Geert Hofstede And Mann's Three Concepts Of Organizational Culture

The Collins English dictionary (2016) defines organizational culture as customs, rituals and values shared by the members of an organization that have to be accepted by new members. Stephen Robbins identified organizational culture as uniform perception of an organization which has common characteristics (Robbins, 1986). Denise Rousseau on the other hand defined organizational culture as a set of commonly experienced stable characteristics of an organization which shows the distinctive features of an organization which differentiates it from others (Rousseau, 2000). Geert Hofstede identified culture as the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one group for those of another. According to Hofstede, culture

Instead of seeing culture as a single entity Schein divided organizational culture into 3 levels (see Figure 1).

BASIC UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS

According to Schein and organization’s cultural foundations are based on basic underlying assumptions. These assumptions were once beliefs and values that the founders or leaders in the organization espoused for success, but have become something so ingrained in its people that it has become unconscious and hence taken for granted (Schein, 1983). Once this happens Schein believes that these beliefs and values have turned into the underlying assumptions that are no longer visible nor talked about openly but they definitely exist and are extremely powerful (Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2004). These underlying assumptions are not easily observable and cannot be passively understood. They are usually brought to the conscious level when the group interacts with outsiders who question certain behaviors by the organization’s people. In their cultural orientations framework Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck (1961) identified six cultural orientations that identified human’s view of the nature if humans, time, space and their relationship with nature and other humans and created a limited set of questions with variations to

They can be a more useful alternative to control and order through bureaucracy (Ouchi, 1980).They have a strong influence on strategic decision-making (Liedtka, 1989) and they can provide the moral compass for an organization (Finegan & Theriault, 1997). According to Schein these refer to values and beliefs that are publically embraced by the organization and those that are clearly stated and communicated to its people. They are what the organization aims to excel in and become the drivers of success for its people. Schein articulates that beliefs and values are derived from individuals who prevail in an organization and are able to influence their followers with successful solutions which are jointly observed by the group as a successful outcome (Schein, 2004). Overtime these successful suggestions become the beliefs and values that the group perceives collectively as the values and beliefs for success in the organization. As such through learning and experience some of these values that are perceived as bringing success are given more importance than others in the organization (Schwartz, 1992). Schein is not alone is making the statement that organizational values are derived mainly from founders and leaders. Pant and Lachman (1998) make the case that an organization’s values equates to the values of the top management. Bansal (2003) sees organizational values as that being defined by an organization’s