The characteristic model of behavior and its own system of values, relationships and interactions at a particular enterprise is an organizational culture, which is determined by beliefs and cultural norms shared by almost all employees, and the basis of its structure is levels. It invariably helps to work effectively and smoothly, to fulfill the most complex production tasks, promotes team cohesion and uniting it into a team. Formed levels of organizational culture already in the formation of the enterprise. In the first years of the existence of the organization, certain rules are created, not always written somewhere in the orders, and a set of values appears that fully corresponds to the ideas of the founders of the enterprise. Organizational culture never stagnates, it develops, changes and gains depth of meaning.
Structure
The following levels of organizational culture are distinguished: deep, subsurface and superficial. If we see logos andslogans relating to this enterprise, and any other paraphernalia, which is only an external way of interacting with the outside world, this is a superficial level, observed by everyone at the first contact with this institution. It should be noted that all levels of the organizational structure have their own artifacts. The superficial easily detects all the phenomena inherent in him, but few people correctly interpret them. Artifacts here are such events where the degree of emotionality and involvement of all employees is the highest. And of course, the rules are quite strictly defined for them. All levels of the organizational culture of the organization can be characterized as behavioral normative, the difference in focus and degree of awareness.
The second, subsurface level always reflects the values, norms, beliefs, ideas of this organization shared by all employees. It is here that the desire to choose a goal and mission, to determine the means to achieve them is revealed. It is rather difficult to recognize this level from the outside, close contact with this organization is needed. It is the prevailing ideas and values, realized by the team, that regulate their behavior. And, finally, the levels of the organizational culture of the organization represent its deepest, reflecting in its entirety and accuracy every element of the collective organism. This is a way of leadership, and the behavior of colleagues, and methods that are used as a reward and as a punishment. Basic settings are used here on an unconscious level, but they clearly guide the behavior of all employees and determine the attitudeteam to the enterprise. From an external observer, the deep level is hidden, it reflects the general psychology of the company's employees. It should be noted that the national culture most strongly influences the basic ideas.
Edgar Shane
American psychologist Edgar Shane explained the levels and structure of organizational culture in the most accessible way. Moreover, he was the founder of a new scientific direction of organizational psychology. Being a theorist and practitioner of modern management, he created a model that explains just such a structure of organizational culture. It is sometimes called the iceberg model, because a truly outsider will see in an unfamiliar institution only the smallest part of what the levels and structure of organizational culture are.
The model is three-stage: the first one contains artifacts, the second one contains proclaimed values, and the third one contains basic assumptions. And this is how Shane described the levels of organizational culture. The surface will show the observer only visible facts. These are the architecture, the technologies that are applied, the form of the structure, the visible behavior, the ceremonies, the language, the rituals, the myths, the manner of communication, and the like.
Surface level
All phenomena and things at this level are easily detected. However, they also need to be deciphered, interpreted using the terms of this particular organizational culture. The history established in the team and the values of this organization formed on its basis will require lengthy explanations, partlyturned into myths that created unique customs and rituals, which, again, are peculiar only to this team.
All this is characterized by a huge degree of involvement, emotionality, which colors all events and all joint actions that take place according to the initially established rules. This contributes to the cohesion of the team, which jointly ensures stability and the preservation of common values. Rituals can be very different: communication (rules of communication - formal and informal), work (routine, weekdays, everyday life), managerial (meetings, voting procedures, decision-making), official (encouragement of the best, support of basic values).
Second level according to E. Shane
Organizational culture levels are not the only separate segments in the structure. There are an indefinite number of subcultures, countercultures, invisible to the outside eye, among the monolith of the main organizational culture, which either weaken or strengthen the cohesion of the team. What level of organizational culture is represented by the values, perceptions, and beliefs shared by the entire diverse team? Of course, subsurface. Human behavior is governed by these values and beliefs. Here is an example: there is a recession in production, the management decides not to fire anyone, but to reduce the working week for everyone (as happened in one of the divisions of the Russian furniture giant). If this step leads to good results and the enterprise"correct", the attitude towards the company's management should be fixed as a general, even general idea of corporate values.
However, unfortunately, this is not always the case, and the behavior of the team most often does not correspond to the proclaimed values. The latter are rarely clearly articulated, and therefore diagnostics may not give an answer to how high the level of organizational culture of a given enterprise is. When studying the values of the team, it is necessary to pay attention to such aspects of collective life as the "face" of the organization, its purpose (which is more important - quality or innovation, for example); how power is distributed (whether everyone is satisfied with the existing degree of inequality); how employees are treated (do they care, do they respect each other, do the bosses have favorites, are the rewards fair); how the work is organized (is the discipline strict enough, how often is the rotation of employees used); what is the management style (democratic or authoritarian); how decisions are made (individually or as a team) and so on.
Deep level
Even more secret - the last level, deep. This includes basic assumptions that are not realized even by the members of the organization, unless they specifically focus on this issue. However, although these are just taken for granted, they are so strong assumptions that they basically direct people's behavior, which Edgar Schein wrote about in his works. Levelsorganizational structures are a set of basic ideas that give meaning to objects and phenomena that guide actions in certain situations. Shane calls this integrated system a "map of the world." This is probably a contour map, without precise definitions of the location of objects, because people experience comfort only when they are in the atmosphere of their own ideas, in another system they inevitably feel discomfort, because they are unable to understand what is happening, most often perceiving another reality distortedly and giving it a false interpretation. All three levels of organizational culture are encrypted for outsiders, but the third - deep - especially.
Basic assumptions include such inexplicable concepts as the nature of time, the nature of space, the nature of reality, the nature of man. Naturally, the most encrypted are human activities and human relationships. Organizational culture levels include numerous layers of attitudes and relationships, including religious factors, which also have a strong influence on organizational ties, especially in some regions. This also includes ethical attitudes - gender relations, adherence to work schedules, the appearance of employees, and similar trifles, as it were, but the world consists of them. It is quite easy to observe such artifacts, but it is difficult to interpret. To understand the organizational culture of a particular group of people, you need to go to their level of ideas in order to carefully consider their values and artifacts. And it must be taken into account thatat the deepest level, national culture has the greatest influence.
Study
Edgar Schein thoroughly worked out the concept, and the levels of organizational culture obediently divided the monolith of human relationships in the team. The study must begin from the very first, superficial level of artifacts. Otherwise, probably, it cannot happen. After all, a new employee, for example, begins acquaintance with the team and the company without fail from the most visible signs of it.
In the process of immersion on the level of values, he tries to dive, to penetrate from subsurface ideas to deep ones. But the formation of the levels of the organizational structure takes place in the opposite direction. First, the deep level develops, without this, creation and creativity itself are impossible. Then values gradually appear and, finally, artifacts.
Relationships and rejection
As already mentioned, organizational culture is not a monolith. It consists of a dominant culture (predominant), many groups of subcultures and countercultures, which either strengthen or weaken the overall culture of the organization. The basic principles of a subculture usually do not contradict too much, they most often accept almost all the values of the dominant culture, but from them the organization receives some specificity, a difference from the rest. These are both gender and territorial or functional subcultures. There are a great many of them. But the counterculture may well act as a direct opposition to the dominant culture and its values, includingexamples of corporate behavior.
The counterculture denies all the declared basic goals of this organization, and in this case a deep level of organizational culture development is often reached, that is, the counteraction is carried out almost reflexively. In real life, it can be shareholders who put together a group to remove management or change the company's strategy, as well as managers who lack power, or unions fighting for justice. If an organization is undergoing some kind of transformation, the role of countercultures can be greatly enhanced, and the dominant organizational culture will have to fight for its territories where its priorities are shared.
Management
Organizational culture can and should be managed. This process, of course, is very complex, relationships take place among a large number of people who constantly replace each other, and even permanent members of the team necessarily change their internal ideas under the influence of certain circumstances that can neither be predicted nor prevented. Phenomenologists completely deny the impact on organizational culture. However, supporters of a rational pragmatic approach are sure of something else. They insist that there can be a purposeful influence on people's ideas, and through this their behavior will change. Leaders have the most impact on fundamental collective values, they inspire employees and make their dreams and aspirations come true.
Of course, withprovided that the leaders have obvious and sincere commitments for all to universal values, which they absolutely must share. Great attention on their part to what is happening in the organization, to all the details, even insignificant ones, guarantee the success of influencing organizational culture. Clever leaders skillfully manipulate things and symbols, create new patterns of behavior by personal example. Even surface-level attributes, when manipulated in this way, become more and more effective over time, thus influencing the subsurface level of the organization's culture. In this way, even the team's basic assumptions can be changed. However, the results here are almost impossible to predict, since the process is long and difficult, and by influencing one variable, one can achieve irreversible changes in another. Usually only their initiator believes in good changes.
Influencing factors
Organizational culture is the basis of the potential of every enterprise, it is it that determines its success in the long term. This is exactly what distinguishes one organization from another, this is the soul of each team. The formation of organizational culture is influenced by many internal and external factors. The internal ones include the goals and mission of the enterprise, its strategy, as well as the nature of the work and content. An important role is played by the education and qualifications of workers, their level of general development. And, as was said, the personality of the leader is of particular importance. External factors that affect organizational culture include the economic conditions of a giventime and given circumstances, national peculiarities, as well as peculiarities of the business environment in the organization and the entire industry.
If we move away from Shane's studies, we can find another division into levels of organizational culture - into objective and subjective. This version itself is much simpler and much less about management. At the objective level, there are visual things: from the design of premises, furniture and equipment to catering and the appearance of employees. We can say that this refers to the purely physical environment of the organization. The subjective level is a bit more complicated: it is the language of communication and the communication system, the relationship between employees. These are norms and values, rituals and traditions. It is the attitude to time, motivation and work ethic. The basis for the formation of levels of organizational culture is precisely its subjective component. It almost entirely depends on the management culture, leadership style and problem-solving skills of leaders, which certainly helps to maintain the organizational culture in the team.
Methods
Techniques leaders use to maintain organizational culture include:
- Attention to objects and subjects, to assessments, to monitoring the activities of employees.
- Rapid response to crises and emergencies.
- Properly worked out criteria for statuses and rewards, hiring, firing and, conversely, promotion.
- Initiative inshaping the traditions and symbols of the organization.
Organizational culture cannot exist by itself, it is always in the context of the culture of the geographic region and the whole society, besides, it is influenced by the national culture. But without an organizational culture, no corporate enterprise can exist, since it forms the culture of individual departments, teams, groups - both workers and managers.
