Levels of Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture is an anthropological term that refers to the values, belief, norms and ways of doing things that are shared by the organizational members (Knights and Willmott, 2012). While Schein (1992) stated that there are three levels of culture. The first level is Surface manifestations, refers to cultural artefacts or observable culture which are the tangible phenomena such as traditions, ritual, technology, architecture, logos, heroes, myths, stories, and types of person employed represent the organizational culture. The other two less visible levels are Organizational Values refer to the belief about how things are done; and Basic assumptions are invisible, unconscious and taken for granted understanding held by individuals such as behaviour of human and the nature of reality (Schein, 1922).

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

Schein (as cited in Baumgartner, 2009) describes artifacts as follows: ‘At the surface we have the level of artifacts, which include all the phenomena that one sees, hears, and feels when one encounters a new group with an unfamiliar culture. Artifacts would include the visible products of the group such as the architecture of its physical environment, its language, its technology and products, its artistic creations, and its style as embodied in clothing, manners of address, emotional displays, myths and stories told about the organization, published lists of values, observable rituals and ceremonies, and so on’.

As known each organization has a set objective to be achieved. Hence depending on the objective & to achieve those objectives, an organization can be structured in many difference ways: the 2 basic division, is the division of labour& coordination & supervision. These are done to be in-line with the organizational objective.

The most interesting organizational cultural artifact I have experienced is the communication in the workplace artifact because it covers the do’s and don’ts as far as what is acceptable or not. The communication artifact increases discussion and allows employees to bring fresh ideas. This artifact gives people a good understanding of the norms in the organization workplace. Another artifact I find really interesting is the mission of an organization. This artifact influences the behavior of employees. It also reflects who an organization wants to be as opposed to who they are. The mission of my organization is to “impact the lives of young people by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote

According to Mclean and Marshall (1993) organisational culture is defined as the collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that contribute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation. (ie) this means that these factors actually determine how we think as well as act and react not only to people from within the same organisation but also to anybody on the outside who has some sort of interaction with the organisation. As can be seen with the part-structure in Figure 1, this organisation (WHD) has various levels of management. There is quite

The formal reporting lines refers to the communication between directors, managers, and those employees under them in the organizational structure while the informal reporting line refers to the communication that occurs between health care professionals in the course of the decision-making process, i.e. nurse to physician discussing a patient. Informal communication also can be peer to peer regarding conflict, policy, or safety issues. If a decision is made between the peers, the formal reporting line can be entered in with the peers taking the information up the chain to the managers and directors. Often informal reporting becomes formal reporting. In my organization our formal reporting line starts with the unit charge nurse, proceeding to the team coordinator, the director

Organizational culture at our place of employment can promote improved patient outcomes. How we feel about ourselves, our personal investment and our relationship to our work environment are additional factors that contribute to patient satisfaction and our sense of professionalism and accomplishment (Manojlovich & Ketefian, 2002). We will look at the role of our organizational structure and its impact and contribution to the issues involving Nurse A.

Artifacts are the most visible and accessible level of culture.(Mcshane 2008) It is the symbol of culture in the physical and social work environment of the organization. In this section, we review the four categories of artifacts: organizational stories and legends, rituals and ceremonies, language, and physical structures and symbols.

The organizational culture and subcultures within a business determines, to a larger extent, how the business performs and the quality of people that comprises an organization. Such culture is often initially created on purpose, but takes on life and identity of its own, developing organically and eventually controls and cultivates people within the organization.

“Artifacts are the physical manifestations of an organization. They include factors such as dress codes, myths, rituals, and tangible items such as awards, product displays, logos, furnishings and decor. Observable artifacts represent the more visible level of culture within the organization” (ejlister, 2015).

An organizational culture is a system of shared beliefs and values that are establised to help motivate and coordinate employees in the achievement of meeting the organization’s goals (Kinicki, 2012, p.229). The four types of organizational cultures are: clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy. By a company choosing what kind of culture and structure they will plan lays out the design of how an organization will function which gives an the organizational identity, it facilitates collective commitment, promotes stability, and shapes the workplace behavior by helping employees to understand the purpose and goals of the company, and how they intend to accomplish their goals (Kinicki, 2012).

Acknowledging that organizational culture is an important aspect for space planners, this paper provides an overview of four organizational culture types: Control (hierarchy), Compete (market), Collaborate (clan), and Create (adhocracy). This typology reflects the range of organizational characteristics across two dimensions that were found critical to organizational effectiveness. The spatial implications for each type are presented so that workspace planners might be able to interpret the results of an organizational culture assessment in their process of designing

Organizations as culture are able to create a vision for leaders to use in order to guide organizational objectives. It can also provide a perspective so followers can measure their leader’s performance in achieving the vision. Organizational culture can determine the way employees interact at the workplace and helps guide and give them a sense of direction at the workplace. Through observing Foundation, the following provide examples to demonstrate how Foundation is operating within the culture metaphor:

In this week’s assignment we will be looking at organizational structure and organizational culture. We will first look at how organizational culture impacts organizational structure and vice versa. Then look at how organizational structure interacts and impacts the organization’s decision process.