3.5 Key Takeaways, Knowledge Check and Key Terms
Key Takeaways
In this chapter, we learned that:
- Organizational culture refers to a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that show employees what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior
- Organizational culture consists of three levels: assumptions, values, and artifacts.
- Organizations vary in the strength of their culture. Strong organizational cultures can be an organizing and controlling mechanism for organizations. Strong culture can also lead to resistance to change.
- Organization cultures are created by a variety of factors, including founders’ values and preferences, industry demands, and early values, goals, and assumptions.
- Culture is maintained through attraction-selection-attrition, new employee onboarding, leadership, and organizational reward systems.
- Organizations change in response to changes in the environment and in response to the way decision makers interpret these changes.
- When it comes to organizational change, one of the biggest obstacles is resistance to change. People resist change because change disrupts habits, conflicts with certain personality types, causes a fear of failure, can have potentially negative impacts, can result in a potential for loss of power, and, when done too frequently, can exhaust employees.
- There are a number of frameworks that can be used to assess and understand organizational culture including Occupational Culture Profiles, service culture, safety culture, and the Competing Values Framework.
- In addition to organizational culture, codes and other policies can formalize the expectations for behaviour at work.
- Performance issues and misconduct can result in disciplinary action at work.
- Discipline should match the level of offense. Unless there is just cause for immediate termination, discipline should be progressive in nature starting with a conversation.
- When designing and implementing codes in the workplace, it is important to be aware of various legislation which outlines human rights and employment standards.
Knowledge Check
Review your understanding of this chapter’s key concepts by taking the interactive quiz below.
Key Terms
Key terms from this chapter include:Refers to the natural process in which the candidates who do not fit in will leave the company. See Section 3.2 Creating, Maintaining, and Changing Culture
The two axes in the framework, external focus versus internal focus, indicate whether or not the organization’s culture is externally or internally oriented. The other two axes, flexibility versus stability and control, determine whether a culture functions better in a stable, controlled environment or a flexible, fast-paced environment. Combining the axes offers four cultural types: (1) the dynamic, entrepreneurial Adhocracy Culture—an external focus with a flexibility orientation; (2) the people-oriented, friendly Clan Culture—an internal focus with a flexibility orientation; (3) the process-oriented, structured Hierarchy Culture—an internal focus with a stability/control orientation; and (4) the results-oriented, competitive Market Culture—an external focus with a stability/control orientation.. See Section 3.3 Frameworks for Assessing Organizational Culture
Defined as shared values and beliefs that are in direct opposition to the values of the broader organizational culture. See Section 3.1 Organizational Culture
Refers to the extent to which policies, procedures, job descriptions, and rules are written and explicitly articulated. In other words, formalized structures are those in which there are many written rules and regulations. See Section 3.4 Organizational Codes and Discipline
A mentor is a trusted person who provides an employee with advice and support regarding career-related matters. See Section 3.2 Creating, Maintaining, and Changing Culture
Refers to the process through which new employees learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to function effectively within an organization. See Section 3.2 Creating, Maintaining, and Changing Culture
Refers to a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that show employees what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. See Section 3.1 Organizational Culture
OCP is a framework for examining organizational culture in which culture is represented by seven distinct values. See Section 3.3 Frameworks for Assessing Organizational Culture
Refers to the process of using increasingly severe steps or measures when an employee fails to correct a problem after being given a reasonable opportunity to do so. The underlying principle of sound progressive discipline is to use the least severe action that you believe is necessary to correct the undesirable situation. See Section 3.4 Organizational Codes and Discipline
In organizations where safety-sensitive jobs are performed, creating and maintaining a safety culture provides a competitive advantage, because the organization can reduce accidents, maintain high levels of morale and employee retention, and increase profitability by cutting workers’ compensation insurance costs. See Section 3.3 Frameworks for Assessing Organizational Culture
What differentiates companies with service culture from those without such a culture may be the desire to solve customer-related problems proactively. In other words, in these cultures employees are engaged in their jobs and personally invested in improving customer experience such that they identify issues and come up with solutions without necessarily being told what to do. See Section 3.3 Frameworks for Assessing Organizational Culture
A culture that emerges within different departments, branches, or geographic locations is called a subculture. Subcultures may arise from the personal characteristics of employees. See Section 3.1 Organizational Culture
