Welcome to this first session of MGT 602 - Organisational Culture
Time: Every Wednesday and Thursday from 16.30 to 18.45
Venue: Geneva
Professor: Anh Tho Andres, Candidate to DBA
Module F : 28th October to 20 December
Course Summary
Traditional organizational management consisted of a behaviouralist approach, focussing on employee rewards and punishments in order to develop motivation and to provide for employee satisfaction and organizational sustainability.
In a 1998 study of 2,143 executives in 23 nations, organizational culture was cited most frequently as the primary barrier preventing corporations from achieving business goals.
John Kotter and James Hesket, authors of Corporate Culture and Performance, stated that, “By our calculations, the vast majority of firms currently do not have cultures that are sufficiently adaptive to produce excellent long-term economic performance in an increasingly competitive and challenging business environment.”
Suffice it to say that the evidence is clear and compelling: the culture of the business is a competitive advantage. Culture helps us to make sense of things and establishes an environment that produces patterns of human interaction. Those organizations with truly integrated people process cultural practices, tactics and strategies have a superior environment that supports superb patterns of human interaction.
John Kotter and James Hesket, authors of Corporate Culture and Performance, stated that, “By our calculations, the vast majority of firms currently do not have cultures that are sufficiently adaptive to produce excellent long-term economic performance in an increasingly competitive and challenging business environment.”
Suffice it to say that the evidence is clear and compelling: the culture of the business is a competitive advantage. Culture helps us to make sense of things and establishes an environment that produces patterns of human interaction. Those organizations with truly integrated people process cultural practices, tactics and strategies have a superior environment that supports superb patterns of human interaction.
According to Jeffery Pfeffer of Stanford University, high performing people-centered organizations are outperforming their counterparts by 30-40%. However, less than 10% of today’s organizations have been able to create such cultures.
“Culture” refers to the underlying values, beliefs, norms and codes of practice that make a community what it is. Social customs, the personality and self-image of its members, the underlying assumptions, and the channels of communication that create and disseminate these characteristics are things that constitute the society or organization's culture. Culture is powerfully subjective and reflects the meanings and understandings that we typically attribute to situations, and the solutions that we apply to common problems.
Course Objectives
The importance of an understanding and awareness of organizational culture is essential to effective management. Corporate culture isn't something one can easily define. It's intangible: a state of mind, a feeling, a collective consciousness that's infused in a business and its employees.
Organizational culture provides the context for management and organizational success by embodying the values and beliefs of an organization. Often these values and beliefs are unstated and therefore not at the conscious level. Organizational culture has a profound effect on any organization, but it is often a somewhat elusive concept for use in management.
This course seeks to identify what is meant by the term “organizational culture” and to provide strategies for management based on an awareness of a company's culture. We will also develop approaches for identifying the culture of an organization.
This course seeks to identify what is meant by the term “organizational culture” and to provide strategies for management based on an awareness of a company's culture. We will also develop approaches for identifying the culture of an organization.
Such subtopics as leadership, organizational change, organizational behaviour, ethics, multiculturalism, corporate communication, success and innovation are all aspects of management that are dependent on an awareness of and ability to manage the culture of an organization.
This course aims to introduce organizational culture concepts and gives you some first hand experience in understanding the cultural values of an organization. We will also examine tools and frameworks that can be used to identify and evaluate key cultural values of an organization, which will provide techniques about changing the corporate culture to increase satisfaction and performance.
This course will take an innovative approach at studying theory while also taking a hands-on, real-life experience look at organizational culture. You will be provided with a variety of perspectives and experiences. At the same time, you will have a course project which will be the examination of an organization's explicit and implicit cultural values. You will also get a chance to compare the cultures of several organizations through your colleagues' projects and cases we will cover in class.
This course will take an innovative approach at studying theory while also taking a hands-on, real-life experience look at organizational culture. You will be provided with a variety of perspectives and experiences. At the same time, you will have a course project which will be the examination of an organization's explicit and implicit cultural values. You will also get a chance to compare the cultures of several organizations through your colleagues' projects and cases we will cover in class.
Expected Outcome / Learning
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- To understand the relationship between organizational culture and the business context. What is organizational culture and what role does it play in contributing to effective management, organizational innovation, and success?
- To understand how stories, legends, rituals and heroes are key elements of organizational culture and functioning, and may actually serve more important objectives than formal decision making.
- To understand the role of organizational culture in change management;
- To understand the symbolic and analytic elements of organizational culture (e.g., stories, myths, heroes and villains) and the role they play in an organization;
- To develop an awareness of different cultural types or personalities of organizations and how that personality plays a role in leadership, change, organizational behaviour and ethics:
- To understand the effects of cultural organization in terms of the integration, differentiation and fragmentation;
- To examine and develop an awareness of the role of organizational culture in leadership.
Prerequisites
Students should have had some coursework in either human resource management, organizational behaviour, or any behaviour science (psychology, sociology, social psychology) at the undergraduate level.
Required Textbook
Stephen Robbins. Essentials of Organizational Behavior with MyManagementLab: Global Edition, 11/E, Pearson Higher Education, 2012, ISBN-13: 9780273754527
Suggested Readings
1. Handbook of Organizational Culture & Climate, Neal M. Ashkanasy, et al., Sage Publications, 2004, ISBN: 141290482X
2. Organizational Culture and Leadership, Edgar H. Schein, Jossey-Bass, 2004.
3. Leading Change, John P. Kotter, Harvard Business School Press, 1996
4. Organizational Culture in Action: A Cultural Analysis Workbook (Paperback), Gerald W. Driskill & Angela Brenton, Sage Publications, 2005.
5. Branch, S. (1999) “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.” Fortune, January 11th, 1999.
6. Collins and Porras (1994) “Built to Last.” Harper Business publications, Harper Collins Publishing, Inc., 10 east 53rd Street, New York, New York.
7. Kotter, J.P. and Heskett, J.L. (1993) “Corporate Culture and Performance.” New York, New York.
8. Pfeffer, Jeffery (1998) “The Human Equation.” Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Students will be required to join Business Network at http://www.bnet.com/
This will give you access to certain articles, videos & discussion groups. Registration is free.
Further supplementary readings will be provided in the reading assignments for each module.
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