Elements of Organizational Culture

Some will tell you it’s the brilliant minds, others are sure it is the hearts of the women but the answer is really everything in between. What is actually being described is the perception of our environment, or our cultural elements. The culture of Saint Mary’s is vastly different from any institution, which is to be expected due to the nature of an all women’s, but there are many attributes that affect the culture of the institution. Elements included in defining an organizations culture are: ceremonies, rituals, artifacts, stories, all of which can be found in the history o the Saint Mary’s College organization. Though there are many facets of Saint Mary’s College, including the students, the faculty, the staff and the administration, we will merely look at the cultural elements a Saint Mary’s student experiences which alone are insurmountable.

Within Augusta hall on our campus you will find artifact upon artifact compiling the history that forms modern day Saint Mary’s College. There are many pictures of past important people attending significant events. There are articles of clothing from influential people of Saint Mary’s past and there is even a table where Mother Theresa once sat and broke bread with Sister Madeleva. All of these items have a certain memory and event attached to them making them artifacts of the college. This top floor of Augusta Hall is a place where the students of the institution of Saint Mary’s College can go and feel the reality the college’s history.

Another piece of organizational culture is held in the stories and the language of telling stories and stories being passed along. At Saint Mary’s College, as is true for most organizations, there are many ways in which stories are transferred over time. I believe the most common way stories at Saint Mary’s are conveyed is from other students who share stories of Saint Mary’s past and present every day. Who knows what the source is or how the student came about this information but we typically accept it to be true. Other common ways stories are shared here at Saint Mary’s often happen before you are officially accepted as a student. When participating in admissions activities stories are shared to help convey the idea of life in this community. Other ways stories are shared are from the professors and administration, if they attended school here or if they simply have heard the stories themselves from somewhere else. Another common though possibly overlooked way of stories being passed along is from mother to daughter. Here at Saint Mary’s we have a lot of legacy students who’s mothers or aunts or grandmothers also went to Saint Mary’s and stories can be passed this way as well. Although all of these ideas are being passed on from different sources all are elements of the organizational culture.

In addition to artifacts and stories there are ceremonies that happen on some routine basis (annually) that add to the elements of organizational culture. When first arriving on campus in August, first year students typically go through a process known as orientation which is a type of ceremony of ceremonies to help students transition from high school to college. To make the transition final there is a ceremony called lighting the candle that officially ends orientation. All of the new students light a candle signifying the beginning of their college careers. There are also religious ceremonies our college practices being that we are a catholic institution. There is opening mass which is also a part of orientation and baccalaureate mass which happens before graduation. Graduation is also a ceremony. The procession of the students in front of their loved ones celebrating the time they have had and the fact that it is over.

Defining an organizations culture often unintentionally reinforces organizational values; this is often the case with organization rituals. According to our textbook authors Eisenberg, Goodall and Trethewey, “Rituals ‘dramatize’ a culture’s basic values and can range in scope from personal, day-to-day routines for accomplishing tasks to annual organization-wide celebrations”. At Saint Mary’s college an organization-wide ritual would be when we honor those who have performed well with the dean’s list title. We also perform day-to-day rituals here at Saint Mary’s College. In many classes we pray before we begin the day’s lesson or we hand in homework before getting started. Though the rituals vary greatly from one organization to another as stated by our authors we can learn much about the organization and where they place there values based on simply daily routines.

Though many people believe culture affects the intangible possessions of an organization by influencing values, attitudes and behaviors it also has material consequences. In the case of an institution such as Saint Mary’s College the elements of our individual culture affect which women choose to attend our college or which professional educators choose to work at our college which in turn effects the education and the experience women at this institution are receiving. The organizational culture can also have a monetary impact. If the culture is not appealing and tuition levels lower there is less of an income for our community to better itself with. It is true the culture affects the heart and the soul of an organization but it can also affect the flesh and the blood.

What may happen if a decentralized organization met conflict with a centralized organization

Arachnophobia: fear of spiders. Though many people suffer from this fear it is very rarely questioned, spiders are just generally seen as a scary creature. Spiders are also the main metaphor used for a centralized organization. A centralized organization is one with a central command structure, a clear leader and rules which are enforced. These organizations are seen often. We see examples in the government and most highly regarded for profit organizations. Conversely a decentralized organization is one where there is no clear leader, there is no headquarters and rules and norms are not enforced. Due to their nature these organizations are not easy to spot but examples can be found in organizations such as terrorist groups.

It is easy to see that these two types of organizations contrast each other and thus the question arises: what would the outcome be if these two organizations were to engage in conflict. Partially due to my lack of military training and partially due to the nature of the two organizations the outcome would be hard to judge and if any guess was made it would have to include many scenarios. We can use for example the United States government (a centralized organization) and a terrorist organization (a decentralized organization).

The United States government has a clear leader. There is a chain of command from the man who is actually fighting on the front lines all the way back to the president of the United States. There are also specific locations where decisions are made about the conflict. The pentagon is an entire building dedicated to the United States and dealing with foreign conflict. There is also a situation room in the white house where the president is briefed on information with conflict.

The terrorist organization has no clear leader. There is no headquarters for a terrorist organization and there is no way to try and enforce rules among the other terrorists fighting. Even if someone were to give an example of Osama Bin Laden as a leader of a terrorist organization he is not crucial to the success of the organization. Why then is it that we are going after him? Sometimes if we are used to looking at the world one way, it is hard to make any sense of looking at the world a different way. We, in the United States are used to looking at centralized organizations, so if we are fooled by a decentralized organization and we see someone who looks like a leader we believe that that person is crucial to the organization and that if we kill them the organization will fall.

This approach is wrong. In fact, this may be the worst thing we could do. The more we attack a decentralized organization the more decentralized it becomes and the stronger it becomes. It is harder to detect the location of members of a decentralized organization after an attack, and we won’t know which direction to look for an attack from them. Decentralized organizations are flexible and immune to attack because even if you manage to kill members or groups of members there are still more and new ones constantly emerge.

The best way to handle a decentralized organization would be to plan attacks very carefully. The more you can take out at once. Don’t drop bombs at random and kill whoever you can. Wait, research, record and find when the most members will be in the same location at once. I would think the best bet would be if the decentralized organization had no idea you were even watching. They would have no reason to suspect anything was wrong. But this approach takes patience and skill.

Patience and skill, much like the metaphor for a decentralized organization: a starfish. If you cut an arm off, most of the time these animals grow a new one. If you cut the starfish in half the animal won’t die, and pretty soon you’ll have two starfish to deal with. The starfish doesn’t have a head and the major organs are replicated throughout the entire being. Much like the decentralized organization, the starfish has no essential part to it. Currently we don’t hear much of a fear of star fish but maybe sometime soon. Thalassophobia: fear of sea creatures.

News Media: The Google Way of Life

It was destined to fail; Google Inc seemed to be lacking from the start. The bizarre creation of the company began in 1996 as a research project by two Stanford PhD applicants. Sergey Bren and Larry Page were both computer science majors who were known as “scary smart”. After the two computer geeks misspelled the word googol, they had created a website where people could efficiently search the internet. Three years after the two founders launched their website they decided they might want to begin to make a profit. After the advertising setup we Google users know as the right hand side column, Bren and Page had a full functioning company.

From the beginning both founders knew they wanted their company to be different and different is most certainly one way to describe the life inside the Googleplex. As the video illustrates, Google is no average company. Though this video is directed to describe how Google caters to female employees, we thoroughly see the ideas and philosophies on management and the workplace environment. From programs, to food, to sports, Google offers it all, but what does this mean for worker productivity, the workplace environment and the management approach. Obviously, Google did not fail so they must be doing something right.

It seems as though everything about Google was created for employees to be as productive as possible. The design of the building, the contents within the building, the norms of the workplace all seem to increase worker productivity. Some of the social norms referred to include, meetings over a pool table, bringing your pet to the office, taking a lunchtime hockey break, or getting a back massage. By relaxing the environment these characteristics of the company might seem to slow down the workers but in fact there productivity is the highest in their field. While it takes Microsoft years to work through innovation, design, product testing and completion, Google seems to be adding a new component to their website daily. Google also believes in continuing education. Google has tech talks once a week for employees to ask questions and be informed on everything in the technology community. This constant learning helps keep employees up on current technology allowing them to be more productive and innovative.

One of the most unique aspects of the Google community is the workplace environment. The feeling when you walk through the doors of an organization says a lot about their values and their priorities. Google employees feel as though they are working for a small company even though Google is an international corporation. Google hires only the best of the best; they receive over 1000 resumes each day. This gives Google a competitive edge to hire people who they want in their environment. People in the Googleplex are intelligent, enthusiastic people who are passionate about what they do (usually they are pretty smart too).

Another unique component of Google’s environment is their 20% idea. Google allows its employees to spend 20% of their time at work to create and develop their own project. This allows users to feel free from constraint or domination and it also helps the company with constant innovation. Something often praised about at Google is the free food. More than just a regular lunch line; there are gourmet chefs, candy jars lining halls, closets full of cereal bars and free pop machines at every corner. Google actually has a rule that there must be food within 100 feet of each employee. In case you gain what is known as the “Google 15” there are plenty of ways to work it off in one of the many gyms or fitness centers on site.

Though it is easily seen that Google is taking a step into unknown territory in their management style, they are still keeping the general ideas of the human relations approach. The Googleplex it self could be seen as the Hawthorne affect on speed. Workers aren’t just being paid attention to; the Google worker has it good. This illustration of the “Hawthorne affect on speed” was awarded by Fortune magazine naming Google the best company to work for in the year 2006. What’s more is the ratio of executives to engineers is extremely low. This distancing of management allows employees to feel less watched over or inferior. Google also has a mentoring program for new employees to orient them to their new environment. This program directly correlates with the human relations approach in that the company is recognizing the needs of the employer and then meeting those needs.

One may think of the Google Corporation as a machine, but it is certainly different from the machine used in the scientific management metaphor. Google earnestly seems to care about its employers. Any company can implement strategies to increase worker productivity, manage to the best of its abilities and create a sound work environment, but few can do what Google has accomplished. Though the company began with a bizarre start, it certainly did not fail. With company worth at over 120 billion dollars Google is far from failure. Google is far from failure because of their welcoming workplace environment, their relational management approach and their high worker productivity.