Summary of all lectures, film analyses and associated exam questions with explanations
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Course
Organizational Culture and Change (S_OCC)
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
This summary contains all information about the exam material, with good examples from the film analyses that paint a clear and easier to understand picture. The last pages also include a practice exam with answers and explanations.
Summary of Organization Culture & Change
Blok 1: Studying culture
College 1 – What is organization culture?
Culture = shared and learned world of experiences, meanings, values and understandings which are
expressed and reproduced partly in symbolic form (shared values, norms, language, dress code,
rituals, symbols, activities, etc.).
Within everything we share (culture) there might be people who stand out more, and have a more
dominant role in the overall culture. They have a ability to shape the culture and have “leadership”.
So, leadership has a huge influence on the culture, but culture can also influence the leader !
Culture is a fuzzy concept ! There is an enormous variation in the definition of the term and
concept is used to cover everything, and with that, nothing… = culture as an umbrella term.
- Colere = to grow
- Cultus = nurtured / cared for
Organizational culture = how people act, dress themselves, what their
norms are and what things they value, the language they speak, etc. Culture
in organizations is captured in symbols and meanings.
Assumptions about organization culture:
- Related to history/tradition.
- Collectively shared by members of a group.
- Has to do with meanings, understandings and beliefs.
- Some depth, you cannot always see or catch it.
- Difficult to grasp and must be interpreted.
- Emotional rather than strictly rational.
- Helps to understand richness of organizational life.
Culture as social and taken-for-granted = we’re not aware of culture. Culture is ‘done’ without
anyone thinking about it. So, it’s not inside people’s heads, but ‘between’ people (shared
interaction).
It’s situasionally adaptive, because every situation is different.
Shared interpretations reduce uncertainties. For example, everybody in Amsterdam ride
through red with their bikes, so people expect that this might happen. When you don’t is
more dangerous than if you also behave like them.
But… often culture refers to more than just a
social pattern, it goes deeper. Edgar
Schein’s Model of organizational culture: The
things we can see, the artifacts, are driven by
the underlying things, like values and basic
assumptions.
,Why do people study organizational culture?
It’s studies since 1980s when the US industry was facing a crisis, while there was a boom of Japanese
companies. What did they do differently = focus on shared values, commitment and high-quality
output = Culture ! These organizational scandals and failure later on were blamed on the culture,
so there was ongoing interest.
Three interest / motivations for studying a phenomenon (EXAM !):
1. The technical interest (most dominant) = a way to control
the organizational culture, in order to improve the efficiency
and productivity of organizations. Alvesson find it
problematic, “this is not how it works”, culture is not
something you instrumentalize towards a measuring
instrument for more effectiveness.
2. The practical-hermeneutic interest = trying to understand what’s going on. You want to
understand how shared meaning is created in organizational communities, and what the
‘natives’/members think they are up to. how is the culture created and what is meant by
it, so knowledge for the sake of knowledge !
3. The emancipatory interest (critical interest) = critique of the technical interest: not interested
in the profitability of the organization, but in the fact if there is any harm of the employees.
So, not in the disadvantages of the organization, but for the employees. It targets taken-for-
granted beliefs and instrumentality.
Relationship between technical and emancipatory interest is antagonistic.
How to study organizational culture?
Culture is a complex and fuzzy concept, so it’s not easily to measure, that makes it tricky to study.
Alvesson suggest: be focused on what you want to measure, but keep balance between
rigor/flexibility.
Flexibility = no formula or model for studying culture, causal links lead to oversimplification.
Rigor = be focused and precise, analyze specific cultural phenomena, seek interpretive depth,
examine motives and objectives.
Alvesson: ‘It requires careful reflection of one’s cultural bias. You need to observe the day-today
functioning of an organization: patterns of interaction between individuals and groups, language use,
topics in conversations, habits and rituals of their daily routines, etc. etc.’
College 2 – How to study organizational culture?
Culture as a methaphor = a literary device (poetry etc.) and this evokes powerful imagination/images.
When these are taken literally, it becomes absurd. It transfers a term from one system of meaning to
another.
“The black sheep in the family” means you don’t fit in.
,Morgan: Metaphors leads to a particular way of seeing. There are 8 metaphors:
1. Machine: how different parts work together towards and output.
2. Organism: something that develops organically with people involved.
3. Brain: the power of knowledge
4. Culture !
5. Political systems: power dynamics, hierarchy’s and what’s going on in the organization as
political arena.
6. Change and…
7. Flux: how things can quickly change.
8. Domination: how organizations exploits things, like environment and the people.
These metaphors make valuable insights, but are also one-sided, incomplete and potentially
misleading. There’s no right or wrong perspective, because each metaphor hides something.
Solution: we need multiple metaphors / perspectives.
Culture as a variable = the organization has a culture that can be measured (functional).
- Goal: improve organizations by align culture with
managerial purposes. Culture as an instrument.
- Implications: cultural values affect behavior of
managers and employees. These can be
instrumentalized as means of control.
- Aspired outcomes: getting the culture ‘right’ in order
to increase loyalty, productivity and quality of service.
Culture as a root metaphor = the organization is a culture. This
culture is a way of being, doing, thinking, feeling, etc. This means that everything in the company is
touched by culture and it’s always there (practical).
- Goal: explore organization as socially shared and intersubjective experience. So, how culture
effect the thing happening in the organization.
- Implications: nothing is ‘outside’ the culture. Culture guides all interpretations and actions.
- Aspired outcomes: reflection vs. increased effectiveness.
Alvesson says: metaphors helps to think about complex phenomena, like culture. The culture as a
root metaphor is a richer view of what goes on, so think about an organization as it is culture is good.
But… when you study culture there are limitations: culture can become too general and vague. So,
we need to go further to sharpen the perspective and make it more concrete.
The 6 metaphors for culture (EXAM !):
1. Exchange regulator: exchange between the organization and the person.
- Culture shapes the perception of fair exchange in the long run (it’s a give and take in a
mutually beneficial relationship). So, if I work good, I will get the promotion for example.
- This discourages (people will not) short-term opportunistic behavior.
, - Culture replaces need for close monitoring.
2. Compass:
- Shared value system guide the direction of an organization ( we all want the same
thing).
- Traditional values are anchored in history of the organization.
- Functional values concern ‘modes of conduct’.
- Values that are both traditional and functional and are most likely to endure (standhouden).
- ‘wrong’ values are like a defective compass: they indicate the ‘wrong’ direction. For example,
profit becomes more important than the purpose of the organization…
3. Social glue:
- Culture holds people together through consensus, harmony and shared values.
- There are strong feeling of belongingness and similarity. Organizational cultures
described as family-like.
- Two versions of the metaphor:
1. The consensus and harmony are ‘natural’, just something that arises (integration approach).
2. Glue as fragile, in need of maintenance work by top management. They need to invest in it
and shape this culture, etc.
4. Sacred cow:
- This refers to deeper and more affective aspects of culture than other metaphors. It’s
about religion and values that carries emotional meaning.
- Organizational ideals and values are internalized by organizational members. These
values are the result of a historical process internalization of the founder’s version.
- Through emotional identification and commitment, values become sacred and these are
almost impossible to change. You don’t question it, but believes in it or not (then you respect
it, but not changing it because other people are emotionally attached.
5. Affect regulator:
- Organizational cultures as ‘emotional arenas’, so culture is something that regulates
emotions. Culture as a control device to guide and discipline emotions of
organizational members.
- Culture ties them to the organization through socio-affective bonds. So, it can also
be used to control the people, like they have to be nice to your clients, social to your
colleges, etc. emotional labor.
- Critical view on emotional labor: how people have to consciously have to act, for example in
Disney world people are forced to smile, smile, smile…
6. Mental prison:
- Social reality is seen as given and natural. Culture is taken for granted, we don’t realize
the culture anymore.
- Anchored in broader culture patterns. It unconscious forces blind us to what is actually
going on in an organization.
- Lack of critical thinking !
Advantages of using metaphors:
- Complexity-reducing devices: metaphors helps to communicate insights / talk about complex
phenomena. They are a broad explanation of what’s going on. It facilitates
understandings.
- Encourage different perspectives: people can explain their perspective with metaphors
- Increase tolerance for alternative approaches.
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