Transcript Organizational Culture

ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
Prof. Jintae Kim, PhD
Alliance Theological Seminary
(845) 353-2020 ext.6978
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://all4jesus.net
I owe the content of this presentation
to the class notes of Dr. Martin
Sanders at Alliance Theological
Seminary.
DEFINITION OF CULTURE
CULTURE
“A pattern of shared
basic assumptions
that the group
learned as it
solved its
problems of
external
adaptation and
internal
integration” (243)
3 ELEMENTS
(1) Culture is learned by its
members.
(2) Culture refers directly to
assumptions, only indirectly
to behaviors.
(3) an open-ended definition of
the group allows for groups
and sub-groups, and varying
levels of membership.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF A CHURCH
1. It will have its resources and efforts coordinated in
some fashion.
2. People will be a major asset in achieving the
shared goals or outcomes.
3. People will have differing opinions about the
goals and how they should be achieved, and will
seek to advance their ideas.
4. The process of striving will give rise to common
experience and shared assumptions among those
within the organization.
THE COMMON
CHALLENGES
The organizational cultures are a by-product
of people confronting these challenges.
1. The challenge to adapt and to survive in its
external environment.
2. The challenge to integrate its internal
components to ensure its capacity to
function.
EXTERNAL ADAPTATION AND
SHARED ASSUMPTIONS

As members
of an
organization
face external
adaptation,
shared
assumptions
are crucial in
addressing the
four issues.
4 ISSUES
(1) Mission:
Primary task and secondary
functions.
(2) Goals
(3) Strategies
(4) Constituencies:
Which external voices must be
accommodated and which must be
ignored.
INTERNAL INTEGRATION AND
SHARED ASSUMPTIONS
As members of an
organization face
internal
integration,
shared
assumptions are
crucial in
addressing the
three issues.
3 ISSUES
(1) Creating common
language and conceptual
categories
(2) Defining group boundaries
and criteria for inclusion
and exclusion
(3) Distributing power and
status.
SOURCES OF
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

How do organizations with external
environments and internal components
come to have such different ways of
operating over the years?
3 BASIC SOURCES OF
CULTURES
1. The beliefs, values, and assumptions of
organizational founders 창업자의 신념….
2. Learning experiences of group members as their
organization evolves 구성원의 체험
3. New beliefs, values, and assumptions imported by
new members and leaders. 신규직원이나
지도자의 신념….
THE ROLE OF THE FOUNDER
IN BUILDING CULTURE
1. A single person has an idea for a new enterprise 
Founder
2. The founder brings in one or more people and
creates a core group that shares a common goal
and vision with him.
3. In this process, the founder transmits his/her ideals
to the organization.
THE LEARNING EXPRIENCES
BUILDING CULTURE
1. The founding group begins to act in concert to
organize its efforts.
2. Others are brought into the organization, and a
common experience or history begins to be built.
3. If the group remains fairly stable, and has
significant learning experiences, it will gradually
develop assumptions about itself, its environment
and how to do things to survive and grow.
LEVELS OF CULTURE
The role of culture at work in an organization can be
seen on various levels:
1. Artifacts:
 Visible organizational structure, processes and
symbols. Easy for an outsider to spot, but
difficult for the outsider to decipher.
2. Espoused Values
3. Underlying Assumptions
ARTIFACTS AS CULTURAL
MARKS
1. Organizational
structure and design
4. Physical space
arrangements
2. Systems and
procedures
5. Institutional folklore
3. Rites and rituals
6. Formal creeds,
charters and
statements of purpose.
ESPOUSED VALUES AS
CULTURAL MARKS
1. Artifacts: “what is”
 Often these emerge
 Values: “what ought to
originally as the
be”
opinions of certain
2. Values
individuals. If the
stated opinion is
Strategies, goals, and
philosophies which are
adopted by the group,
stated by
these individuals are
organizational
perceived as leaders.
members.
UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS
1. When the opinion(s) of individuals prove to have
validity, they may come to be treated as reality.
 This will occur because people are generally more
comfortable with an environment which is stable
and predictable than one which is characterized by
change and ambiguity.
2. Therefore, people will seek to establish rules
which alleviate ambiguity.
3. Since these assumptions exist to help define
reality and reduce ambiguity, changes in
underlying assumptions can generate anxiety
among group members.
2 WAYS NEW LEADERS AND
MEMBERS EMBED AND
TRANSMIT CULTURE

Charisma

Specific Behaviors
(referred to as cultureembedding
mechanisms)
CHARISMA
Leaders who
possess the
quality of being
able to
communicate
assumptions
and values in a
clear and
compelling
manner.

The problem with charisma as an
explanation:
(1) It does not by itself provide clues
as to how their vision was
embedded in the organization.
(2) It also fails to consider the actual
vision of the leader.
SPECIFIC BEHAVIORS
1. What leaders pay attention to, measure, or control
on a regular basis
2. How leaders react to critical incidents
organizational crisis
3. Observed criteria by which leaders allocate scarce
resources, including rewards and status.
4. Deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching
5. What leaders celebrate or institutionalize.
FACTORS WHICH IMPACT
ADAPTATION IN ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
1. Time:
 an idea which persist over time stands the best
chance of being adopted into the culture.
2. Inertia:
a new idea that is consistent with current cultural
assumptions….
3. Clarity:
a new idea which can be easily understood or
interpreted….
EDGAR SHIEN,
“ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE &
LEADERSHIP”

“The most central issues for leaders
operating within an organizational culture is
how to get at the deeper levels of culture,
how to assess the functionality of the current
assumptions which exist at each level and
how to deal with the anxiety which occurs
when those assumptions are challenged.”
SOURCES OF CULTURAL DATA
FOR NEW LEADERS
4 SOURCES
(1) Organizational
structure
(2) Information, control,
and reward systems
(3) Myths, legends,
stories, and folklore
(4) Informants
ANALOGY OF
LEARNING A
CARD GAME:
(1) Watch
(2) Play along with
someone
(3) Play by yourself
when it doesn’t count
(4) Play by yourself.