Lecture 30. Organizational Development Chapter Study Questions What is organizational culture? How...

Lecture 30

Organizational Development

Chapter Study Questions

What is organizational culture?

How do you understand an organizational culture?

How can the organizational culture be managed?

How can you use organizational development to

improve the firm?

Study Question 1: What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture.– The system of shared actions, values, and beliefs

that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members.

– Called corporate culture in the business setting.– No two organizational cultures are identical.

Study Question 1: What is organizational culture? External adaptation.

– Involves reaching goals and dealing with outsiders regarding tasks to be accomplished, methods used to achieve the goals, and methods of coping with success and failure.

– Important aspects of external adaptation. • Separating eternal forces based on

importance.• Developing ways to measure

accomplishments.• Creating explanations for not meeting goals.

Study Question 1: What is organizational culture? External adaptation involves answering

important goal-related questions regarding coping with reality.– What is the real mission?– How do we contribute?– What are our goals?– How do we reach our goals?– What external forces are important?– How do we measure results?– What do we do if specific targets are not met?– How do we tell others how good we are?– When do we quit?

Study Question 1: What is organizational culture? Internal integration.

– Deals with the creation of a collective identity and with finding ways of matching methods of working and living together.

– Important aspects of working together.• Deciding who is a member and who is not.• Developing an understanding of acceptable

and unacceptable behavior.• Separating friends from enemies.


Internal integration involves answering important questions associated with living together.– What is our unique identity?– How do we view the world?– Who is a member?– How do we allocate power, status, and authority?– How do we communicate?– What is the basis for friendship?

Study Question 1: What is organizational culture? Subculture.

– A group of individuals with a unique pattern of values and philosophy that are not inconsistent with the organization’s dominant values and philosophy.

Counterculture.– A group of individuals with a pattern of values

and philosophy that outwardly reject the surrounding culture.


Problems associated with subcultural

divisions within the larger culture.– Subordinate groups are likely to form into a

counterculture pursuing self-interests.

– The firm may encounter extreme difficulty in

coping with broader cultural changes.

– Embracing natural divisions from the larger

culture may lead to difficulty in international

operations.


Taylor Cox’s five step program.– Step 1: The organization should develop

pluralism.– Step 2: The organization should fully integrate its

structure.– Step 3: The organization must integrate the

informal networks.– Step 4: The organization should break the

linkage between naturally occurring group identity and organizational identity.

– Step 5: The organization must actively work to eliminate identity-based interpersonal conflict.

Study Question 2: How do you understand an organizational culture?

Study Question 2: How do you understand an organizational culture? Sagas.

– Heroic accounts of organizational accomplishments.

Rites.– Standardized and recurring activities that are used at

special times to influence organizational members.

Rituals.– Systems of rites.

Cultural symbols.– Any object, act, or event that serves to transmit cultural

meaning.


Culture often specifies rules and roles.

– Rules.

• The various types of actions that are

appropriate.

– Roles.

• Where individual members stand in the social

system.

Study Question 2: How do you understand an organizational culture? Shared values.

– Help turn routine activities into valuable and important actions.

– Tie the organization to the important values of society.

– May provide a very distinctive source of competitive advantage.

Study Question 2: How do you understand an organizational culture? Characteristics of strong corporate cultures.

– A widely shared real understanding of what the firm stands for, often embodied in slogans.

– A concern for individuals over rules, policies, procedures, and adherence to job duties.

– A recognition of heroes whose actions illustrate the company’s shared philosophy and concerns.

Study Question 2: How do you understand an organizational culture? Characteristics of strong corporate cultures (cont.).

– A belief in ritual and ceremony as important to members and to building a common identity.

– A well-understood sense of the informal rules and expectations so that employees and managers know what is expected of them.

– A belief that what employees and managers do is important and that it is essential to share information and ideas.

Study Question 2: How do you understand an organizational culture? Organizational myths.

– Unproven and often unstated beliefs that are accepted uncritically.

– Myths enable managers to redefine impossible problems.

– Myths can facilitate experimentation and creativity.

– Myths allow managers to govern.


National culture influences.

– Widely held common assumptions may be traced

to the larger culture of the host society.

– National cultural values may become embedded

in expectations of organization members.

Study Question 3: How can the organizational culture be managed? Strategies for managing corporate culture.

– Managers help modify observable culture, shared

values, and common assumptions directly.

– Use of organizational development techniques to

modify specific elements of the culture.

Study Question 3: How can the organizational culture be managed? Why a well-developed management philosophy is

important.– Establishes generally understood boundaries on

all members of the firm.– Provides a consistent way for approaching new

and novel situations.– Helps hold individuals together by showing them

a known path to success.

Study Question 3: How can the organizational culture be managed? Strategies for building, reinforcing, and

changing organizational culture.– Directly modifying the visible aspects of culture.– Changing the lessons to be drawn from common

stories.– Setting the tone for a culture and for cultural

change.– Fostering a culture that addresses questions of

external adaptation and internal integration.

Study Question 3: How can the organizational culture be managed? Mistakes that managers can make in

building, reinforcing, and changing culture.– Trying to change people’s values from the top

down:• While keeping the ways in which the

organization operates the same.• Without recognizing the importance of

individuals. – Attempting to revitalize an organization by

dictating major changes and ignoring shared values.

Study Question 4: How can you use organization development to improve the firm?

Organization development (OD).

– The application of behavioral science knowledge

in a long-range effort to improve an

organization’s ability to cope with change in its

external environment and to increase its internal

problem-solving capabilities.

Study Question 4: How can you use organization development to improve the firm?

Organizational development.

– Designed to work on both issues of external

adaptation and internal integration.

– Used to improve organizational performance.

– Seeks to achieve change so the organization’s

members maintain the culture and longer-run

organizational effectiveness.

Study Question 4: How can you useorganization development to improve the firm? Underlying assumptions of OD.

– Individual level.

• Respect for people and their capabilities.

– Group level.

• Belief that groups can be good for both people

and organizations.

– Organizational level.

• Respect for the complexity of an organization

as a system of interdependent parts.

Study Question 4: How can you useorganization development to improve the firm?

Organization development goals.

– Outcome goals.

• Mainly deal with issues of external adaptation.

– Process goals.

• Mainly deal with issues of internal integration.

Study Question 4: How can you useorganization development to improve the firm? In pursuing outcome and process goals, OD

helps by:– Creating an open problem solving climate.– Supplementing formal authority with knowledge

and competence.– Moving decision making where relevant

information is available.– Building trust and maximizing collaboration.– Increasing the sense of organizational ownership.– Allowing people to exercise self-direction and

self-control.


Action research.

– The process of systematically collecting data on

an organization, feeding it back to the members

for action planning, and evaluating results by

collecting and reflecting on more data after the

planned actions have been taken.


Organizationwide OD interventions.– Survey feedback.

• Collection and feedback of data to organization members for action planning purposes.

– Confrontation meetings.• Activities for quickly determining how an

organization can be improved and taking initial actions for betterment.


Organizationwide OD interventions (cont.).– Structural redesign.

• Realigning the organization’s structure or major subsystems.

– Collateral organization.• Using representative organizational members

in periodic small group problem-solving sessions.


Group and intergroup OD interventions.– Team building.

• Activities to improve the functioning of a group.– Process consultation.

• Activities to improve the functioning of key group processes.

– Intergroup team building.• Activities to improve the functioning or two or more

groups.


Individual OD interventions.– Role negotiation.

• Clarifying expectations in working relationships.– Job redesign.

• Creating long-term congruence between individual goals and organizational career opportunities.

– Career planning.• Structured opportunities for individuals to work with

managers or staff experts on career issues.

Lecture 30. Organizational Development Chapter Study Questions What is organizational culture? How...

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