Understandings of organizational culture based on Linda Smircich (1983)

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1 Understandings of organizational culture based on Linda Smircich (1983) Culture as independent variable - national styles of management - differences and similarities in management style Culture as dependent variable - corporate cultures - culture management Culture as root metaphor - symbols and sense-making - learning organizations relationship between effectivity and national culture relationship between effectivity and corporate culture studying organizations as cultures (systems of human communication)

2 Culture as independent variable Cross-cultural management Culture is the explaining factor or the broad frame of reference, influencing various elements of the process of management (independent variable) National styles of management, norms and values that influence management, consumer attitudes etc. Culture handbooks for negotiators, managers working abroad, for the use of marketing etc. Example: Geert Hofstede (1980) Weaknesses: allows only for an understanding of adaptation to national culture

3 Cross-cultural management

4 Cross-cultural management

5 Nominees for the Chevy Nova Award The Chevy Nova Award is named in honor of GM's fiasco in trying to market a new car in Central and South America where "no va" means "it doesn't go" The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?" Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea". Swedish vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign, "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux". Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron with a name that signifies "manure in German.

6 Chevy Nova Awards, continued When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called "Cue", the name of a notorious porno magazine. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit Instead of "I Saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I Saw the Potato" (la papa). Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

7 Chevy Nova Awards, continued The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth". Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate." When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant." When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

8 Culture as dependent variable Management of corporate culture Assumption 1: it is possible and desirable to manage cultural factors in ordre to achieve beneficial financial effects Assumption 2: Organizations, often udnerstood as management, produce cultures and can influence them, i.e. culture is a dependent variable Example: Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence Weaknesses: Empirical research shows that it may not be possible to manipulate or manage culture Another example the diagnostic method of Edgar Schein, culture not to be controlled but diagnosed

9 Diagnosing culture through artifacts

10 Managed culture

11 Culture as root metaphor Field studies of organizations People do not see the world as it is but actively make sense of it All human actions, however concrete and real they may be, are constantly created by processes of sense-making Symbols are the smallest meaningsful elements of culture, they enable interpretation of what is going on Example: Barbara Czarniawska (1997) Weaknesses: often not practice-oriented in itself; demands an additional link between the researcher and the practitioner Can be used to create learning organizations

12 Symbols are ambivalent Z

13 Symbols are ambivalent Z

14 Symbols We make complicated choices, often non consciously. There is a huge variety of possible interpretations, categorizations, or even how we see things. Symbols enable us to take such decisions automatically. Symbols are to culture what atoms are to materia. They are the smallest meaningsful elements of the fabric of culture. Symbols can be used for change or for the keeping of the status quo. Culture is that what, by the mediation of symbols, enables us to see and understand reality, as well as to communicate with others. It offers a common language, relatively shared images and sometimes also a shared system of values.

15 Definitions of culture Barbara Czarniawska: In the most general sense, culture can be viewed as a bubble (of meaning) covering the world, a bubble that we both create and live within. Its film covers everything that we turn our eye to; it is, as stated in the title, the medium of (social) life (Culture Is the Medium of Life in: Frost et al. (red.), 1991: 287).

16 The roles of culture Culture is inevitable but not external to human beings, not a force majeure. People create culture consciously or not consciously, they can have more or less control over the process and more or less impact.

17 Organizational culture Organizational culture is the medium of social life, enabling the participants to cooperate and communicate. Organizational culture offers sense to organizational participants experience. All aspects of organization, i.e. economic, financial, political etc. have cultural significance and can be interpreted from a cultural perspective. The creation of organizational culture is active but not always conscious. Organizational culture orders experiences, actions and offers some shared meanings and understandings.