What Is Organizational Culture?

  1. 2-3 Define organizational culture and explain why it’s important.

EACH OF US HAS A UNIQUE PERSONALITY that influences the way we act and interact. An organization has a personality, too—we call it CULTURE. Here’s what YOU need to know about organizational culture!

  1. Culture is perceived. It’s not something that can be physically touched or seen, but employees perceive it on the basis of what they experience within the organization.

  2. Culture is descriptive. It’s concerned with how members perceive or describe the culture, not with whether they like it.

  3. Culture is shared. Even though individuals may have different backgrounds or work at different organizational levels, they tend to describe the organization’s culture in similar terms.

Photo of two men riding bikes inside the Google campus.

Smith Collection/Gado Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Photo of a woman employee of Google playing with her dog inside the campus.

Jerome Brunet/ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo

Photo of a candy jar and a chocolate and cream cookie in the shape of the Android mascot.

Google has created a creative and innovative culture at their headquarters in California with an android googleplex, bikes, and bringing your dog to work.

Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy Stock Photo

7 Dimensions of Organizational Culture

How Can Culture Be Described?

The seven dimensions (shown in Exhibit 2–4):34

  • Range from low (not typical of the culture) to high (especially typical of the culture).

  • Provide a composite picture of the organization’s culture.

    An organization’s culture may be shaped by one particular cultural dimension more than the others, thus influencing the organization’s personality and the way organizational members work. For example:

    • — Apple’s focus is product innovation (innovation and risk taking). The company “lives and breathes” new-product development, and employees’ work behaviors support that goal.

    • — Southwest Airlines has made its employees a central part of its culture (people orientation) and shows this through the way it treats them.

      Exhibit 2–4

      A chart describes the seven dimensions or organizational culture.
Where Does Culture Come From? How Do Employees Learn the Culture?
Usually reflects the vision or mission of founders. Organizational stories: narrative tales of significant events or people.
Founders project an image of what the organization should be and what its values are. Corporate rituals: repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce important organizational values and goals.
Founders can “impose” their vision on employees because of new organization’s small size. Material symbols or artifacts: layout of facilities, how employees dress, size of offices, material perks provided to executives, furnishings, and so forth.
Organizational members create a shared history that binds them into a community and reminds them of “who we are.” Language: special acronyms; unique terms to describe equipment, key personnel, customers, suppliers, processes, products.
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