You will be asked to analyze an organizational culture. This could be the organi

Question

You will be asked to analyze an organizational culture. This could be the organization you work with, or it could be some other organization to which you have access. Remember that clubs, associations, and churches can be considered organizations.

Research (data gathering) should include (but does not need to be limited to) mainly primary sources.

Primary data is the data collected by the researcher themselves, i.e.

interview

observation

action research

case studies

life histories

questionnaires

ethnographic research

Secondary sources are data that already exists

Previous research

Official statistics

Mass media products

Diaries

Letters

Government reports

Web information

Historical data and information

Collect your data and analyze it. Describe how you collected the data (observation, interviews, surveys).

Then, analyze the organizational culture along three dimensions: artifacts, values, and underlying assumptions. Give examples of behavior, speech, or symbols that illustrate your findings. This paper should be 5-8 pages in length. Any data used (interviews, surveys, websites, etc.) should be attached as appendices.

Explanation / Answer

Organisational culture assessment and comparison between the desired situation and the existing one is a useful and efficient tool that can support the development of an organisation and the achievement of sustainable performance.

Let us take an example of analyzing culture of an automobile company.

Culture Analysis

The partial goals of the analysis were to describe and prepare the current culture using ‘justifiable’ resources. The following methods were used to describe the current culture:

• Written questioning – questionnaire

• Verbal questioning – interview

• Participation observation

The questionnaire was used because of its advantages (little time required and low costs) and because we wanted to get a general impression of the mood in the company as quickly as possible. The questionnaires were distributed personally by the heads of the departments, and a very good return ratio from approximately 60% was reached.

Let us look at some of example of questions we asked in interview

Environment

• Does the organisation dominate its environment?

• Is the environment considered a challenge for you ?

• Does everyone know the organisation’s goals?

Human nature

• Who makes decisions? How are decisions made? Are people allowed to take decisions?

• How is work/performance checked? (Self-assessment, trust, milestones etc.)

• How does the organisation approach responsibility? Who has responsibility? Is this consistent throughout the organisation?

Human action

• Is focus placed more on completing tasks (routine processes) or on active learning

• Does the organisation tolerate mistakes and how does it react to them?

• The relationship between work and pleasure: Totally separate or a way of life?

• What is the relationship among employees? How do they communicate with each other?

• How does interdepartmental communication work?

Culture Design

The definition of the target culture and the derivation of measures took place in workshops with executives and other opinion leaders. By identifying the largest gaps, we could derive measures for all dimensions. As the individual dimensions and/or basic assumptions represent a coherent system, the measures always have an effect on other variables. The extent of this effect could be evaluated in a simple way to determine the most effective measures. A common communication basis for the heads of the departments can be guaranteed by implementing a kind of incentive tour for executives (e. g. one weekend per year) which would focus on the maintenance and development of social and interpersonal relationships. This could be carried top down and department-spreading communication would improve. A further contribution would be the installation of regular discussion platforms (e. g. monthly) between groups and/or departments. These should not only be established for units which co-operate closely but also for others which cooperate less often.

Culture Development

After a selection of the most promising measures, the competencies for the execution of individual measures were defined and the strategy of change (evolutionary vs. revolutionary) was fixed. In the last step – culture development – the external project workers gradually left so the change of culture is now carried fully and completely by employees and the leading staff. An effective examination of the achievement of objectives would require a second evaluation of the organisational culture and/or individual dimensions to confirm the success of the interventions. In order to secure the results of this cultural learning, it needs to be carried out continuously and not regarded as a unique act. In this context we speak of a culture-conscious management meaning that the values and standards of an organisation must be maintained and developed consciously

References:

Schein, E. H. . Organizational culture and leadership. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The Analysis of Organizational Culture and Structure by Erich Hartlieb, Marjan Leber

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