Organizational Culture - Business Library - University of

Organizational Culture

In December 2003, Western's Academic and Administrative Leaders and Managers received the results of Western's survey of "organizational culture", completed in July 2003. Staff and academic and administrative leaders from 33 different groupings had an opportunity to respond to survey questions regarding "What is expected, from a person in your role, to fit in and meet expectations here." A report for Western as a whole was compiled, and the leaders of the 33 groups were invited to requisition confidential "sub-group" reports for their own areas.
The initiative was undertaken on behalf of the University by Human Resources to provide a) information for focussing leader, staff, and organizational development initiatives, and b) baseline data for evaluating the outcomes of these initiatives over the next 3 years. The survey will be repeated in 2007.
Research on organizational culture conducted by the survey company used (Human Synergistics) shows that performance feedback systems and leadership practice exert the greatest influence on culture. Culture, in turn, can be correlated with levels of role clarity, role consistency, employee satisfaction, and commitment to customer service. Western has committed resources to enhance leadership practice, support campus-wide staff development, improve work systems, and more closely integrate academic and administrative leadership, so that all work is clearly aligned with Western's academic mission.
In an effort to enhance positive aspects of Western's culture and to decrease negative aspects, leaders can now draw on research regarding the "levers for change" for influencing organizational culture. Areas to improve include: communication processes, work design, the performance feedback system, and the participative dimension of the operational planning process."

To help with this initiative we have prepared this brief guide that will direct you to resources in the Western Libraries that will assist you in developing a better understanding of the rather complicated concept of "Organizational Culture". A good place to begin is with the two essays in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences: "Organizational Culture", by S.A. Linstead and "Organizational Culture, Anthropology of," by W. Koot. To locate the print version in the Western Libraries, click on the link above. Members of the UWO community will be able to read both essays electronically from their offices by clicking on the link above and then on the link provided that says "Connect to Internet Resource". The two essays are easily located by searching for the phrase "Organizational Culture". Two other basic resources are recommended here: The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory and the Handbook of Organizational Behavior. For two works related specifically to universities see: The Four Cultures of the Academy: Insights and Strategies For Improving Leadership in Collegiate Organizations and "Organizational Culture and Higher Education," in The Academic Library: Its Context, Its Purpose, and Its Operation.
For your convenience additional books are listed below. In addition, selected articles with abstracts are provided and a Western Librarian will be glad to assist you in finding more information.

Selected Books

Batelaan, Volkert
Organizational Culture and Strategy: A Study of Cultural Influences on the Formulation of Strategies, Goals, and Objectives in Two Companies
DBW HD58.7.B377 1993

Bergquist, William
The Four Cultures of the Academy: Insights and Strategies for Improving Leadership in Collegiate Organizations
BUS LB2341.B476 1992

Beyerlein, Michael et al. Eds.
The Collaborative Work Systems Fieldbook: Strategies, Tools, and Techniques
BUS HD66.C547 2003

Brudney, Jeffrey et al.
Advancing Public Management: New Developments in Theory, Methods, and Practice
DBW JF1351.B76 2000

Budd, John
The Academic Library: Its Context, Its Purpose, and Its Operation
IMS Z675.U5B865 1998

Carlson, Mim and Donohoe, Margaret
The Executive Director's Survival Guide: Thriving as a Nonprofit Leader
BUS HD62.6.C266 2003

Druckman, Daniel et al. Eds.
Enhancing Organizational Performance
BUS HD58.9.E54 1997

George, Jennifer and Jones, Gareth
Essentials of Managing Organizational Behavior
BUS HD58.7.G4537 2000

Heracleous, Loizos
Strategy and Organization: Realising Strategic Management
BUS HD30.28.H477 2003

Johnson, Merlet et al. Eds.
Handbook of Organizational Performance: Behavior Analysis and Management
BUS HD58.7.H364 2001

Martin, Joanne
Cultures in Organizations: Three Perspectives
BUS HD58.7.M38 1992

Melling, Maxine and Little, Joyce Eds.
Building a Successful Customer-Service Culture: A Guide for Library and Information Managers
DBW Z711.B944 2002

Mohan, Mary Leslie
Organizational Communication and Cultural Vision: Approaches for Analysis
DBW HD30.3.M64 1993

Osborne, David
Staff Training and Assessment
BUS HF5549.5.T7O8 1996

Parker, Martin
Organizational Culture and Identity: Unity and Division at Work
DBW HD58.7.P27 2000

Patterson, Jerry
Coming Even Cleaner About Organizational Change
EDU LB2805.P327 2003

Pedersen, Jesper Strandgaard, Sorensen, Jesper
Organisational Cultures in Theory and Practice
BUS HD58.7.P43 1989

Pheysey, Diana
Organizational Cultures: Types and Transformations
DBW HD58.7.P5 1993

Schein, Edgar
Organizational Culture and Leadership
BUS HD58.7.S33 1992

Sergiovanni, Thomas and Corbally, John Eds.
Leadership and Organizational Culture: New Perspectives on Administrative Theory and Practice
EDU LB2805.L34 1984

Shafritz, Jay and Ott, Steven Eds.
Classics of Organization Theory
DBW HD31.C56 1992

Ukens, Lorraine Ed.
What Smart Trainers Know: The Secrets of Success From the World's Foremost Experts
BUS HF5549.5.T7W478 2001

Wunsch, Marie Ed.
Mentoring Revisited: Making an Impact on Individuals and Institutions
EDU LB1025.2.N456 no.57 1994

Selected Articles

Measuring the Strategic Readiness of Intangible Assets This article is available at the Business Library Circulation Desk
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. Harvard Business Review, Cambridge Boston:Feb. 2004. Vol. 3, Iss.2, p. 52-63

Measuring the value of intangible assets such as company culture, knowledge management systems, and employees' skills is the holy grail of accounting. Executives know that these intangibles, being hard to imitate, are powerful sources of sustainable competitive advantage. If managers could measure them, they could manage the company's competitive position more easily and accurately. In this article, the creators of the Balanced Scorecard draw on its tools and framework - in particular, a tool called the strategy map - to present a step-by-step way to determine "strategic readiness," which refers to the alignment of an organization's human, information, and organization capital with its strategy. In the method the authors describe, the firm identifies the processes most critical to creating and delivering its value proposition and determines the human, information, and organization capital the processes require. Some managers shy away from measuring intangible assets because they seem so subjective. But by using the systematic approaches set out in this article, companies can now measure what they want, rather than wanting only what they can currently measure.

The Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Organizational Culture
Adela J McMurray. Journal Of American Academy Of Business, Cambridge Hollywood:Sep 2003. Vol. 3, Iss. 1/2, p. 1

This multi-method study explored the relationship between organizational climate and organizational culture in a newly emerging university. Organizational climate was explored through the distribution of a survey to 145 academic staff. An 88% response rate yielded 128 responses. To uncover the organizational culture, semi-structured interviews were, conducted with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the Deputy Principal, 7 Deans, and 15 Centre Heads from the various faculties. The study uncovered the ways in which organizational culture evolves and becomes intertwined with organizational climate. The data yielded new insights as to the ways in which organizational climate and culture intersect. This has particular relevance at the sub-unit level where climate features are most positive in those faculties whose subcultures are congruent with the leadership culture, and are least positive in faculty subcultures that are incongruent with the leadership. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Science as a Vocation in the 1990s: The Changing Organizational Culture of Academic Science
Hackett, Edward J. The Journal Of Higher Education Columbus: May 1990. Vol. 61, Iss. 3,

The increased dependence of academic science on external resources and its consequences for academic culture are discussed. A framework for analyzing such changes is suggested and illustrated.

Organizational Culture: Its Impact on Employee Relations and Discipline in Health Care Organizations
Stephen M Crow, Sandra J Hartman. The Health Care Manager Frederick:Dec 2002. Vol. 21, Iss. 2, p. 22-28 (7 pp.)

Organizations need to examine their cultures at the level of the "shop floor" - in health care, the point where health care workers deal with patients - to determine if the culture is consistent with management policies and will permit an effective program of reward and discipline. This article describes a case where organizational culture was a major imperative in the outcome of an arbitration case. Discussed is a shop-floor situation in manufacturing holding implications for health care, a setting in which management, by countenancing counterproductive aspects of the culture, make it impossible to apply discipline as needed. The conclusion is that health care organizations that neglect the detrimental elements of their culture may find themselves not only at risk of poor employee relations, but also unable to apply discipline effectively.

How to Use your Organizational Culture as a Competitive Tool
Mark Andrew Mitchell, Donald Yates. Nonprofit World Madison:Mar/Apr 2002. Vol. 20, Iss. 2, p. 33-34 (2 pp.)

Your organizational culture - the set of values, beliefs, and understandings shared by your nonprofit organization's employees - is one of your most powerful tools. Tips to assure that your culture furthers your organization's goals include: 1. Check whether your culture is strong or weak. 2. Focus your recruiting efforts on volunteers and paid employees whose value systems are compatible with your organizational culture. 3. Promote a culture of personal growth. 4. Stress your mission. 5. Analyze the cultures of other nonprofit organizations before committing to inter-organizational projects.

What is Recorded is Never Simply `What Happened': Record Keeping in Modern Organizational Culture
Ciaran B. Trace. Archival Science Dordrecht: 2002. Vol. 2, Iss. 1-2, p. 137-159

Traditional premises in archival theory and practice hold that archival records are authentic as to procedure and impartial as to creation because they are created as a means for, and as a by-product of, action, and not for the sake of posterity. Such Positivist assumptions about the nature of records have come under sustained scrutiny in the archival literature over the past decade. The post-Positivist view of records embraces the record as a socially constructed and maintained entity. This paper situates itself within this new paradigm in an exploration of the beginning of the life of the record. It is therefore concerned with the creator (or recorder) and the social construction of the record. In expanding beyond a purely administrative- and juridical-based theory of records, this paper draws upon research from other disciplines, such as sociology, in order to place records and record keeping within a framework that allows for an understanding of their social nature. In particular, the goal is to determine the underlying social factors that directly influence and shape the creation and keeping of records and to begin to understand how these factors manifest themselves in the construction of the record. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Five Years On--the Organizational Culture Saga Revisited
Dianne Lewis. Leadership & Organization Development Journal Bradford:2002. Vol. 23, Iss. 5/6, p. 280-287 (8 pp.)

The paper presents a follow-up to the saga of organizational culture, first chronicled in two issues of the Leadership & Organization Development Journal in 1996 and tracing culture's development from the organization development model through to the interest in total quality management (TQM), forming a link between the three concepts. Since the 1996 articles, culture as a concept has proceeded to develop in many new directions. In revisiting organizational culture after five years, this paper attempts to show how it has branched out from TQM and has since been associated with business process reengineering, organizational learning, and knowledge management; all of which claim to involve either changing a culture or working with an existing culture. Discusses also the role of culture in the emerging ideas and perspectives of strategic alliances, sustainability and future organizations. The culture saga is far from finished. While many of its components may turn out to be no more than passing fads and fashions, culture has proven itself to be an enduring concept that, as it has travelled many paths in the past, will travel many different paths in the future.

Managing Tough and Easy Organizational Cultures
John G Bruhn. The Health Care Manager Gaithersburg: Dec 2001. Vol. 20, Iss. 2, p. 1-10 (10 pp.)

Some organizations have cultures which are tough on members while others are easy. A tough culture would be expected to be out of touch with the values of its members and suppress value conflicts. An easy culture would be expected to be sensitive to the values of its members and deal with value conflict openly. The importance of value dynamics and transactions is discussed as the basic condition for toughness and easiness. The management of members who feel victimized by organizational values and perceptions is also discussed. Strategies for sustaining value relationships and value fulfillment in organizations undergoing change are presented.

Personalized Library Portals as an Organizational Culture Change Agent
Amos Lakos, Chris Gray. Information Technology And Libraries Chicago:Dec 2000. Vol. 19, Iss. 4, p. 169-174 (6 pp.)

A library Web portal has the potential of changing how libraries are used and how librarians will do their work. These portals have the potential of bringing about real change to their professional and organizational structure. These changes will enable libraries to be customer centered. Systems and processes will be based on dynamically linked and scalable databases that will enable library staff to concentrate on content delivery and teaching. These trends will inevitably enhance the academic library's ability to deliver on its major strategic goal - delivering positive learning outcomes to customers and stakeholders. However, the library Web portal will not bring these benefits to the library organization and institution without overcoming certain obstacles, including certain forces within the organizational culture that will resist changes in this direction.

Why Good Management Ideas Fail: The Neglected Power of Organizational Culture
William E. Schneider. Strategy & Leadership Chicago:Jan/Feb 2000. Vol. 28, Iss. 1, p. 24-29

Four fundamental reasons why some management ideas take root and remain viable and others witther and die are presented: 1. all organizations are basically living, social organisms, 2. culture is more powerful than anything else in the organization, 3. system-focused interventions work but component-centered interventions usually do not, 4. interventions clearly tied to business strategy work but interventions not clearly tied to business strategy do not. Research that points to 4 core cultures is described: 1. control, based on a military system with power as the primary motive, 2. collaboration, emerging from the family or athletic team system, in which the underlying motive is affiliation, 3. competence, derived from the university system, with the fundamental motive of achievement, and 4. cultivation, growing from religious systems and motivated by growth or self-actualization.

Changing Organizational Culture Through Leadership Development: A Case in Leadership Transformation
Linda D Sharkey. Organization Development Journal Chesterland:Fall 1999. Vol. 17, Iss. 3, (9 pp.)

Organizational Culture: The Role of Management and Supervisors
William Umiker. The Health Care Supervisor Gaithersburg: Jun 1999. Vol. 17, Iss. 4, p. 22-27 (6 pp.)

There is much more to organizational culture than the diversity issue. Establishing or changing a corporate culture is challenging for employers, management, and supervisors. The importance of corporate culture is described, the roadblocks to improving it are explored, and a discussion of how successful managers and supervisors cope with this challenge is presented.

An Expert HR System for Aligning Organizational Culture and Strategy
Elizabeth F Cabrera, Jaime Bonache. Hr. Human Resource Planning Tempe: 1999. Vol. 22, Iss. 1, p. 51-60 (10 pp.)

A theoretical framework for the alignment of organizational culture and strategy is presented by integrating knowledge from diverse areas of organizational studies, including strategic human resource management, organizational culture and the specific design of human resource practices. An expert system is described that offers practitioners a step-by-step guide for improving their competitive position through the development of a strategic culture. It is proposed that organizations can achieve a strategic culture through 2 processes: 1. the careful planning of HR practices that promote behavioral norms necessary for achieving the organization's strategy, and 2. the deliberate selection of candidates who share the desired values that reinforce the organization's cultural norms.

The Relationship Between Commitment and Organizational Culture, Subculture, Leadership Style and Job Satisfaction in Organizational Change and Development
Peter Lok, John Crawford. Leadership & Organization Development Journal Bradford: 1999. Vol. 20, Iss. 7, p. 365-373.

The concept of organizational commitment has been examined extensively in organizational literature, yet the relationships between organizational culture, subculture and commitment have received little attention so far. Acknowledging the complexity and the multifaceted nature of antecedents involved in organizational commitment, it is still necessary to understand the dynamics of relationships between these variables.

Attitudes, Values and Organizational Culture: Disentangling the Concepts
Geert Hofstede. Organization Studies Berlin:1998. Vol. 19, Iss. 3, p. 477-492 (17 pp.)

Sentiments collected through paper-and-pencil surveys are often arbitrarily classified according to categories imposed by the researcher, such as attitudes, values, and manifestations of organizational culture. The question is, to what extend are such classifications supported by the distinctions that respondents make in their own minds? In a paper, distinctions between categories of sentiments are supported empirically from the results of an employee survey in a large Danish insurance company. The 120 questions used were classified into attitudes, values, perceptions of organizational practices, and demographics. Perceptions of organizational cultures were measured using an approach developed by the author and his colleagues in an earlier study across 20 Danish and Dutch organizational units. In the insurance company study, employee attitudes were found to be clearly distinct from employee values. Perceptions of organizational practices were unrelated to values, and only overlapped with attitudes where both dealt with communication. In the latter case, both can be seen as expressions of the organization's communication climate. Other perceptions of organizational practices did not form recognizable clusters at the level of individuals, but only at the level of organizational (sub)units.

Influences of Organizational Culture on Learning in Public Agencies
Julianne Mahler. Journal Of Public Administration Research And Theory Lawrence: Oct 1997. Vol. 7, Iss. 4, p. 519-540 (22 pp.)

Mahler examines an underappreciated influence on organizational learning--the culture of the organization.

Organizational Culture and Teams
Ronald Recardo, Jennifer Jolly. S.a.m. Advanced Management Journal Cincinnati: Spring 1997. Vol. 62, Iss. 2, p. 4-7 (4 pp.)

Teams are frequently seen as a way to work smarter, to improve quality and customer service, and to enhance productivity. But teams cannot succeed if the ground is not prepared for them, specifically, if the corporate culture is not propitious. An analysis of 4 types of teams and also the key dimensions or drivers of a corporation's culture should help managers determine whether teams are likely to succeed in their companies.

What is the Difference Between Organizational Culture and Organizational Climate? A Native's Point of View on a Decade of Paradigm Wars
Denison, Daniel R. Academy Of Management. The Academy Of Management Review Mississippi State: Jul 1996. Vol. 21, Iss. 3, (36 pp.)

Organizational culture researchers have applied quantitative survey methods and identified comparative dimensions of culture in a way that appears to contradict some of the original foundations of culture research within organizational studies. This new quantitative culture research also bears a strong resemblance to earlier research on organizational climate. The implications of this development is examined by considering the differences between the literatures on organizational culture and organizational climate. The many similarities between these 2 literatures are also examined.

Living with Multiple Paradigms: The Case of Paradigm Interplay in Organizational Culture Studies
Schultz, Majken, Hatch, Mary Jo. Academy Of Management. The Academy Of Management Review Mississippi State:Apr 1996. Vol. 21, Iss. 2, p. 529-557 (29 pp.)

A paper presents a new strategy for multiparadigm research that promotes interplay between paradigms. Interplay is developed across the border of functionalist and interpretive paradigms, and organizational culture studies are used as an example of how interplay affects multi-paradigm relations. In addition to clarifying paradigm contrasts, connections between paradigms are revealed through a postmodern perspective.

Organizational Cultures: Types and Transformations
Scholz, Christian. Management International Review Wiesbaden:1995. Vol. 35, Iss. 2, (4 pp.)

Organizational Cultures: Types and Transformations by Diana C. Pheysey is reviewed.

Moving Toward Participation and Involvement: Managing and Measuring Organizational Culture
Zamanou, Sonia, Glaser, Susan R. Group & Organization Management Thousand Oaks:Dec 1994. Vol. 19, Iss. 4, (28 pp.)

A communication intervention program designed to change the culture of a governmental organization from hierarchical and authoritarian to participative and involved is discussed. This cultural shift is then measured through a triangulation approach. Questionnaires, interview data, and direct observation were combined to study the areas of cultural change. Subjects completed the Organizational Culture scale before the intervention and a representative sample was interviewed. The observations and the interview data placed the results of statistical analyses in context by specifying and clarifying perceptions of change. Results suggest that the organization changed significantly in information flow, involvement, morale, and meetings.

Building Commitment Through Organizational Culture
Lahiry, Sugato. Training & Development Alexandria:Apr 1994. Vol. 48, Iss. 4, (3 pp.)

In their efforts to promote organization-wide improvements, organization development (OD) practitioners try to understand the dynamic between the organization itself and the groups of employees that it comprises. One group dimension of an organization is its culture. Culture represents the values, beliefs, and expectations shared by its members. From an organization development standpoint, the concept of organizational culture suggests an avenue for fostering changes in behavior and attitudes in order to bring about desired results. To do this successfully, OD experts must find out if they can predict certain behaviors and attitudes based on patterns of organizational culture. Potential links between the content of organizational cultures and levels of employee commitment are examined.

Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture
Edgar H Schein. Sloan Management Review (pre-1986) Cambridge:Winter 1984. Vol. 25, Iss. 000002, (14 pp.)

Legitimating Clinical Research in the Study of Organizational Culture
Schein, Edgar H. Journal Of Counseling And Development: Jcd Alexandria:Jul 1993. Vol. 71, Iss. 6, (6 pp.)

The traditional research paradigm used in industrial-organizational psychology is not useful in understanding the deeper dynamics of organizations, especially those phenomena that are labeled as "cultural." The use of data obtained during clinical and consulting work should be legitimated as valid research data.