Culture and Behaviour

By Dr Amanda Marshall-Ponting – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Culture and behaviour

Structure of the work package

Introductory presentation

Reflective questions &

problem scenarios

Background reading materials Presentation

Solutions and worked examples

Structure of the work package

Culture: What is it & why is it important in the work place?

Experiencing culture in the work place

Describing, measuring & managing culture

Changing organisational culture & behaviour

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Culture, what is it?

“...the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time”

(Cambridge dictionary, 2011)

And

“...the set of shared meanings held by the team members that make team work possible”

(Thompson, 2000)

Culture, why is it important?

• Interest in culture increased as studies aimed to understand the success of Japanese companies in the 1970s

• Two assumptions were made in 1980s and 90s studies:– Organisational performance depends upon

alignment to its strategy– Belief that management can manipulate culture to

achieve its goals

Culture, why is it important?

• Size and contribution construction sector makes to the UK’s GDP:– Over 2.5 million people employed in construction

in 2009– 8% of GDP from construction

• Increasing globalisation and the rise of multi-national companies

Experiencing culture in the workplace

• This section discusses how we can start to explore culture:– The impacts that assumptions and beliefs have

upon culture– The objects that illustrate culture– How culture and its artefacts shape behaviour

• The Iceberg model will be introduced• You will be able to reflect upon your

company’s culture

Experiencing culture in the workplace

EXERCISE: You can test your cultural awareness using the quiz in section 1 of the Exercises document.

The answers can be found in section 1 of the Solutions document.

Culture: The iceberg analogyLanguageRitualsMethodsTechniquesLaws & customs

NormsRolesBeliefsPhilosophy

ValuesAttitudesMythsExpectations

Doing

Thinking

Feeling

Culture: The iceberg analogy

• This has 2 main parts and the latter help us to understand the former:– The visible part – components we come into direct

contact with• Language, food, music, architecture, behaviours

– The hidden part – behavioural drivers • Motivations, gender differences, attitudes

• Culture will affect internal and external relationships and has formal and informal components

Experiencing culture in the workplace: culture and behaviour

Organisation A Organisation B

Operates on the assumption that: ideas come ultimately from individuals people are responsible, motivated and capable

of governing themselves the truth in practice can only be arrived at by

fighting things out in groups such fighting is possible because the

organisations members see themselves as a family that take care of themselves

Therefore it is safe to fight and be competitive.There are open office landscapes, few closed doors, people milling about, intense conversations and arguments and a general air of informality.

Operates on the assumption that: truth comes from older, wiser and higher-status

members people are capable of loyalty and discipline in

carrying out directions relationships are lineal and vertical each person has a niche in the organisation that

cannot be invaded the organisation is responsible for taking care of

its membersThere is a hush in the air and everyone is on an office with closed doors. Nothing is done without appointment and prearranged agenda. When people of different ranks are present there is real deference and obedience and an air of formality permeates everything.

(Schein, 1984)

Experiencing culture in the workplace: Your organisation

EXERCISE: You can explore your organisation’s culture by completing exercise 2.

This exercise asks you to reflect upon the culture of your organisation, how its values are expressed, the assumptions it makes and how the culture is manifested

Measuring & managing organisational culture & behaviour• This section discusses how we can describe

culture• Models are presented by:

– Charles Handy (1985)– Geert Hofstede (1980)

• Some implications for cross cultural management are presented

Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures

In his book Understanding Organizations Charles Handy (1985) argues that there are four main types of culture:

• Power• Role• Task• Person

They can be represented pictorially.

Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures

• Central power source with influence radiating from the centre

• A shared understanding of the organisation’s approach is essential

• Competition & trust important• Power orientation, risk taking• Low morale & high turnover• Small, entrepreneurial organisations• e.g. property, finance, trading

companies The power culture (Handy)

Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures

• Bureaucracy stereotype: its strength is its specialities & a focus upon procedures

• Coordination by small number of senior management• Emphasis upon role rather than individual performance• Successful in stable, predictable markets

– slow response to change• Good security• e.g. Civil service, auto & oil • industries, life insurance

The role culture (Handy)

Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures

• Flexible, matrix organisation structure• Emphasis upon getting the job done – right people &

resources brought together to achieve this• Team culture empowered to make own decisions;

agreeable team climate essential• Prevalent in competitive markets• E.g. management consultancies,

advertising agencies• Use of political influence causes morale

drop and role or power culture The task culture (Handy)

Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures

• Rare but many organisations incorporate its values placing individual at centre

• Few organisations can exist with this culture – control & management hierarchies are impossible

• Any structure exists to assist its members• Expert power• e.g. University professors

The person culture (Handy)

Measuring culture: Handy’s four cultures

EXERCISE 3 asks you to reflect upon Handy’s (1985) model by considering the advantages and disadvantages of working in organisations with each of the four types of culture he identifies and to identify which culture you would prefer to work in.

Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

• 116,000 IBM employees from 40 countries completed Hofstede’s questionnaire

• The job and procedures were the same: Hofstede concluded variations in responses were due to cultural attitudes & values

• Four underlying cultural dimensions were identified:– power distance – acceptance of unequal power distribution– Uncertainty avoidance – tolerance of ambiguity/uncertainty– Individualism – emphasis upon individual vs. collective

achievement– Masculinity – tendency towards assertiveness, acquisition

Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Implications of culture on structure, behaviour, expectation & values Rating

DimensionLow High

Power distanceLess centralisation; flat organisational pyramids; smaller wage differentials; manual & clerical jobs equal

Greater centralisation; tall org. pyramids; more supervisory personnel; white-collar jobs valued more than blue-collar jobs

MasculinitySex roles minimised; no interference with personal lives; more women in more qualified jobs; reward of soft, intuitive skills; social rewards valued

Clear sex role differentiation; organisations may interfere to protect interests; fewer women in qualified jobs; aggression, competition, justice rewarded; work valued as central life interest

IndividualismOrganisation as “family”; org. defends employee interests; practices based on sense of loyalty, duty, group participation

Org. more impersonal; employees defend own self-interests; practices encourage individual initiative

Uncertainty avoidance

Less structuring of activities; fewer written rules; more generalists; variability; greater willingness to take risks; less ritualistic behaviour

More structuring activities; more written rules; more specialists; standardisation; less willingness to take risks; more realistic behaviour

Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Dimension Low High

Power distance Australia, Israel, Denmark, Sweden

Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, India, Brazil

Masculinity Sweden, Denmark, Thailand, Finland, Yugoslavia

Japan, Australia, Venezuela, Italy, Mexico

Individualism Venezuela, Columbia, Taiwan, Mexico, Greece

U.S., Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Netherlands

Uncertainty avoidance

Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, U.S., India

Greece, Portugal, Japan, Peru, France

Example countries for each cultural dimension

Measuring & managing culture: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Exercise 4 uses five scenarios to test your understanding of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model.

A worked example is included in section 4 of the Solutions document.

Changing organisational culture

• This section focuses on the difficulties of cultural and behavioural change

• The McKinsey Group’s 7S model illustrates the interrelatedness of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ culture components

• Communities of practice, informal groups enabled by new technologies, are introduced

Changing organisational culture: McKinsey 7S model

• This model has been used by academics and practitioners to analyse culture

• If organisational change is to be successful changes will be needed to all components

• ‘Hard’, tangible components are easier to change than ‘soft’ ones

structure

systems

style

staff

sharedvalues

strategy

skills

Changing organisational culture: McKinsey 7S model

Strategy: organisational plan of action. Focussed

upon where the organisation is,

where it wants to be, how it will get there

Structure: Shape of the business.

Dependent upon its objectives & culture, it dictates the way it operates & performs

Systems: Support daily activities &

implement strategy. Technology is allowing processes to become simpler, decisions to be taken more widely with greater customer

emphasis

Style/Culture: Distinct, this includes values & norms which

develop over time. There is an

increasing preference for openness,

innovation & smaller command chains

Staff: Growing importance of human

resources in knowledge economy with much

effort placed on hiring, training & mentoring to

achieve competitive advantage

Shared values: Commonly held

fundamental ideas about the company

they maintain coherence in teams &

focus upon goals

Skills: Numbers & types of personnel

and their competencies and

abilities that help it to be distinctive from its

competitors

Changing organisational culture: Communities of practice

• Self-selecting membership, meeting like-minded people

• Creatively share knowledge & expertise, enabled by technology

• Community decides structure & protocols• Some organisations more open to their use

than others

Changing organisational culture: Communities of practice

Characteristic Description

PurposeMembershipSizeScopeStructureMeeting frequencyEthosTopics coveredSource of cohesionOutputsOrganisational supportTypical habitatAssessmentLifespan

Adding value, sharing knowledge, building member capabilitiesDiverse, self-selectingCan be hundredsNarrow or wide; can span several organisationsSelf-organisingWhenever necessaryInformal, sharingAnything defined useful by membersMembers commitment to topicKnowledge sharing, new understandingFunding, overcoming obstacles to community encountersKnowledge driven organisationsStories told by members about performance improvementAs long as members want it

(Wenger & Snyder, 2000)

Conclusions

This presentation has provided an overview of the culture and behaviour learning package.

To deepen your understanding, you should work through:• Background document• Exercises and reflective questions• Additional reading

ReadingKey texts

Handy, C.B. (1985) Understanding organizations (3rd ed.) Penguin Books, London.Hofstede, G. (1991) Cultures and Organisations: software of the mind. McGraw-Hill, London. Schein (1984) Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture, Sloan Management Review.Waterman Jr., R.H., Peters, T.J., and Phillips, J.R. (1980) Structure is not organisation. Business Horizons, 23 (3) pp14-16.

Additional readingGordon, G.G. and DiTomaso, N. (1992) Predicting corporate performance from organizational culture. Journal of Management Studies, 29 (6), pp783-798.Jermier, J.M., Slocum, J.W., Fry, L.W. and Gaines, J. (1991) Organizational subcultures in a soft bureaucracy: Resistance behind the myth and façade of an official culture. Organization Science, 2 (2), pp170-194. Ling, F., Ang, A. and Lim, S. (2007) Encounters between foreigners and Chinese: Perception and management of cultural differences. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 14 (6), pp501-18.Ogbonna, E. and Harris, L.C. (2002) Organizational culture: A ten year, two-phase study of change in the UK food retailing sector. Journal of Management Studies, 39 (5), pp673-706.