Organizational Culture

One of the concepts we have discussed in this class is the idea of Organizational Culture. This stands for the shared social knowledge within an organization that tells employees what the rules, norms, and values within an organization are. It shapes and reinforces certain employee attitudes and behaviors. Organizational Culture has three different components: Observable Artifacts, Espoused Values, and Basic Underlying Assumptions. There are also different types: Customer Service Culture, Diversity Culture, and Creativity Culture.

The Observable Artifacts component of Organizational Culture stands for manifestations that employees and outsiders can easily see or talk about; for example, the use of slang or uniforms. Espoused Values are explicitly stated organizational beliefs, philosophies, and norms; for example, a company’s mission statement. Lastly, Basic Underlying Assumptions are beliefs ingrained that employees simply act on; for example, in the engineering field, people create things that are safe because it is an underlying assumption that things should be safe.

In organizational settings, culture strength stands for the degree to which employees agree about the way things are supposed to happen within the organization, and when they behave accordingly. When the organization has high culture strength, behaviors are consistent with expectations. Some organizations have subcultures and/or countercultures. These could either strengthen or weaken the organization’s culture. Subcultures are different divisions in the company; which act independently with one leader in each area, and create their own cultures. These are useful if there are certain areas of the organization that have different demands and needs for their employees. Countercultures, in the other hand, are smaller divisions in the company whose values do not match those of the organization. These may split the culture right down the middle and result in a differentiated company in an...