Corporate Culture As A Management Tool

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management - Miscellaneous, grade: 72%, University of Bradford (School Of Management), course: Organisational Behaviour, language: English, abstract: This assignment aims at discussing whether a strong organisational culture which can be used as a tool of management control helps to both motivate staff and improve company performance and should therefore be encouraged. Organisational culture can be defined as “the basic values, ideologies and assumptions which guide and fashion individual and business behaviour.” (Wilson and Rosenfeld 1990, p.229). Following Schein, organisational culture can be subdivided into three levels, representing the visibility to the observer. Most visible are the culture’s artefacts or surface manifestations, including organisational structure, processes, physical environment, technology and products, employees clothing, manners of address as well as language and company myths. These and other artefacts can be discovered while interacting with the organisation as an employee, customer or other stakeholder. The second level are espoused beliefs and values. The companies set of values normally establishes over a long period emerging from the founders and managements own mindset. These values are (or better should be) adopted by all employees as a part of their own values and beliefs and are also manifested as stated company values. The third and most in-depth level of organisational culture are the underlying basic assumptions. They evolve when beliefs and values become treated as reality, though they are never visible to an observer and can be described as the company’s own culture (Schein 2004). An important factor, when looking at organisational culture is the similarity or differences of the management’s and the employee’s view of corporate culture. A high match of organizational culture levels results in a strong organisational culture whereas differences in both groups’ mindsets lead towards a weak culture. Important thereby is not only a match of the culture’s manifestations, which only leads to a superficial strong culture, much more significant is sharing of the same values and underlying assumptions (Hartog and Verburg 2004). In a strong organisational culture, common thinking and views between employers and employees may eventually result in a better working atmosphere, an alignment of the workforce and ultimately in better performance (Deal and Kennedy 2000). Weak corporate cultures on the other hand are marked by less shared values, beliefs and assumptions and are less stringent in its thinking but are therefore also more open to changes and fluctuations. [...]

Corporate Culture explains how culture is a key driver or determinant of the "bottom line" and why it is the ultimate source of sustainable competitive advantage in organizations.

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture provides a framework, a sense-making tool, a set of systematic steps, and a methodology for helping managers and their organizations carefully analyze and alter their fundamental culture. Authors, Cameron and Quinn focus on the methods and mechanisms that are available to help managers and change agents transform the most fundamental elements of their organizations. The authors also provide instruments to help individuals guide the change process at the most basic level—culture. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture offers a systematic strategy for internal or external change agents to facilitate foundational change that in turn makes it possible to support and supplement other kinds of change initiatives.

With stories and examples from his 27 years of business leadership experience, Friedman makes clear the connection between values and success in a way that's as enjoyable to read as it is insightful.

Effective, sustainable cultural change requires evolution, not disruption The Corporate Culture Survival Guide is the essential primer and practical guide every organization needs. Corporate culture pioneer Edgar H. Schein breaks the concept of 'culture' down into real terms, delving into the behaviors, values, and shared assumptions that define it, and explains why culture is the central factor in an organization's success—or failure. This new third edition is designed specifically for practitioners needing to apply these practices in real-world settings, and has been updated with new coverage of globalization, technology, and managerial competencies. You'll learn how to get past subconscious bias to assess whether or not your existing culture truly serves your organization, and how to introduce change and manage the change process over time for a best-case-scenario outcome. Case studies illustrate successful change in real companies, providing models and setting the bar for dismantling dysfunctional cultures. Corporate culture begins with the founder, and evolves—or not—over time. Is your culture working for or against your organization? How can it be optimized? This book separates the truth from the nonsense to provide real-world guidance on initiating and managing cultural change. Understand when to assess your culture, and how to do it objectively Learn how cultures evolve and change over time, for better or worse Discover the reality of multiculturalism amidst the rise of globalization Evolve your culture to more effectively serve your organization Each of us is a part of many cultures—what you do, where you live, where you grew up, what you enjoy, how you live; in the workplace, many different people with many different cultures come together toward a common goal—will these cultures clash or synergize? The Corporate Culture Survival Guide shows you how to create an overarching corporate culture that gets everyone on the same page to drive your organization's success.

More than two hundred CEOs reveal their candid insights on how to build and foster a corporate culture that encourages innovation and drives results In Quick and Nimble, Adam Bryant draws on interviews with more than two hundred CEOs to offer business leaders the wisdom and guidance to move an organization faster, to be quick and nimble, and to rekindle the whatever-it-takes collective spark of a start-up workplace, all with the goal of innovating and thriving in a relentlessly challenging global economy. By analyzing the lessons that these leaders have shared in his regular "Corner Office" feature in The New York Times, Bryant has identified the biggest drivers of corporate culture, bringing them to life with real-world examples that reflect this hard-earned wisdom. These men and women—whose ranks include Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Angie Hicks of Angie's List, Steve Case of Revolution (and formerly AOL), and Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania—offer useful insights and strategies for creating a corporate culture of innovation and building a high-performing organization that unleashes the passion and energy of its employees. As the world shifts to more of a knowledge economy, the winners will be companies that can attract and retain the best and brightest employees by creating an environment where they can grow, contribute, and feel rewarded. Through the wisdom of these leading chief executives, Quick and Nimble offers a keen understanding of leadership, recruiting, and the forces that shape corporate culture and a clear road map to bring success and energy to any organization.

Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments. With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments. Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures.