradigm approach to understanding and working withculture, Richard Seel's Culture and Complexityand DescribingCulture are a good starting place. Culture change is a difficult andsubtle thing to achieve and we have a number of innovativeapproaches which can help organisations who want to change.

There is a huge amount of material about organisational culture

available on the internet. We've tried to offer a guide to some of itbelow, focusing on breadth of issues and trying to offer a smallsample of what is available under different topic headings.

Introduction to CultureChanging Culture Case Studies Measuring Culture Culture & Teams Culture & Performance Culture and Mergers & Acquisition

Culture & Equality Culture TheoryCulture & Marketing Culture and the Individual International Culture Culture & History Related Topics

Select Bibliography

Introduction to Culture [Return]

Organizational Culture is a pdf version of some instructor's notesbased on a chapter in Principles of Organizational Behaviour byRobin Fincham & Peter Rhodes.

What is This Thing Called Organisational Culture? can be foundon the Business Open Learning Archive site. It's a very simpleintroduction to conventional thinking about culture with a few


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notes on some of the different models of culture which have beenproposed. It was designed for viewing at 800x600 and is a bitmessy at higher resolution.

Organizational Culture by Carter McNamara is another simple

introduction introduction, with a selection of further links.Thereare also some links to discussion groups which may include cultureas a topic.

Organizational Culture and Leadership has been written by TedNellen and is based on Edgar Schein's book of the same name.Schein is one of the most influential writers on culture. He setsgreat store on the influence of the founder of an organisation onits culture and his ideas are explored in a number of booksand articles.

Organizational Culture: A Web Walk was written by Valda Svedeand Mariella Petriglia as a Masters assignment. Focused aroundeducation it offers a basic approach to some issues of culture.

Changing Culture [Return]

Changing culture is a controversial area. Many consultants andacademics will offer neat prescriptive packages based on simplemodels of culture. My own belief is that these are rarely effective,though they are easy to sell to clients. Some perspectives can befound on the internet.

The Culture Change Planner by Judd Norman offers a four-phaseapproach to culture change:

"Anyone working to bring about lasting culture changewill attest to the enormity of the task. Without aframework, culture change appears hopelessly complex.The four-phase Normative Systems Culture ChangeProcess was developed in order to organize such effortsinto meaningful steps.

"Changing culture in many ways parallels farming. The

first phase, Analysis and Objective Setting, is dedicatedto analyzing and preparing the soil. Phase II, SystemsIntroduction, plants the seed of change. The third phase,Systems Integration, is the cultural equivalent of addingfertilizer and water so that the plant takes root andflourishes. And the fourth phase, Evaluation, Renewaland Extension, is similar to harvesting the crop andgathering new seed for the next planting."


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Five Ways to Develop your Corporate Culture by NaomiMoneypenny offers 'Start Small, Act Big', 'Build Trust', 'EngenderCollaboration', 'Inspire Creativity' and 'Inspire Action' as five waysto develop culture.

Downsizing And Organizational Culture by Thomas Hickok arguesthat, ultimately, the most prominent effects of downsizing will bein relation to culture change, not in relation to saved costs orshort-term productivity gains.

Case Studies [Return]

CorporateCulture:MRGAdoptsBiggerFirms'SynergisticPrecepts looks at the cultureof the Metromedia Restaurant Group and how its founder, Michael

Kaufman, took ideas from a number of larger organisations andmoulded MRG and came up with nine core values.

Cultural Change in thePittsburgh Symphony Organization: A

Roundtable Discussion gives an account of the experience of going

through a process of cultural change in the orchestra, who used the

Japanese Hoshin approach to help with much needed change.

Defining the Organizational Culture of the Fairborn FireDepartment by David Harlow asks three questions:

What are the strengths and weaknesses within the Fairborn Fire

Department that have the greatest impact on its presentorganizational culture?What are the elements of the organizational culture within theFairborn Fire Department?

How can the organizational culture be defined?

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

Systematically Describing An Organization's Culture: A Case StudyOf The Pima County Arizona, Pretrial Services Agency by NeilVance 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


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very sceptical about the notion of measuring culture. However,many people do it and presumably find it helpful so I include thefollowing links:

An Organizational Culture Assessment Using the Competing Values

Framework: A Profile of Ohio State University Extension by AngelBerrio uses the popular competing values framework to discoverthat Ohio State, in common with two-thirds of US educationalestablishments, has a 'Clan' culture. The value of this finding is notdiscussed.

Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitativestudy across twenty cases by Geert Hofstede et al 1990, looks at a20 culutres in orgabnisations across Denmark and the Netherlands.They found that differences could be rated by variances on sixindependent dimensions: process-oriented vs. results-oriented;

employee-oriented vs. job-oriented; parochial vs. professional;open system vs. closed system; loose vs. tight control; normativevs. pragmatic.

My own Organisational Culture Check List takes an anthropologicalperspective and may be helpful if you are wondering where to lookfor 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 Collinslooks at the impact of culture on changing working practices in theelectronics industry.

Aligning Organizational Culture Through Team Learning by AlanSlobodnik & Kristina Wile is a slide presentation, with lots ofsystems diagram, is basically an advert for an approach tofacilitating self-managed teams.

Effective Cross-Cultural Teams: An Examination of ThreeManufacturing Firms in Australia and New Zealand by DavidThomas & Elizabeth Ravlin explores the effect of different culturesof orientation on the operation of teams.

Metaphors and Meaning: An Intercultural Analysis of the Conceptof Teamwork by Cristina Gibson & Mary Zellmer-Bruhn looks atdifferent understandings of the notion of teamwork across


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different national and organisational cultures.

Culture & Performance [Return]

An Exploration ofIndustry, Culture and Revenue Growth by

Edward Christensen and George Gordon also looks at therelationship between culture and performance. Their approach isheavily influenced by Geert Hofstede (see below).

Corporate Culture: The Key to Safety Performance by JudithErickson looks at the role organisational culture can play in safetyissues. My own experience of consulting in hazardous industriessuggests 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 forthby the McKinsey theorists (Deal and Kennedy; Peters andWaterman) that 'strength' of culture is important in businessperformance.

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 redesigningorganisational structures were put into an appreciative exploration

of the strengths of the two cultures there would be a lot moresuccess in these ventures.

A Brand-New Culture for the Merged Firm by Kenneth Smith looksat the possibility of 'discarding' the cultures of the constituentparts of the merged organisation and creating a new culturetogether. He looks at three components of organisational culture:values, work rituals and leadership. He argues that the bestapproach is "to define which culture and leadership capabilitiesare required to be successful in the restructuring industry andthen to plan and manage the selection and development of leaders

to arrive ultimately at the intended culture."

HiddenSorePointsThatCanThwartaCultureMatch by Paula Loveand Steve Gibson looks at some of the cultural issues which canarise when two organisations come together.

Culture and Equality Issues [Return]


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

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

Perceptions ofOrganizationalCultureandWomen'sAdvancementinOrganizations: ACross-CulturalExamination by Linda Bajdo and Marcus Dickson offerssome reflections on the role of 'male-dominated' cultures and theexistence of the so-called glass ceiling.

Towards an Inclusive Organizational Culture by Anne Buchanan

assumes that organisational culture can be made more inclusive byexamining specific policies and practices. This may be effectivebut will also experience painful failure if there are more deep-seated patterns of meaning and value.

Women in aMale-dominatedIndustry:FactorAnalysisof a WomenWorkplace Culture QuestionnaireBasedonaGroundedTheoryModel byBodil Bergman and LillemorHallberg accepts that most culture questionnaires are male-oriented and develops an instrument suitable for measuringwomen's perceptions of corporate culture.

Culture Theory [Return]

Cultural Theory and Organizations: Analytical Method andCases by Yochanan Altman and Yehuda Baruch uses ananthropological approach (Mary Douglas' Grid and Group theory asoutlined in Natural Symbols) to try to understand some of theissues in organisational culture.

Masking the Need for Cultural Change: the Effects of EmotionStructuration 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 MonicaWorline explores the importance of symbols in organisational life."We refer to symbols as visible, physical manifestations oforganizations and indicators of organizational life." They arguethat symbols both reflect organisational culture and triggerinternalised values and norms. They also provide a frame for


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conversations about experience as well as integrators oforganisational systems of meaning.

The Use of Organizational Culture and Structure to Guide StrategicBehavior: An Information Processing Perspective by John O'Neill,

Laura Beauvais & Richard Scholl, "presents a descriptive modelexplaining the roles and relationships of organizational culture andorganizational structure in guiding employee behavior towardstrategic objectives. Using an information-processing view, wepropose that organizational culture and structure direct thebehavior of employees through the reduction of uncertainty andequivocality. Furthermore, we propose that differing levels ofboth cultural and structural influences are implemented indifferent organizational types based on the level of skill,originality, and training required of the tasks being performed bymembers of the organization, and based on the geographical

dispersion of the employees themselves. We present the conceptof the cosmopolis, which is an organization rich in both culturaland structural elements. Implications for both research andmanagerial practice are discussed."

Culture & Marketing [Return]

An Empirical Investigation Into the Impact of OrganizationalCulture and Marketing Strategy on Firm Performance by Thomasbaker & Jon Hawes, "presents a conceptual discussion of the fitbetween organizational culture and marketing strategy and a study

undertaken to determine the type of culture and strategy whichshould befit together in order to achieve optimal organizationalperformance."

The Integration ofInternal Marketing Into the OrganizationalCulture of Service Firms by Tracy Suter notes that, "The purposeof this paper is to show how internal marketing can impact theculture of an organization. The role of internal marketing is todevelop an organizational culture based on quality customerservice at every level of the organization."

Culture & the Individual [Return]

Culture is created by the interactions between individuals.Individuals are affected by the culture. The relationship betweenthe two needs careful study.

Personality Traits and Workplace Culture by Mark Mallinger and Ileana

Rizescu offers some thoughts on the relationship between the individual


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and organisational culture. The describe the Integrated Cultural

Framework, which contains six dimensions.

Individual Personality And Organizational Culture Or "Let's ChangeThis Place So I Feel More Comfortable" by Gerald Barkdoll explores

the hypothesis that individuals (particularly organizational leaders)attempt to change the culture of their organizations to fit theirown personality preferences.

International Culture Issues [Return]

Differing national cultures can have a big effect on internationalmergers or joint ventures.

Reinventing Organizational Culture Across InternationalBoundaries by Wellford Wilms, Deone Zell & Dennis Cuneo looks at

a successful joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.

Culture & History [Return]

Organizational Culture and Business History by Michael Rowlinson& Stephen Proctor offers a critique of different approaches toculture and looks at the role of of view of history in writings onthe subject.

Going further afield: [Return]

Unrelated to organisational life is Richard Seel's Birth Rite, anarticle which suggests some links between common ritual practicesand a form of depression.

One culture-related topic which is quite well represented on theweb is memetics - the study of 'memes', a term coined by RichardDawkins to denote the 'gene of culture', that is the hypotheticalbuilding blocks of culture which may behave analogously to genesin biology.

Because we see the notion ofparadigm as important to the

understanding of culture, we've included a little about the idea.

A select bibliography on organisational culture [Return]

Cameron, Kim S. & Quinn, Robert E. 1999, Diagnosing andChanging Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values


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Framework. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.

Cray, David & Mallory, Geoffrey R. 1998,Making Sense ofManaging Culture. London: International Thompson Business Press.

Cronk, Lee 1999, That Complex Whole: Culture and the Evolutionof Human Behaviour. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Deal, Terrence & Kennedy, Allan 1999, The New CorporateCultures: Revitalizing the Workplace After Downsizing, Mergersand Reengineering, Perseus.

Dunbar, Robin, Knight, Chris & Power, Camilla1999, The Evolutionof Culture: An Interdisciplinary View. Edinburgh: University Press.

Frost, Peter J. et al. 1991, Reframing Organizational

Culture. Newbury Park: Sage.

Goffee, Rob & Jones, Gareth 2000, The Character of aCorporation: How Your Company's Culture Can Make or BreakYour Business. London: HarperCollins Business.

Handy, Charles 1991, (3rd ed) Gods of Management: The ChangingWork of Organisations. London: Arrow.

Hofstede, Geert 1994, Cultures and Organizations: InterculturalCooperation and its Importance for Survival. London:

HarperCollins.

Hofstede, Geert 1984, Culture's Consequences: InternationalDifferences in Work-Related Values (Abridged Edition). BeverleyHills: Sage.

Kotter, John P. & Heskett, James L. 1992, Corporate Culture andPerformance. New York: Free Press.

Price, If & Shaw, Ray 1998, Shifting the Patterns: Breaching theMemetic Codes of Corporate Performance. Chalford, Gloucs:

Management Books 2000.

Schein, Edgar H.1992, (2nd ed) Organizational Culture andLeadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schein, Edgar H. 1999, The Corporate Culture Survival Guide:Sense and Nonsense About Culture Change. San Francisco: Jossey-


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Bass.

Schneider, William 1994, The Reengineering Alternative: A Planfor Making Your Current Culture Work. New York: Irwin/Mcgraw-Hill.

Scott-Morgan, Peter 1994, The Unwritten Rules of the Game. NewYork: McGraw-Hill.

Sentell, Gerald 1998, Creating Change-Capable Cultures. Alcoa,TN: Pressmark International.

Sherriton, Jacalyn & Stern, James L. 1997, Corporate Culture,Team Culture: Removing the Hidden Barriers to Team Success.New York: American Management Association.

Sperber, Dan 1996, Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach.London: Blackwell.

Trice, Harrison & Beyer, Janice M. 1993, The Cultures of WorkOrganizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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