Characteristics of org. culture. Organizational culture as an element of organization management

01.05.2019

Phenomenon organizational culture is a set of certain elements (components.) Firstly, these are organizational values. They are the core of organizational culture, since on their basis norms and forms of behavior in the organization are developed. It is the values proclaimed by the founders and most authoritative members of the organization that become the factor on which the cohesion of employees, the unity of views and actions depends, and, consequently, ensures the achievement of the organization’s goals.

Values are usually understood as properties of objects, processes or phenomena that have emotional appeal for members of an organization. The distribution of values in a social group, for example among company employees, is what sociologists call the value image of a given group or organization. As for the individual employee, within the organization, within the framework of the general value image, each of them occupies an individual value position. Value images and positions change in the process of interpersonal interaction and exchange of values.

Organizational values and norms are:

The purpose of the organization and its “face” (high level of technology; top quality; leadership in its industry; dedication to the spirit of the profession; innovation);

Seniority and authority (the powers inherent in a position or person; respect for seniority and authority; seniority as a criterion of authority, etc.);

The importance of various leadership positions and functions (importance of leadership positions, roles and authorities of departments and service);

Treatment of people (concern for people and their needs; impartial treatment and favoritism; privileges; respect for individual rights; training and professional development opportunities; career; fairness in payment; motivation of people);

Selection criteria for leadership and supervisory positions (seniority or performance; priorities in internal selection; influence of informal relationships and groups, etc.);

Work organization and discipline (voluntary or forced discipline; flexibility in changing roles; use of new forms of work organization, etc.);

Decision-making processes (who makes the decision, who is consulted; individual or collective decision-making; the need for agreement, the possibility of compromise; etc.);

Dissemination and exchange of information (employee awareness; ease of information exchange);

Nature of contacts (preference for personal or written contacts; rigidity or flexibility in the use of established channels of official communication; the importance attached to formal aspects; the possibility of contact with senior management; the use of meetings; who is invited and to which meetings; norms of behavior during meetings);

The nature of socialization (who communicates with whom during and after work; existing barriers; special conditions of communication);

Ways to resolve conflicts (the desire to avoid conflict and compromise; preference for using official or informal ways; participation of top management in resolving conflict situations; etc.).

Thus, every organization operates in accordance with those values that are essential to its employees. When creating organizational cultures, it is necessary to take into account the social ideals and cultural traditions of the country. In addition, for a more complete understanding and assimilation of values by employees of the organization, it is important to ensure that values are expressed differently within the organization. The gradual acceptance of these values by members of the organization will allow them to achieve stability and great success in the development of the organization.

The functional role of the existence of the organization’s values is directly related to the very fact of human life in society. K. Kluckhohn believes that without values the life of society would be impossible; the functioning of the social system could not remain focused on achieving group goals; individuals could not get from others what they need in terms of personal and emotional relationships; they would also not feel within themselves the necessary measure of order and community of goals. All this can be confidently attributed to corporate cultures: without a unified value system, organizations could not function sustainably and achieve their goals.

However, not all corporate values that are recognized and even accepted by an employee as such actually become his personal values. Awareness of a particular value and positive attitude not enough for her. A truly necessary condition is the practical inclusion of the employee in the organization’s activities aimed at realizing this value. Only by daily acting in accordance with corporate values, observing established norms and rules of conduct, can an employee become a company representative who meets intragroup social expectations and requirements. Full identification of an employee with the company means that he not only understands the ideals of the company, clearly follows the rules and norms of behavior in the organization, but also internally fully accepts corporate values. In this case, the cultural values of the organization become the individual values of the employee, occupying a strong place in the motivational structure of his behavior. Over time, the employee continues to share these values, regardless of whether he is within the framework of this organization or works in another place. Moreover, such an employee becomes powerful source given values and ideals, both within the organization that formed it, and in any other company, firm, etc.

The next component of organizational culture is the philosophy of the organization, i.e. a set of fundamental, key values that answer the question of what is most important for a given organization.

The third component of organizational culture is rites, rituals and slogans.

The fourth component is legends and myths.

The fifth component is customs.

The sixth component is norms and style of behavior.

According to other researchers, culture includes the following components:

Characteristics of behavior in human interaction such as rituals and ceremonies, as well as the language used in communication;

Norms accepted throughout the organization, for example, “earned - received” or how to reasonably refuse a new task; The standards include the so-called:

- “rules of the game” that a newcomer must master in the process of becoming a member of the organization;

Psychological climate in the organization

The first, least detectable and deepest level is represented by worldview. These are ideas about the world around us, the nature of man and society. More than any other phenomenon of organizational culture, worldview is associated with ethnic culture and religious ideas. It is not without reason that considerable difficulties arise when organizing joint ventures where the employees are carriers of different worldviews. In this case, the ground arises for significant contradictions and conflicts among the employees of the organization and significant additional efforts are required to harmonize the worldviews of the members of such a team. At the same time, it is important to understand that it will not be possible to radically change people’s worldview. The only thing that can be achieved is a new level of mutual understanding and acceptance of the positions of representatives of another culture.

Another section of this level of culture is organizational mythology, the implementation of which is a more painstaking process. One of its directions is characterized by the statement: “The people should know their heroes” and involves creating a halo of a hero for one of the organizers of the company or its employees. If there is no character corresponding to the scale of the task, he can be brought in from outside by inviting him as an honorary president, astronaut or political figure. A historical character can also be used as a human symbol.

In turn, Edgar Schein proposed a diagram of the hierarchy of levels of organizational culture, which is based on some basic ideas about the nature of the surrounding world, reality, time, space of human nature, human activity, human relationships (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1 Structure of organizational culture by E. Schein

Data, hidden data, and assumed assumptions guide people's behavior by helping them perceive the attributes that characterize organizational culture. They are in the sphere of the subconscious, and, accordingly, are not sufficiently realized even by their carriers - members of the organization. They are revealed only in the process of special analysis and, basically, are only hypothetical in nature.

The second level represents the values and beliefs shared by members of the organization, according to the extent to which these values are reflected in symbols and language. The perception of values and beliefs is conscious and depends on the desires of people. They are aware of to a greater extent than basic ideas and are often directly formulated in the organization’s program documents, being the main guidelines in its activities. As a rule, they are formed by its management for the attention of all employees. Given values, which may be explicit or implicit, in turn determine the social norms that govern the behavior of organizational members. Declared values do not always correspond true values organizations.

The third level is the external manifestations of organizational culture. These include the technology and architecture used, the use of space and time, the specific observable actions of people (rituals, ceremonies...), the layout and decoration of the organization's premises. It is like a visible part of organizational culture. However, the meaning of these external manifestations remains unclear if the basic ideas that stand behind these external manifestations are unknown. At this level, things and phenomena are easy to detect, but they cannot always be deciphered and interpreted in terms of organizational culture.

The main properties of organizational culture are presented in Figure 1.2.

Rice. 1.2. Properties of organizational culture

It is clear that if an organization's culture is aligned with its overall purpose, it can be an important factor in organizational effectiveness. That's why modern organizations view culture as a powerful strategic tool to orient all departments and individuals towards common goals, mobilize employee initiative and ensure productive interaction. In other words, we can talk about organizational culture only in the case when top management demonstrates and approves a certain system of views, norms and values that directly or indirectly contribute to the implementation of the strategic objectives of the organization. More often than not, organizations develop a culture that embodies the values and behavioral styles of their leaders. In this context, organizational culture can be defined as a set of norms, rules, customs and traditions that are supported by the subject of organizational power and set the general framework for employee behavior that is consistent with the organization's strategy.

Being developing, organizational culture has the property of dynamism and in its movement goes through certain stages (Fig. 1.3.).

Rice. 1.3. Stages of development of organizational culture

At each of the presented stages, their own “growth problems” appear, which is natural for dynamic systems, however, different organizational cultures choose their own ways to solve them, which are more or less effective.

Fast-growing organizations are usually focused on successfully achieving their goals. The priorities of the organizational culture of such organizations are: professional competence, self-confidence and knowledge, desire for self-improvement, “equality of chances” in career development, reliability and completeness of information, high quality requirements. The achievements of employees are necessarily taken into account and rewarded, which creates job satisfaction and commitment to the organization and its organizational culture. To facilitate the development of such a fast-growing organization, the organizational culture must have increased dynamism, flexibility and a high capacity for change.

Slow-growing organizations tend to focus on bureaucratic norms and values, primarily on power and status, self-affirmation, and the hierarchy of unity of command. Such a bureaucratic culture can exist for quite a long time without change and movement forward, until some really serious contradictions force the organizational culture to change.

Consistency is the second most important property, indicating that organizational culture is a fairly complex system that combines individual elements into a single whole, guided by a specific mission in society and its priorities.

The structured nature of organizational culture means a strict hierarchical subordination of its elements, which have their own degree of urgency and priority.

Organizational culture also has the property of relativity, since it is not a “thing in itself”, but constantly correlates its elements both with its own goals and with surrounding reality, other organizational cultures, while noting their own weaknesses and strengths, reviewing and improving certain parameters.

The heterogeneity of organizational culture means that within it there can be many local structures that reflect the differentiation of culture by levels, departments, divisions, age and national groups etc.

Organizational culture should not be interpreted as a monolithic phenomenon, as ideas that are equally perceived by all employees of the organization. In particular, the nature and content of work can cultivate specific methods of behavior and values, and this, in turn, forms a special subculture (for example, workers may have different beliefs, norms and behavior compared to management personnel).

Shareability is another critical property of organizational culture. Any organizational culture exists and develops effectively only due to the fact that its postulates, norms and values are shared by the staff. The degree of sharing determines the strength of the culture’s impact on employees. The higher the degree of sharedness, the more significant and strong the influence on the behavior of personnel in the organization is exerted by norms and values, goals, codes and other structural elements of organizational culture. Moreover, such influence is not violent or coercive, but is built on the voluntary and natural acceptance by employees of the postulates of organizational culture as their own.

What makes an organizational culture an organizational culture? Why is organizational culture not a psychological climate? Why is organizational culture not a set of traditions and rituals?

© Anton Zrodnikov

Essential characteristics of organizational culture

Systematicity
The most important property of organizational culture, as a complex system that combines individual elements into a single whole, guided by certain priorities, is consistency. The elements that make up organizational culture are strictly structured, hierarchically subordinate and have their own priority.
A superficial study of organizational culture begins with the first, “superficial” or “symbolic” level, which includes such visible external factors as the technology and architecture used, the use of space and time, observable patterns of behavior, methods of verbal and non-verbal communication, slogans, etc. ., or everything that can be felt and perceived through the known five human senses. At this level, things and phenomena are easy to detect, but they are quite difficult to interpret in terms of organizational culture without knowledge of its other levels. Those who attempt to explore organizational culture more deeply touch on its second, “subsurface” level, at which the values, beliefs and convictions shared by members of the organization are examined according to the extent to which these values are reflected in symbols and language, how they carry a semantic explanation of the first level. The perception of values and beliefs is conscious and depends on the desires of people. Schein called the second level of organizational culture “organizational ideology.” Here the role is especially emphasized life credo leader of the company. Researchers often limit themselves to this level, since almost insurmountable difficulties arise at the next level.
The third, “deep” level includes new (“fundamental”) assumptions that are difficult for even the members of the organization to understand without special focus on this issue. Among these taken-for-granted hidden assumptions that guide the behavior of people in an organization, E. Schein highlighted the attitude to existence as a whole, the perception of time and space, and the general attitude towards people and work.
According to which of these levels are studied, there is a division of organizational culture into objective and subjective. Subjective organizational culture includes values shared by all employees, beliefs, expectations, ethical standards, perception of the organizational environment, as well as a number of elements of the spiritual part of the “symbolism” of culture: heroes of the organization, myths, stories about the organization and its leaders, organizational rites, rituals and taboos, perception of communication language and slogans.
Objective organizational culture is usually associated with the physical environment: the company building and its design, location, equipment and furniture, technology used, colors and volume of space, amenities, cafeterias, parking lots and cars themselves, uniforms, information stands, brochures, etc. p. All this, to one degree or another, reflects the values that the organization adheres to.

According to another typology, any culture can be represented as a two-component structure - the core of the culture and the protective belt.
The core of culture concentrates norms, standards, standards and rules of activity, as well as a system of values developed in the real history of the organization. These specific standards, rules, etc. are related to the history of the company, its victories and defeats, the real conditions in which it was formed, and the specifics of the surrounding social environment. The structures in which the core of culture is realized are, first of all, mythology, prejudices, rituals, habits, rules of behavior, and traditions. The main function of the core of culture is the preservation and transmission of self-identity; it is highly stable and has minimal variability. The core of culture performs the function of social memory, storing information about history, stages of formation, living conditions and activities. This information, accumulated in the core, through the socialization system, the mechanism of social “memorization,” is transmitted throughout the organization, and this is what guarantees its self-identity. To preserve the core of culture in the process of development, a special cultural protective belt arises. It functions as a filtering mechanism that passes directive information coming from the core of culture and monitors and absorbs information impulses entering the organization from other cultures. These impulses, especially if they pose a threat to the core of culture, are neutralized and even dissolved in a protective belt. At the same time, it provides another function - adaptation to the external environment. However, the core of culture, for all its stability, cannot remain unchanged. Representing an information structure, it must change, because by definition, in its essence, information is a way of recording and transmitting changes. Speaking about the stability of the core of culture, its stability, we record the fact that the core of culture as information education changes and transforms incomparably slower than the protective belt, and even more so than the real environment. Consequently, we are talking about different rates of change, and the rates of change in the core are so insignificant compared to the rates of change in the protective belt and environment that practically they can be ignored over fairly large time intervals. This allows us to talk about the stability of the core of culture, although rather relative. However, in the event of a sharp change in environmental conditions, with deep transformations, the stability of the core of culture can turn out to be a purely negative phenomenon, preventing the organization from adapting to new living conditions and thereby pushing it towards self-destruction.

Dialecticality
Organizational culture has the property of dialectics, since it is not a “thing in itself”, but constantly correlates its elements, both with its own goals and with the surrounding reality, other organizational cultures, while noting its strengths and weaknesses, revising and improving those or other parameters.
Organizational culture is a contradictory unity of the meaning of activity and its result, constantly updated by the organization, the program of this activity. At the same time, it is also the basis of social relations.
Organizational culture and organizational relationships are two aspects of organizational performance. Organizational relations, ultimately recreated by organizational culture, are simultaneously a system of communications, specialization and integration of organizational activities for the exchange of resources and information in the process of realizing organizational goals. They are accepted through norms, customs, rituals, etc. Social relations exist not only within a single organization, but also within , groups, i.e. its subsystems, constituting a certain integrity, having specific experiences that form subcultures. These groups, like the organization as a whole, can exist if the activities of their members resist permanent destructive factors, and their activities ultimately come down to solving problems of internal integration and external adaptation.
The unity of subcultures and social relations is ensured by the activities of organizational groups, which consist precisely in solving the above problems. The key factor ensuring the dynamic homeostasis of social relations of a company organization is, first of all, the ability of people to transfer social relations from the past to the future, restore what was destroyed, ward off real and potential threats, and maintain the viability of the organization, which is realized within the framework of the communicative environment of organizational culture.
Consequently, the essence of social relations can be understood as a certain system of meaningful human relations and as a social integrity and as the active ability of the people included in it. Activities to solve problems of external adaptation and internal integration are opposed to the constant process of destruction, culture, social relations, and the constant trend of increasing disorganization.
The process of solving problems of internal integration and external adaptation - the only barrier to social entropy that can not only stop it, but also reverse it. Entropy is an inevitable consequence of organizational problems, while their solution leads to the manifestation of the effect of negentropy. This becomes especially obvious when analyzing the emergence of contradictions in organizational activities. The difficulty lies in the fact that in the organization there are constantly contradictions between social relations and culture, i.e. sociocultural contradictions . They appear as a result of the existence of entropic processes, i.e. errors, disorganization in the development of culture, the loss of certain of its elements, as well as attempts to establish ineffective relationships, which generates a discrepancy between the accumulated culture and the emerging relationships.
Sociocultural contradiction is found in the emergence of cultural programs that displace organizational activities in such a way that vital social relationships become dysfunctional. This contradiction is manifested in conflicts between the historically established and innovations that change it, between familiar and new political relations, which is ultimately determined by contradictions within organizational activities.
As stated above, an effective organization must, in order to exist, reproduce, renew its culture, its social relations, ensure their unity, interpenetration, removing constantly emerging sociocultural contradictions, preventing their growth to a critical level. The possibility of a sociocultural contradiction arising is due to the fact that cultural changes and changes in social relations are subject to different patterns. Changes in social relations, in principle, always entail changes in the effectiveness of organizational activities. Therefore, there are restrictions and prohibitions on many relationships that reduce this effectiveness below a critical threshold.
Organizational culture, unlike social relations, changes according to different laws. Culture always carries within itself assessments of any real or possible phenomenon from the point of view of a certain set of values, regardless of the possibility of embodying these values.
There are also restrictions in culture, but their nature is not the same as in social relations. Limitations in culture are always only one aspect of its content. Moreover, the nature of the prohibitions is in some way ambiguous, since they themselves constantly turn into the content of human thinking. It is common knowledge that what is prohibited attracts increased attention. By not allowing deviant behavior, culture thereby forces people to think in such terms.

Dynamism
In its movement, culture goes through the stages of origin, formation, maintenance, development and improvement, cessation (replacement). Each stage has its own “growing problems,” which is natural for dynamic systems. Different organizational cultures choose their own ways to solve them, more or less effective. Fast-growing organizations are usually focused on successfully achieving their goals. The priorities of the organizational culture of such enterprises are: professional competence, self-confidence and knowledge, desire for self-improvement, “equality of chances” when moving up the career ladder, reliability and speed of information, high quality requirements. Employees' achievements are necessarily taken into account and paid. All this gives rise to job satisfaction, commitment to the organization and its organizational culture. To facilitate the successful growth of such a fast-growing enterprise, the organizational culture must have increased dynamism, flexibility and a high ability to change. Slow-growing organizations tend to focus on bureaucratic norms and values, primarily on power and status, self-affirmation, hierarchy, and unity of command. Such a bureaucratic culture can exist for quite a long time without changes and movement forward, until some really serious contradictions lead to the need for its changes.
The breeding ground in which culture is formed, realized and reproduced is the naturally occurring historical movement. Representing a mechanism for preserving and transmitting what has been achieved, culture provides the possibility of systematic reconstruction of individual events of organizational history into context, and, consequently, into one or another vision of historical trajectories, certain movements, as sequential (logical) chains of events-shifts.
When studying culture, it is important to understand it as the unity of two opposite, but transforming poles, as a constant process of their mutual penetration. On the one hand, culture is something organizational-wide. But, on the other hand, it is always personal. For an individual, the culture accumulated by an organization is a real object, the characteristics of which the individual transforms into the content of his consciousness and activity.

Heterogeneity
A distinctive feature of a particular culture is the priority of the basic characteristics that form it, indicating which principles should prevail in the event of a conflict between its different components. In this context, there is no need to talk about organizational culture as a homogeneous phenomenon. Any organization potentially contains many subcultures, reflecting the differentiation of culture by levels, departments, divisions, age groups, national groups. A subculture can be in the same dimension as the dominant organizational culture, or create a kind of second dimension in it.
In fact, any of these subcultures can become dominant, i.e. the organizational culture itself, if it is purposefully supported and used by organizational authorities as a tool for consolidating individual goals in the direction of a common organizational goal.
A subculture is a set of symbols, beliefs, values, norms, and patterns of behavior that distinguish a particular community or any social group. At the same time, organizational culture is understood as one culture that prevails throughout the entire organization and the culture of its parts. Often (though not always) the structure of subcultures follows the culture of the organization itself.
The carriers of subcultures are individuals expressing similar interests. At the same time, subcultures repeat the structure of the enterprise itself: departments, departments, and administration of the enterprise will have different subcultures. With appropriate learning potential, new norms and patterns of behavior develop that were not previously introduced into the organization by anyone, and a new, strong culture emerges.
One or more subcultures in an organization may, by their nature, be in the same dimension as the dominant culture in the organization, or create, as it were, a second dimension in it.
The first type of relationship includes, for example, the subculture of the central management apparatus, the subculture of top managers, etc. - this will be an enclave in which adherence to the core values of the dominant culture is manifested to a greater extent than in other parts of the organization.
In the second case, the key values of the dominant culture are accepted by members of one of its groups simultaneously with a separate set of other, usually non-conflicting values. Subcultures are a consequence of the problems and experiences that divisions of an organization have gone through. Countercultures can be in direct opposition to the dominant culture, in opposition to power structures and governing bodies, or in opposition to certain elements of the general organizational culture, its structural components, norms of relationships, values, etc.
This usually takes place in the subculture of the central apparatus of an organization or system of governing bodies. This can be observed on the periphery of the organization or in territorial government bodies. This way can be adapted to the specifics of activity (functional services) or local conditions (territorial offices).
There may be a third type of subculture in organizations that is quite persistent in rejecting what the organization as a whole wants to achieve. Among these organizational countercultures, the following types can be distinguished:

direct opposition to the values of the dominant organizational culture;
opposition to the power structure within the dominant culture of the organization;
opposition to patterns of relationships and interactions supported by organizational culture.

Countercultures in organizations typically emerge when individuals or groups are exposed to conditions that they feel cannot provide them with the satisfaction they are accustomed to or want. IN in a certain sense organizational countercultures are a call for help in times of stress or crisis, i.e. when the existing support system has broken down and people are trying to regain some control over their lives in the organization. Some "countercultural" groups can become quite influential during large-scale transformations associated with significant changes in the nature, design and character of the organization.

Value consolidation
Value consolidation is another important property of organizational culture. Any organization grows by attracting new members coming from organizations with a different culture. New members of the organization bring with them a load of past experience, in which “viruses” of other cultures often lurk. An organization’s immunity from such “infections” depends on the strength of its culture, which is determined by three points:
1) "depth";
2) the extent to which it is shared by members of the organization;
3) clarity of priorities.
The “depth” of an organizational culture is determined by the number and strength of the core beliefs shared by employees. Cultures with many levels of beliefs and values have a strong influence on organizational behavior. In some cultures, shared beliefs, beliefs and values are clearly ranked. Their relative importance and interconnection do not diminish the role of each of them. In other cultures, the relative priorities and connections between shared values are blurred. A clear priority of beliefs has a greater effect on people's behavior, since they firmly know which value should prevail in the event of a value conflict.
Thus, a strong culture has deeper roots in the minds of people, it is shared a large number workers and its priorities are more clearly defined. Accordingly, such a culture has a deeper influence on the behavior of employees in the organization.
A strong culture not only creates benefits for an organization, but can also act as a significant barrier to organizational change. “New” in culture is always weaker at first. Therefore, a moderately strong organizational culture appears to be optimal for reorganization. It should be emphasized right away: every enterprise has a culture, even if it is expressed solely through mutual distrust. Although there is an opinion that culture should be talked about only where the group has managed to achieve stability and when it is possible to turn to general history development. This judgment has the right to exist in relation to groups, but not large organizations, which themselves consist of small communities located at the same time various stages development and thus having signs of strong or weak organizational cultures. To characterize a culture as strong is to allow for the possibility of misunderstandings: strong as dominant, powerful, insensitive, with a huge facade, all from one monolith, suppressing feelings and moods, lifeless, unified, ignoring gray tones, suppressing individual differences, forms and nuances.
The stronger the organizational culture, the more easily it resists attempts to destroy it from outside. external forces or countercultures, and the more easily such a strong culture adapts to any kind of change. A strong culture is a source of pride for staff; it is open, alive, undeniable, easily recognizable. Participation in such a culture in itself becomes a powerful tool for motivating staff, satisfying their needs for success, self-realization, achieving goals, morality and morality, high culture business relations, constant movement forward. Personnel in such a culture are required to constantly self-actualize, improve and develop their abilities, and the desire not only to proclaim norms and values, but also to actually follow them in their development.
Strong cultures, if they are immediately recognizable, are uncontested, open, alive - what people live by. They can be recognized by the fact that the enterprise has adopted a certain small number of values that are understood, approved and nurtured by all members of the organization.
Two tendencies are constantly expressed in the content of these core values: pride and style. Because in many cases, core values represent a program of what one wants to represent and achieve, on the one hand, in the external sphere, that is, for example, in the market, in society. On the other hand, these core values significantly affect the question of what kind of relationships are desirable within the organization. An undeniable culture is a decisive element of motivation: pride in one's own enterprise and the feeling that, based on the practiced communication style, one is at a high level.
The effective aspect is expressed, despite all the failures, failures and proclamations, in the constantly pursued goal, the desire to be the first, dominant in the market or simply the best in a certain area, in a certain area, in a certain market niche or, if this has already been achieved, the desire to expand and retain these positions. Undeniable company cultures develop a strong dynamic of their own, they instill immunity in cultural subjects and thus represent an essential support for the development of self-understanding.
A characteristic feature of a strong culture is also that the basic ideas about how to treat each other are indisputable. Strong cultures are characterized by a broad area of shared assumptions and values that influence people's actions more than non-cultural motives.
Organizational cultures are considered weak when they are highly fragmented and not held together by shared values and beliefs. A company can suffer if the subcultures that characterize its various divisions are unrelated or in conflict with each other. Copying the norms of behavior in informal groups can play an important role in the development of these various subcultures. A company in which common actions, statements, events and feelings are not obvious does not have a clear culture at all.
A weak culture can be recognized based on the following symptoms:

There are no clear values or shared beliefs about how to achieve success in a certain industry, a certain situation, or a certain endeavor. Helplessness spreads, salvation is sought in setting short-term production goals, long-term goals are absent, and figuring out the overarching philosophy of the enterprise is seen as simply a luxury;
In general, there are ideas about values and beliefs, but there is no agreement about what is currently right, important and effective. This condition becomes a complicating problem when a lack of determination comes from the management of the enterprise. Contradictions accumulate and continue at lower levels of the organization. The consequence of this may be wars between deputies and hidden struggles between the “strong ones in the enterprise”;
individual parts of the organization are unable to reach agreement among themselves: mainly different points of view are presented, there is no coherent picture. This refers, first of all, to traditional frontal positions, which can act between headquarters and line, technicians and businessmen, marketing and production, internal and external services, regional organization and center, etc.;
leading figures emerge and act rather demotivatingly and do nothing to contribute to the development of a common understanding of what is important and what is not.

This may, for example, mean that management personnel are unconsciously accepting mixed ones, i.e. conflicting decisions. In identical situations they react completely differently. If successful, employee abuse of authority is rewarded as enterprise; if unsuccessful, it is punished as indiscipline.
However, in recent years Opinions are divided regarding the significance of this characteristic and its role in organizational processes. Thus, the statement that the presence of a “strong” culture in an organization is good in itself is today considered controversial for a number of reasons which, according to A. Brown, refute this:
1) a strong culture makes it easier to achieve goals, but setting them within the culture is not always positive when those goals are unethical or do not encourage excellent economic performance;
2) a strong culture affects employee motivation in two ways, i.e. can encourage absolutely different relationships to an organization or work, and not always exclusively positive;
3) An organization that values its past and records information about it in stories and narratives has an advantage over a similar company that does not adhere to such rules. At the same time, there is a barely discernible boundary between the ability to draw conclusions from the lessons of the past and blind submission to it;
4) it is very difficult to identify the determining reason for the success of companies with a strong organizational culture, because it is quite possible that it is successful economic activity that leads them to establish a strong culture, and not vice versa. The success of an organization often combines the beliefs and values affirmed by the culture, and, therefore, it is economic success that strengthens the organizational culture.

Annotation: The concept of organizational culture. Three levels of organizational culture according to E. Schein. Characteristics of organizational culture according to P. Harris and R. Moran. Organizational Culture Assessment (OCAI) and use of the results of its analysis. Formation and maintenance of organizational culture. Organizational rituals. National factors in organizational culture. G. Hofstede's model. Lane and Distefano model. Model U. Ouchi. Organizational development. Change management. Types of changes. Driving forces changes. Resistance to change: forms, sources. Methods of overcoming resistance according to J. Kotter and L. Schlesinger.

Purpose of the lecture: consider the concept organizational culture, as well as approaches to its formation based on scientific research. Identify methods for overcoming resistance.

Most Western and Russian entrepreneurs have come to the understanding that the effective development of an organization is one in which a cohesive team has been created, hierarchical barriers have been eliminated, and everyone is maximally interested in the overall success, because His material well-being depends on this. The organization that has a developed organizational culture.

Direction " Organizational culture" is a field of knowledge included in the series of management sciences. It comes from the relatively new field of knowledge "Organizational Behavior", which explores the general approaches, principles, laws and patterns in the organization.

The main goal of organizational behavior is to help people perform their responsibilities in organizations more productively and gain greater satisfaction from doing so.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary, among other things, to determine values individuals, organizations, etc. First of all, we mean norms, rules, or standards.

Each specific organizational behavior has its own organizational culture, which form a single whole.

Organizational culture is a set of norms, rules and standards accepted and supported in society and organizational relations. Thus, organizational relations are interaction, opposition or neutral attitude structural elements in the organization and outside it.

Thus, organizational culture, represents:

the values and norms learned and applied by members of the organization, which at the same time decisively determine their behavior;
atmosphere or social climate in the organization;
the dominant system of values and behavioral styles in an organization.

Levels of organizational culture

According to the research of E. Schein, organizational culture must be considered from the perspective of three levels.

So, the first level is cognition organizational culture. At this level, a person cognizes the entire totality external factors, forming the culture of the organization.

At the second level, which is called “subsurface” or “organizational ideology,” a person begins to perceive the values, convictions, and beliefs shared by all members of the organization through language, symbols, and behavior.

At the third level, “deep,” there is an unconscious acceptance of hidden proposals on faith. For example, the attitude towards existence, the perception of space and time, the attitude of people towards work and each other, etc.

Characteristics of organizational culture according to F. Harris and R. Moran

According to the research of these scientists, organizational culture should be considered according to the following characteristics: (Table 30.1).

Table 30.1. Characteristics organizational culture by Harris and Moran

Characteristic organizational culture	What is meant by this characteristic?
Awareness of oneself and one's own in the organization	In some cultures, employees’ concealment of their own internal moods is valued, in others, their external manifestation is encouraged
Communication system and language of communication	oral, written, non-verbal communication is used, which undergoes changes with each new group, organization
Appearance	clothing and behavior at work
Meals for workers	what, where and how employees of the organization eat
Awareness of time	attitude towards time, encouragement for following a routine
Relationships between people	by gender and age, power and status, intelligence and wisdom, knowledge and experience
Values and norms	what people value in an organization and how they maintain these values
Faith	faith in leadership, one’s own strength, justice, and ethical behavior
Employee development process	Spontaneous or conscious performance of work, attention to intelligence or strength, approaches to explaining reasons
Work Ethic and Motives	attitude towards work and responsibility for it, quality and evaluation of work results, remuneration

The organizational cultures defined above reflect and give meaning to the organizational culture. The organization's team, sharing faith and expectations, creates its own physical environment, develops a language of communication, performs actions that are adequately perceived by others and displays feelings and emotions that are accepted by everyone. All this helps employees understand and interpret the culture of the organization, i.e. give your meaning to events and actions.

Assessment Tool corporate culture OCAI is based on the theoretical model "Competing Values Framework". Four dominant types of corporate culture emerge from this framework. The instrument was developed based on a review of empirical studies of 39 indicators that define a comprehensive set of measures of organizational effectiveness. As a result of these studies, the two most important indicators were identified and four core values were formulated, representing opposing or competing assumptions. The tool is designed to assess the effectiveness of corporate culture and identify those aspects of it that the company would like to change, and examines those aspects that determine the foundation of the organization's culture.

Components organizational culture, on which the assessment is based:

External characteristics.
General leadership style in the organization.
Employee management.
The connecting essence of the organization.
Strategic goals.

Formation organizational culture

Process external adaptation and survival associated with the organization’s search and finding of its niche in the market and adapting it to the constantly changing external environment. This is the process of an organization achieving its own goals and interacting with the external environment. As part of this process, issues related to the tasks being performed, methods for solving them, reactions to successes or failures, etc. are resolved.

In almost any organization, employees strive to take part in the following processes:

determine in the external environment what is important and what is not;
develop options for measuring achieved results;
determine the reasons for success and failure in achieving goals.

It has been noticed that employees of the organization feel the need to develop acceptable ways of conveying information about own capabilities, advantages and successes.

Process internal integration represents the connection with establishing and maintaining effective work relationships between members of the organization. Essentially it is a process of finding ways collaboration and collaboration within the organization. The process of internal integration begins with defining oneself, which in a certain way applies both to individual groups (subcultures) and to the entire team of the organization as a whole.

Working with each other, members of the organization's team strive to define for themselves the “organizational world” that surrounds them.

At almost all stages of an organization’s development, the managerial culture of its leader (personal faith, values, norms and behavior) in most cases determines the culture of the organization.

As previously defined, the formation of an organization's culture is associated with the external organizational environment:

business environment in general and in the industry in particular;
elements of national culture.

The adoption by an organization of a certain culture can be predetermined by the specifics of the type economic activity, in which it operates, with the characteristics of the market, consumers, etc.

Increasing management efficiency, along with others important factors functioning, organizational culture.

Organizational culture is a system of collectively shared values, symbols, beliefs, patterns of behavior of members of the organization that give general meaning their actions.

Organizational culture combines the values and norms of the organization, management style and procedures, and concepts of technological and social development. Organizational culture sets the limits within which confident decision-making is possible at each level of management, the possibility of using the resources of the organization as a whole, responsibility, gives directions for development, and regulates management activities, promotes members' identification with the organization. The behavior of its individual members is influenced by organizational culture.

At the heart of organizational culture: and the needs of the organization. No two organizational cultures are exactly alike, just as no two people are exactly alike.

The performance results of any organization are related to its organizational culture, which in one case promotes survival, in another - the achievement of the highest results, in the third - leads to bankruptcy.

To the main parameters of organizational culture include:

Focus on external(customer service, etc.) or internal tasks of the organization. Organizations focused on customer needs, subordinating all their activities to them, have significant advantages in market economy, this increases the competitiveness of the company.
Focus of activity on solving organizational problems or on social aspects its functioning. One of the options for social orientation is the organization’s sustained attention to the everyday, personal problems of employees.
Measure of risk readiness for innovation implementation. A measure of activity orientation towards innovation processes or stabilization.
Measure to encourage conformity(a change or evaluation of an individual's opinion towards greater agreement with the group) or individualism of organization members. Orientation of incentives towards group or individual achievements.
Degree of preference for group or individual forms of decision making. A measure of centralization - decentralization of decision making.
Degree of subordination of activity pre-made plans.
Expression of cooperation or competition between individual members and between groups in an organization.
The degree of simplicity or complexity of organizational procedures.
A measure of members' loyalty to the organization.
Awareness level of members about what their role is in achieving the organization's goals. Loyalty of members of “their” organization.

Organizational culture has a number of specific properties. TO the main properties of the organization's culture include:

Collaboration forms employees’ ideas about organizational values and ways to follow these values.
Community. This means that not only all knowledge, values, attitudes, customs, but also much more is used by the group to satisfy the deep needs of its members.
The basic elements of an organization's culture do not require proof, they go without saying.
Hierarchy and priority. Any culture involves ranking values. Absolute values are often put at the forefront, the priority of which is unconditional.
Systematicity. Organizational culture is a complex system that combines individual elements into a single whole.
"Strength" of the impact of organizational culture defined:
- homogeneity members of the organization. Commonality of age, interests, views, etc.;
- stability and duration joint membership. Short-term membership in an organization and constant changes in its composition do not contribute to the development of cultural characteristics;
- the nature of the shared experience, the intensity of interaction. If members of an organization have worked together to overcome real difficulties, then the impact of organizational culture is greater.

Organizational culture has a significant impact on the life of a business organization.

Influence of organizational culture on the activities of the organization is manifested in the following forms:

identification by employees of their own goals with the goals of the organization and with the organization as a whole through the acceptance of its norms and values;
implementation of norms prescribing the desire to achieve goals;
formation of an organization development strategy;
the unity of the process of strategy implementation and the evolution of organizational culture under the influence of external environmental requirements.

Diagnosis of organizational culture involves studying documents, observing management style, and confidential communication with employees at all levels of the organization’s hierarchy. Collecting information allows you to create a profile of organizational culture, which reflects: the content of values, their consistency, and general orientation.

Organizational culture management involves its formation, strengthening (preservation) and change. Formation of organizational culture requires taking into account the gradual, evolutionary nature of its development and is carried out using the following measures:

The implementation of so-called symbolic leadership, i.e. the creation of symbolic figures and images of leaders who embody best values and organizational norms.
Concentration of efforts on the formation of the most significant organizational values and norms.
Creation and expansion of local “islands” in the organization, which are subject to certain values.
Changing employee behavior through experiencing real organizational success.
Creating signs of organizational culture that express values and norms.
Combining directive and indirect methods of forming organizational culture.

Symbolic approach presupposes the presence in the organization of a special language, symbolic activity (actions), special ceremonies, a fixed history of the organization, legends, symbolic figures (people), etc.

Incentive approach attracts special attention of organizations to the employee system. In this case, the organization pays its employees the same or even higher than in other similar companies. Remuneration for achieved results is expressed in the form of providing training opportunities, development of business and personal qualities of personnel. Each member of the organization can use the services of consultants and teachers to improve their own activities. Special programs for professional and managerial careers in the organization are being developed.

It is assumed that the creation of a climate suitable for motivation depends largely on management personnel. A prerequisite is that training and career planning are carried out “cascade”, that is, from the very top of the hierarchical pyramid downwards, without skipping a single level.

"Culture" is a complex concept. In relation to the organization, as independent directions distinguish: the culture of working conditions, the culture of labor tools and the work process, the culture of interpersonal relations, the culture of management and the culture of the employee.

The concept of “culture” includes subjective And objective elements.

Of particular importance are subjective elements of organizational culture, since they are the basis of management culture, which is characterized by problem solving methods and leadership behavior.

Organizational values represent a system that any organization should have. This system includes: the nature of internal relationships, orientation of people’s behavior, discipline, diligence, innovation, initiative, work and professional ethics, etc.

Key values combined into a system form organizational philosophy answering the question of what is most important to her. Philosophy reflects the organization’s perception of itself and its purpose, sets the main directions of the organization’s activities, forms a position regarding management (style, motivational principles, conflict resolution procedures, etc.) and creates the basis for it image, that is, the ideas others have about her.

Ritual This is a standard event held at a specific time and for a special occasion.

Ritual is a set of special events (rites) that provide psychological impact on members of the organization by strengthening loyalty to it, obscuring the true meaning of certain aspects of its activities, training organizational values and formation of necessary beliefs. Workers of many Japanese companies, for example, begin their workday by singing their anthems. Rituals can be associated with acceptance into membership of an organization, seeing off people for retirement, etc., but sometimes they turn into an end in themselves.

Images, legends and myths are an element of the sign-symbolic subsystem of culture. Myths reflect in the right light and in coded form the history of the organization, inherited values, and images- portraits of its famous figures. They inform (what the main boss is like, how he reacts to mistakes; whether a simple employee can become a leader, etc.), reducing uncertainty, advising, teaching, guiding the behavior of staff, creating role models. In many Western companies, there are legends about the thrift and diligence of their founders, who managed to get rich thanks to these qualities, and their caring, fatherly attitude towards their subordinates.

Custom, as an element of culture, it is a form of social regulation of people’s activities and their relationships, adopted from the past without any changes.

Those adopted in the organization can be considered as an element of culture norms And behavior style its members - their relationship to each other, external contractors, and the implementation of management actions.

Slogans- these are calls, in short form reflecting her leadership tasks and ideas. Today, the mission of an organization is often formulated in the form of a slogan.

Values, customs, rites, rituals, norms of behavior of members of the organization, brought from the past to the present, are called traditions. They can be both positive and negative. Thus, a friendly attitude towards all new employees coming to the organization can be considered as a positive tradition, and the notorious hazing can be considered as a negative tradition.

The way of thinking of the members of the organization, determined by the traditions, values, and consciousness of the members of the organization is called mentality. It has a huge impact on their daily behavior and attitude towards their work or official responsibilities.

The organization's culture is multidimensional. Firstly, it consists of local subcultures of individual units or social groups, existing under the "roof" general culture. They can, as it were, concretize and develop the latter, they can exist peacefully alongside it, or they can contradict it (the so-called countercultures). Secondly, organizational culture includes subcultures of certain areas and forms of activity (relationships). It is legitimate, for example, to talk about the culture of entrepreneurship, the culture of management, the culture of business communication, the culture of holding certain events, the culture of relationships.

Each of these subcultures has its own set of elements.

So, elements of management culture, which generally characterizes the level of organization of the socio-economic system, are: competence, professionalism, interpersonal communication skills, method of organizing production, execution labor functions, technology of management and information support, office work, personal work technology, etc.

Organizational management culture is based on the ability to organically combine and direct the development of local cultures emerging in departments and branches. The culture of the management apparatus and the production core should not be forcibly implanted in all other departments. A much more productive approach is to develop shared values and use them to shape key provisions organizational culture, showing all employees their pragmatic usefulness to the entire organization. Thus, the goals and values of employees and the organization must be aligned. This is the key to their effective operation. Otherwise, conflict in the team increases, which can lead to degradation and collapse, and the possibility of the emergence of a counterculture appears.

Therefore, managers must know the reasons for the emergence of organizational countercultures and be able to anticipate their emergence. Among organizational countercultures distinguish direct opposition to the values of the dominant organizational culture, opposition to the existing power structure in the organization, as well as opposition to the patterns of relationships and interactions supported by the dominant culture.

The main reasons for the emergence of these countercultures in the organization are:

the discomfort experienced by its employees due to the lack of the moral and material rewards they were counting on;
inability to obtain satisfaction from work due to its low attractiveness; restrictions existing in the field of career development of employees;
an organizational crisis or a change in business strategy, necessitating a change in habitual patterns and patterns of behavior, as well as insufficient help and support from colleagues; changes in the form of ownership and status of the organization, leading to a redistribution of power and influence in it.

As an attribute of the organizational system, organizational culture is influenced by the environment. The external environment of organizations can be considered both as a source of threats to it and as a source of opportunities.

To the negative influences of the external environment the organization and its culture include:

lack of a clear geopolitical doctrine for the state;
lack of stability in the socio-economic sphere;
the process of criminalization of economic and other spheres of public life;
lack of legality due to the imperfection of the legislative framework, as well as the low legal culture of the main state and public institutions;
absence or poor development the main institutions that ensure the functioning of the market infrastructure of the economy.

To the positive influences of the external environment can be attributed:

the presence of a sufficient amount of highly qualified, ultra-cheap labor;
a huge number of intellectual developments awaiting their implementation in scientific and training centers republics;
lack of market development intellectual services, tourism and entertainment industries, waste and mineral processing, including gold and diamonds, as well as flax, vegetables and fruits;
underdevelopment of the entire transit infrastructure and services providing it;
the opportunity to start a business in free economic zones of the Euroregion, business incubators and technology parks;
the opportunity to implement the company’s diversified activities in socially significant areas - environmentally friendly food products, goods and services;
availability of cheap and sufficiently high-quality education in universities.

Since most organizations cannot change the conditions of their macroenvironment, they are forced to survive and adapt to it.

The characteristics of organizational culture include the norms and values that are shared by the majority of employees, as well as their external manifestations. It is the image of the company in the eyes of competitors and employees that will be discussed in the article.

From the article you will learn:

Main characteristics of organizational culture: general information

The formation of culture can be controlled or not, which generally affects the appearance of the organization and relationships within the team. The process is directly related to an attempt to exclusively influence the staff. Certain attitudes and value systems make it possible to plan, stimulate, and also predict the desired behavior.

It is important to take into account the main characteristics of the organizational culture that have already developed and found a response from the staff. Otherwise, an imbalance will arise, which may negatively affect the level of loyalty and motivation, and the psychological climate in the company.