Why Organizational Culture matters and how best to Decipher it!

To learn more about an organization – for example before applying for a job or possibly when considering investing money into a company – one should conduct what is called an “Organizational Culture Diagnosis.” It′s the formal or informal exercise of analyzing and describing what is currently known about the organization through external (articles, news reports, published interviews, etc.) or internal (e.g. speaking with employees or other stakeholders who know the organization) data research. As a result, one arrives at a good initial assessment.

Definition of Culture

Schein – the godfather of anything which is associated with culture - defines culture as “learned patterns of belief, values, assumptions, and behavioral norms that manifest themselves at different levels of observability.” (Schein, 2017). According to him, culture is a shared product of shared learning (Schein, 2017). In consequence, to really understand an organization′s or group′s culture, one needs to know what kind of learning has taken place, when, and under what type of leadership. This means that organizational culture is the living and dynamic embodiment of the efforts, actions, feelings, and histories of its employees. All of them form and represent organizational culture.

Levels and Categories of Culture

According to Schein (2017), culture can be looked at and analyzed at three different levels: The level of “artifacts,” which is both easy to observe and difficult to decipher, and refers to the visible products, processes, and structures of an organization. Its style, language, technology, stories, published values, and its observable rituals and ceremonies. “Espoused beliefs and values” – which encompass ideals, goals, and aspirations - is another level of culture. These beliefs and values may or may not be congruent with behavior and artefacts. A third level “taken-for-granted underlying assumptions,” is based on unconscious beliefs and values, and describes when a former hypothesis is gradually been treated as a reality. The basic assumptions determine our perception, thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Furthermore, Schein explains that there are four categories of culture: Macrocultures (nations and occupations that exists globally), organizational cultures, subcultures (groups within organizations, and microcultures (microsystems with or within organizations).

Questions to ask (and why you should ask them)

When conducting an organizational culture diagnosis of whatever organization, I suggest to apply the following questions to start with (please feel free adding additional ones):

What do I know about X-Company and its context?

With his concept of “thick description,” Geertz (1973) challenges anthropological research by stating that culture is more interpretive than anthropologists admitted. He describes it as a way of providing cultural context and meaning that people place on actions, words, things, etc. (Geertz, 1973). Versus just stating - for example - facts, thick descriptions provide enough context so that a person not familiar with a specific culture can make meaning of certain norms and behavior.

What does the culture of X-Company look like?

To understand why X-Company is behaving in a certain manner, we need to comprehend its culture. As we know by now. Schein defines culture as “learned patterns of belief, values, assumptions, and behavioral norms that manifest themselves at different levels of observability.” (Schein, 2017). Schein argues that culture is a shared product of shared learning. It′s therefore important to understand its actual language as well as its non-verbal and other organizational symbols (Smircich, 1983).

Why does X-Company interact with its external environment in certain ways?

Culture operates at many levels and “how we do things around here” is the surface level. Schein (2017) likes to think of culture to be like a lily pond. On the surface there are leaves and flowers and things that are very visible; a visitor would see them. That’s the ‘how we do things around here’ part. However, the explanation of “why we do things in that way” forces one to look at the root system, what’s feeding it and the history of the pond, and who planted what. If one doesn′t dig down into the reasons, then we only look at the culture at a very superficial level and haven’t really understood it.

What characterizes the identity of X-Company?

As one example, how do the employees of X-Company view their organizational identity in relation to their external environment. Or, how do they understand themselves to be different from their competitors and other stakeholders? Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquali (1994) developed a model to explain how images of one's work organization shape the strength of his or her identification with the organization.    

How has the culture of X-Company changed over time?

The underlying notion is that culture is dynamic and changes over time (Geertz, 1973). In consequence, it′s very relevant to understand how the culture of X-Company has changed over time and in which way. Also, one should review critically whether the changes had significant impact, or if they were only of a more superficial nature. Hatch went a step further and claims that Schein's model, although it continues to have relevance, would be more useful if it were combined with ideas drawn from symbolic-interpretive perspectives. That′s why she introduced dynamism into organizational culture theory by reformulating Schein′s original model in processual terms.

In what ways does the culture of X-Company encourage employees to work towards organizational goals?

A question is, how cultural knowledge empowers the employees of X-Company to counter managerial direction if they were to see its culture at certain times as an “unobtrusive control” (Mumby, 2015). One might even argue that gaining employee identification with corporate values or other related efforts aimed at “employee engagement” may actually undermine employee best interests by encouraging over-commitment through unconsciously accepted norms. 

How are the values which X-Company promotes evident (visible) in its everyday practices?

This question is intriguing, as it looks at aspirations versus reality. Are the values and principles of X-Company truly embraced by all of its employees? It helps to look closer into that by applying the “construct of discourse” as introduced by Alvesson (2011). His theory and model intersects with Geert′s idea of “thick description,” since he also criticizes the lack of profound evaluation and debate around culture for the sake of better comprehending it. Alvesson proceeds from the view that culture concerns systems of meaning and symbolism involving taken-for-granted elements that are in need for deciphering. For example, he explains, that language and its use is very much a matter of how it′s being played out in a cultural context, and culture is very much made up by language and expressions.

Conclusion

The central question of an organizational diagnosis is why is the organization doing what it does. Dissecting and examining its culture will assist to better understand its complexity and to build interpretations in order to draw conclusions and/or to even come up with recommendations. Therefore I′ve developed seven questions to uncover decisive aspects of the culture of any organization. 

It is important to remind ourselves that studying organizational culture requires a sensitive and thoughtful balance between viewing culture as frozen at a specific point of time – for example when exploring it – and understanding culture as a dynamic and ever-changing process which can′t be fixed and pinned down. Therefore, any diagnosis - which consists of data from certain points of time - can only represent the organization and its culture at these moments in time. Finally, one should try hard not to succumb to potential biases.

What is your experience with organizational culture? How important is culture to you? Please leave a comment below and join the discussion!

Thanks,

Andreas von der Heydt

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Andreas von der Heydt is Director of Talent Acquisition & Recruiting at Amazon. Before he held various senior management positions at Amazon and L'Oréal. He's a leadership expert and management coach. Andreas worked and lived in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Currently he lives with his wife and daughters in Seattle, USA. Andreas enjoys blogging as a private person here on LinkedIn about various exciting topics. His latest book is about what makes a future leader. All statements made, opinions expressed, etc. in his articles only reflect his personal opinion.

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Other recent and popular articles by Andreas:

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References

Alvesson, M. (2011). Organizational culture: Meaning, discourse, and identity. In The handbook of organizational culture and climate (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, Stefan. (2008). Changing organizational culture : Cultural change work in progress. London ; New York: Routledge.

Driskill, G.W.C. (2019). Organizational culture in action. A cultural workbook (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Dutton, J., Dukerich, J., & Harquail, C. (1994). Organizational images and member identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(2), 239-263.

Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc.

Hatch, M. (1993). The dynamics of organizational culture. Academy Of Management Review, 18(4), 657-693.

Keyton, J. (2014). Communication and organizational culture: A key to understanding work experiences (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Schein, E. H., &, P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Smircich, L. (1983). Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(3), 339-58.

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