National and Organisational Culture

Group presentationBaoping, Raksha & Umesh

Culture

‘the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.’

--- Hofstede (2001)

‘Culture consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human group, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values.’

--- Kluckhohn, 1951

CULTURE

HUMAN NATURE

PERSONALITY

Inherited and learned

Specific to individual

LearnedSpecific to group or category

InheritedUniversal

Three levels of uniqueness in human mental programming

Hofstede’s Dimensions in culture

• Power Distance• Uncertainty Avoidance• Individualism Vs Collectivism• Masculine Vs Feminine• Short term Vs Long Term

Layers of Culture

• National Level• Regional-Ethnic-Religious-Linguistic Level• Gender Level• Generation Level• Social Class Level• Organisational / Corporate Level

National Culture

•Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture.• Although national culture grows with generations, but still stabilising in patterns across generations using some mechanisms

Outside Influences

NatureMan - trade - scientific discovery - dominations

Origins

Ecological factors-geography-history-demography-economy-technology-urbanisation

Social norms

Value systems of major groups of population

Consequences

Structure and functioning of institutions:-family patterns-role differentiation-educational systems-religion-political systems

The Stabilizing of Culture Patterns

• Models of National culture:– Single Dimension models• Countries are classified culturally on the basis of one

variable

– Multiple Dimension models• Nationalities are classified on the basis of more than

one varilable

– Historical-social models

Organisational Culture

• “an objective entity, consisting a set of behavioural and cognitive characteristics”

– Schein• includes the organizational structure and rules,

values, feelings, norms, the organizational ‘climate.’

- Lewis(1998) • Why is it required?• How it is dependent on National Culture?

• Brown’s model divides organisational culture into three layers:

– Outer layer: values about the strategies, mission and objectives of organisation

– Middle layer: beliefs and issues of the organisation which employees talk about

– Inner Layer: things which people find it difficult to talk about

3 aspects of organizational culture

• The general relationship between employees and their organization;

• The vertical or hierarchical system of authority defining superiors and subordinates;

• The general views of employees about the organization’s destiny, purpose and goals and their place in it.

• Hofstede defines six dimensions to differentiate between organizational cultures that have similarities with the dimensions of Schein: – Process Vs results-oriented; – Employee Vs joboriented;– Parochial Vs professional dependent;– open Vs closed systems of communication;– loose Vs tight control; – normative Vs pragmatic organization

Differences in national and organisational culture

• ‘A nation is not an organisation’• External signs are usually considered and

people think that National cultures are becoming same as Organisational cultures

• National cultures and Organisational cultures are two different phenomena

Values

Rituals

Heroes

Symbols

PRACTICES

Values

Practices

Place of socialisation

Family

School

WorkplaceOrganisation

Industry

Occupation

Social Class

Nation

Level

• National Culture– Shared meanings– Unconditional relationship– Born into it– Totally immersed

• Organisational Culture– Shared behaviours– Conditional relationship– Socialized into it– Partly involved

Questions for discussion

• Share an example where national culture have impacted the organisational culture of a company and in what way.

• Share an example where organisational culture has diluted the national culture.

• What influence the values and behaviour of employees more in an organisation – National Culture or Organisational Culture?