4 Test MGMT 4620
Tuesday 6-730 PM 1119 Patrick F. Taylor Hall
Ch 17 Organizational Culture
Institutionalization When an organization becomes institutionalized, it becomes valued for
itself, not merely for the goods or services it produces.
The organization lives on well after its founder has left
March of Dimes, Disney World, Sony, McDonalds, Walmart
Organizational Culture:
Attitudes, beliefs, values, Shared Meaning, and norms of an organization
Set of shared values and norms that helps employees know what is important/
unimportant and appropriate/ inappropriate in an organization.
7 Key cultural characteristics: They capture the essence of organizational culture
1. Innovation or risk taking: the degree to which employees are encouraged to be
innovative and take risk.
Apple would be very risky and innovative environment
An accounting firm may not be
2. Attention to detail: The degree to which companies focus on small details to some one
that is more laid back.
The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and
attention to detail.
A key part in the companies culture
3. Outcome Orientation: The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes
rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve those outcome.
Some companies allow dirty tactics to reach the best outcome
Some focus on employee well being and a team environment
4. People Oriented: The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the
effect of outcomes on people within the organization.
Opposite of a company that allows any means necessary to reach the best
outcome.
5. Team Orientation: The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather
than individuals.
Depends on culture
To what extent to we emphasize this
6. Aggressiveness: The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than
easygoing
The degree to which a company emphasizes competition
Aggressiveness can be a good thing
Not necessarily arguing, fighting, being rude
7. Stability: The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status
quo in contrast with growth
Some companies prefer to be continuously changing
Some are very stable are happy with the customer base and size
All of these factors are considered a part of organizational culture
To define using these dimensions gives us a good idea of how the company is run and its
organizational culture.
Can either achieve greater performance or greater satisfaction
What does Culture actually do? Why do we care? Cultures Functions
It rallies people around a central goal
Energizing the people in a company to work toward some unified goal
Gives you (an employee) a sense of identity.
These cultures create goals within the organizations that everyone understands
A strong culture lessens turnover.
A strong culture can take the place of formal rules and regulations
o Reduces ambiguity
o The two are very different
It acts as a social glue
o Everyone is on the same page and acts similar
Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the
attitudes and behavior of employees.**
Transgression of the rules will de-motivate. Conformity to the rules becomes the
primary basis for reward and upward mobility.
Caveat:
o It works only if the culture accepts the strategy
Must be strategically relevant to employees in the company.
o Culture must be strong in agreement and intensity
Is a strong culture always a good thing?
Not if its a lazy culture
Not if it causes a groupthink
Consider Deviant Culture:
o Nazi GermanyHitler created a strong culture
o KKKVery strong and facilitative culture
Change
o A strong culture can act as a barrier to change
o Usually found in a dynamic, changing enviornemnt
o Once this is In place it may be difficult to change
Diversity
o A strong culture can act as a barrier to diversity
o This can eliminate individual strengths that diverse people may have as
they begin to conform to the culture of the organization.
o Differing race, ethnicity, background, etc causes a paradox
Employees may be discouraged if you dont practice what you preach
o Hypocrisy Attribution Dynamic
o Rollo
How does culture actually form?
A founder decides what is important
This affects recruiting and selection process/ to mirror the founders values/
especially at a successful corporation.
Do the employees have (PJ Fit) Person Job fit or the (PE Fit) Person Environment
Fit
Is the top management following the culture themselves
Also consider what attitudes and behaviors they are actually rewarding
o May be different than what they preach
Start the socialization process once you being with the company
What can management do to create a more ETHICAL CULTURE?
(Ex.)An organizational culture most likely to shape high ethical standards is one that is
high in risk tolerance, low to moderate in aggressiveness, and focuses on means as well
as outcomes.
5 Steps:
1. Be a visible Role Model
a. Employees will look to the behavior of top management as a benchmark.
b. Lead by example
c. Do what you preach
2. Communicate ethical Expectations
a. Ethical ambiguities can be minimized by creating and disseminating an
organizational code of ethics.
b. Rule book
c. Continue to communicate verbal as well
3. Provide Ethical Training
a. Provide seminars, workshops, and similar ethical training programs
b. Talk to employees about specific examples of what is and what isnt
acceptable
c. Discuss how you would handle certain situations
4. Visibly Reward Ethical behavior/ Visibly punish unethical Behavior
a. Build it into your culture
b. Make examples of people in certain situations
5. Build in Protection Systems into your company
a. Make it commonplace to allow employees bring unethical behavior to
your attention without fear of reprimand
b. Make them feel confident that something will be done and they will not
regret it.
c. Ethical counselors or officer
Can you actually Change your organizational culture once in place?
Possible but difficult
Scenarios in which culture changes:
o Dramatic Crisis
Competition
Lose major customer
When change is needed
o New Leadership
New boss trying to change to the organizational style
o Is the company young or small
Is the culture entrenched in this culture
Are there many people that must change
o Do you have a weak culture in place
You say you have culture but nobody buys into it
No reason to resist change
11-12-09
Human Resource Management
Know Slide 73 (Equal Opportunity/Discrimination Laws)
Myth or Science:
Its first impressions that count? Science
Do men will earn more than women in the same position? Myth
o Gender Wage Gap Video on ABC News
o Studies show women earn 78 cents to every dollar a man makes
o Other studies show there is no difference
o Wage gaps may be bc men are more willing to do certain types of jobs
o Women make less because they tend to be less flexible than men
o If women make less than men than why dont companies only hire women?
Selection Process:
Initial Selection:
Application forms: Resume, Letters of recommendation (little value), Reference list,
mandatory background checks (if required by the contract)
Substantive Selection:
Written TestsIQ, personality, integrity
o IQ test and Personality Tests (Wonderlic) are shown to be the most predictive
of on the job performance
o Personality by itself is an average predictor of performance
Conscientiousness and positive self concept are the best personality
traits to have
o Integrity tests do not do a great job to predict performance
Although they do a great job to predict deviant employees
Performance simulation tests: work-samples, assessment centers
o Work-Sample tests actually gets someone to perform a job task
o Assessment Centers actually accesses the performance of an employees work
in a certain scenario for managerial applicants
o Assessment Centers can be very expensive
Interviews
o StructuredA standard set of questions with a standard response expectation.
Most effective because it rates and scores each applicant in an
unbiased perspective.
Behavioral Structured interviews ask a person to describe how
they would deal with a certain situation if presented.
Prediction-of-Performance devices look for specific jobrelevant skills, personal values, and the like to find individuals
who fit with the organizations culture and image.
Organized
Done the same way for each candidate
Fairly easy and cheap
Does a really good job in terms of performance and selection
o UnstructuredShort, casual, with random questions
Informal
Handout with John interviewing Joe
Does not do a great job of predicting performance
Uses different assessments for each candidate
Contingent Selections
If applicants pass prior selection methods, and are basically ready to be hired, but
need one final check
o Drug Tests
o Or optional background checks
Legality: See slide 73
Consider handout John interview Joe for position
Training and Development Programs Very Costly/ 60 Billion a year lost
productivity in US.
Types of Training: Basic literacy, Technical Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Problem-Solving skills,
and Ethics.
Training Methods:
Formal- Planned in advance and has a structured format.
Informal- mentoring relationships, social interaction with current employees, water
cooler chat (Job related)
On The Job-Cross-training, On the job training, apprenticeships, formal mentors,
More formal and Strategic
Off The Job-Classroom training (Similar to a university class), Videotapes, public
seminars, self-study programs, group activities that use role play and case studies.
o internet courses: with the advancement of technology, this is becoming more
common
o accounts for most of the training costs
With a more Formal cross-training standard:
Can be more expensive
Able to ask questions and help the learning process
Hands on training that is more effective
With an Informal/ Computer Based Standard (E-Training):
It may be cheaper
Less interactive learning
Little opportunity for questions or clarity
Personality traits that will influence the training type:
1. Conscientiousness plays a huge part
2. Cognitive Ability and the ability to learn
3. Culture (open and willing to take risk)
4. Self-Efficacy
5. Locus of Control
a. Internal Has a bigger belief in themselves/ Positive Self-Concept
b. ExternalMay be less willing to be open to different styles of training
Training Advantage and Disadvantage video:
- The office about Andy (drew)/ Training program in office and warehouse
Know advantages and disadvantages from force training the ropes maybe ch14**
11-17-09
Performance Evaluations:
The 360 Degree method is very popular. Get many ratings from everyone that the
person contacts or has dealings with in the organization. Less bias because of the many
different raters.
How do we evaluate an employees performance?
1. Written Case: You are being evaluated by your boss on paper
Rollos yearly performance evaluations
Depends on your managers writing ability
2. Critical Incidents: Certain incidents
Report on either an extremely good or extremely bad performance incident
Must be very specific sets of behaviors when your boss is writing you evaluation
Sites behaviors that are desirable against ones that are in need of improvement.
Very common
3. Graphical Rating Scale: There are different dimensions that everyone is rated on equally
Based on a continuum from very to good very poor (example)
Similar to a survey and Easy to implement
Allows the information to be quantitatively analyzed for comparison
Does not feedback on what you are doing wrong in order to fix it
Does not give examples of your behavior/ vague
4. BARS (Behaviorally anchored rating scales): Mix of critical incidents and graphic rating
scale
Describes the behaviors (examples) to describe what the behavior was and why
they were rated that way.
Time consuming because you have to think of various scenarios
Coming up with the description can be tedious and still unambiguous
Commonly used in interview
5. Forced Comparisons: Evaluating one employee to everyone else/ Forcing a comparison
Group order ranking- Places employees into a classification ( Top 10 or top 25%)
Individual ranking- Ranks in order from best to worst (Dan is 45/120)
Top 10% got raises
This approach assumes that the difference b/w the 1st and 2nd employee is the same
as the difference b/w the 22nd and 23rd employee. Not accurate when describing
two very close performance evaluations.
Suggestions for Improving Performance Evaluations:
1. Use Multiple Evaluators- 360 approach, use many evaluations Techniques to
insure fairness
2. Evaluate selectively- Use concrete evidence, Evaluators should have expertise in
the area and spend time with the employee under evaluation (this can be difficult
due to organizational levels dividing them.
dont focus on critical incidents if you dont see them regularly
3. Train your evaluators- Make good evaluators that are more accurate raters. Be
cautious of perceptual errors (halo effect),
4. Provide Employees with Due Process- It is important to give employees
feedback on why they were rated as they were and give them a chance to ask
questions.
Individuals should be provided with adequate notice of what is expected of
them.
All evidence relevant to a proposed violation is aired in a fair hearing so
the individuals affected can respond
The final decision is based on the evidence and free of bias.
Most managers hate performance appraisals because of fear of confrontation,
employees tend to get defensive; most employees have a inflated self perception of
themselves.
o When you criticize these people it could be a demotivator
o There could be hard feelings toward you
o Even good news could be worse than they expected
o Try to phrase the critic as if a suggestion for improvement
Recognize your emotions
Get advice from family or coworkers
Try to reframe the situation as an opportunity
The performance review should be designed more as a counseling activity than a
judgment process
o This is best accomplished by allowing the review to evolve out of the
employees own self-evaluation.
Global implications and Diversity:
Diversity Many organizations have provided work-life initiatives and programs to help
employees deal with the physiological incursion of work and home life; as well as
training programs to increase cultural understanding. (Pg 604)
Global Implications
Selections
- The use of educational qualifications in screening candidate is a Universal
ideology
- Although, Most research tells us there is no universal selection practices/You
need a different selection process for a different culture. Modifications need to
reflect culture-based norms and social values, as well as legal and economic
differences.
i. Many Countries have better techniques for their type of employee
ii. In many countries, there are no interviews
Some countries view performance as secondary
i. Japanese tried to be formal and failed
ii. Israel evaluates on the group dynamic
iii. Some do performance reviews every 5 or 6 years
iv. There are different laws and regulations in different countries that
have a huge impact on your HR processes.
Organizational Change Last lecture 11-19-09
Quote: If it aint broke, dont fix it, right?
False, you will never progress if you are not proactive
Forces for change:
1. Nature of the workforce:
The change in diversity and demographics of the workforce (ppl) itself
i. More cultural Diversity
Aging population and the destruction of 401k, many elderly plan to work for
many more years
Many new entrants with inadequate skills
This impacts your business methods
2. Technology
New technology is always improving
It is difficult to stay up to date on all technology
Faster, Much cheaper, and more mobile computers
Online music sharing
Linking to parts of the world that we could never do before
This allows us to eliminate layers of management
3. Economic Shocks
Housing bubble that burst and impacted our entire economy
Rise and fall of dot-com, stocks and 00-02 stock market collapse, Record low
interest rates
Gas prices
4. Competition
Boundary less economy
Competing with people from around the world (Globally)
We are able to connect with buyers and suppliers from around the world
Growth of E-Commerce
Mergers and Consolidations
Important to keep up with these trends
5. Social Trends
Web based technology (selling online)
Retirement of Baby Boomers
Amazon was the first to utilize, now everyone is selling online
Facebook allows companies to get more personal
6. World Politics
No matter who you are, politics will impact your organization
The war on terrorism and with Iraq
Opening of markets in China
This will impact your business in several ways
Change should be planned. And meet the goals to improve the ability of the organization
to adapt to changes in its environment, and to change employee behavior to meet this
change as well. This is done through Change Agents, can be managers or consultants.
Many change agents fail because of the great resistance to change by the staff.
Reactions to change:
Typical Response Cycle
o Resistance is normally the first reaction
May threaten to strike, voicing complaints, etc.
It is easiest if the change is Overt (Outspoken) and Immediate, as
opposed to Implicit (less obvious dissatisfaction) and Deferred.
Employees tend to see it from their own point of view
Perceptual error
Some change is bad:
Speed Traps appears to be predicted resistance but is
actually poorly planned change
Fog of Change occurs when the change agents fail to
realize the magnitude of the effects and true costs to the
organization. Sometimes a rapid, transformational change is
bad.
o Exploration Phase: After the above mentioned is overcome, people tend to be
more active (or passive) as to the change
Try to get employees to at least think about the possibilities
Allow them to explore the change themselves and how it will
positively impact them
Get them to be active in the change
Why do people dislike change?
Security Threat to expertise or knowledge
Habit and programmed responses
Economic Factors may get pay cut or unable to perform new tasks
Fear of the unknown
Threat to established power relationships Randy and James
People use Selective Information Processing as a defense mechanism
How to implement change!
Participation and involvement for your employees
o Instills a sense of fairness in your organization
o Focus on Justice
In terms of Communication
Actually explain the change
5 keys when communicating:
1) Discrepancy- Show employees that something needs to be changed and how
it will improve once the change has taken place
There is a gap b/w where we are at and where we want to be
2) Appropriateness: Convince employees that the idea is the answer to fix the
companies problems
Give your vision on the solution
3) Self-Efficacy: Explain how you will do this
Training Programs
Changing the actual production process
Build Confidence!!we will all get through this
4) Principle Support- Insure that all key players of the organization support this
idea
Communicate this to the entire organization
All supervisors and management
Cheerlead the idea
Start a bandwagon
Even involve lower level key agents (kipsy)
5) Valence: Whats in it for your employees/ Value of the change
Explain how this change will benefit them personally
May make the work easier or allows for growth and maybe a pay raise
Approaches and Models when dealing with change:
1) Lewins Model
a. Unfreezing: Shock everyone out of the status quo
Caveats: successful organizations may have a more difficult time
doing this (Dont fix it if it aint broke attitude)
a..1.
This attitude does not promote innovation and change
Also, companies with very strong culture may have trouble
unfreezing
b. Moving: The change process itself to a desired end state
Cutting Jobs/ system upgrade
If the change is done quickly, you tend to have more success (studies show)
Just make sure that everyone is ready for the change; mentally (driving
forces are in place) and physically (all resources required are readily
available)
c. Refreezing: Stabilizing the new change as permanent (a new status quo)
Encourage routine again
Create a new environment to support the new change
Instill a new status quo
most famous model
2) Kotters Model: Builds on Lewins Model/ Reasons instilling change can fail (8 steps)
Unfreezing
1. Not establishing a great enough sense of urgency
Create a compelling reason for why change is needed, and create a
since of urgency to motivate everyone involved.
2. Not establishing a strong guiding collision of key players in your organization
Form a coalition with enough power to lead the change
3. Lacking Vision
Paint a picture of the future for everyone involved
Create a new vision to direct change and strategies for achieving the
vision.
4. Under communicating the vision to the company
Communicate the vision throughout the organization
Moving
5. Failure to remove your organizational barriers that can impede the achievement
of the vision.
Remove these barriers and encourage risk taking and creative problem
solving.
6. Failure to plan for short terms (even create one if must) wins (goals)
Plan for the short term win, implement it, and reward these behaviors
7. Declaring victory to soon
Dont assume that because things are ok now, that they will stay that
way
Consolidate improvements, reassess changes, and make necessary
adjustments
Refreezing
8. Anchoring the change into your companies culture
Reinforce the changes by demonstrating the relationship b/w new
behaviors and organizational success.
Action Research:
1. Diagnosis
Gather information
From survey or interviews
2. Analyze information for patterns
3. Once you have analyzed the information you give feedback to the employees
Allow for their input
Communicate what was found in the diagnosis and analysis.
4. Put the plan into action
5. Once in action, evaluate your progress and make changes when needed
6.
Keys:
This model gets your employees motivated and involved from their participation
o Let them OWN the change
o More willingness to succeed
This will create a better culture in the end
Problem Focused
Reduced resistance to change
Global Implications:
Some countries like to be told what to do
This is your job to understand these implications
Resistance
Some cultures have a strong connection with the past
Asking them to give up theses traditions or change will be much more
difficult/ Italians
Asia cultures become stressed because of lack of training, not because
of the large workload
Chapters 17,18,19
Final Thoughts: Everything we have talked about this semester will impact organizational
change
Tues Dec 1- optional quiz 4 if you want
Thurs Dec 3- off
Thurs Dec 10- quiz 4 Final