Do Organizations Have Uniform Cultures?
Organizational culture represents a common perception held by the organization’s mem-
bers. This was made explicit when we defined culture as a system of sharedmeaning. We
should expect, therefore, that individuals with different backgrounds or at different lev-
els in the organization will tend to describe the organization’s culture in similar terms.^16
However, the fact that organizational culture has common properties does not mean
that there cannot be subcultures within it. Most large organizations have a dominant cul-
ture and numerous sets of subcultures.^17
A dominant cultureexpresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the
organization’s members. When we talk about an organization’s culture,we are referring
to its dominant culture. It is this macro view of culture that gives an organization its dis-
tinct personality.^18 Subculturestend to develop in large organizations to reflect common
problems, situations, or experiences that members face. These subcultures are likely to
be defined by department designations and geographical separation.
An organization’s purchasing department, for example, can have a subculture that is
unique to the members of that department. It will include the core values—the primary,
or dominant, values in the organization—plus additional values unique to members of
the purchasing department. Similarly, an office or unit of the organization that is phys-
ically separated from the organization’s main operations may take on a different per-
sonality. Again, the core values are basically retained but modified to reflect the distinct
situation of the separated unit.
If organizations had no dominant culture and were composed only of numerous
subcultures, the value of organizational culture as an independent variable would be sig-
nificantly lessened. This is because there would be no uniform interpretation of what rep-
resented appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. It is the “shared meaning” aspect
of culture that makes it such a potent device for guiding and shaping behaviour. That is
what allows us to say that Microsoft’s culture values aggressiveness and risk-taking,^19 and
then to use that information to better understand the behaviour of Microsoft execu-
tives and employees. But we cannot ignore the reality that as well as a dominant culture,
many organizations have subcultures that can influence the behaviour of members.
Some strong subcultures can even make it difficult for managers to introduce organi-
zational change. This sometimes happens in unionized environments, and can occur in
nonunionized environments as well. To learn more about how to identify the culture of
an organization, see From Concepts to Skillson pages 365–366.CREATING AND SUSTAINING AN
ORGANIZATION’SCULTURE
To address the problems of the culture he faced when he started at the Royal Canadian Mint,
president and CEO David Dingwall needed to make a number of changes.^20 He introduced a
lean enterprise model and a new management team, including a new chief financial officer as
well as a new vice-president of sales and marketing. He made $15 million in cuts, including get-
ting rid of the jewellery business, reducing inventory by 50 percent and lowering travel and
advertising expenses. He also reduced the time it took to get a product to market from more
than 460 days to just 150, with the aim of becoming even faster in the future. To show that he
was intent on creating a new culture, Dingwall involved employees in the changes. He encour-
aged them to help figure out how to create better work processes. Employees helped map
out the steps for change and then implemented them. Dingwall complimented the employees
on the job they did. “We had inventory savings. We had time savings. We were able to redirect
some of our labour to other projects.”336 Part 4Sharing the Organizational Vision
dominant culture A system of
shared meaning that expresses the
core values shared by a majority of
the organization’s members.
subcultures Minicultures within
an organization, typically defined by
department designations and geo-
graphical separation.
core values The primary, or domi-
nant, values that are accepted
throughout the organization.