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SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

III. SOCIAL SYSTEMS
1. Characteristics and Culture (SIT-UPS)
a. Stable
b. Implicit
c. Top management (influence)
d. Underlying beliefs and values
e. Puzzle
f. Strength
- in order for top management to effectively influence the culture within their
organization, it should also require a large degree of cooperation, acceptance of
decision making and control, communication and commitment to the employer.
2. Measuring Organizational Culture
a. Examination of stories, symbols, rituals and ceremonies
i. Early method
b. Interviews and open-ended questionnaires (to assess values and beliefs); surveys
i. Commonly asked questions to measure and understand organizational
culture:
1. Does the company support two-way communication between
managers and employees
2. Regularly share and exchange ideas
3. Employees respect each other
4. Do the employee feel valued in the workplace
5. Work-life balance
c. Corporate philosophy statements (essentially means The Way We Do Things
Around Here)
i. Provides a glimpse to the companys culture especially its beliefs and values.
1. We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for
people of all ages everywhere. (Disney)
d. Become a member (participant observation) the most qualitative of all
3. Understanding the Culture of Your Organization
a. Different perceptions on the culture of the organization especially between top and
bottom levels of the organization.
i. Chief Executive and receptionist example
4. Communicating and Changing (or Managing) Culture
a. Effective communication is the key to create and manage a companys culture
i. To employees, especially newly hired ones because they are more willing to
adapt and learn especially about their new work environment.
b. Changing culture is a difficult task. Setting out to make big cultural changes often
fail. In fact, one study suggests that 81% of culture change initiatives fail. That
means that for every ten companies that sets out to make culture changes, fewer
than two of them will succeed. In order initiate company cultural change, they must
follow the following steps (SET) (source:
https://www.groovehq.com/support/company-culture-change):
i. Start with why
1. The employees must know the reason behind such cultural change
ii. Engage your team
1. The employees must feel engaged in such change management
iii. Take baby steps
1. In order to create big changes in a companys culture, the company
must produce a plan that will slowly integrate these changes.
5. Storytelling
a. Storytelling can result in managing culture and improve on the commitment of the
employees to the company. It can be achieved in 2 ways:

i. By telling the companys story / success stories

1. National Book Store
a. Founder, Socorro Cancio-Ramos started the company during
WWII. But because of the war, their establishment was
destroyed. Despite this, Mrs. Ramos persevered and exerted
much effort in order to keep the business going. Today, NBS has
become a resident name known by every Filipino
ii. By recognizing employees in their endeavor
1. Through stories of individual employees achievements and contribution
to the company, this creates active involvement and commitment
within the organization.
6. Individualization
a. Process through which employees successfully exert influence on the social system
around them.
b. Individualization is about how employees want to be treated at work as unique and
valued. It means they want managers to care about them as people, to really know
them, know what our strengths and development areas are (and to use those skills),
and to do whatever it takes to help them achieve their full potential as well as help
us fit their work around their life. Employees dont just want to be one of the team
anymore; they want to feel special and feel that they are valued members of the
company.
c. So it is important for top management to create avenues for employee
individualization
7. Fun Work Places (source: Forbes.com)
a. Google
i. Its no secret that Google is a fun, fresh company, with tons of money, and
dedicated employees, and part of the secret behind these employees is the
awesome offices that they work from. Google put a lot of time and money
into making the perfect work environment, mixing business with pleasure so
that the staff can relax and refuel during their breaks. Google thrives of
creativity and that thought has very much gone into the reasoning behind the
designs of their offices, providing every employee with a space for them to be
creative. Theres a rule at Google that nobody is allowed to be more than 100
meters away from food, so youll find kitchens everywhere, as well as an
awesome cafeteria where every employee is fed three times a day, for free. If
you think that the offices are over the top and far too big, then at least you
wont have to spend all your time walking everywhere as you can just take
the slide or firemans pole around the building. If all of thats not enough for
you, and you really want somewhere quiet to relax and get away from work,
theres always the library or aquarium.
b. Lego
i. If youre anything like me, then your ideal office is anywhere that you can be
surrounded by Lego all day, and thats what its like working at Lego. The
colourful open-plan layout encourages interaction and play between the staff,
in an effort to fuel their imagination, which is what Lego is all about. The
meeting rooms are all light, colourful, and open, and vary in size depending
on their uses, but theyre all designed to one thing: provide a happy and
comfortable working environment to boost moral and product development.
The whole office is designed so that anyone can play with the lego and come
up with something new, while getting work done, and enjoying their time at
the company. If spending the whole day playing and working with Lego
doesnt make you happy, then I dont know what will!
END

I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isnt just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In
the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create
value. (Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM)

COMPANIES WITH THE BEST CULTURES

P&G
Adobe
Walt Disney
Twitter
Employees of Twitter cant stop raving about the companys culture. Rooftop meetings,
friendly coworkers and a team-oriented environment in which each person is motivated by
the companys goals have inspired that praise.
Employees of Twitter can also expect free meals at the San Francisco headquarters, along
with yoga classes and unlimited vacations for some. These and many other perks are not
unheard of in the startup world. But what sets Twitter apart?
Employees cant stop talking about how they love working with other smart people.
Workers rave about being part of a company that is doing something that matters in the
world, and there is a sense that no one leaves until the work gets done.
Takeaway: You cant beat having team members who are pleasant and friendly to each
other, and are both good at and love what they are doing. No program, activity or set of
rules tops having happy and fulfilled employees who feel that what they are doing
matters.
Google
It would almost seem wrong not to mention Google on a list of companies with great
culture. Google has been synonymous with culture for years, and sets the tone for many of
the perks and benefits startups are now known for. Free meals, employee trips and parties,
financial bonuses, open presentations by high-level executives, gyms, a dog-friendly
environment and so on. Googlers are known to be driven, talented and among the
best of the best.
As Google has grown and the organization has expanded and spread out, keeping a uniform
culture has proven difficult between headquarters and satellite offices, as well as among the
different departments within the company. The larger a company becomes, the more that
culture has to reinvent itself to accommodate more employees and the need for
management.
While Google still gets stellar reviews for pay, perks and advancement, there are also some
employees who note growing pains that youd expect from such a huge company, including
the stress associated with a competitive environment. Hiring and expecting the best from
employees can easily become a stressor if your culture doesnt allow for good work-life
balance.
Takeaway: Even the best culture needs to revisit itself to meet a growing companys team.
The most successful company culture leads to successful business, and that requires an
evolving culture that can grow with it.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249174
Facebook
Just like Google, Facebook is a company that has exploded in growth as well as being
synonymous with unique company culture.
Facebook offers, as do many similar companies, lots of food, stock options, open office
space, on-site laundry, a focus on teamwork and open communication, a competitive
atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning and great benefits.
Yet, Facebook has the same struggles as similar companies: a highly competitive industry
leads to a sometimes stressful and competitive workplace. Additionally, a free and organic
organizational structure that worked for the smaller organization is less successful for the
larger one.

To meet these challenges, Facebook has created conference rooms, has separate buildings,
lots of outdoor roaming space for breaks and has management (even CEO Mark Zuckerberg)
working in the open office space alongside other employees. Its an attempt at a flat
organizational culture using the buildings and space itself to promote a sense of equality
among the competition.
Takeaway: When your company depends on new hires who excel in a competitive field,
your company culture and any associated perks will likely be the tipping point for
applicants. You must stand out from other companies vying for attention.