CREATING CULTURE
REALYN M. AUSTRIA – MBA 1
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
APRIL 20, 2024
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Define what is Culture in Organizational Development.
Understand how is Culture created and transmitted.
Understand the advantages and disadvantages of Culture.
Outline what makes a successful Culture, where is it, and how it can be changed.
Putting Culture in Perspective
What is Culture?
Culture is the frame within which we
operate and the lens through which
we view the organization.
It tells us how we fit into the world
and teaches us how to behave, be
successful, be happy and so forth
What is Culture?
❑Organizational cultures are powerful.
❑Critical actions that an organization
should recognized to keep its culture in
tact are the following:
• Anticipate
• Adapt
• Reinvent
The Taboo of the Banana
As the experiment goes there are four gorillas in a cage with a ramp at the top of
which is a bunch of bananas.
Just like every gorilla they love bananas.
As soon as one of the gorillas starts to go after the bananas, high-pressure, icy water
hoses are turned on, knocking the gorilla off the ramp and soaking all of them.
This happens until none of the four gorillas will go close to the banana.
At that point, the hoses are removed, and one after one of the original gorilla is
replaced by a new gorilla.
Each time when a new gorilla tries to get to the bananas, the other gorillas all jump on
him and drag him back.
Eventually none of the original gorillas are in the cage, none of whom has ever been
hosed.
Without having experienced the icy water in the first place, none of them will go after
their own best interest, the bananas.
What is Culture?
❑ Culture is the residue of success.
▪ The accumulated wisdom of what
does and does not work in dealing
with the world.
Perception of Cause and Effect
❑ Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
▪ Latin phrase “after this, therefore
because of this.”
▪ People assume that the success of
a particular action is due entirely
to how that action was performed
or what they did immediately
before the action, and not to
external forces or even actions
performed weeks or months ago.
How is Culture Created
Culture are built on existing Cultures
and inherit from multiple parent
cultures.
❑ Forming Subcultures
❑ Cultures also differentiate or form
subculture based on situational
needs
How is Culture Created?
Culture are built on existing Cultures
and inherit from multiple parent
cultures.
❑ Forming Subcultures
❑ Three distinct subcultures
❑ Executives
❑ Engineers
❑ Operators
How is Culture Created?
❑ Three distinct subcultures
❑ Executives
Concerned with making the organization run. They are the one
who create rules, and mechanism to make the organization run.
❑ Engineers
Concerned with solving the problems faced by the
organization. They seek to develop elegant solutions that
cannot be screwed up by people.
❑ Operators
Implementing the solutions and dealing with the outside world.
How is Culture Created?
❑ Subcultures form in response to:
▪ Organizational needs
▪ Geographical constraints
▪ Environmental conditions
❑ Counter Cultures
▪ A subculture that deliberately rejects certain aspects
of the parent culture while still remaining committed
to the parent culture’s goals.
▪ It often emerges as a response to perceived injustices,
inequalities, or limitations within the prevailing
culture.
How is Culture Created?
❑ How Leaders Shape Culture
▪ Leaders have tremendous power to shape the culture
through a variety of means.
▪ What a leader pays attention to and how a leader
responds to a crisis, deals with disagreement, treats
those around him, and behaves in general will all feed
into the culture of the organization.
▪ Leaders shape the culture through the stories that they
tell and the stories that are told about them. The
stories a leader tells help to inform employees about
what the leader considers important.
How is Culture Transmitted?
Culture is transmitted in a variety of ways.
❑ Formal Methods
Education, Religion, Family Values
❑ Informal Means
Stories, Songs, Artifacts, Social Signals
Education is a fundamental tool of cultural
transmission, be it societal or organizational culture.
What are the Disadvantages and Advantages of
Culture?
Culture acts as a unifying force among people who are
steeped in the culture but can be a repulsive force for
those who are not.
Advantages:
1. Identity and Cohesion
2. Employee Engagement
3. Performance and Productivity
4. Retention and Recruitment
5. Adaptability and Resilience
What are the Disadvantages and Advantages of
Culture?
Culture acts as a unifying force among people who are
steeped in the culture but can be a repulsive force for
those who are not.
Disadvantages:
1. Resistance to Change
2. Groupthink and Conformity
3. Inflexibility and Rigidity
4. Cultural Misalignment
5. Exclusion and Homogeneity
What makes a Successful Culture?
A culture is successful if it is in harmony with its
environment and unsuccessful if it is unable to function
in its environment.
Environment
• The world in which the culture operates.
• Change faster than cultures
What makes a Successful Culture?
Factors Affecting the Success of a Culture.
1. The procedures are chunked, so they are carried out at an
almost reflexive level.
2. The prospect of change can, and often does, engender more
fear and anxiety than the actual failure of the outmoded pro.
3. The world, and human behavior, is not digital. It is not either 1
or 0. In other words, rarely does a behavior go from working
100 percent of the time to not working 100 percent of the
time.
The best way to change a culture as the environment
changes is not to introduce something new but to
strengthen an existing aspect of the culture
Where is Culture?
Culture is in the minds of the people who comprise the
culture.
Types of Organizational Cultures
1. Diverse Cultures
Likely to attempt multiple simultaneous solutions. Mistakes
are inevitable but is treated as part of the learning process and
people are educated as to the correct course of actions in the
future.
2. Monolithic cultures
Likely to view all problems as nails for which they are the
hammers. No one is trusted to do anything right. Everything
must be documented, checked and rechecked.
How can Culture be Changed?
The Cultural Immune Response
The degree to which the leader meshes with the existing culture will
determine his success. When there is a mismatch, the culture will
reject the interloper in much the same way as the immune system will
respond to a virus.
Cognitive Dissonance
It is state in which people are forced to hold two or
more contradictory ideas in their heads at one time. People
will seek to move away from a situation that induces
cognitive dissonance. The problem is, they may not move to
where the leader or the organization want them to go.
How can Culture be Changed?
Strategies for Successful Change
1. Promote and Recruit Hybrid
Promoting people from a subculture that represents the direction the
leader wants to take the organization in, the organization will, in time,
move in that direction called as hybrids.
External Hybrids
Employees who left the organization but eventually lured
back in the company. They will fit within the culture and also
bring in new ideas and ways of approaching problems.
How can Culture be Changed?
Strategies for Successful Change
2. Tell a New Story
A leader can also change the direction of a culture by gradually
changing the stories. Stories always change and become embellished
over time, and new stories are constantly being created. By taking an
active role in this process, the leader or leaders can slowly shift the
culture in a new direction
How can Culture be Changed?
Strategies for Successful Change
3. Practice Management Jujitsu in the Face of Inertia
When integrating cultural change in the organization, force is not
needed. When dealing with people, the more force you use, the more
suspicious they become. Fighting through resistance wastes both time
and energy when neither is precisely abundant. Instead, you need to
join your employees where they are. While you go into the processes
and how-tos of these steps.
▪ Unfreeze the Situation
▪ Start making the change
▪ Refreeze the Situation
Culture is a Habit
It is well known that there’s nothing harder to do than to
break a habit. Cultural behaviors are habitual behaviors, and
cultural change is breaking old habits.
The leaders still have to make it easy for people to practice
the new ways of doing things, and still need to make it easy
for people to experiment and make mistakes. It is creating a
sense of sense of security from the start.
Putting Culture in Perspective
Culture is the biggest, most powerful, and least understood
piece of organizational development. It is often ignored or
minimized even as it influences every decision the
organization makes.
Whenever you find yourself thinking, “That’ll never work!”
ask yourself, “Why not? What would stop it?”
You may have just tripped over a cultural iceberg waiting to
sink your company.
End of Presentation
