Lecture notes
Lecture 6 - Introducing Organisational Culture
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- The University Of Manchester (UOM)
This lecture explores organisational ethnography and culture.
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Lecture 6: Introducing Organisational CultureHofstede’s ‘Organisational Culture’:
States that culture in a particular way which deals with separation between the
way we think and the way we behave
Defines culture as ‘…the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the
members of one group or category of people from another’
The word ‘category’ refers to: nations, regions within or across nations,
ethnicities, religions, occupations, organisations or genders
SIMPLE definition – culture is ‘the unwritten rules of the social game’
He points to a difference between what people are thinking about and what
people are actually doing – culture has to be learned before it’s done – culture
isn’t inherited
Also argues that culture is the ‘code, the core logic, the software of the mind
that organises the behaviour of people’ – referring to the ways people think and
so then understand one another and culture
Similarly to in businesses – people learn culture and then understand one
another
If you’re not part of a (cultural) group, you won’t understand the innovation and
the structures needed in the organisation to put organisational strategies into
action
He states that a person can learn how to behave in the workplace quicker and
easier than you can learn how to behave appropriately in a different country
and with a different group of people from a different part of the world
1st comes the mindset, 2nd the behaviour, 3rd the structure of the organisation
MIDSET -> BEHAVIOUR -> STRUCTURE/ORGANISATION
Many organisations try to develop a sense of culture based on core values
(communication, respect, integrity)
However, Hofstede has pointed out that they’re corporate values and some
corporations and businesses don’t actually live or maintain
JohnWeeks – unpopular culture:
Explores the implications of people not liking their organisational culture
Did research in what he has called the British Armstrong Bank (BritArm)
Found that not one person in BritArm (before it went bust) had a good word to
say about the organisation’s culture
Tracked the implications of this unhappiness and the implications of the culture
of complain – led to the organisation’s demise
Weeks argues that if we’re interested in ‘culture’ and cultural processes, the
only way we can know the importance of individual behaviour is against the
background of motives and values that are organised around that individual
Simplified: we cannot understand an individual’s behaviour fully without
understanding the cultural context whithin which they are acting
What is organisational ethnography?
It is the ethnographic study of organisations and their organising processes
John Week’s ‘Unpopular Culture’ – we saw how this can foster a culture of
complaint in response to poor management techniques and initiatives
Base of understanding these issues is the anthropological concern with getting
to know and understanding the differences between what people and
organisations say and what people actually do
Rachel Hurdley’s – What happens in corridors: the power of spaces:
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