Organizational culture by. Organizational culture. Changing organizational culture

Recently, interest in organizational culture has increased sharply. This is due to the fact that there has been an increased understanding of the impact that the phenomenon of culture has on the success and effectiveness of the organization. Numerous studies show that thriving companies are characterized by a high level of culture, formed as a result of deliberate efforts aimed at developing the spirit of the corporation for the benefit of all stakeholders in its activities.

An organization is a complex organism, the basis of whose life potential is organizational culture. It not only distinguishes one organization from another, but also determines the success of the functioning and survival of the organization in the long term.

O. S. Vikhansky and A. I. Naumov define organizational culture as a set of the most important assumptions accepted by members of the organization and expressed in the values ​​declared by the organization, which give people guidelines for their behavior and actions.

An organization's culture refers to the attitudes, perspectives, and behaviors that embody its core values.

The culture of an organization can be viewed in two ways:

a) as an independent variable, i.e. it is formed from the sum of ideas about the values, norms, principles and behaviors that people bring to the organization;

b) as a dependent and internal variable that develops its own dynamics - positive and negative. The recognized concept of “culture” as an internal variable represents a way of life, thinking, acting, existing. We can talk, for example, about the procedure for making decisions or the procedure for rewarding and punishing employees, etc.

An organization's culture can be seen as an expression of the values ​​that are embodied in and influence the organizational structure and personnel policies.

Organizational culture has a certain set of elements - symbols, values, beliefs, assumptions. E. Schein proposed to consider organizational culture at three levels.

The first level, or superficial, includes, on the one hand, such visible external factors as technology, architecture, observable behavior, language, slogans, etc., and on the other, everything that can be felt and perceived through human senses . At this level, things and phenomena are easy to detect, but they cannot always be deciphered and interpreted in terms of organizational culture.

The second level, or subsurface, involves examining values ​​and beliefs. Their perception is conscious and depends on the desires of people.

The third level, or deep level, includes the basic assumptions that determine people’s behavior: attitude towards nature, understanding of the reality of time and space, attitude towards people, work, etc. Without special concentration, these assumptions are difficult to understand even by the members of the organization themselves.

Researchers of organizational culture are often limited to the first two levels, since almost insurmountable difficulties arise at the deep level.

The properties of organizational culture are based on the following essential features: universality, informality, stability.

The universality of organizational culture is expressed in the fact that it covers all types of actions carried out in the organization. The concept of universality has a double meaning. On the one hand, organizational culture is the form in which economic acts are clothed.

For example, organizational culture may determine how strategic issues are developed or how new employees are hired. On the other hand, culture is not just the shell of an organization’s life, but also its meaning, an element that determines the content of economic acts. Culture itself becomes one of the strategic goals of the organization. A certain hiring procedure may be subordinated to the need to best adapt new employees to the existing culture of the organization.

The informality of organizational culture is determined by the fact that its functioning is practically unrelated to the official, administratively established rules of organizational life. Organizational culture operates, as it were, in parallel with the formal economic mechanism of the organization. A distinctive feature of organizational culture compared to a formal mechanism is the predominant use of oral, speech forms of communication, rather than written documentation and instructions, as is customary in a formal system.

The importance of informal contacts is determined by the fact that more than 90% of business decisions in modern corporations are made not in a formal setting - at meetings, gatherings, etc., but during informal meetings, outside specially designated places. Organizational culture cannot be identified with any informal contacts in the organization. Organizational culture includes only those informal contacts that correspond to the values ​​​​accepted within the culture. The informality of organizational culture is the reason that the parameters and results of the impact of culture are almost impossible to directly measure using quantitative indicators. They can only be expressed in the qualitative term “better or worse.”

The stability of organizational culture is associated with such a general property of culture as the traditional nature of its norms and institutions. The formation of any organizational culture requires long-term efforts on the part of managers. However, once formed, cultural values ​​and methods of their implementation acquire the character of traditions and remain stable over several generations of workers in the organization. Many strong organizational cultures inherit values ​​introduced by company leaders and founders decades ago. Thus, the foundations of IBM's modern organizational culture were laid in the first decades of the 20th century. by its founding father T. J. Watson.

There are several main characteristics of organizational cultures that differentiate them from each other. A special combination of such characteristics gives each culture its individuality and allows it to be identified in one way or another.

The main features of organizational culture include:

• reflection in the mission of the organization of its main goals;
• focus on solving instrumental (i.e. production in the broad sense) problems of the organization or personal problems of its participants;
• degree of risk;
• a measure of the relationship between conformism and individualism;
• preference for group or individual forms of decision-making;
• degree of subordination to plans and regulations;
• the prevalence of cooperation or competition among participants;
• loyalty or indifference of people towards the organization;
• orientation towards autonomy, independence or subordination:
• the nature of management's attitude towards staff;
• focus on group or individual organization of work and incentives;
• orientation towards stability or change;
• source and role of power;
• integration tools;
• management styles, relationships between employees and the organization, ways of evaluating employees.

An organization's culture contains both subjective and objective elements.

The subjective elements of culture include beliefs, values, images, rituals, taboos, legends and myths associated with the history of the organization and the life of its founders, customs, accepted norms of communication, slogans.

Values ​​are understood as the properties of certain objects, processes and phenomena that are emotionally attractive to the majority of members of the organization, which makes them models, guidelines, and a measure of behavior.

Values ​​include, first of all, goals, the nature of internal relationships, orientation of people’s behavior, diligence, innovation, initiative, work and professional ethics, etc.

It is believed that today it is necessary not only to rely on existing values, but also to actively form new ones. Therefore, it is important to carefully monitor everything new and useful that others have in this area, and to evaluate it fairly and impartially. At the same time, old values ​​cannot be completely destroyed or suppressed. On the contrary, they need to be treated with care, used as a basis for the formation of new values, including appropriate mechanisms, including joint creativity.

The data obtained by G. Hofstede for measuring the above variables for ten countries is shown in table. 13.1. It should be emphasized that not all people in each of the countries surveyed feel and act exactly in accordance with the scores obtained.

The considered model can be used in assessing the work of an organization, as well as for a comparative analysis of organizations, countries, and regions.

Speaking about the peculiarities of culture in different countries and in different organizations, one must keep in mind that in Russia there are differences by region. Thus, research shows that, for example, the Swedish model (at its core) is more acceptable for the North-West region of Russia and primarily for St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Pskov, as well as for certain regions of Western Siberia, whose economic and organizational culture somewhat similar. Priority in such a culture is given to the quality of life and care for the weak, which, according to the theory of the Dutch researcher Hofstede, indicates its “feminine” beginning. The carriers of such a culture are characterized by a high degree of individualism, they stay close to their leaders, they are overcome by a feeling of insecurity, etc. And this is how they differ, in particular, from the Americans.

The latter are also individualists, but they are much further from their leaders, they need rigid structures to manage them, they are reluctant to accept uncertainty, they are assertive in achieving their goals, and they are carriers of the “masculine” principle in economic culture. A certain similarity in this regard is characteristic of the economic and organizational culture of such regions of our country as the Moscow region, the center of the Urals, Transbaikalia and others, which are closer to the American or German economic models. Consequently, a business model acceptable for the North-West region may turn out to be untenable and ineffective in the Central region. The Middle Volga region or the Caucasus, if only because of the differences in the manifestation of the cultural factor.

This circumstance fully applies to individual organizations located in the relevant regions. This means that each organization must develop and adopt its own code of business culture, which should reflect its characteristic attitude towards legality, product quality, finance and production obligations, distribution of business information, employees, etc.

Thus, the fundamental role of economic-organizational culture in models of organizational systems is manifested both in the creation of an appropriate management system in them, and in the formation of organizational culture. If, for example, any system has an organizational culture with a “feminine” beginning, then the management style in it should be more democratic and distinguished by collegiality in making management decisions. In accordance with this, it is necessary to build the organizational structure of this system, for which the most appropriate would be a line-staff, matrix or other similar type of management structure.

In the conditions of an organizational culture with a “masculine” beginning, the management style in the organization should be distinguished by authoritarianism, rigidity and unity of command in making management decisions, which is also reflected in the organizational structure, which should most likely be linear or linear-functional.

Depending on the location of the organization and the degree of influence on it, several types of cultures are distinguished.

An unquestioned culture is characterized by a small number of core values ​​and norms, but the requirements for orientation to them are rigorous. It does not allow spontaneous influence from both outside and inside; it is closed (the closedness of culture is the reluctance to see shortcomings, wash dirty linen in public, the desire to maintain ostentatious unity). A closed culture depresses staff and becomes a critical factor in motivation. But the values ​​and norms themselves are consciously adjusted if necessary.

A weak culture contains virtually no organizational values ​​and norms. Each element of the organization has its own, and often contradicts others. The norms and values ​​of a weak culture are easily susceptible to internal and external influence and change under its influence. Such a culture separates the participants of the organization, pits them against each other, complicates the management process and ultimately leads to its weakening.

A strong culture is open to influence from both inside and outside. Openness implies transparency and dialogue between all participants, organizations and outsiders. She actively assimilates the best, wherever it comes from, and as a result only becomes stronger.

It must be borne in mind that a strong culture, like a weak one, can be effective in one and ineffective in another.

Let's look at some of the most well-known types of organizational cultures.

W. Hall offers the ABC of corporate culture, where:

A - artifacts and etiquette (superficial level). Specific visible elements of culture such as language, form of greeting, clothing, physical layout (open or closed);

B - behavior and actions (deeper level). Stable patterns and stereotypes of behavior, including methods of decision-making by individuals, organization of teamwork and attitudes to problems;

C. Handy developed a typology of management cultures. He assigned each type the name of the corresponding Olympian god.

The culture of power, or Zeus. Its essential point is personal power, the source of which is the possession of resources. Organizations professing such a culture have a rigid structure, a high degree of centralization of management, few rules and procedures, suppress the initiative of employees, and exercise strict control over everything. Success here is predetermined by the manager’s qualifications and timely identification of problems, which allows decisions to be made and implemented quickly. This culture is typical for young commercial structures.

Role culture, or Apollo culture. It is a bureaucratic culture based on a system of rules and regulations. It is characterized by a clear distribution of roles, rights, duties and responsibilities between management employees. It is inflexible and makes innovation difficult, so it is ineffective in the face of change. The source of power here is the position, and not the personal qualities of the leader. This management culture is characteristic of large corporations and government agencies.

The culture of the task, or the culture of Athena. This culture is adapted to managing under extreme conditions and constantly changing situations, so the emphasis here is on quickly solving problems. It is based on collaboration, collective idea generation and shared values. The foundation of power is knowledge, competence, professionalism and possession of information. This is a transitional type of management culture that can develop into one of the previous ones. It is typical for project or venture organizations.

At the same time, many practical ideas for developing the culture of an organization and creating a favorable climate in it are quite simple and effective. Thus, internal hostility tearing apart labor collectives is, alas, an international problem. It is associated with disputes and stress. Where the civil strife microbe has settled, as a rule, the microclimate is not the same, labor productivity is not the same.

What Japanese psychologists didn’t use to rid teams of unnecessary passions! But all the techniques used (calm classical music, wallpaper painted in cheerful colors, supplying air with pleasant aromatic additives to the working areas) turned out to be powerless: tension in the teams was not completely eliminated. And then a simple idea was born - to place a friendly, affectionate, fluffy dog ​​between the tables. The controversy disappeared as if by hand, it was as if people had been replaced.

Demand without supply is unthinkable in Japan. A new type of paid service immediately emerged in the country—pet rental. In addition to a dog, you can order a cat, a parrot or even a pig at rental points. The time factor does not matter at all: take an animal even for a day, even for a month, the main thing is to pay. Rental prices, however, are quite high - for a dog borrowed for three days, you need to pay 300,000 yen (about $3,000). However, the Japanese do not at all believe that they are allegedly being robbed, realizing that it is not so easy to raise a playful, sociable dog that will willingly and without whims follow the commands of strangers. Yes, and it’s expensive to maintain. Therefore, before renting an animal to the workforce, a company representative makes sure that the dog or cat in the new premises will receive proper care.

At the same time, organizational culture turns into a kind of utopia, when desirable ideas are presented as reality, which in reality is completely different. Organizational culture cannot always be considered a fundamental factor of management; it cannot be given the meaning that managers associate with the word “culture.”

The reason for false ideas about organizational culture lies on the surface. It is always flattering to consider your organization to be an open and customer-oriented enterprise, believing that these two positive qualities characterize it. Often such ideas are unrealistic and do not reflect the actual state of affairs. Apparently, managers have little knowledge of what their employees think, and perhaps do not want to know.

In functional terms, organizational culture helps to solve the following tasks:

• coordination carried out through established procedures and rules of conduct;
• motivation, realized by explaining to employees the meaning of the work being performed;
• profiling, allowing you to gain a characteristic difference from other organizations;
• attracting personnel by promoting the advantages of your organization.

In principle, organizational culture is able to implement the listed and other functions, but not every one has the appropriate potential. Many enterprises have a corporate culture that not only hinders the achievement of economic success, but also does not allow them to recognize themselves and use their capabilities in the interests of the company.

To assess the effectiveness of the management system (and therefore the effectiveness of the organizational culture), the ultimate goal of which is the creation and sale of products (works, services) on the market, the resource efficiency indicator can be fully used. This is a modified indicator of resource productivity, taking into account, along with other factors, market financial and credit relations and inflationary processes.

In addition to the main general performance indicator, for a more complete assessment of organizational culture, a number of auxiliary indicators should be used, such as the level of industrial relations, management standards, the degree of personnel stability, etc.

1. Viewing organizations as communities sharing a common understanding of their purpose, meaning and place, their values ​​and behavior, gave rise to the concept of organizational culture. Organizational culture - these are “philosophical and ideological ideas, values, convictions, beliefs, expectations, attitudes and norms that bind an organization into a single whole and are shared by its members.” This is the dominant atmosphere prevailing in the organization.

Culture gives meaning to people's actions. Therefore, it is possible to change anything in people’s lives only by taking this significant phenomenon into account. Culture is formed over years and decades, so it is inertial and conservative. And many innovations do not take root only because they contradict the cultural norms and values ​​that people have mastered.

Organizational culture is the acquired meaning systems conveyed through natural language and other symbolic means that perform representational, directive, and affective functions and are capable of creating a cultural space and a distinct sense of reality.

By acquiring individual and personal experience, employees form, preserve and change their semantic systems, which reflect their relationships to various phenomena - the organization’s mission, planning, motivational policy, productivity, quality of work, etc. Such coordinate systems are not obvious and rarely completely coincide with the declared goals, but very often they determine behavior to a greater extent than formal requirements and rules. What a manager, or any member of an organization, does is largely a function of the totality of his beliefs about the world around him. In extreme cases, these frames of reference work against organizational goals and, by expanding or limiting the range of behavioral and cognitive capabilities of employees, reduce the effectiveness of collective activity.

Thus, organizational culture sets a certain frame of reference that explains why the organization functions in this particular way and not in another way. Organizational culture makes it possible to significantly smooth out the problem of reconciling individual goals with the overall goal of the organization, forming a common cultural space that includes values, norms and behavioral patterns shared by all employees.

In a broad sense, culture is a mechanism for reproducing social experience that helps people live and develop in a certain climatic-geographical or social environment, preserving the unity and integrity of their community. Of course, the need to reproduce acquired and borrowed social experience is also relevant for the organization. However, until recently, the processes of formation of organizational culture proceeded spontaneously, without attracting the attention of either the subject of organizational power or researchers.

As already noted, organizational culture is understood as a set of norms, rules, customs and traditions shared and accepted by employees of the organization. It is clear that if an organization's culture is aligned with its overall purpose, it can be an important factor in organizational effectiveness. Therefore, modern organizations view culture as a powerful strategic tool that allows them to orient all departments and individuals towards common goals, mobilize employee initiative and ensure productive interaction. In other words, we can talk about organizational culture only in the case when top management demonstrates and approves a certain system of views, norms and values ​​that directly or indirectly contribute to the implementation of the strategic objectives of the organization. More often than not, companies develop a culture that embodies the values ​​and behavioral styles of their leaders. In this context organizational culture can be defined as a set of norms, rules, customs and traditions that are supported by the subject of organizational power and set the general framework for employee behavior that is consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Organizational culture includes not only global norms and rules, but also current regulations. It may have its own characteristics, depending on the type of activity, form of ownership, position in the market or in society. In this context, we can talk about the existence of bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, organic and other organizational cultures, as well as organizational culture in certain areas of activity, for example, when working with clients, staff, etc.

The bearers of organizational culture are people. However, in organizations with an established organizational culture, it seems to be separated from people and becomes an attribute of the organization, a part of it that has an active influence on employees, modifying their behavior in accordance with the norms and values ​​that form its basis.

Since culture plays a very important role in the life of an organization, it should be the subject of close attention from management. The management of large organizations has enough resources and means to influence the formation and development of organizational culture, but they do not always have enough knowledge of how to analyze it and change it in the desired direction.

2. Analyzing the structure of organizational culture, E. Shein identifies three levels: superficial, internal and deep. Understanding organizational culture starts with superficial level, including such external organizational characteristics as products or services provided by the organization, technology used, architecture of production facilities and offices, observable behavior of workers, formal language communication, slogans, etc. At this level, things and phenomena are easy to detect, but they cannot always be deciphered and interpreted in terms of organizational culture.

Those who try to understand organizational culture more deeply touch on its second, internal level. At this level, the values ​​and beliefs shared by members of the organization are examined in accordance with the extent to which these values ​​are reflected in symbols and language. The perception of values ​​and beliefs is conscious and depends on the desires of people. Researchers often limit themselves to this level because the next level poses almost insurmountable difficulties.

The third, deep level includes basic assumptions that are difficult for even the members of the organization to understand without special focus on this issue. These implicit and taken-for-granted assumptions guide people's behavior by helping them perceive the attributes that characterize the organizational culture.

Some researchers propose a more detailed structure of organizational culture, highlighting its following components:

1. Worldview - ideas about the surrounding world, the nature of man and society, guiding the behavior of members of the organization and determining the nature of their relationships with other employees, clients, competitors, etc. Worldview is closely related to the characteristics of an individual’s socialization, his ethnic culture and religious beliefs.

Significant differences in the worldviews of workers seriously complicate their cooperation. In this case, there is scope for significant intra-organizational contradictions and conflicts. At the same time, it is very important to understand that it is very difficult to radically change people’s worldviews, and significant efforts are required to achieve some mutual understanding and acceptance of the positions of people with different worldviews. An individual's worldview is difficult to express in clear verbal formulations, and not everyone is able to explain the basic principles underlying his behavior. And to understand someone’s worldview, it sometimes takes a lot of effort and time to help a person explicate the basic coordinates of his vision of the world.

2. Organizational values those. objects and phenomena of organizational life that are essential and significant for the spiritual life of workers. Values ​​act as a link between the culture of the organization and the spiritual world of the individual, between organizational and individual existence. Personal values ​​are reflected in consciousness in the form of value orientations, which also include a wide range of social values ​​recognized by the individual, but not always accepted by him as his own goals and principles. Therefore, it is possible both an incomplete, inadequate reflection of personal values ​​in consciousness, and an orientation in terms of consciousness towards values ​​that are not real motives of behavior. Values ​​can be maintained even if the organization has undergone significant personnel changes. At the same time, a certain change in values ​​can be carried out, which will affect the behavior of members of the organization. Organizational values ​​are closely related to organizational mythology, expressed in a system of stories, myths and even anecdotes, which contain some respectable characteristic of a member of the organization, which distinguishes him favorably from many others.

3. Behavior styles characterizing employees of a particular organization. This also includes specific rituals and ceremonies, the language used in communication, and symbols, which have a special meaning specifically for the members of a given organization. An important element can be any character who has characteristics that are highly valuable for a given culture and serves as a role model of behavior for employees. Employee behavior is successfully corrected by various trainings and control measures, but only if new patterns of behavior do not conflict with the above-described components of organizational culture.

4. Norms - a set of formal and informal requirements imposed by an organization in relation to its employees. They can be universal and particular, imperative and indicative, and are aimed at preserving and developing the structure and functions of the organization. Norms include the so-called rules of the game, which a newcomer must master in the process of becoming a member of the organization.

5. Psychological climate in an organization that a person encounters when interacting with its employees. Psychological climate is the prevailing and relatively stable spiritual atmosphere that determines the relationships of team members to each other and to work.

None of these components individually can be identified with the culture of an organization. However, taken together they can provide a fairly comprehensive picture of organizational culture.

Many components of culture are difficult to detect by an outsider. You can spend several weeks in an organization and still not understand the fundamental principles of culture that govern people's actions. Each employee, coming to the organization, goes through a certain procedure of organizational socialization, during which month after month he comprehends all the smallest nuances that together form the organizational culture.

3. There are many approaches to analyzing the content side of a particular organizational culture. F. Harris and R. Moran proposed to identify ten substantive characteristics characteristic of any organizational culture:

1. Awareness of yourself and your place in the organization(in some cultures, restraint and the employee’s concealment of his internal moods and problems are valued, in others openness, emotional support and external manifestation of his experiences are encouraged; in some cases, creativity is manifested through cooperation, and in others through individualism).

2. Communication system and language of communication(the use of oral, written, non-verbal communication, "telephone rights" and openness of communication varies from organization to organization:

professional jargon, abbreviations, sign language are specific to organizations of various industry, functional and territorial affiliations of organizations).

3. Appearance, clothing and self-presentation at work(a variety of uniforms, business styles, standards for the use of cosmetics, perfumes, deodorants, etc., indicating the existence of many microcultures).

4. Habits and traditions associated with eating and assortment of food(how food is organized for employees in the organization, including the presence or absence of canteens and buffets; participation of the organization in paying food costs; frequency and duration of meals; shared or separate meals for employees with different organizational status, etc.).

5. Awareness of time, attitude towards it and its use(perception of time as the most important resource or a waste of time, compliance with or constant violation of the time parameters of organizational activities).

6. Relationships between people(the influence on interpersonal relationships of such characteristics as age, gender, nationality, status, amount of power, education, experience, knowledge, etc.; compliance with formal requirements of etiquette or protocol; the degree of formalization of relationships, support received, accepted forms of conflict resolution).

7. Values ​​and norms(the former are sets of ideas about what is good and what is bad; the latter are a set of assumptions and expectations regarding a certain type of behavior).

8. Worldview(belief/lack of faith in: justice, success, one’s own strengths, leadership; attitude towards mutual assistance, ethical or unworthy behavior, belief in the punishability of evil and the triumph of good, etc.).

9. Employee development and self-realization(mindless or conscious performance of work; reliance on intelligence or strength; free or limited circulation of information in the organization; recognition or rejection of the rationality of people's consciousness and behavior; creative environment or rigid routine; recognition of a person's limitations or emphasis on his potential for growth).

10. Work Ethic and Motivation(attitude towards work as a value or duty; responsibility or indifference to the results of one’s work; attitude towards one’s workplace; quality characteristics of work; good and bad habits at work; a fair relationship between the employee’s contribution and his remuneration; planning the employee’s professional career in the organization ).

These characteristics of an organization's culture collectively reflect and give meaning to the concept of organizational culture. The content of organizational culture is determined not by the simple sum of expectations and the actual state of affairs for each characteristic, but by how they are interconnected and how they form the profiles of certain cultures. A distinctive feature of a particular culture is the priority of the basic characteristics that form it, indicating which principles should prevail in the event of a conflict between its different components. In this context, there is no need to talk about organizational culture as a homogeneous phenomenon. Any organization potentially contains many subcultures. In fact, any of these subcultures can become dominant, i.e. the organizational culture itself, if it is purposefully supported and used by organizational authorities as a tool for consolidating individual goals in the direction of a common organizational goal.

There may also be a type of subculture in an organization that quite stubbornly rejects what the organization as a whole wants to achieve. Among these organizational countercultures The following types can be distinguished:

(2) opposition to the power structure within the dominant culture of the organization;

(3) opposition to the patterns of relationships and interactions promoted by the dominant culture.

Countercultures usually appear in organizations when individuals or groups find themselves in conditions that they feel cannot provide them with the usual or desired satisfaction of needs. In a sense, organizational countercultures are expressions of dissatisfaction with the way organizational power allocates organizational resources. This situation occurs especially often during periods of organizational crises or reorganization. Under these conditions, some "countercultural" groups can become quite influential or even dominant.

4. The external environment has a significant impact on the organization, which naturally affects its culture. However, as practice shows, two organizations operating in the same environment can have very different cultures. This is because, through their shared experiences, members of the organization deal with two very important problems in different ways. The first one is external adaptation: what must be done by the organization in order to survive in the conditions of fierce external competition. The second one is internal integration:

how internal organizational processes and relationships contribute to its external adaptation.

The process of external adaptation and survival is associated with the organization’s search and finding of its niche in the market and its adaptation to the constantly changing external environment. This is the process of an organization achieving its goals and interacting with representatives of the external environment. Problems of external adaptation and survival include the following:

1. Mission and strategy(defining the mission of the organization and its main tasks; choosing a strategy for fulfilling this mission).

2. Goals(setting specific goals and internal acceptance by employees).

3. Facilities(resources used to achieve goals; consolidation of efforts in achieving the chosen goal; adaptation of the organizational structure, optimization of incentive and reporting systems).

4. Control(establishment of individual and group criteria for effective performance; creation of information infrastructure).

5. Behavior adjustment(creation of a system of rewards and punishments linked to the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of assigned tasks).

Members of the organization must know the real the mission of their organization, and not what is often declared from high stands for shareholders and the public. This will help them develop an understanding of their own contribution to the organization's mission.

The next group of questions relates to establishing goals and choice funds their achievements. In some organizations, employees participate in setting goals and thus take responsibility for achieving them. In others, employees participate only in the choice of methods and means of achieving goals, and in others, there may be neither one nor the other or there may be both.

In any organization, employees must participate in the following processes: 1) identify from the external environment what is important and unimportant for the organization; 2) develop ways and means of measuring achieved results; 3) find explanations for success and failure in achieving goals.

The process of external adaptation is inextricably linked with internal integration, i.e. establishing and maintaining effective work relationships between members of the organization. This is the process of finding the most effective ways to work together in an organization. Among the problems of internal integration, we note the following.

1. Common language and conceptual categories(choosing communication methods; determining the meaning of the language and concepts used).

2. Boundaries of the organization and criteria for entry and exit from it(establishing criteria for membership in the organization and its groups).

3. Power and status(establishing rules for acquiring, maintaining and losing power; determining the distribution of statuses in the organization).

4. Personal relationships(establishing formal and informal rules about the nature of organizational relations between employees, taking into account their age, gender, education, experience, etc.; determining the acceptable level of openness at work).

5. Rewards and punishments(definition of basic criteria for desirable and undesirable behavior and their corresponding consequences).

6. Ideology and religion(determination of the meaning and role of these phenomena in organizational life).

The formation of organizational culture, its content and individual parameters is influenced by a number of external and internal environmental factors, but at all stages of the development of an organization, the personal culture of its leader (his personal faith, values ​​and style of behavior) largely determines the culture of the organization. This influence is especially strong if the organization is in its infancy and its leader has outstanding personal and professional abilities.

The formation of a certain culture in an organization is associated with the specifics of the industry in which it operates, with the speed of technological and other changes, with the characteristics of the market, consumers, etc. It is known that companies in the “high technology” industries have a culture containing “innovative” values ​​and a belief “in change.” However, this trait may manifest itself differently in companies in the same industry, depending on the national culture within which the organization operates.

The organization grows by attracting new members coming from organizations with different cultures. New members of the organization, whether they like it or not, bring with them a load of past experience, in which “viruses” of other cultures often lurk. An organization’s immunity from such “infections” depends on the strength of its culture, which is determined by three points:

1) "depth";

2) the extent to which it is shared by members of the organization;

3) clarity of priorities.

The “depth” of an organizational culture is determined by the number and strength of the core beliefs shared by employees. Cultures with many levels of beliefs and values ​​have a strong influence on organizational behavior. In some cultures, shared beliefs, beliefs and values ​​are clearly ranked. Their relative importance and interconnection do not diminish the role of each of them. In other cultures, the relative priorities and connections between shared values ​​are blurred. A clear priority of beliefs has a greater effect on people's behavior, since they firmly know which value should prevail in the event of a value conflict.

Thus, a strong culture is more deeply rooted in people's minds, is shared by more employees, and has clearer priorities. Accordingly, such a culture has a deeper influence on the behavior of employees in the organization.

A strong culture not only creates benefits for an organization, but can also act as a significant barrier to organizational change. The “new” in culture is always weaker at first. Therefore, a moderately strong organizational culture appears to be optimal for reorganization.

Among the methods of maintaining organizational culture, the following should be noted:

1. Slogans declared by management, including the mission, goals, rules and principles of the organization that determine its relationship to its members and society.

2. Role modeling, expressed in the daily behavior of managers, their attitude and communication with subordinates. Personally demonstrating behavioral norms to subordinates and focusing their attention on these behaviors, such as a certain attitude toward customers or the ability to listen to others, a manager helps shape certain aspects of the organizational culture.

3. External symbols including a reward system, status symbols, and criteria underlying personnel decisions. Culture in an organization can be manifested through a system of rewards and privileges. The latter are usually tied to certain patterns of behavior and thus prioritize employees and indicate values ​​that are more important to individual managers and the organization as a whole. The system of status positions in the organization works in the same direction. Thus, the distribution of privileges (a good office, a secretary, a car, etc.) indicates roles and behaviors that are more valued by the organization.

4. Stories, legends, myths and rituals, associated with the origin of the organization, its founders or prominent members. Many of the beliefs and values ​​that underlie an organization's culture are expressed not only through legends and myths that become part of organizational folklore, but also through various rituals, rites, traditions and ceremonies. TO rituals refers to routine and recurring team activities conducted at set times and for special occasions to influence employee behavior and understanding of the organizational environment. Rituals represent a system of rituals; even certain management decisions can become organizational rituals that employees interpret as part of the organizational culture. Such rituals act as organized and planned actions that have important “cultural” significance; their observance affects the self-determination and loyalty of employees of their organization.

5. What (what tasks, functions, indicators, etc.) is the subject of constant attention of management. What a leader pays attention to and what he comments on is very important in shaping organizational culture. This is one of the most powerful methods of maintaining culture in an organization, because through repeated actions, the manager lets employees know what is important and what is expected of them. The level of participation of managers in certain ceremonies allows subordinates to subjectively rank these events in order of importance. This tool (participation measure) can easily be used to both maintain and change traditions in an organization.

6. Top management behavior in crisis situations. In these situations, managers and their subordinates discover organizational culture to a degree they never imagined. The depth and scope of the crisis may require the organization to either strengthen its existing culture or introduce new values ​​and norms. changing it to a certain extent. For example, in the event of a sharp reduction in demand for manufactured products, the organization has two alternatives: fire some workers or partially reduce working hours with the same number of employees. In organizations where the person is declared as the “number one” value, the second option will probably be accepted. Such an act of management will turn into organizational folklore over time, which will undoubtedly strengthen this aspect of the culture in the company.

7. Personnel policy of the organization. Personnel policy, including hiring, promotion and dismissal of employees, is one of the main ways to maintain culture in an organization. Based on what principles management regulates the entire personnel process, it immediately becomes apparent from the movement of employees within the organization. The criteria for personnel decisions can help or can hinder the strengthening of the existing culture in the organization. Thus, the inherent turnover of personnel on assembly lines has prompted many companies to move either to a group approach to work or to a transition to group work methods characteristic of Japanese management. Criteria for rewards and career advancement play an important role. Consistently demonstrating that an organization consistently links employee rewards and advancement to their diligence and performance can go a long way in shaping employee behavior. Some researchers consider the system of rewards and punishments to be the most important in the formation of organizational culture.

Of course, this is not a complete list of factors that shape organizational culture, but it gives a general idea of ​​the role of management in its creation, as well as the fact that the culture of an organization is a function of targeted management actions of top management.

The actions of top managers have a decisive influence on organizational culture. Their behavior, the slogans and norms they proclaim, and most importantly, the organizational resources aimed at their implementation and approval in the minds of members of the organization, become the most important guidelines for the behavior of employees, which often serve as a more important factor in organizing behavior than formalized rules and requirements.

Despite the importance of organizational culture for the effective functioning of an enterprise, its study, measurement and evaluation pose significant difficulties. As a rule, the study and generalization of specific manifestations of organizational culture is a long and labor-intensive process that includes the analysis of all seven factors mentioned above.

Organizational culture is often identified with values, suggesting that those values ​​that prevail in the individual mind collectively create a general atmosphere of values ​​in the organization. This approach allows us to obtain a quantitative description of the ideas that dominate in the organization. Indeed, values ​​are directly related to organizational culture, but it is hardly legal to dissolve them in the latter, since value orientations are, first of all, the most important elements of the internal structure of the individual. Therefore, consideration of values ​​is more at the individual level.

There are a number of other methods for studying organizational culture. Thus, the author of this book proposed an approach based on the theory of personal constructs and making it possible to determine some of its quantitative characteristics. Using this approach to analyze the main coordinates of organizational cultures in Japanese and Russian organizations, it was possible to identify hidden “dimensions” of the success of Japanese management and provide some explanations for the problems of organizational transformations in Russia.

5. The influence of culture on organizational effectiveness is determined primarily by its compliance with the overall strategy of the organization. There are four main approaches to resolving the problem of incompatibility between strategy and culture in an organization:

1) ignored a culture that seriously impedes the effective implementation of the chosen strategy;

2) control system adjusts to the existing culture of the organization: this approach is based on recognizing the existing barriers created by culture to the implementation of the desired strategy, and developing alternatives to “bypass” these obstacles without making major changes to the strategy itself. Thus, during the transition from a mechanistic to an organic organizational scheme in many manufacturing enterprises, for a long time it is not possible to change the organizational culture in the assembly areas. In this case, this approach can help solve the problem;

3) attempts are being made to change culture in a way that suits the chosen strategy. This is the most complex approach, time consuming and resource intensive. However, there are situations when it may be central to the long-term success of the company;

4) changes strategy with the aim of adapting it to the existing culture.

In general, we can distinguish two ways in which organizational culture influences the life of an organization.

First, as shown above, culture and behavior mutually influence each other.

Second - Culture influences not so much what people do as how they do it.

There are various approaches to identifying a set of variables through which the influence of culture on an organization can be traced. Typically, these variables form the basis of surveys and questionnaires that are used to describe the culture of an organization.

The set of variables that management selects to analyze an organization can be directly related to level of organizational interaction: organization - external environment; group - group; individual - organization. Moreover, for each level (individual, group, organization) can be measured as efficiency their functioning from the point of view of the interests of the organization, and satisfaction. In addition, each of these groups of variables can be considered in a time aspect, i.e. be primarily focused on short-term or long-term perspective.

Model V. Site. V. Sathe identified seven processes through which culture influences organizational activity:

1) cooperation between individuals and parts of the organization;

2) decision making;

3) control;

4) communications;

5) loyalty to the organization;

6) perception of the organizational environment;

7) justifying your behavior.

In this case, the first three processes correspond with the first, superficial level of organizational culture or patterns of organizational behavior, and the next four - with the second, internal level, which has a “value” basis. The effectiveness of the organization depends on how these processes proceed.

Cooperation as a pattern of behavior in an organization cannot be established only with the help of formal management measures, since it is impossible to foresee all possible cases. How much people actually cooperate in an organization depends on the assumptions they share about it. In some organizations the highest value is group work, in others - internal competition. In other words, everything depends on which philosophy predominates: individualist or collectivist.

The influence of culture on making decisions is carried out through shared beliefs and values ​​that form a stable set of basic assumptions and preferences among members of the organization. Since organizational culture can help minimize disagreement, decision making becomes more effective.

Essence of the process control is to stimulate action towards achieving set goals. In the nature of management, there are three control mechanisms: market, administration, clannishness. Typically, organizations have all three mechanisms at once, but to varying degrees.

At market control mechanisms rely primarily on prices. The underlying assumption is that changing prices and payments should stimulate necessary changes in the organization. Administrative the control mechanism is based on formal authority. The process itself consists of changing rules and procedures through the issuance of directives. Clan the control mechanism is entirely based on shared beliefs and values. It is from them that the members of the organization proceed when carrying out their actions. It also assumes that employees are sufficiently committed to the organization and know how to operate within the culture. As the organization grows and develops, the clan mechanism is replaced by an administrative one, and then by a market one.

The influence of culture on communications occurs in two directions. The first is the absence of the need to communicate in matters in which there are shared assumptions. In this case, certain actions are performed as if without words. Second, shared assumptions provide direction and help in interpreting the messages received. So, if in a company an employee is not considered an appendage of a machine, then the news of upcoming automation or robotization will not cause a shock in him.

The individual feels dedicated to the organization when he identifies himself with the latter and experiences some emotional connection with her. A strong culture makes the individual's identification and feelings towards the organization strong. Employees can also step up their efforts to help the organization.

Perception individual's organizational reality or what he sees is determined to a large extent by what his colleagues who share the same experience say about what they see. Culture influences this process by providing organizational members with a shared interpretation of their experiences. In organizations where timely customer service is highly valued, the perception of a lack of resources for work will not be interpreted as a need to change the developed disposition towards the customer. Otherwise, the client may be seriously harmed.

Culture helps people in an organization act meaningfully, ensuring justification for their command. In companies where risk is valued, a person takes it knowing that if he fails, he will not be punished and that lessons for the future will be learned from failure. Actions justified in this way reinforce existing behavior, especially when it fits into the situation. This process is a source of funds for changing the culture itself. Since people use culture to justify behavior, it is possible to change culture through changes in behavior. However, for this process to be successful, it is necessary to ensure that people cannot justify their new behavior on the basis of the “old” culture.

Model T. Peters-R. Watermina. The authors of the famous bestseller "In Search of Successful Management" T. Peters and R. Waterman discovered a connection between culture and success in an organization. Taking successful American firms as a model and describing management practices, they “derived” a number of beliefs and values ​​of organizational culture that led these companies to success: 1) faith in action; 2) communication with the consumer; 3) encouraging autonomy and entrepreneurship; 4) considering people as the main source of productivity and efficiency; 5) knowledge of what you control; 6) don’t do what you don’t know; 7) simple structure and small management staff; 8) a simultaneous combination of flexibility and rigidity in the organization.

Faith in action. According to this value, decisions are made even in conditions of lack of information. Postponing decisions is tantamount to not making them.

Communication with the consumer. For successful companies, the consumer represents the focus in their work, since it is from him that the main information for the organization comes. Customer satisfaction is at the core of the organizational culture of such firms.

Autonomy and entrepreneurship. Companies struggling with lack of innovation and bureaucracy are "dividing" into smaller manageable parts and giving them, as well as individuals, a degree of autonomy to exercise creativity and risk. This cultural norm is maintained through the organization's sharing of legends and stories about its own heroes.

Productivity varies from person to person. This value recognizes people as the organization's most important asset. At the same time, the effectiveness of an organization is measured through the satisfaction of its members. The belief that treating people with respect leads to success is at the core of the culture of these organizations.

Know what you control. This deeply ingrained cultural norm holds that successful companies are run not from behind the closed doors of executives' offices, but through managers' visits to the facilities they manage and through direct contact with subordinates in their workplaces.

Don't do what you don't know. This provision is one of the important characteristics of the culture of successful companies. These firms do not recognize diversification away from their core business.

Simple structures and few managers. Typical for successful companies is the presence of a small number of management levels and a relatively small staff of management employees, especially in the top echelon. The position of a manager in such companies is determined not by the number of his subordinates, but by his influence on the affairs of the organization and, most importantly, on its results. According to this cultural value, managers are more focused on the level of performance of their subordinates than on increasing their staff.

Simultaneous flexibility and rigidity in the organization. The paradox of this attribute of the organizational culture of successful companies is resolved as follows. High organization is achieved due to the fact that all employees understand and believe in the company’s values. This firmly connects them with the company and integrates them into it. Flexibility is achieved by minimizing “guidance” interventions and minimizing the number of regulatory rules and procedures. Innovation and risk taking are encouraged. As a result, the rigid structure of shared cultural values ​​makes possible a flexible structure of administrative control.

Model by T. Parsons. More generally, the connection between culture and organizational performance is presented in the model of the American sociologist T. Parsons. The model is developed based on the specification of certain functions that any social system, including an organization, must perform in order to survive and succeed. The first letters of the English names of these functions in the abbreviation give the name of the model - AGIL: adaptation; goal-seeking (achieving goals); integration (integration) and itgiacy (legitimacy).

The essence of the model is that for its survival and prosperity, any organization must be able to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions, achieve its goals, integrate its parts into a single whole, and, finally, be recognized by people and other organizations.

This model is based on the fact that the values ​​of organizational culture are the most important means or tools for performing the functions of this model. If an organization's shared beliefs and values ​​help it adapt, achieve goals, unite, and prove its usefulness to people and other organizations, then it is clear that such a culture will influence the organization toward success.

The essence of organizational culture: basic concepts and components. Definition of the concept of organizational culture. Functions and properties of organizational culture

In the narrow sense of the word, culture is the spiritual life of people, a set of ethical norms, rules, customs and traditions. According to the “Concise Dictionary of Sociology”, it is “a personal system of qualities of mind, character, imagination, memory, recognized as values ​​by the individual and valued in society received in the process of upbringing and education. In this sense, they talk about moral, aesthetic, political, everyday, professional, humanitarian and scientific and technical culture.

In the broad sense of the word, culture includes the results of human activity in the form of buildings, technology, legal norms, universal values ​​and social institutions. In the dictionary it is: “a social system of functionally useful forms of activity organized through norms and values, entrenched in social practice and the consciousness of society. Culture in society is represented by material objects, social institutions (institutions, traditions), and spiritual values.

Organization - (from Late Lat. organize - I give a harmonious appearance, arrange) - 1) a type of social systems, an association of people jointly implementing a certain program (goal) and acting on the basis of certain principles and rules (for example, an employment service); 2) internal order, consistency of interaction between relatively autonomous parts of the system, determined by its structure; 3) one of the general management functions, a set of processes and (or) actions leading to the formation and improvement of relationships between parts of the whole (structural elements of the system).

Organizational culture:

Organizational culture is the set of beliefs, attitudes, norms of behavior and values ​​that are common to all employees of a given organization. They may not always be clearly expressed, but in the absence of direct instructions they determine the way people act and interact and significantly influence the progress of work (Michael Armstrong);

Organizational culture is a set of core beliefs, independently formed, internalized, or developed by a particular group as it learns to solve problems of adaptation to the external environment and internal integration, which have been effective enough to be considered valuable and therefore transmitted to new members as the right image perception, thinking and attitude towards specific problems (Edgar Schein);

Organizational culture is a set of the most important assumptions accepted by members of an organization and expressed in the organization's stated values ​​that give people guidelines for their behavior and actions. These value orientations are transmitted to individuals through “symbolic” means of the spiritual and material intra-organizational environment (O.S. Vikhansky and A.I. Naumov);

Organizational culture is a socio-economic space, which is part of the social space of society, located within the company, within which the interaction of employees is carried out on the basis of common ideas, perceptions and values ​​that determine the characteristics of their work life and determine the originality of the philosophy, ideology and management practice of this company.

The importance of organizational culture for the successful functioning of a company is generally recognized throughout the civilized world. Without exception, successful companies have created and maintained distinct organizational cultures that are most consistent with the company's goals and values ​​and clearly differentiate one company from another. A strong culture helps the process of forming large companies.

Main characteristics of organizational culture:

Organizational culture– a set of material, spiritual, social values ​​created and being created by company employees in the process of work and reflecting the uniqueness and individuality of this organization.

Depending on the stage of development of a company, values ​​can exist in various forms: in the form of assumptions (at the stage of active search for one’s culture), beliefs, attitudes and value orientations (when the culture has basically developed), norms of behavior, rules of communication and standards of work activity (when fully formed culture).

The most significant elements of culture are recognized: values, mission, company goals, codes and norms of behavior, traditions and rituals.

Values ​​and elements of culture do not require proof, are taken on faith, passed on from generation to generation, forming the corporate spirit of the company, consistent with its ideal aspirations.

Most interpretations are based on an understanding of culture in the broad sense of the word.

Corporate culture- a system of material and spiritual values, manifestations, interacting with each other, inherent in a given corporation, reflecting its individuality and perception of itself and others in the social and material environment, manifested in behavior, interaction, perception of itself and the environment (A.V. Spivak).

The concept of organizational culture is more reasonable when we talk about a company, firm, or organization. After all, not every organization is a corporation. That is, the concept of “organizational culture” is broader than the concept of “corporate culture”.

OK functions:

Security function consists of creating a barrier that protects the organization from unwanted external influences. It is implemented through various prohibitions, “taboos”, and limiting norms.

Integrating function creates a sense of belonging to the organization, pride in it, and the desire of outsiders to join it. This makes it easier to solve personnel problems.

Regulatory function supports the necessary rules and norms of behavior of members of the organization, their relationships, contacts with the outside world, which guarantees its stability and reduces the possibility of unwanted conflicts.

Adaptive function facilitates the mutual adaptation of people to each other and to the organization. It is implemented through general norms of behavior, rituals, ceremonies, with the help of which the education of employees is also carried out. By participating in joint activities, adhering to the same ways of behavior, etc., people more easily find contact with each other.

Orienting function culture directs the activities of the organization and its participants in the required direction.

Motivational function creates the necessary incentives for this.

Imaging function organization, i.e. its image in the eyes of others. This image is the result of people’s involuntary synthesis of individual elements of the organization’s culture into an elusive whole, which nevertheless has a huge impact on both the emotional and rational attitude towards it.

Properties OK:

Dynamism.

In its movement, culture goes through the stages of origin, formation, maintenance, development and improvement, cessation (replacement). Each stage has its own “growing problems,” which is natural for dynamic systems. Different organizational cultures choose their own ways to solve them, more or less effective. This property of organizational culture is taken into account by the principle of historicity when forming culture. Systematicity

is the second most important property, indicating that organizational culture is a fairly complex system that combines individual elements into a single whole, guided by a specific mission in society and its priorities. This property of organizational culture when forming culture is taken into account by the principle of consistency. Structuring of the constituent elements

. The elements that make up organizational culture are strictly structured, hierarchically subordinated and have their own degree of urgency and priority. OK has

property of relativity, since it is not a “thing in itself”, but constantly correlates its elements, both with its own goals and with the surrounding reality, other organizational cultures, while noting its strengths and weaknesses, revising and improving certain parameters.

Heterogeneity.

Within an organizational culture there can be many local cultures, reflecting the differentiation of culture by levels, departments, divisions, age groups, national groups, etc. called subcultures.

Separability

the culture of the organization is social, since its formation is influenced by many employees of the enterprise;

the culture of the organization regulates the behavior of team members, thereby influencing relationships between colleagues;

the culture of an organization is created by people, that is, it is the result of human actions, thoughts, desires;

the culture of the organization is consciously or unconsciously accepted by all employees;

the organization's culture is full of traditions, as it undergoes a certain historical process of development;

the culture of the organization is knowable;

the culture of the organization is capable of change;

the culture of an organization cannot be comprehended using any one approach, since it is multifaceted and, depending on the method used, is revealed in a new way each time;

Company culture is a result and a process; it is in constant development.

Methods for studying the organizational culture of a company (study strategies):

holistic strategy - field methods of studying a situation through real immersion in it;

metaphorical strategy (language) strategy - a strategy that involves studying the documentary-language arsenal of communication and communications of employees, their heroes and anti-heroes of the company;

a quantitative strategy involves the use of surveys, questionnaires, interviews and other methods that provide a quantitative assessment of specific manifestations of culture.

8.1. Concept, elements and functions of organizational culture

8.2. Principles of forming, maintaining and changing organizational culture

8.3. Typology of organizational cultures

Key terms and concepts : organizational culture, hierarchy, level of organizational culture, subculture, dominant culture, element of organizational culture, subjective and objective elements of organizational culture, type of organizational culture.

In modern business practice, the problem of organizational (corporate) culture, especially in large organizations, is extremely relevant. Numerous studies prove that successful enterprises are characterized by a high level of corporate culture. It is not without reason that the core values ​​and mission of world-famous companies such as Procter and Gamble, Sony, Motorola and others remain unchanged, while their strategy and business tactics are constantly adapting to the changing external environment. One of the most famous management theorists, Charles Barnard, first spoke about organizational culture as a factor in the success of an organization back in 1938. And the emergence of the concept of “corporate culture” is associated with the Ford company. The founder, Henry Ford, was the first to begin shaking hands with workers and greeting them on holidays, caring for a favorable atmosphere and the dedication of workers.

Concept, elements and functions of organizational culture

An organization is a rather complex organism, the basis of whose life potential is organizational culture. We can say that organizational culture is the “soul” of an organization.

In the scientific literature there are different interpretations of the concept of “organizational culture”, which in general do not contradict, but only complement each other.

In a general sense, organizational culture refers to the most important assumptions of organizational members, which are reflected in the values ​​that guide people's behavior and actions.

Organizational (corporate) culture - this is a set of methods and rules that have developed throughout the history of the organization for its adaptation to the requirements of the external environment and the formation of internal relations between groups of workers.

Organizational culture concentrates the policy and ideology of the organization's life, its system of priorities, criteria for motivation and distribution of power, characteristics of social values ​​and norms of behavior. Elements of organizational culture are a guideline for the management of an organization to make management decisions, establish control over the behavior and relationships of employees in the process of analyzing production, economic and social situations.

The general goal of organizational culture is to create a healthy psychological climate in organizations to unite workers into a single team professing certain ethical, moral and cultural values.

Research by scientists shows that high-performing companies are characterized by a developed organizational culture. As a rule, most highly profitable companies have specialized divisions that are directly responsible for introducing moral values ​​into the organization, developing special programs for cultural work among staff and creating a favorable, friendly atmosphere.

Experts highlight two important features of organizational culture: multi-level (its elements form certain hierarchical levels) and versatility, multi-aspect (the culture of an organization consists of the cultures of its individual divisions or groups of employees).

Typically, the elements of organizational culture include:

Organizational values, which are guidelines for the behavior of organization members;

Mission (the main purpose of existence, purpose of the organization) and slogans;

The philosophy of the organization (a system of key values ​​that reflect its self-perception)

Rituals and rituals are standard events aimed at emphasizing the significance of certain events, targeted psychological influence on employees in order to unite them, forming their loyalty to the company, the necessary beliefs and values;

Customs and traditions;

Norms and style of behavior of employees with each other and with subjects of the external environment;

Stories, stories, legends, myths about the most important events and people of the organization;

Symbols - emblems, trademarks, uniforms and other attributes of the appearance of personnel, premises design and the like.

For example, elements of the corporate culture of the McDonald's company are symbols (the letter M and the cartoon character McDuck), the design of the premises (using yellow and red colors), assigning a personal number to each employee, always smiling and addressing the client with the words: “Free cash register”.

Organizational culture as a multidimensional formation is hierarchical. There are three levels of organizational culture.

First level, or surface, including its visible external elements, that is, everything that can be felt and perceived with the help of human senses: architecture and interior design, company symbols, behavior, speech of employees, philosophy and slogans, and the like. At this level, elements of corporate culture are easy to identify, but they cannot always be interpreted correctly.

Second level, intermediate or subsurface is formed by the system of values ​​and beliefs of the organization's employees. their perception is conscious and depends on the desires of people.

Third level or deep, including the basic assumptions that determine people's behavior: attitude towards nature, other people, work and leisure, understanding of the reality of time and space, attitude towards other people, towards work. Without special focus, these assumptions are difficult for even organizational members to grasp.

Researchers of organizational culture are often limited to its surface and subsurface levels, since elements of the deep are quite difficult to identify and characterize.

Any organizational culture can be described by certain parameters. The main ones are: attitude to change; risk appetite; the degree of centralization "in decision making; the distance between management and subordinates; the degree of formalization and regulation; the ratio of collectivism and individualism; the nature of the relationship between employees and the organization (orientation towards autonomy, independence or conformism, loyalty); leadership style; source of fall; principles of performance evaluation and rewards.

Stefan Robin identifies the key characteristics of organizational culture:

Individual autonomy - the level of responsibility, independence, and the ability for employees to show initiative;

Structuring of activities - the level of regulation of the labor process (the presence of all kinds of rules, instructions, regulations), the level of direct control over the labor behavior of employees;

Direction - the level of formation of the goals and prospects of the organization’s activities;

Integration - level of support for coordination of activities;

Management support and support - the level of provision by managers of clear communication links, the level of assistance and support from managers of subordinates, and the nature of their relationships;

Incentive - the level of dependence of remuneration on labor results;

Identification - the level of identification of employees with the organization as a whole, the degree of participation in achieving organizational goals;

Conflict - the level of conflict in the organization, ways to resolve them, tolerance for different views and points of view;

Riskiness - the level of stimulation of employees for perseverance, initiative, innovation, and risk-taking in solving organizational problems.

Each organization can be described using these characteristics.

The properties of organizational culture are : universality, informality, sustainability.

Universality organizational culture is that it covers all types of activities in the organization. For example, organizational culture determines a certain way of developing strategic problems or procedures for hiring new employees.

Informality organizational culture means that its functioning is practically not connected with official rules of conduct established by order. Organizational culture operates, as it were, in parallel with the formal mechanism of the structure’s activities. The difference between organizational culture and the formal mechanism is the predominant use of oral, speech forms of communication, rather than written documentation and instructions, as is customary in a formal system.

The importance of organizational culture is determined by the fact that more than 90% of business decisions in modern organizations are made not in a formal setting (at meetings, meetings), but in informal meetings.

Sustainability organizational culture is associated with such a general property of culture as the traditional nature of its norms and institutions. The formation of any organizational culture requires long-term efforts on the part of managers. However, once formed, cultural values ​​and methods of their implementation acquire the character of traditions and remain stable for several generations of the organization’s employees. Many strong organizational cultures inherit values ​​introduced by company leaders and founders many decades ago. Thus, the foundations of IBM's modern organizational culture were laid in the first decades of the 20th century. T. J. Watson.

An organization's culture includes both subjective and objective elements.

TO subjective elements of culture include beliefs, values, images, rituals, taboos, legends and myths associated with the history of the organization and the life of its founders, customs, accepted norms of communication, slogans.

Under values the properties of certain objects, processes and phenomena are understood that are emotionally attractive to the majority of members of the organization, which makes them models, guidelines, and a measure of behavior. Values ​​include, first of all, goals, the nature of internal relationships, orientation of people's behavior, diligence, innovation, initiative, work and professional ethics.

Core values, when combined into a system, form philosophy of the organization. Philosophy reflects the organization’s perception of itself and its purpose, the main directions of activity, creates the basis for developing approaches to management, streamlines the activities of personnel on the basis of general principles, facilitates the development of administration requirements, and forms general universal rules of behavior.

Ritual- this is a standard, recurring event that is held at a certain time and by a special drive. Rituals such as honoring veterans, farewell to retirement, and initiation into members of the organization are quite common.

Ritual is a set of special events (rites) that have a psychological impact on members of an organization in order to strengthen loyalty to it, obscure the true meaning of certain aspects of its activities, teach organizational values ​​and form the necessary attitudes. Employees of many Japanese companies, for example, begin their work day by singing the company anthem.

Legends and myths reflect in the right light and in a coded form the history of the organization, inherited values, decorated portraits of its famous figures.

Custom is a form of social regulation of people’s activities and their relationships, imbued with no changes from the past.

How elements of culture can also be considered accepted in an organization norms And behavior style its members - their attitude towards each other and external contractors, implementation of management actions, problem solving.

Finally, an element of organizational culture is slogans, that is, appeals briefly reflect its leadership tasks, ideas or missions of the organization (Table 8.1.)

Table 8.1 *

Slogans of some world famous companies

Savchuk L. Development of corporate culture in Ukraine / L. Savchuk, A. Burlakova // Personnel. - 2005. - No. 5. - P. 86-89.

Objective elements of culture reflect the material side of the life of organizations. These are, for example, color symbolism, comfort and interior design, appearance of buildings, equipment, furniture.

Values, customs, rites, rituals, norms of behavior of members of the organization, brought from the past to the present, are called traditions. The latter can be both positive and negative. A friendly attitude towards all new employees coming to the organization can be considered a positive tradition, and hazing in the army can be considered a negative tradition.

The way of thinking of members of an organization is determined by traditions, values, level of culture, and the consciousness of its members is called mentality.

Organizational culture fulfills various functions .

Protective function. Corporate culture is a kind of barrier to the penetration of undesirable trends and negative values ​​of the external environment. It forms the uniqueness of the organization and allows it to be distinguished from other companies and the external environment as a whole.

Integrating function. Organizational culture creates a sense of identity in its employees. This allows each subject of intra-organizational life to form a positive image of the organization, better understand its goals, feel like part of a unified system and determine the degree of their responsibility to it.

Regulatory function. Organizational culture includes informal, unwritten rules that indicate how people should behave at work. These rules determine the usual methods of action in the organization: the sequence of work, the nature of work contacts, forms of information exchange. Thus, corporate culture creates unambiguity and orderliness of the main forms of activity.

Integrating and regulating functions contribute to the growth of labor productivity in the organization, since: a sense of identity and perception of the organization’s values ​​make it possible to increase the focus and perseverance of the organization’s participants in performing their tasks; the presence of informal rules that streamline organizational activities and actions that eliminate inconsistency creates time savings in every situation.

Substitution function. A strong organizational culture, capable of effectively replacing formal, official mechanisms, allows the organization not to resort to excessive complication of the formal structure and increasing the flow of official information and orders. Thus, there is a saving on management costs in the organization.

Adaptive function. Organizational culture makes it easier for employees to adapt to the organization and vice versa. Adaptation is carried out through a set of activities called socialization. In turn, the opposite process is possible - individualization, when an organization carries out its activities in such a way as to make maximum use of the individual’s personal potential and capabilities to solve their own problems.

Educational and developmental function. Corporate culture always has an educational, educational effect. Organizational leaders must take care of the training and education of their employees. The result of such efforts is an increase in the knowledge and skills of workers that the organization can use to achieve its goals. Thus, it expands the quantity and quality of economic resources it possesses.

Quality management function. Since corporate culture is ultimately embodied in the results of economic activity - economic benefits, it thus stimulates an attentive attitude to work and helps to improve the quality of goods and services offered by an economic organization.

Orienting function directs the activities of the organization and its participants in the required direction.

Motivational function creates the necessary incentives for effective work and achievement of organizational goals.

The function of forming the image of the organization, that is, her image in the eyes of those who surround him. This image is the result of people’s involuntary synthesis of individual elements of the organization’s culture into some elusive whole, and has a huge impact on both the emotional and rational attitude towards it.

Culture permeates the management process from beginning to end, plays an important role in the organization of communication, determining the logic of thinking, perception and interpretation (providing individual content by observation and establishing a connection between them) of verbal and especially non-verbal information.

Customer orientation function. Taking into account the goals, requests, and interests of consumers, reflected in the elements of culture, contributes to the establishment of strong and consistent relationships between the organization and its customers and clients. Many modern organizations position customer care as the most significant value.

Function of regulating partnership relations. Organizational culture develops rules for relationships with partners and presupposes moral responsibility to them. In this sense, organizational culture develops and complements the norms and rules of behavior developed within the framework of a market economic culture.

The function of adapting an economic organization to the needs of society. The action of this function creates the most favorable external conditions for the organization's activities. Its effect is to remove barriers, obstacles, and neutralize actions associated with violation or disregard by the organization of the rules of the social game. That is, the benefit of the organization lies in the elimination of economic disadvantages - losses.

Certain elements of organizational culture are enshrined in the so-called Corporate Code or Code of Corporate Culture (see Appendix, p. 338).

Business practice analysts identify two main approaches to creating this document, which regulates the behavior of company employees.

According to the first approach, a small document (3-5 pages) is developed that establishes the basic corporate rules of relations between the company and employees, and also includes a list of what is prohibited. Everything that is not prohibited is permitted.

Another approach involves a detailed description of possible situations that may arise during the work process (30-60 pages).

In small companies, the Corporate Culture Code is developed by the HR manager together with the president or director. Large companies, as a rule, entrust such work to consulting firms.

The document must be issued to the employee on his first day of work, and his supervisor must accept credit for his knowledge.

There is a practice of making beautiful booklets with corporate rules. But, organizations change, and corporate rules become outdated and require changes. And the money spent on printing forces management not to change them. Thus, workers “have in their hands” beautifully made, but no longer valid rules. Therefore, it is better to print corporate rules on operational printing equipment in a limited edition.

In addition to creating corporate rules, it is necessary to create conditions for their implementation, as well as develop a mechanism for monitoring implementation.

It is advisable to include the following information in the Corporate Code (basic rules for employees):

1. General characteristics of the company (its history, specialization, mission, philosophy, organizational structure, data on key divisions and their functions).

2. Basic principles of work (work schedule, possible reasons for absence and tardiness, technical and lunch breaks, overtime work, holidays, corporate holidays, vacation, temporary disability, appearance and behavior, smoking and alcoholic beverages, rules of conduct in the premises, disciplinary responsibility for documents and information, financial liability, workplace harassment policies, labor dispute resolution, employee records, general meetings, equipment and transportation, use of computers and e-mail, business expenses, employee-customer relationships).

3. Selection and hiring of personnel (procedure and criteria for hiring, hiring relatives, probationary period, termination of an employment contract or termination of a contract).

4. Remuneration system (remuneration policy, guarantees and compensation).

5. Personnel training and development (training, certification, advanced training, career growth).

6. Corporate rules (appearance and behavior of personnel, principles of communication between employees, with clients or business partners, corporate traditions and holidays, responsibility for violating these rules, making proposals to the rules).

Organizational culture- these are the norms and values ​​that are shared by the absolute majority of members of an organization or enterprise, as well as their external manifestations (organizational behavior).

Main functions:

• internal integration (gives all members of the structure an idea of ​​the form of their interaction with each other);
• external adaptation (adapts the organization to the external environment).

The process of forming organizational culture is an attempt to constructively influence the behavior of personnel. Engaged in the formation of certain attitudes and value systems among employees within the framework of specific organizational structure You can stimulate, plan and predict the desired behavior, but you should take into account the corporate culture of the organization, which has already been established. Often, managers, trying to formulate the philosophy of their organization, declaring progressive norms and values, even investing some money in it, do not get the desired results. In part, this occurs because actual values ​​and norms conflict with the organizational norms being implemented. Therefore, they are rejected by the majority of the team.

Elements of organizational culture

• Behavioral stereotypes (slang, common language used by members of the organization; traditions and customs observed by them; rituals performed on certain occasions).
• Group norms (patterns and standards that regulate the behavior of organization members).
• Proclaimed values ​​(well-known and declared values ​​and principles in the organization that the organization adheres to and implements. For example, “quality of products.”).
• Philosophy of the organization (general ideological and even, possibly, political principles that determine the actions of the organization in relation to employees, clients, intermediaries).
• Rules of the game (rules of employee behavior at work; restrictions and traditions necessary for all new team members to assimilate).
• Organizational climate (“the spirit of the organization,” which is determined by the composition of the team and the characteristic way of interaction between its members, as well as with clients and other persons, quality mugs).
• Existing practical experience (techniques and methods that are used by team members to achieve specified goals; the ability to carry out certain actions in certain situations that are passed on in the team from generation to generation and that do not require mandatory written recording).

Types of Organizational Cultures

The most popular typology was created by K. Cameron and R. Quinn. It is based on four groups of criteria that determine the core values ​​of the organization:

• discreteness and flexibility;
• control and stability;
• integration and internal focus;
• differentiation and external focus.

Clan organizational culture. It implies a very friendly team where its members have a lot in common. The divisions of an organization resemble large families. The leaders of the organization are perceived by its members as educators. The organization is inseparable through tradition and devotion, and internally, great importance is attached to the moral climate and cohesion of the team. Success in business is defined as caring about people and having a good feeling towards consumers. With this type of organizational culture, team work and agreement are encouraged.

Adhocratic organizational culture. Involves active entrepreneurial and creative work. To achieve overall success, employees are willing to take risks and make personal sacrifices. The leaders of such an organization are considered innovators and risk-takers. The bonding element of the organization is a dedication to innovation and experimentation. The importance of working at the forefront is emphasized. In the long term, the organization focuses on acquiring new resources and growth. Success is producing unique products or providing new services. In this case, leadership in the market of services or products is important. The organization encourages creativity, freedom and personal initiative.

Hierarchical organizational culture. This type of organizational culture occurs in formalized and structured organizations. All employee activities are governed by procedures. Leaders are rational organizers and coordinators. The organization values ​​maintaining the main course of its activities. The unifying fact in it is official policy and formal rules.

Market organizational culture. This type is dominant in organizations that are focused on achieving results. The main task is to achieve the intended goals. Employees of such an organization are always goal-oriented and constantly compete with each other. Leaders are tough competitors and firm administrators. They are always demanding and unshakable. The organization is united by the goal of always winning; for it, success and reputation are the main values.