ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

UNIT-IV
INTRODUCTION-ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
 According to Eliott Jacques, an
organisational culture is the customary or
traditional ways of thinking and doing
things, which are shared to a greater or
lesser extent by all members of the
organisation, which new members must
learn and at least partially accept in order
to be accepted into the service of the firm.
BASIC ELEMENTS OF
CULTURE
 According to Schein there are three basic elements of
organisational culture:
 Artifacts: It is the first level of organisational culture. It is
observable symbols and signs of the organisations. It includes
visible parts of organisation e.g., structures, processes etc.
Artifacts are hard to decipher.
 Espoused Values: These are the reasons (e.g., strategies,
goals, philosophies) given by an organisation for the way
things are done. It is the second level of organisational
culture.
 Basic Assumptions: Basic assumptions are the beliefs that are
taken for granted by the members of an organisation. These
are ultimate source of values and action that include:
unconscious, perceptions, taken for-granted beliefs, thoughts,
feelings etc. It is the third level of organisational culture.
FUNCTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
 It provides a sense of identity for members;
 It enhances commitment to the
organisation’s mission;
 It clarifies and reinforces standards of

behaviour
 BARRIERS OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
 Barrier to Change: Consistency of behaviour is an asset to an
organisation when it faces a stable environment. It may, however,
burden the organisation and make it difficult to respond to
changes in the environment.
 Barrier to Diversity: Especially in multicultural organisations,
people from different cultural background may bring diverse
strength to the work place. Yet these diverse strengths and
behaviours are likely to diminish in strong organisational culture
due to strong pressure for conformity. Again, organisational
culture may become liability if it creates institutional bias or
perpetuates insensitive approach to people from different cultural
background.
 Barrier to Acquisition and Merger: During acquisition and merger,
high degree of cultural confluence takes place. When two or more
companies having different organisational culture are merging, all
need to evolve a unique culture for the newly emerged
organisation. However, if one or more partners are having
stubbornly strong culture, the culture may play negative role in
the whole episode of acquisition and merger.
 IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
 Corporate culture can have a significant impact
on a firm’s long-term economic performance;
 Corporate culture will probably be an even
more important factor in determining the
success or failure of firms in future;
 Corporate cultures that inhibit strong long-term
financial performance are not rare; they
develop easily, even in firms where there are
full of reasonable and intelligent people;
 Although tough to change, corporate cultures
can be made more performance enhancing.
 DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
 The organisation’s goals are established and reviewed periodically
through the participation of all individuals and groups in the
organisation.
 Decisions are made at the appropriate level in the organisation by the
people who must live with the decision.
 Behaviour is supportive of the organisation’s goals and purposes.
 The organisation is supportive of the needs of the individual employees.
 Individuals and groups show high levels of trust and respect for other
individual and groups.
 Superiors and subordinates have a high level of trust and confidence in
each other.
 Cooperation and teamwork exist at all levels in the organisation.
 Methods of reinforcement used are primarily rewards and participation.
 Individuals are cost conscious.
 Messages move upward, downward, or across the organisation as
needed to get information to the appropriate places.
 Subordinates accept downward communication with an open mind.
 Upward communication is accurate and is received with an open mind.
 Changes are initiated to improve performance and goal attainment.
 Changes are received and accepted openly.
 Individuals speak with pride about themselves and their employer
 INTRODUCTION-ORGANIZATIONAL
CLIMATE
 Though organisational culture and organisational climate are sometimes
used interchangeably, some important differences between these two
concepts have been recognized. Whereas organisational culture is
concerned with the nature of beliefs and expectation about organisational
life, climate is an indicator of whether those beliefs and expectations are
being fulfilled. Basically organisational climate reflects a person’s perception
of the organisation to which he/she belongs. Organisational climate is a set
of characteristics and factors that are perceived by the employees about
their organisations, which serve as a major force in influencing their
behaviour. These factors include: job description, organisational structure,
performance and evaluation standards, leadership style, challenges and
innovations, organisational values, decision making processes, motivation,
communication, goals, control processes and so on. Organisational climate
can be said to relate to the prevailing atmosphere surrounding the
organisation, to the level of morale, and to the strength of feelings of
belonging, care and goodwill among members. According to Tagiuri and
Litwin, organisational climate is relatively enduring quality of the internal
environment of an organisation that:
 is experienced by its members;
 influences their behaviour;
 can be described in terms of the values of a particular set of characteristics
of the organisation.
 CREATING FAVOURABLE ORGANISATIONAL
CLIMATE
 the integration of organisational goal and personal goals;
 a flexible structure with a network of authority, control and
communications, and with autonomy for individual members;
 styles of leadership appropriate to particular work situations;
 mutual trust, consideration and support among different levels of
the organisation;
 recognition of individual differences and attributes, and of
people’s needs and expectations at work;
 attention to job design and the quality of working life;
 challenging and responsible jobs with high performance standards;
 equitable systems of rewards based on positive reinforcement;
 opportunities for personal development, career progression and
advancement;
 justice in treatment, and fair personnel and industrial relations
policies and practices;
 the open discussion of conflict with emphasis on the settlement of
differences without delay or confrontation;
CONTD.
 In order to establish a functional organisational
climate, various interventions have been
identified which lead to organisational
development. One of such intervention is
building organisational ethos through
OCTAPACE profile, developed by Pareek. It
suggests to establish: Openness, Confrontation,
Trust, Authenticity, Proaction, Autonomy,
Collaboration, and Experimentation. Once these
eight factors are established in the organisation
it may lead to healthy organisational climate.