2.5 Organisational culture

• An organisation's culture is defined by its beliefs, attitudes and values.
• Benifits of a strong organisational culture include a sense of belonging, promoting cohesion, mnimising mistakes and misunderstandings and minimising problems when conflict occurs.
• The acronym NORMS is used to remember the determinants of organisational culture.
• The N in NORMS stands for 'nature of the business'.
• The O in NORMS stands for 'organisational structure'.
• The R in NORMS stands for 'rewards'.
• The M in NORMS stands for 'management style'.
• The S in NORMS stands for 'sanctions'.
• Charles Handy's Gods of management theory describes there being four types of organisational culture: Zues (Power), Apollo (Role), Athena (Task) and Dionysian (Person).
• In Charles Handy's Gods of Management theory, Zeus (power) is when organisations have a flat decision making structure with power radiating from a few individuals.
• In Charles Handy's Gods of Management theory, Apollo (role) is where the organisation has a clear hierarchy and roles are well defined.
• In Charles Handy's Gods of Management theory, Athena (task) is where the organisation focuses on achieving tasks rather than individual performance or status.
• In Charles Handy's Gods of Management theory, Dionysian (person) is where the organisation values people as individuals and encourages creativity and innovation.
• A cultural clash is when there is conflict between two or more cultures within an organisation.
• A culture gap is the difference between the desired culture of a business and the culture that actually exists.
• Common causes of culture clashes include growth of firms, mergers & acquisitions and changes in leadership.
• Consequences of cultural clashes include misunderstandings and miscommunications, discontented staff, resistance to change, compromises need to be reached, high costs implementing change and national culture clashes.