There have been many changes to organizations in the past couple of decades. Many organizations have not kept up with the changes and are operating like a Ford Model-T in an electric-hybrid consumer world. This is seen in the culture of an organization.
In Edgard Schein's book, "Organizational Culture and Leadership," he defines culture of groups as a pattern of shared assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaption and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to problems. In a later publication, he defines organizational culture as the basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that a group of people are sharing and that determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and their overt behavior.
Culture is all around us, they are deep seated, pervasive, and complex. According to Schein, we cannot start to understand Organizational Learning, organizational change, and development unless we consider culture as the primary source of the resistance to change. If managers do not become conscious of the cultures in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them. Understanding culture is desirable for every employee, but it is essential for leaders if the are to lead.
Edgard Schein provided us an important contribution to defining what organizational culture really is with his Three Levels of Culture. (This applies to societal culture and organizational culture.)
Schein divides organizational culture into three levels:
ARTIFACTS
Artifacts are at the surface. Aspects that we see, hear, and feel when encountering a new or unfamiliar culture. Artifacts include the visible products of the group like their environment, surroundings, structures, dress, language, technologies, creations, products, styles, company stories and myths, published values, observable rituals, etc. Artifacts are easily seen, but not always easily understood
ESPOUSED BELIEFS AND VALUES
These are the conscious strategies, goals, and philosophies of a company. A group's culture ultimately reflects someone's original belief's and values, their sense of what ought to be, as distinct from what or how it really is. When an organization is first created, the first solution proposed to deal with it reflects some individual's own assumptions about what is right or wrong, what will work or not work. Those ideas that prevail are seen as only what the leader wants. The actions are validated when the group takes action on them and observes the outcome of the action.
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS AND VALUES
The essence of culture is represented by the basic assumptions and values that are difficult to see because they are largely unconscious. They provide the key to understanding why things happen in a particular way. A solution to a problem is a hypothesis until it is proven enough times that it become treated as reality and are taken for granted and become the way things are until it is challenged. Basic assumptions and actual values (not espoused values) are not written, but reveal themselves in behavior and outcomes.
So What?
An employee works within the organizational structure that was formed by the leadership. There is little that an employee can do to change the culture of an organization. Cultural change must come from the leadership of the organization.
Going Further
1. What are some of the cultural artifacts in your organization?
2. What are the written or espoused values of your organization?
3. How do the actual values and the espoused values of your organization correlate?
4. Do the values of your organization line up with your personal values?
Culture is all around us, they are deep seated, pervasive, and complex. According to Schein, we cannot start to understand Organizational Learning, organizational change, and development unless we consider culture as the primary source of the resistance to change. If managers do not become conscious of the cultures in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them. Understanding culture is desirable for every employee, but it is essential for leaders if the are to lead.
Edgard Schein provided us an important contribution to defining what organizational culture really is with his Three Levels of Culture. (This applies to societal culture and organizational culture.)
Schein divides organizational culture into three levels:
ARTIFACTS
Artifacts are at the surface. Aspects that we see, hear, and feel when encountering a new or unfamiliar culture. Artifacts include the visible products of the group like their environment, surroundings, structures, dress, language, technologies, creations, products, styles, company stories and myths, published values, observable rituals, etc. Artifacts are easily seen, but not always easily understood
ESPOUSED BELIEFS AND VALUES
These are the conscious strategies, goals, and philosophies of a company. A group's culture ultimately reflects someone's original belief's and values, their sense of what ought to be, as distinct from what or how it really is. When an organization is first created, the first solution proposed to deal with it reflects some individual's own assumptions about what is right or wrong, what will work or not work. Those ideas that prevail are seen as only what the leader wants. The actions are validated when the group takes action on them and observes the outcome of the action.
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS AND VALUES
The essence of culture is represented by the basic assumptions and values that are difficult to see because they are largely unconscious. They provide the key to understanding why things happen in a particular way. A solution to a problem is a hypothesis until it is proven enough times that it become treated as reality and are taken for granted and become the way things are until it is challenged. Basic assumptions and actual values (not espoused values) are not written, but reveal themselves in behavior and outcomes.
So What?
An employee works within the organizational structure that was formed by the leadership. There is little that an employee can do to change the culture of an organization. Cultural change must come from the leadership of the organization.
1. What are some of the cultural artifacts in your organization?
2. What are the written or espoused values of your organization?
3. How do the actual values and the espoused values of your organization correlate?
4. Do the values of your organization line up with your personal values?
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