Summary PIO / Faris Dzikrur Rahman / 29317008

What Is an Organization’s Culture

Managing culture is a complex and vital part of the work of general manager. It can be
one of the most powerful tools that a manager can employ in their efforts to get the diverse
and dispersed set of people that comprise most organizations to work together in a coherent,
consistent, and purposeful way. Culture can also be one of the most vexing barriers to
managing change in an organization. An increasing number of people in the worlds of
management and academia have found Edgar Schein’s model of culture- what it is and where
it comes from- to be a managerially useful, intellectually consistent way to frame their work.
Schein discusses four specific instances in which it is extremely important for a manager
to understand an organization’s culture in a rigorous, detailed way, include: 1)when he or she
first jouns a new organization as a manager; 2) when one company acquires another; 3)when
the manager is confronting the need to fundamentally change the company’s strategic
direction.

National Cultures and Work Related Values: The Hofstede Study

Hofstede defined culture as the collective mental programming of people in different social
environments. He found that culture could be broken down into four dimensions that
explained many observed differences in organizational systems and managerial behavior, such
as:
1. Power Distance  the extent to which a national culture accepts and reinforces the
fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. In business
organizations, power distance is most explicitly reflected in the nature of the superior-
subordinate relationship.
2. Uncertainty Avoidance  the degree to which a national culture values the reduction
of uncertainty and ambiguity. In managerial practice, this dimension is manifest in the
use of detailed job descriptions and instructions, and in the distate for ambiguous
matrix organizational structures where subordinates may have two direct bosses.
3. Individualism-Collectivism  in high collectivism culture, management is the
management of groups; in individualistic cultures, it is the management of individuals.
Employees in cultures that score high on individualism are expected to act according
to their self interest. In cultures high on collectivism, an employer does not hire an
individual, but a member of an in-group, who is expected to act according to the
interest of his/her group.
4. Masculinity-Femininity  the masculinity represents the culture’s dominant value
conform to a traditional view of male sex-role characteristics assertiveness and the
acquisition of material goods. The femininity reflects on dominant values that conform
to a traditional view of female sex-role characteristics, which is an emphasis on caring
for others and quality of life.

A Process for Changing Organizational Culture

In every organization, develop a dominant type of organizational culture over time. There are
seven step culture change process in organization, such as: 1)clarifying meaning, 2)Identifying
stories, 3)determining strategic initiatives, 4)identifying small wins, 5)craft metrics, measures,
and milestones, 6)communication and symbols, 7)leadership development