ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE DEMYSTIFIED

Organisational Culture is the easiest thing to comprehend and at the same time the most difficult thing to define. This is because of the aura of mystique that surrounds Organisational Culture. This note attempts a model to operationalise the culture building process.

DEFINING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE :

According to Robbins, Organisation Culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organisation from other organisations. Culture has its origin in the organisational interaction. The vagueness related to culture continues to prevail because of definition at the operational level is not clear.

DIFFERENTIATING CULTURE & STRUCTURE :

Organisation Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action. Organisation Structure is the form that action takes, the actual existing network of organisational relations. Organisational Culture and Organisational Structure are then but different abstractions from the same phenomenon.

LEVELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

LEVEL I: GUIDING PRINCIPLES- Defines culture at the broadest level. Gets defined by the Business Goals. Example: Performance-Oriented Culture, Collaborative Culture

LEVEL II: NORMATIVE & COGNITIVE LEVEL-

(a) NORMATIVE -

Norms : Rules of conduct which tells us what "should" be done in organisational situations. Some of them may be viewed as crucial and some of them may not be crucial for the welfare of the organisation. The crucial ones are enforced by the organisation and punishment follows for deviations.

Values : Values are conceptions of what is good, true and beautiful, of what is desirable to achieve. They provide standards by which choices can be made among possible alternatives and by which specific courses of action can be judged.

Because of constant application of norms in daily interaction, people are likely to be more aware of norms than values. Values are more general principles and always need to be interpreted for application to a specific situation. While norms are clearly instrumental in guiding organisational interaction, values are basic in choosing alternate modes of action. Norms & Values are spread across the organisation through training and effective orientation.

(b) COGNITIVE- Collection, Compilation, Dissemination and Optimum usage of practical knowledge

LEVEL III: PARAMETERS LEVEL

LEVEL IV: TRAITS LEVEL

LEVEL V: INDICES LEVEL

Levels III, IV and V are enumerated in the following table :

OPERATIONALISING CULTURE- BUILDING PROCESS

PARAMETERS	TRAITS	INDICES
NORMATIVE PARAMETERS	Organisation-specific and has to be defined by the organisation. Some examples are given below :	Organisation -specific and has to be defined by the organisation. Can be set based on surveys.
Openness	Open Offices
	Walk-ins into rooms
	First name addressing
	……….
Confrontation	Disagreement in meetings
	Sub-ordinates voice opinions contrary to that of their managers
	………
Decision-Making	Delegation of authorities to carry out responsibilities
	………
Extension	Mentoring
	……….
VALUE PARAMETERS
Integrity	Claims made are always genuine
	……….
Collaboration	Team-based approach to issues
	……….
Trust	Employees stand by what they say
	……….
Pro-activity	Employees take advance measures on issues
	……….
COGNITIVE PARAMETERS
Knowledge	Capturing knowledge
	Sharing knowledge
	………..
Skill	Capturing "how to" of skills
	Sharing "how to" of skills
	………..
Performance	Benchmark-setting
	Disseminating information on benchmarks
	………..

N.B: Each of the Parameters may be having several traits. An organisation need to choose and operationalise only those traits which are required.