ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT

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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT

• ASSOC. PROF. DR. JEGAK ULI

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Objective After studying this unit, you should
be able to understand

1. the concept of organizational or corporate
   culture
2. the elements of organizational culture
3. the importance of organizational culture and
   change
4. the method to determine the observable
   organizational culture among the employees
5. the process of change in organizational culture

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Introduction

• Change in the cultural contexts is inevitable in
  organizations.
• Changes in any system or subsystem would not be
  effective until the change is aligned with the
  organizational / corporate culture.
• Otherwise resistance to change may affect the
  planned change.
• For instance, the adoption of bureaucratic
  culture may not facilitate fast and effective
  change and to counter the frequency of
  organization change.

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Fig. 1 Interaction between corporate culture,
strategy, and change
Change


Culture
Strategy
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Introduction

• Any attempt to bring changes in organization
  usually involves changing the organizations
  culture.
• If rapid changes were to take place, the basic
  assumptions and transformation of the current
  culture may be altered if it is to have a
  realistic opportunity to succeed.
• The potential areas of interdependence among
  organizational culture, strategies and the
  desired change ought to be noted.
• A deep understanding of organizational culture is
  vital in managing and implementing a change
  initiative.

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Definition of Organizational Culture

• There are numerous scholarly definitions and
  opinions in defining culture in the context of
  organization.
• However, culture inevitably is described as an
  intangible asset in organizations (Itami,
  1987)1 which is shared, learnt, and
  transmitted (Beaumont, 1993)2.
• Schein (1985) 3 depicts organizational culture
  as the set of values, beliefs, and assumptions
  shared by the members of the organization.
• This is further supported by Morgans (1986) 4
  definition of organizational culture as a vital
  tool in establishing ideas, values, norms,
  beliefs, and customs in creating an organization
  as a social unit.
• 1 Itami, H. (1987). Mobilizing Invisible
  Asset. Cambridge Harvard University Press.
• 2 Beaumont, P.B. (1993). Human Resource
  Management Key Concepts and Skills. London Sage
  Publication.
• 3 Schein, H.E. (1985). Organizational Culture
  and Leadership. San Francisco Jossey Bass.
• 4 Morgan, G. (1986). Images of Organizations.
  Beverly Hill Sage Publication.

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Definition of Organizational Culture

• Sackman (1991) 1 is of the opinion that
  culture acts as a control mechanism that can
  increase commitment towards the organization,
  achieving integration between firms and assist in
  adapting towards the desired change.
• A strong organizational culture acts as a
  compass, exhibits controlled guide and serves as
  a balanced force among members of the
  organization.
• It can also act as a glue to bond people together
  in the organization.
• 1 Sackman, S.A. (1991). Cultural Knowledge in
  the Organization Exploring Collective Mind.
  California Newbury Park.

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Definition of Organizational Culture

• Hofstede (1991)1 defines culture as the
  collective programming of the mind which
  distinguishes the members of one human group from
  another.
• According to Flanagan (1995)2, corporate
  culture demonstrates how practices are manifested
  and how problems are solved in an organization.
• Comprehensively, corporate culture is the pattern
  of basic assumptions created, discovered, and
  developed by an organization when confronted with
  problems of external adaptation and internal
  integration.
• These basic assumptions evolved into beliefs,
  artifacts and rituals / norms (Schein, Martin,
  and Meyerson, 1986)3.
• 1 Hofstede, G. (1991). Culture and
  Organizations Software of The Mind. London
  McGraw Hill.
• 2 Flanagan, P. (1995). The ABCs of Changing
  Corporate Culture. Management Review, AMA, pp.
  57-61.
• 3 Schein,E.H., Martin,J., Meyerson,D. (1986).
  Organizational Cultures and Denial Channeling,
  Acceptance of Ambiguity. Research Reports No.
  807R, Research Paper Series, Graduate School of
  Business, Stanford University, CA.

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Definition of Organizational Culture

• Generally, culture can be defined as collection
  of beliefs, values, behavior, attitudes, and
  customs that characterize a community of people
  in an organization.
• It is a conventional way to perpetuate how people
  think and act, in understanding reality,
  recognize and solve problems in an organization.

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Fig. 2 Elements of Organizational Culture
Basic Assumptions
Values Artifacts
Norms
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Elements of Corporate Culture

• Four elements of corporate culture include
• Basic assumptions
• Artifacts
• Values
• Norms

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Basic assumptions

• These are the basic precepts or principles that
  characterizes an organization in terms of what it
  is, what it stands for and what it is all about.
  
• It is what drives the organization and determines
  how its members perceive, think, feel and behave.
  
• It underlies the various aspects of
  organizational activity and represents the core
  ideology.

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Examples of Basic assumption

• emphasis on quality
• customer-oriented
• market oriented
• risk taking and innovation
• employee participation
• open communication and safety
• continuous improvement thinking

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Artifacts

• The visible manifestation of culture as seen in
  the physical and social environment of the
  organization such as
• the structure, system, subsystem, symbols,
  plaques, etc.
• release of public documents, media reports and
  stories about the organization.
• rituals, norms, customs, rules and procedures.
• the observable behavior of its members (the way
  they talk, the jargons they use, the way they
  dress, etc.)
• E.g. The 24-hour hotline for customers

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Values

• These are the social principles, goals, or
  standards held by members of an organization
  individually or collectively.
• Values form the core of the culture, reflecting
  what is important in the organization and
  determining how the organization ought to be.

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Values

• For instance, Boeing, characterized its product
  safety as its core values that form the basis of
  its policies and actions in safety standards,
  test and analyses to all its commercial flights.
  
• Identifying, communicating, and shaping
  organizational values is difficult as values
  relate to employee emotions and feelings
  (affective) than their rational thinking
  (cognitive)
• Values may not be observed directly but could be
  inferred from employee behavior and the stated
  reasons for the behavior.

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Norms

• These are the significant elements of the
  organizations social environment and evolve out
  of the organizations value.
• Unwritten rules of behavior, the informal rules
  of the game telling employees what they are
  supposed to be saying, believing and doing, and
  what is right and wrong.

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Norms

• For instance, IBMs norms outlined that its
  employees need to listen actively and act
  accordingly to meet its customers needs, demands
  and rectify complaints.
• Norms are generally passed on to new employees by
  word of mouth and enforced by the social approval
  or disapproval of ones behavior in terms of its
  congruence or incongruence with prevalent norms.

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Forces for Change (When does change in
organizational culture occur?)

• Change in organizational culture is likely to
  result when-
• The organizations general environment has
  changed or is going to change due to the rapid
  technological, economic, and political changes
• Competitive environment in the industry exists
• An organization is experiencing expansion and
  development process

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Forces for Change (When does change in
organizational culture occur?)

• A planned change to design and implement radical
  changes, fundamental or strategic transformations
  or recreational changes
• The only alternative to ensure continual survival
  of the organization
• Two or more organizations merge.

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Steps of effective change in organizational
culture

1. Formulate a clear picture of the firms new
   strategy and of the shared values, norms, and
   behaviors needed to make it work.
2. Examine in depth the internal functioning of the
   organization and ascertain if cultural change is
   required.
3. Identify aspects of the current culture that
   could be still be valid and other aspects that
   need to modified or changed.

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Steps of effective change in organizational
culture

1. Identify the scope or depth of the cultural
   change needed.
2. Maintain open communication during the change
   process by announcing those changes in terms of
   general objectives, specific activities and
   desired behaviors.

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Steps of effective change in organizational
culture

1. Implement top-down change. Top management
   commitment has to be obviously seen and felt.
2. Involve the employees in the change process.

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Steps of effective change in organizational
culture

1. Check on the leadership and support processes to
   overcome anxiety and resentful sentiments among
   managers and employees.
2. Monitor the progress from time to time build
   momentum in terms of initial success.
3. Overcome or defuse resistance. Despite this,
   expect certain casualties to occur.

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Approaches to increase supportive organizational
culture among teamwork

1. Check knowledge with each individual in the team
   on organizational culture and strengthen the
   situation.
2. Identify aspects of organizational culture that
   are known by the team members, of which you do
   not know and learn from them.
3. Identify and share aspects of organization
   culture that you know but not known by the team
   members.

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Approaches to increase supportive organizational
culture among teamwork

• Coordinate and reinforce the obvious culture that
  you and your team know and yet to know with the
  management level. The objective is to involve,
  collaborate, and increase employee participation
  on
• the effect of basic assumptions, values and norms
  on organization
• state all aspects of organizational culture
  including tradition and history, objective,
  policies and procedures, product and service,
  customer, technology, system and organizational
  control, success and failures.

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Approaches to increase supportive organizational
culture among teamwork

1. Educate all the teams on organizational culture.
   Every employee needs to understand the breadth
   of areas in beliefs and basic values that
   influence and relevant to the organizational
   culture.

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Approaches to increase supportive organizational
culture among teamwork

• Team members can use the Joharis Window (Luft,
  1961) 1 as an exercise to examine the extent to
  which realization of organizational culture exist
  and to strengthen the organizational culture.
• 1 Luft, J. (1961). Of Human Interaction. Palo
  Alto, California National Press Books.

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Fig. 3 Joharis Window on Organizational
Culture

Knowledge on Organizational Culture
Aspects of organizational Aspects of
organizational culture that I do not realized
culture that others and I but known by
others do not know (What
should I learn from (not collectively
known) others?) What is known collectively
Aspects of organizational on organizational
culture culture that I know
but (Organizational culture not
known by others known by everyone)
(What I should tell others)

What I do not know

What I know
What others know
What others do not know
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Changing Organizational Culture

• Changing organizational culture is not easy and
  time consuming for a cultural transformation to
  take effect.
• Changing the corporate culture requires
  systematic planning and careful implementation.
• There are a few models that can be used to effect
  change in the corporate culture and one of them
  is that of Gonzales Model (1987)1.
• 1 Gonzales, R. (1987). Corporate Culture
  Modification A Guide for Managers. Manila.
  National Books Co.

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There are five key steps involved

1. Identify the reason the organization needs to
   change its corporate culture. -It is imperative
   to identify current culture and give reasons for
   the required change. -The change has to be from
   within the organization because the employees
   need to believe and to be tuned to its culture
   change.
2. Identify the main objectives of the change in
   corporate culture. -Establish the form of the
   new cultural change. -Involve as many employees
   as possible to develop a list of new beliefs,
   values, norms, rules and procedures, and
   corporate system to have a positive impact on
   organizational effectiveness.

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There are five key steps involved

1. Plan the approach or strategy to achieve the
   objectives of the change. -Identify cultural
   gaps between actual norms and those which would
   impact positively on the organization. How
   would the organization move towards the new
   directions? -The means to reinforce the new
   corporate culture has to be considered. -The
   transformation of the new corporate system to
   produce a conducive environment for the
   organization has to be communicated and enacted.
2. Implement the planned change of the corporate
   culture with various strategies.

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There are five key steps involved

1. Evaluate the progress of the corporate culture
   change through feedback from organization
   members. -Organization power tools are required
   such as information, support and resources for
   adapting to change and ensuring its success based
   on the stated objectives.