Organizational culture

About: Organizational culture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 31507 publications have been published within this topic receiving 926787 citations. The topic is also known as: corporate culture & organisational culture.

Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work

Abstract: With its move from hierarchical to team-based structures and its dismantling of functional barriers, the organization of the future is touted as a radical departure from traditional models. The worker of the future, we are told, must be a collaborative team player, able to give and receive help, empower others, and operate in a world of interdependence. This new worker needs relational skills and emotional intelligence - the ability to work effectively with others and understand the emotional context in which work takes place. Paradoxically, the very skills that give organizations a competitive advantage may be precisely those that prevent individual employees - especially women - from advancing. In this book Joyce K. Fletcher presents a study of female design engineers that has profound implications for attempts to change organizational culture, her research shows that emotional intelligence and relational behaviour often "get disappeared" in practice, not because they are ineffective but because they are associated with the feminine or softer side of work. Even when they are in line with stated goals, these behaviours are viewed as inappropriate to the workplace because they collide with powerful, gender-linked images of good workers and successful organizations. Fletcher describes how this collision of gender and power "disappears" the very behaviour that organizations say they need and undermines the possibility of radical change. She shows why the "female advantage" does not seem to be advantaging females or organizations. Finally, she suggests ways that individuals and organizations can make visible the invisible work - and people -critical to organizational competence and transformation.

Identifying Organizational Subcultures: An Empirical Approach

Abstract: Organizations have cultures, but parts of organizations may have distinct subcultures. The question of what is the proper level for a cultural analysis of an organization is generally handled intuitively. The organizational culture of a large Danish insurance company (3,400 employees) was measured, based on employees’ answers to 18 key questions about work practices. Subsequently, scores were determined separately for 131 work groups, and these were subjected to a hierarchical cluster analysis, which produced a dendrogram. The dendrogram showed that within the company there were three distinct subcultures: a professional subculture, an administrative subculture, and a customer interface subculture. These fit a theoretical prediction by Jones (1983); the cultural rifts between the subcultures could be readily recognized in the company’s practice, and had tangible consequences.

Why managers should care about fairness: the effects of aggregate justice perceptions on organizational outcomes.

Abstract: This work examines the aggregation of justice perceptions to the departmental level and the business-unit level, the impact of these aggregate perceptions on business-unit-level outcomes, and the usefulness of the distinction between procedural and interpersonal justice at different levels of analysis. Latent variables analyses of individual-level and department-level data from 4,539 employees in 783 departments at 97 hotel properties showed that the 2 justice types exercise unique paths of impact on employees' organizational commitment and thus on turnover intentions and discretionary service behavior. Business-unit-level analyses further demonstrate paths of association between aggregate justice perceptions, aggregate commitment levels, and the business-unit-level outcomes of employee turnover rates and customer satisfaction ratings.

Organizational Climate: Measures, Research and Contingencies

Abstract: This paper critically reviews one of the most important but least understood concepts in management--organizational climate. A contingency approach is proposed, various measures are discussed, and ...

Strategic Intent for IT Outsourcing

Abstract: Companies today are outsourcing the activities of their IS departments at unprecedented rates. Interviews with senior executives in fifty companies worldwide show that three kinds of strategic intent drive the decision to outsource. Companies pursuing IS improvement seek cost reduction, better performance from core IS resources, and the acquisition of new technical skills and competencies. Outsourcing for business impact focuses on deploying IT to improve critical aspects of business performance. Outsourcing for commercial exploitation aims to leverage technology-related assets through the development and marketing of new technology-based products and services. Each type of strategic intent requires different approaches and tactics in the areas of the contract type, the performance measurement and evaluation scheme, the compensation system, and the assignment of decision-making rights to the vendor. Since the nature of the risks and rewards for each of the three types is different, the control mechanisms must be different as well. In all cases, the customer's relationship with the vendor must be aligned with the strategic intent underlying the outsourcing initiative. When strategic intent is well understood and the critical issues are carefully addressed, the chances for success are greatly increased. In evaluating IT outsourcing opportunities and structuring relationships, managers should design the outsourcing contract to reflect and reinforce each strategic intent pursued; make sure that their organization and the vendor have the right mix of competencies and know-how; make sure that their organizational culture and work practices are compatible with those of the vendor; and enable continuity by designing contracts and relationships to anticipate change.