ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

1. Viewing organizations as communities sharing a common understanding of their purpose, meaning and place, their values ​​and behavior, gave rise to the concept of organizational culture. Organizational culture - these are “philosophical and ideological ideas, values, convictions, beliefs, expectations, attitudes and norms that bind an organization into a single whole and are shared by its members.” This is the dominant atmosphere prevailing in the organization.

Culture gives meaning to people's actions. Therefore, it is possible to change anything in people’s lives only by taking this significant phenomenon into account. Culture is formed over years and decades, so it is inertial and conservative. And many innovations do not take root only because they contradict the cultural norms and values ​​that people have mastered.

Organizational culture is the acquired meaning systems transmitted through natural language and other symbolic means that perform representative, directive and affective functions and are capable of creating cultural space and a special sense of reality.

By purchasing individual and personal experience, employees form, maintain and change their semantic systems, which reflect their relationships to various phenomena - the organization’s mission, planning, motivational policy, productivity, quality of work, etc. Such coordinate systems are not obvious and rarely completely coincide with the declared goals, but very often they determine behavior to a greater extent than formal requirements and rules. What a manager, or any member of an organization, does is largely a function of the totality of his beliefs about the world around him. In extreme cases, these frames of reference work against organizational goals and, by expanding or limiting the range of behavioral and cognitive capabilities of employees, reduce the effectiveness of collective activity.

Thus, organizational culture sets a certain frame of reference that explains why the organization functions in this particular way and not in another way. Organizational culture makes it possible to significantly smooth out the problem of reconciling individual goals with the overall goal of the organization, forming a common cultural space that includes values, norms and behavioral patterns shared by all employees.

In a broad sense, culture is a mechanism for reproducing social experience that helps people live and develop in a certain climatic-geographical or social environment, preserving the unity and integrity of their community. Of course, the need to reproduce acquired and borrowed social experience is also relevant for the organization. However, until recently, the processes of formation of organizational culture proceeded spontaneously, without attracting the attention of either the subject of organizational power or researchers.

As already noted, organizational culture is understood as a set of norms, rules, customs and traditions shared and accepted by employees of the organization. It is clear that if an organization's culture is aligned with its overall purpose, it can be an important factor in organizational effectiveness. That's why modern organizations view culture as a powerful strategic tool that allows all departments and individuals to focus on common goals, mobilize employee initiative and ensure productive interaction. In other words, we can talk about organizational culture only in the case when top management demonstrates and approves a certain system of views, norms and values ​​that directly or indirectly contribute to the implementation of the strategic objectives of the organization. More often than not, companies develop a culture that embodies the values ​​and behavioral styles of their leaders. In this context organizational culture can be defined as a set of norms, rules, customs and traditions that are supported by the subject of organizational power and set the general framework for employee behavior that is consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Organizational culture includes not only global norms and rules, but also current regulations. It may have its own characteristics, depending on the type of activity, form of ownership, position in the market or in society. In this context, we can talk about the existence of bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, organic and other organizational cultures, as well as organizational culture in certain areas of activity, for example, when working with clients, staff, etc.

The bearers of organizational culture are people. However, in organizations with an established organizational culture, it seems to be separated from people and becomes an attribute of the organization, a part of it that has an active influence on employees, modifying their behavior in accordance with the norms and values ​​that form its basis.

Since culture plays a very important role in the life of an organization, it should be the subject of close attention from management. The management of large organizations has enough resources and means to influence the formation and development of organizational culture, but they do not always have enough knowledge of how to analyze it and change it in the desired direction.

2. Analyzing the structure of organizational culture, E. Shein identifies three levels: superficial, internal and deep. Understanding organizational culture starts with superficial level, including such external organizational characteristics as products or services provided by the organization, technology used, architecture production premises and offices, observed behavior of workers, formal language communication, slogans, etc. At this level, things and phenomena are easy to detect, but they cannot always be deciphered and interpreted in terms of organizational culture.

Those who try to understand organizational culture more deeply touch on its second, internal level. At this level, the values ​​and beliefs shared by members of the organization are examined in accordance with the extent to which these values ​​are reflected in symbols and language. The perception of values ​​and beliefs is conscious and depends on the desires of people. Researchers often limit themselves to this level because the next level poses almost insurmountable difficulties.

The third, deep level includes basic assumptions that are difficult for even the members of the organization to understand without special focus on this issue. These implicit and taken-for-granted assumptions guide people's behavior by helping them perceive the attributes that characterize the organizational culture.

Some researchers propose a more detailed structure of organizational culture, highlighting its following components:

1. Worldview - ideas about the surrounding world, the nature of man and society, guiding the behavior of members of the organization and determining the nature of their relationships with other employees, clients, competitors, etc. Worldview is closely related to the characteristics of an individual’s socialization, his ethnic culture and religious beliefs.

Significant differences in the worldviews of workers seriously complicate their cooperation. In this case, there is scope for significant intra-organizational contradictions and conflicts. At the same time, it is very important to understand that it is very difficult to radically change people’s worldviews, and significant efforts are required to achieve some mutual understanding and acceptance of the positions of people with different worldviews. An individual's worldview is difficult to express in clear verbal formulations, and not everyone is able to explain the basic principles underlying his behavior. And to understand someone’s worldview, it sometimes takes a lot of effort and time to help a person explicate the basic coordinates of his vision of the world.

2. Organizational values those. objects and phenomena of organizational life that are essential and significant for the spiritual life of workers. Values ​​act as a link between the culture of the organization and the spiritual world of the individual, between organizational and individual existence. Personal values ​​are reflected in consciousness in the form of value orientations, which also include a wide range of social values ​​recognized by the individual, but not always accepted by him as his own goals and principles. Therefore, it is possible both an incomplete, inadequate reflection of personal values ​​in consciousness, and an orientation in terms of consciousness towards values ​​that are not real motives behavior. Values ​​can be maintained even if the organization has undergone significant personnel changes. At the same time, a certain change in values ​​can be carried out, which will affect the behavior of members of the organization. Organizational values ​​are closely related to organizational mythology, expressed in a system of stories, myths and even anecdotes, which contain some respectable characteristic of a member of the organization that distinguishes him favorably from many others.

3. Behavior styles characterizing employees of a particular organization. This also includes specific rituals and ceremonies, the language used in communication, and symbols, who have special meaning specifically for the members of a given organization, an important element can be any character who has characteristics that are highly valuable for a given culture and serves as a role model of behavior for employees. Employee behavior is successfully corrected by various trainings and control measures, but only if new patterns of behavior do not conflict with the above-described components of organizational culture.

4. Norms - a set of formal and informal requirements imposed by an organization in relation to its employees. They can be universal and specific, imperative and indicative and are aimed at maintaining and developing the structure and functions of the organization. Norms include the so-called rules of the game, which a newcomer must master in the process of becoming a member of the organization.

5. Psychological climate in an organization that a person encounters when interacting with its employees. Psychological climate is the prevailing and relatively stable spiritual atmosphere that determines the relationships of team members to each other and to work.

None of these components individually can be identified with the culture of an organization. However, taken together they can provide a fairly comprehensive picture of organizational culture.

Many components of culture are difficult to detect by an outsider. You can spend several weeks in an organization and still not understand the fundamental principles of culture that govern people's actions. Each employee, coming to the organization, goes through a certain procedure of organizational socialization, during which month after month he comprehends all the smallest nuances that together form the organizational culture.

3. There are many approaches to analyzing the content side of a particular organizational culture. F. Harris and R. Moran proposed to identify ten substantive characteristics characteristic of any organizational culture:

1. Awareness of yourself and your place in the organization(in some cultures, restraint and employee concealment of his internal moods and problems are valued, in others openness, emotional support and external manifestation your experiences; In some cases, creativity manifests itself through cooperation, and in others through individualism).

2. Communication system and language of communication(use of oral, written, nonverbal communication, "telephone rights" and openness of communication varies from organization to organization:

professional jargon, abbreviations, sign language are specific to organizations of various industry, functional and territorial affiliations of organizations).

3. Appearance, clothing and self-presentation at work(variety of uniforms, business styles, standards for the use of cosmetics, perfumes, deodorants, etc., indicating the existence of many microcultures).

4. Habits and traditions associated with eating and assortment of food(how food is organized for employees in the organization, including the presence or absence of canteens and buffets; participation of the organization in paying food costs; frequency and duration of meals; shared or separate meals for employees with different organizational status, etc.).

5. Awareness of time, attitude towards it and its use(perception of time as the most important resource or a waste of time, compliance with or constant violation of the time parameters of organizational activities).

6. Relationships between people(the influence on interpersonal relationships of such characteristics as age, gender, nationality, status, amount of power, education, experience, knowledge, etc.; compliance with formal requirements of etiquette or protocol; the degree of formalization of relationships, support received, accepted forms of conflict resolution).

7. Values ​​and norms(the former are sets of ideas about what is good and what is bad; the latter are a set of assumptions and expectations regarding certain type behavior).

8. Worldview(belief/lack of faith in: justice, success, one’s own strengths, leadership; attitude towards mutual assistance, ethical or unworthy behavior, belief in the punishability of evil and the triumph of good, etc.).

9. Employee development and self-realization(mindless or conscious performance of work; reliance on intelligence or strength; free or limited circulation of information in the organization; recognition or rejection of the rationality of people’s consciousness and behavior; creative environment or rigid routine; recognition of a person’s limitations or emphasis on his potential for growth).

10. Work Ethic and Motivation(attitude towards work as a value or duty; responsibility or indifference to the results of one’s work; attitude towards one’s workplace; qualitative characteristics of work; decent and bad habits At work; a fair relationship between the employee's contribution and his remuneration; planning an employee’s professional career in an organization).

These characteristics of an organization's culture collectively reflect and give meaning to the concept of organizational culture. The content of organizational culture is determined not by the simple sum of expectations and the actual state of affairs for each characteristic, but by how they are interconnected and how they form the profiles of certain cultures. Distinctive feature of a particular culture is the priority of the basic characteristics that form it, indicating which principles should prevail in the event of a conflict between its different components. In this context, there is no need to talk about organizational culture as a homogeneous phenomenon. Any organization potentially contains many subcultures. In fact, any of these subcultures can become dominant, i.e. the organizational culture itself, if it is purposefully supported and used by organizational authorities as a tool for consolidating individual goals in the direction of a common organizational goal.

There may also be a type of subculture in an organization that quite persistently rejects what the organization as a whole wants to achieve. Among these organizational countercultures The following types can be distinguished:

(2) opposition to the power structure within the dominant culture of the organization;

(3) opposition to the patterns of relationships and interactions promoted by the dominant culture.

Countercultures usually appear in organizations when individuals or groups find themselves in conditions that they feel cannot provide them with the usual or desired satisfaction of needs. In a sense, organizational countercultures are expressions of dissatisfaction with the way organizational power allocates organizational resources. This situation occurs especially often during periods of organizational crises or reorganization. Under these conditions, some "countercultural" groups can become quite influential or even dominant.

4. The external environment has a significant impact on the organization, which naturally affects its culture. However, as practice shows, two organizations operating in the same environment can have very different cultures. This is because, through their shared experiences, members of the organization deal with two very important problems in different ways. The first one is external adaptation: what must be done by the organization in order to survive in the conditions of fierce external competition. The second one is internal integration:

how internal organizational processes and relationships contribute to its external adaptation.

The process of external adaptation and survival is associated with the organization’s search and finding of its niche in the market and its adaptation to the constantly changing external environment. This is the process of an organization achieving its goals and interacting with representatives of the external environment. Problems of external adaptation and survival include the following:

1. Mission and strategy(defining the mission of the organization and its main tasks; choosing a strategy for fulfilling this mission).

2. Goals(setting specific goals and internal acceptance by employees).

3. Means(resources used to achieve goals; consolidation of efforts to achieve the chosen goal; adaptation organizational structure, optimization of incentive and reporting systems).

4. Control(establishment of individual and group criteria for effective performance; creation of information infrastructure).

5. Behavior adjustment(creation of a system of rewards and punishments linked to the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of assigned tasks).

Members of the organization must know the real the mission of their organization, and not what is often declared from high stands for shareholders and the public. This will help them develop an understanding of their own contribution to the organization's mission.

The next group of questions relates to establishing goals and choice funds their achievements. In some organizations, employees participate in setting goals and thus take responsibility for achieving them. In others, employees participate only in the choice of methods and means of achieving goals, and in others, there may be neither one nor the other or there may be both.

In any organization, employees must participate in following processes: 1) identify from the external environment what is important and unimportant for the organization; 2) develop ways and means of measuring achieved results; 3) find explanations for success and failure in achieving goals.

The process of external adaptation is inextricably linked with internal integration, i.e. establishing and maintaining effective work relationships between members of the organization. This is the process of finding the most effective ways to work together in an organization. Among the problems of internal integration, we note the following.

1. Common language and conceptual categories(choosing communication methods; determining the meaning of the language and concepts used).

2. Boundaries of the organization and criteria for entry and exit from it(establishing criteria for membership in the organization and its groups).

3. Power and status(establishing rules for acquiring, maintaining and losing power; determining the distribution of statuses in the organization).

4. Personal relationships(establishment of formal and informal rules about the nature of organizational relations between employees, taking into account their age, gender, education, experience, etc.; definition permissible level openness at work).

5. Rewards and punishments(definition of basic criteria for desirable and undesirable behavior and their corresponding consequences).

6. Ideology and religion(determination of the meaning and role of these phenomena in organizational life).

The formation of organizational culture, its content and individual parameters is influenced by a number of external and internal environmental factors, but at all stages of the development of an organization, the personal culture of its leader (his personal faith, values ​​and style of behavior) largely determines the culture of the organization. This influence is especially strong if the organization is in its infancy and its leader has outstanding personal and professional abilities.

The formation of a certain culture in an organization is associated with the specifics of the industry in which it operates, with the speed of technological and other changes, with the characteristics of the market, consumers, etc. It is known that companies in the “high technology” industries have a culture containing “innovative” values ​​and a belief “in change.” However, this trait may manifest itself differently in companies in the same industry, depending on the national culture within which the organization operates.

The organization grows by attracting new members coming from organizations with different cultures. New members of the organization, whether they like it or not, bring with them a load of past experience, in which “viruses” of other cultures often lurk. An organization’s immunity from such “infections” depends on the strength of its culture, which is determined by three points:

1) "depth";

2) the extent to which it is shared by members of the organization;

3) clarity of priorities.

The “depth” of an organizational culture is determined by the number and strength of the core beliefs shared by employees. Cultures with many levels of beliefs and values ​​have a strong influence on organizational behavior. In some cultures, shared beliefs, beliefs and values ​​are clearly ranked. Their relative importance and interconnection do not diminish the role of each of them. In other cultures, the relative priorities and connections between shared values ​​are blurred. A clear priority of beliefs has a greater effect on people's behavior, since they firmly know which value should prevail in the event of a value conflict.

Thus, a strong culture is more deeply rooted in people's minds, is shared by more employees, and has clearer priorities. Accordingly, such a culture has a deeper influence on the behavior of employees in the organization.

A strong culture not only creates benefits for an organization, but can also act as a significant barrier to organizational change. The “new” in culture is always weaker at first. Therefore, a moderately strong organizational culture appears to be optimal for reorganization.

Among the methods of maintaining organizational culture, the following should be noted:

1. Slogans declared by management, including the mission, goals, rules and principles of the organization that determine its relationship to its members and society.

2. Role modeling, expressed in the daily behavior of managers, their attitude and communication with subordinates. Personally demonstrating behavioral norms to subordinates and focusing their attention on these behaviors, such as a certain attitude toward customers or the ability to listen to others, a manager helps shape certain aspects of the organizational culture.

3. External symbols including a reward system, status symbols, and criteria underlying personnel decisions. Culture in an organization can be manifested through a system of rewards and privileges. The latter are usually tied to certain patterns of behavior and thus prioritize employees and indicate values ​​that are more important to individual managers and the organization as a whole. The system of status positions in the organization works in the same direction. Thus, the distribution of privileges (a good office, a secretary, a car, etc.) indicates roles and behaviors that are more valued by the organization.

4. Stories, legends, myths and rituals, associated with the origin of the organization, its founders or prominent members. Many of the beliefs and values ​​that underlie an organization's culture are expressed not only through legends and myths that become part of organizational folklore, but also through various rituals, rites, traditions and ceremonies. TO rituals include standard and recurring team activities carried out in set time and on a special occasion to influence employees' behavior and understanding of the organizational environment. Rituals represent a system of rituals; even certain management decisions can become organizational rituals that employees interpret as part of the organizational culture. Such rituals act as organized and planned actions that have important “cultural” significance; their observance affects the self-determination and loyalty of employees of their organization.

5. What (what tasks, functions, indicators, etc.) is the subject of constant attention of management. What a leader pays attention to and what he comments on is very important in shaping organizational culture. This is one of the most powerful methods of maintaining culture in an organization, because through repeated actions, the manager lets employees know what is important and what is expected of them. The level of participation of managers in certain ceremonies allows subordinates to subjectively rank these events in order of importance. This tool (measure of participation) can easily be used to both maintain and change traditions in an organization.

6. Top management behavior in crisis situations. In these situations, managers and their subordinates discover organizational culture to a degree they never imagined. The depth and scope of the crisis may require the organization to either strengthen its existing culture or introduce new values ​​and norms. changing it to a certain extent. For example, in the event of a sharp reduction in demand for manufactured products, the organization has two alternatives: fire some workers or partially reduce working hours with the same number of employees. In organizations where a person is declared as the “number one” value, the second option will probably be accepted. Such an act of management will eventually turn into organizational folklore, which will undoubtedly strengthen this aspect of the culture in the company.

7. Personnel policy of the organization. Personnel policy, including hiring, promotion and dismissal of employees, is one of the main ways to maintain culture in an organization. Based on what principles management regulates the entire personnel process, it immediately becomes apparent from the movement of employees within the organization. Criteria for personnel decisions can help or can hinder the strengthening of an organization's existing culture. Thus, the inherent turnover of personnel on assembly lines has prompted many companies to move either to a group approach to work or to the transition to group work methods characteristic of Japanese management. Criteria for rewards and career advancement play an important role. Consistently demonstrating that an organization consistently links employee rewards and advancement to their diligence and performance can go a long way in shaping employee behavior. Some researchers consider the system of rewards and punishments to be the most important in the formation of organizational culture.

Of course, this is not a complete list of factors that shape organizational culture, but it gives general idea about the role of management in its creation, and also about the fact that the culture of an organization is a function of purposeful management actions of top management.

The actions of top managers have a decisive influence on organizational culture. Their behavior, the slogans and norms they proclaim, and most importantly, the organizational resources aimed at their implementation and approval in the minds of members of the organization, become the most important guidelines for the behavior of employees, which often serve as a more important factor in organizing behavior than formalized rules and requirements.

Despite the importance of organizational culture for the effective functioning of an enterprise, its study, measurement and evaluation pose significant difficulties. As a rule, the study and generalization of specific manifestations of organizational culture is a long and labor-intensive process, which includes the analysis of all seven factors mentioned above.

Organizational culture is often identified with values, suggesting that those values ​​that prevail in the individual consciousness collectively create a general atmosphere of values ​​in the organization. This approach allows us to obtain a quantitative description of the ideas that dominate in the organization. Indeed, values ​​are directly related to organizational culture, but it is hardly legal to dissolve them in the latter, since value orientations are, first of all, the most important elements internal structure personality. Therefore, consideration of values ​​is more at the individual level.

There are a number of other methods for studying organizational culture. Thus, the author of this book proposed an approach based on the theory of personal constructs and allowing one to determine some of its quantitative characteristics. Using this approach to analyze the main coordinates of organizational cultures in Japanese and Russian organizations, it was possible to identify hidden “dimensions” of the success of Japanese management and provide some explanations for the problems of organizational transformations in Russia.

5. The influence of culture on organizational effectiveness is determined primarily by its compliance with the overall strategy of the organization. There are four main approaches to resolving the problem of incompatibility between strategy and culture in an organization:

1) ignored a culture that seriously impedes the effective implementation of the chosen strategy;

2) control system adjusts to the existing culture of the organization: this approach is based on recognizing the existing barriers created by culture to the implementation of the desired strategy, and developing alternatives to “bypass” these obstacles without making major changes to the strategy itself. Thus, during the transition from a mechanistic to an organic scheme of organization in many manufacturing enterprises for a long time It is not possible to change the organizational culture in assembly areas. In this case, this approach can help solve the problem;

3) attempts are being made to change culture in a way that suits the chosen strategy. This is the most complex approach, time consuming and resource intensive. However, there are situations when it may be central to the long-term success of the company;

4) changes strategy in order to adapt it to the existing culture.

In general, we can distinguish two ways in which organizational culture influences the life of an organization.

First, as shown above, culture and behavior mutually influence each other.

Second - Culture influences not so much what people do as how they do it.

There are various approaches to identifying a set of variables through which the influence of culture on an organization can be traced. Typically, these variables form the basis of surveys and questionnaires that are used to describe the culture of an organization.

The set of variables that management selects to analyze an organization can be directly related to level of organizational interaction: organization - external environment; group - group; individual - organization. Moreover, for each level (individual, group, organization) can be measured as efficiency their functioning from the point of view of the interests of the organization, and satisfaction. In addition, each of these groups of variables can be considered in a time aspect, i.e. be primarily focused on short-term or long-term perspective.

Model V. Site. V. Sathe identified seven processes through which culture influences organizational activity:

1) cooperation between individuals and parts of the organization;

2) decision making;

3) control;

4) communications;

5) loyalty to the organization;

6) perception of the organizational environment;

7) justifying your behavior.

In this case, the first three processes correspond with the first, superficial level of organizational culture or patterns of organizational behavior, and the next four - with the second, internal level, which has a “value” basis. The effectiveness of the organization depends on how these processes proceed.

Cooperation as a pattern of behavior in an organization cannot be established only with the help of formal management measures, since it is impossible to foresee all possible cases. How much people actually cooperate in an organization depends on the assumptions they share about it. In some organizations the highest value is group work, in others - internal competition. In other words, everything depends on which philosophy predominates: individualist or collectivist.

The influence of culture on decision making is carried out through shared beliefs and values ​​that form a stable set of basic assumptions and preferences among members of the organization. Since organizational culture can help minimize disagreement, decision making becomes more effective.

Essence of the process control is to stimulate action towards achieving set goals. In the nature of management, there are three control mechanisms: market, administration, clannishness. Typically, organizations have all three mechanisms at once, but to varying degrees.

At market control mechanisms rely primarily on prices. The underlying assumption is that changing prices and payments should stimulate necessary changes in the organization. Administrative the control mechanism is based on formal authority. The process itself consists of changing rules and procedures through the issuance of directives. Clan the control mechanism is entirely based on shared beliefs and values. It is from them that the members of the organization proceed when carrying out their actions. It also assumes that employees are sufficiently committed to the organization and know how to operate within the culture. As the organization grows and develops, the clan mechanism is replaced by an administrative one, and then by a market one.

The influence of culture on communications occurs in two directions. The first is the absence of the need to communicate in matters in which there are shared assumptions. In this case, certain actions are performed as if without words. Second, shared assumptions provide direction and help in interpreting the messages received. So, if in a company an employee is not considered an appendage of a machine, then the news of upcoming automation or robotization will not cause a shock in him.

The individual feels dedicated to the organization when he identifies himself with the latter and experiences some emotional connection with her. A strong culture makes the individual's identification and feelings towards the organization strong. Employees can also step up their efforts to help the organization.

Perception individual's organizational reality or what he sees is determined to a large extent by what his colleagues who share the same experience say about what they see. Culture influences this process by providing organizational members with a shared interpretation of their experiences. In organizations where timely customer service is highly valued, the perception of a lack of resources for work will not be interpreted as a need to change the developed disposition towards the customer. Otherwise, the client may be seriously harmed.

Culture helps people in an organization act meaningfully, ensuring justification for their command. In companies where risk is valued, a person takes it knowing that if he fails, he will not be punished and that lessons for the future will be learned from failure. Actions justified in this way reinforce existing behavior, especially when it fits into the situation. This process is a source of funds for changing the culture itself. Since people use culture to justify behavior, it is possible to change culture through changes in behavior. However, for this process to be successful, it is necessary to ensure that people cannot justify their new behavior on the basis of the “old” culture.

Model T. Peters-R. Watermina. The authors of the famous bestseller "In Search of Successful Management" T. Peters and R. Waterman discovered a connection between culture and success in an organization. Taking successful American firms as a model and describing management practices, they “derived” a number of beliefs and values ​​of organizational culture that led these companies to success: 1) faith in action; 2) communication with the consumer; 3) encouraging autonomy and entrepreneurship; 4) considering people as the main source of productivity and efficiency; 5) knowledge of what you control; 6) don’t do what you don’t know; 7) simple structure and small management staff; 8) a simultaneous combination of flexibility and rigidity in the organization.

Faith in action. According to this value, decisions are made even in the face of a lack of information. Postponing decisions is tantamount to not making them.

Communication with the consumer. For successfully operating companies the consumer represents the focus in their work, since it is from him that the main information for the organization. Customer satisfaction is at the core of the organizational culture of such firms.

Autonomy and entrepreneurship. Companies struggling with lack of innovation and bureaucracy are "dividing" into smaller manageable parts and giving them, as well as individuals, a degree of autonomy to exercise creativity and risk. This cultural norm is maintained through the organization's sharing of legends and stories about its own heroes.

Productivity varies from person to person. This value recognizes people as the organization's most important asset. At the same time, the effectiveness of an organization is measured through the satisfaction of its members. The belief that treating people with respect leads to success is at the core of the culture of these organizations.

Know what you control. This deeply ingrained cultural norm holds that successful companies are not run for closed doors managers' offices, but through visits by managers to the facilities they manage and through direct contacts with subordinates at their places of work.

Don't do what you don't know. This provision belongs to the category of one of important characteristics culture of successful companies. These firms do not recognize diversification away from their core business.

Simple structures and few managers. Typical for successful companies is the presence of a small number of management levels and a relatively small staff of management employees, especially in top echelon. The position of a manager in such companies is determined not by the number of his subordinates, but by his influence on the affairs of the organization and, most importantly, on its results. According to this cultural value, managers are more focused on the level of performance of their subordinates than on increasing their staff.

Simultaneous flexibility and rigidity in the organization. The paradox of this attribute of the organizational culture of successful companies is resolved as follows. High organization is achieved due to the fact that all employees understand and believe in the company’s values. This firmly connects them with the company and integrates them into it. Flexibility is achieved by minimizing “guidance” interventions and minimizing the number of regulatory rules and procedures. Innovation and risk taking are encouraged. As a result, the rigid structure of shared cultural values enables a flexible management control structure.

Model by T. Parsons. More generally, the connection between culture and organizational performance is presented in the model of the American sociologist T. Parsons. Model developed based on specification certain functions, which any social system, including an organization, must fulfill in order to survive and succeed. First letters English names These functions are abbreviated to give the name of the model - AGIL: adaptation; goal-seeking (achieving goals); integration (integration) and itgiacy (legitimacy).

The essence of the model is that for its survival and prosperity, any organization must be able to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions, achieve its goals, integrate its parts into a single whole, and, finally, be recognized by people and other organizations.

This model is based on the fact that the values ​​of organizational culture are the most important means or tools for performing the functions of this model. If an organization's shared beliefs and values ​​help it adapt, achieve goals, unite, and prove its usefulness to people and other organizations, then it is clear that such a culture will influence the organization toward success.

Other definitions

• “A habitual, traditional way of thinking and a way of acting that is shared to a greater or lesser extent by all employees of the enterprise and which must be learned and at least partially accepted by newcomers so that new members of the team become “one of their own.”

E. Jacus

• “A set of beliefs and expectations shared by members of an organization, these beliefs and expectations form the norms that largely determine the behavior of individuals and groups in the organization.”

H. Schwartz and S. Davis

• “A system of relationships, actions and artifacts that stands the test of time and develops in the members of a given cultural society a rather unique shared psychology.”

S. Michon and P. Stern

• "The unique characteristics of an organization's perceived characteristics are what sets it apart from all others in the industry."

• “A set of basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a group to learn to cope with the problems of external adaptation of internal integration, maintained long enough to prove its validity, and passed on to new members of the organization as the only correct one.”

• “One of the ways to carry out organizational activities is through the use of language, folklore, traditions and other means of transmitting core values, beliefs, and ideology that guide the activities of the enterprise in the right direction.”

Phenomenological concept of organizational culture

Rational-pragmatic concept of organizational culture

This approach postulates that future development is conditioned by the past experience of the organization. This follows from the position that the behavior of members of an organization is determined by the values ​​and basic ideas developed as a result of the historical development of the organization. In addition, a large role in the formation and change of organizational culture is given to the management of the organization. That is why this concept is called rational - the formation of organizational culture is considered as a conscious and controlled process.

The emergence of rationalistic concepts of organizational culture is associated with the name of Edgar Schein. He defines organizational culture as “a pattern of collective basic understandings acquired by a group in solving problems of adaptation to changes in the external environment and internal integration, the effectiveness of which is sufficient to be considered valuable and transmitted to new members of the group as the correct system of perception and consideration of problems.” .

There are two groups of problems: 1) the problem of survival and adaptation to change external conditions the existence of a group (read, organization) and 2) the problem of integrating internal processes that ensure the possibility of this survival and adaptation. Any group, from its inception until it reaches the stage of maturity and decline, faces these problems. When solving these problems, the formation of the organization's culture occurs.

The process of forming a culture is in some sense identical to the process of creating a group itself, since the “essence” of the group, the thoughts, views, feelings and values ​​characteristic of its members, resulting from collective experience and collective learning, are expressed in the system of ideas accepted by the group, called culture.

Levels of culture according to Shane

Edgar Schein believes that culture needs to be studied at three levels: artifacts, proclaimed values ​​and basic ideas. These levels essentially characterize the depth of research.

Artifacts

Proclaimed values

Under proclaimed values refers to the statements and actions of organizational members that reflect shared values ​​and beliefs. Proclaimed values ​​are set by company management as part of a strategy or for some other reason. Employees are aware of these values, and they themselves make the choice to accept these values, pretend and adapt to the situation, or reject them. If management is persistent enough in its quest to affirm certain values, if artifacts emerge that reflect the significance of these values ​​to the organization, then the values ​​are tested. After a certain period of time, it becomes clear whether adherence to the proclaimed values ​​leads to victories or defeats in business.

In the first option, if the organization does not achieve success, its leader will change or the previous leader will reconsider its strategy and policies. And then the proclaimed values ​​will go away and will be changed. In the second option, if the organization achieves its goals, employees will gain confidence that they are on track. on the right road. Accordingly, the attitude towards the company’s proclaimed values ​​will become different. These values ​​will move to a deeper level - the level of basic ideas.

Basic Views

Basic Views- is the basis of the culture of the organization, which its members may not realize and consider immutable. It is this basis that determines the behavior of people in the organization and the adoption of certain decisions.

Basic beliefs, or assumptions, are the “deep” level of an organization’s culture. They are not overtly expressed in artifacts and, more importantly, cannot be described even by organizational members. These ideas are on the subconscious level of employees and are taken for granted. Most likely, these beliefs are so powerful because they led the company to success. If the solution found to a problem proves itself over and over again, it begins to be taken for granted. What was once a hypothesis, accepted only intuitively or conditionally, is gradually turning into reality. Basic ideas seem so obvious to group members that variation in behavior within a given cultural unit is minimized. In fact, if a group adheres to one basic idea, then behavior that is based on any other ideas will seem incomprehensible to the group members.

Basic concepts relate to fundamental aspects of existence, which may be: the nature of time and space; the nature of man and human activity; the nature of truth and ways of obtaining it; correct relationships between the individual and the group; the relative importance of work, family and self-development; men and women finding their true roles and the nature of family. We do not gain new insights in each of these areas by joining a new group or organization. Each member of the new group brings his own cultural “baggage” acquired by him in previous groups; when a new group develops its own history, it can change some or all of these ideas associated with the most important areas of its experience. It is from these new ideas that the culture of this particular group is formed.

Employees who do not follow basic principles will sooner or later find themselves “in disgrace” because a “cultural barrier” will arise between them and their colleagues.

Changing organizational culture

Basic ideas do not give rise to objections or doubts, and therefore changing them is extremely difficult. Learning something new in this area requires resurrecting, reexamining, and perhaps changing some of the most enduring elements of cognitive structure. Such a procedure is extremely difficult, since rechecking basic ideas destabilizes the cognitive space and the space of interpersonal ideas for some time, giving rise to a lot of anxiety.

People do not like to worry and therefore prefer to believe that what is happening corresponds to their ideas, even in cases where this leads to a distorted, contradictory and falsified perception and interpretation of events. In mental processes of this kind, culture acquires special power. Culture as a set of basic ideas determines what we should pay attention to, what is the meaning of certain objects and phenomena, what should be the emotional reaction to what is happening, what actions should be taken in a given situation.

The human mind needs cognitive stability. For this reason, doubt about the validity of a basic idea always causes anxiety and a feeling of insecurity in a person. In this sense, the collective basic ideas that constitute the essence of a group’s culture can be considered both at the individual and group levels as psychological cognitive defense mechanisms ensuring the functioning of the group. Awareness of this situation seems especially important when considering the possibility of changing certain aspects of group culture, because this problem is no less complex than the problem of changing individual system defense mechanisms. In both cases, everything is determined by the ability to cope with the anxious feelings that arise during any transformations affecting this level.

Recently, interest in organizational culture has increased sharply. This is due to the fact that there has been an increased understanding of the impact that the phenomenon of culture has on the success and effectiveness of the organization. Numerous studies show that thriving companies are different high level culture, formed as a result of thoughtful efforts aimed at developing the spirit of the corporation, for the benefit of all interested in its activities.

An organization is a complex organism, the basis of whose life potential is organizational culture. It not only distinguishes one organization from another, but also determines the success of the functioning and survival of the organization in the long term.

O. S. Vikhansky and A. I. Naumov define organizational culture as a set of the most important assumptions accepted by members of the organization and expressed in the values ​​declared by the organization, which give people guidelines for their behavior and actions.

An organization's culture refers to the attitudes, perspectives, and behaviors that embody its core values.

The culture of an organization can be viewed in two ways:

a) as an independent variable, i.e. it is formed from the sum of ideas about the values, norms, principles and behaviors that people bring to the organization;

b) as a dependent and internal variable that develops its own dynamics - positive and negative. The recognized concept of “culture” as an internal variable represents a way of life, thinking, acting, existing. We can talk, for example, about the procedure for making decisions or the procedure for rewarding and punishing employees, etc.

The culture of an organization can be seen as an expression of the values ​​that are embodied in and influence the organizational structure and personnel policies.

Organizational culture has a certain set of elements - symbols, values, beliefs, assumptions. E. Schein proposed to consider organizational culture at three levels.

The first level, or superficial, includes, on the one hand, such visible external factors, such as technology, architecture, observable behavior, language, slogans, etc., and on the other hand, everything that can be felt and perceived with the help of human senses. At this level, things and phenomena are easy to detect, but they cannot always be deciphered and interpreted in terms of organizational culture.

The second level, or subsurface, involves examining values ​​and beliefs. Their perception is conscious and depends on the desires of people.

The third level, or deep level, includes the basic assumptions that determine people’s behavior: attitude towards nature, understanding of the reality of time and space, attitude towards people, work, etc. Without special concentration, these assumptions are difficult to understand even by the members of the organization themselves.

Researchers of organizational culture are often limited to the first two levels, since almost insurmountable difficulties arise at the deep level.

The properties of organizational culture are based on the following essential features: universality, informality, stability.

The universality of organizational culture is expressed in the fact that it covers all types of actions carried out in the organization. The concept of universality has a double meaning. On the one hand, organizational culture is the form in which economic acts are clothed.

For example, organizational culture may determine a particular order of development strategic problems or procedures for hiring new employees. On the other hand, culture is not just the shell of an organization’s life, but also its meaning, an element that determines the content of economic acts. Culture itself becomes one of the strategic goals of the organization. A certain hiring procedure may be subordinated to the need to best adapt new employees to the existing culture of the organization.

The informality of organizational culture is determined by the fact that its functioning is practically unrelated to the official, administratively established rules of organizational life. Organizational culture operates, as it were, in parallel with the formal economic mechanism of the organization. A distinctive feature of organizational culture compared to a formal mechanism is the predominant use of oral, speech forms of communication, rather than written documentation and instructions, as is customary in a formal system.

The importance of informal contacts is determined by the fact that more than 90% of business decisions in modern corporations are made not in a formal setting - at meetings, gatherings, etc., but during informal meetings, outside specially designated places. Organizational culture cannot be identified with any informal contacts in the organization. Organizational culture includes only those informal contacts that correspond to the values ​​​​accepted within the culture. The informality of organizational culture is the reason that the parameters and results of the impact of culture are almost impossible to directly measure using quantitative indicators. They can only be expressed in the qualitative term “better or worse.”

The sustainability of organizational culture is associated with such common property culture, as the traditionality of its norms and institutions. The formation of any organizational culture requires long-term efforts on the part of managers. However, once formed, cultural values ​​and methods of their implementation acquire the character of traditions and remain stable over several generations of workers in the organization. Many strong organizational cultures inherit values ​​introduced by company leaders and founders decades ago. Thus, the foundations of IBM's modern organizational culture were laid in the first decades of the 20th century. by its founding father T. J. Watson.

There are several main characteristics of organizational cultures that differentiate them from each other. A special combination of such characteristics gives each culture its individuality and allows it to be identified in one way or another.

The main features of organizational culture include:

• reflection of its main goals in the organization's mission;
• focus on solving instrumental (i.e. production in the broad sense) problems of the organization or personal problems of its participants;
• degree of risk;
• a measure of the relationship between conformism and individualism;
• preference for group or individual forms of decision-making;
• degree of subordination to plans and regulations;
• the prevalence of cooperation or competition among participants;
• loyalty or indifference of people towards the organization;
• orientation towards autonomy, independence or subordination:
• the nature of management's attitude towards staff;
• focus on group or individual organization of work and incentives;
• orientation towards stability or change;
• source and role of power;
• integration tools;
• management styles, relationships between employees and the organization, ways of evaluating employees.

An organization's culture contains both subjective and objective elements.

The subjective elements of culture include beliefs, values, images, rituals, taboos, legends and myths associated with the history of the organization and the life of its founders, customs, accepted norms of communication, slogans.

Values ​​are understood as the properties of certain objects, processes and phenomena that are emotionally attractive to the majority of members of the organization, which makes them models, guidelines, and a measure of behavior.

Values ​​include, first of all, goals, the nature of internal relationships, orientation of people’s behavior, diligence, innovation, initiative, work and professional ethics, etc.

It is believed that today it is necessary not only to rely on existing values, but also to actively form new ones. Therefore, it is important to carefully monitor everything new and useful that others have in this area, and to evaluate it fairly and impartially. At the same time, old values ​​cannot be completely destroyed or suppressed. On the contrary, they need to be treated with care, used as a basis for the formation of new values, including appropriate mechanisms, including joint creativity.

The data obtained by G. Hofstede for measuring the above variables for ten countries is shown in table. 13.1. It should be emphasized that not all people in each of the countries surveyed feel and act exactly in accordance with the scores obtained.

The considered model can be used in assessing the work of an organization, as well as for a comparative analysis of organizations, countries, and regions.

Speaking about the peculiarities of culture in different countries and in different organizations, one must keep in mind that in Russia there are differences by region. Thus, research shows that, for example, the Swedish model (at its core) is more acceptable for the North-West region of Russia and primarily for St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Pskov, as well as for certain regions of Western Siberia, whose economic and organizational culture somewhat similar. Priority in such a culture is given to the quality of life and care for the weak, which, according to the theory of the Dutch researcher Hofstede, indicates its “feminine” beginning. The carriers of such a culture are characterized by a high degree of individualism, they stay close to their leaders, they are overcome by a feeling of insecurity, etc. And this is how they differ, in particular, from the Americans.

The latter are also individualists, but they are much further from their leaders, they need rigid structures to manage them, they are reluctant to accept uncertainty, they are assertive in achieving their goals, and they are carriers of the “masculine” principle in economic culture. A certain similarity in this regard is characteristic of the economic and organizational culture of such regions of our country as the Moscow region, the center of the Urals, Transbaikalia and others, which are closer to the American or German economic models. Consequently, a business model acceptable for the North-West region may turn out to be untenable and ineffective in the Central region. The Middle Volga region or the Caucasus, if only because of the differences in the manifestation of the cultural factor.

This circumstance fully applies to individual organizations located in the relevant regions. This means that each organization must develop and adopt its own code of business culture, which should reflect its characteristic attitude towards legality, product quality, finance and production obligations, distribution of business information, employees, etc.

Thus, the fundamental role of economic-organizational culture in models of organizational systems is manifested both in the creation of an appropriate management system in them and in the formation of organizational culture. If, for example, any system has an organizational culture with a “feminine” beginning, then the management style in it should be more democratic and distinguished by collegiality in making management decisions. In accordance with this, it is necessary to build the organizational structure of this system, for which the most appropriate would be a line-staff, matrix or other similar type of management structure.

In the context of an organizational culture with a “masculine” beginning, the management style in the organization should be distinguished by authoritarianism, rigidity and unity of command in making management decisions, which is reflected in the organizational structure, which should most likely be linear or linear-functional.

Depending on the location of the organization and the degree of influence on it, several types of cultures are distinguished.

An undisputed culture is characterized a small amount basic values ​​and norms, but the requirements for orientation towards them are strict. It does not allow spontaneous influence from both outside and inside; it is closed (the closedness of culture is the reluctance to see shortcomings, wash dirty linen in public, the desire to maintain ostentatious unity). A closed culture depresses staff and becomes a critical factor in motivation. But the values ​​and norms themselves are consciously adjusted if necessary.

A weak culture contains virtually no organizational values ​​and norms. Each element of the organization has its own, and often contradicts others. The norms and values ​​of a weak culture are easily internalized and external influence and change under its influence. Such a culture separates the participants of the organization, pits them against each other, complicates the management process and ultimately leads to its weakening.

A strong culture is open to influence from both inside and outside. Openness implies transparency and dialogue between all participants, organizations and outsiders. She actively assimilates the best from wherever it comes from, and as a result only becomes stronger.

It must be borne in mind that a strong culture, like a weak one, can be effective in one and ineffective in another.

Let's look at some of the most well-known types of organizational cultures.

W. Hall offers the ABC of corporate culture, where:

A - artifacts and etiquette (superficial level). Specific visible elements of culture such as language, form of greeting, clothing, physical layout (open or closed);

B - behavior and actions (deeper level). Stable patterns and stereotypes of behavior, including methods of decision-making by individuals, organization of teamwork and attitudes to problems;

C. Handy developed a typology of management cultures. He assigned each type the name of the corresponding Olympian god.

The culture of power, or Zeus. Its essential point is personal power, the source of which is the possession of resources. Organizations professing such a culture have a rigid structure, a high degree of centralization of management, few rules and procedures, suppress the initiative of employees, and exercise strict control over everything. Success here is predetermined by the manager’s qualifications and timely identification of problems, which allows decisions to be made and implemented quickly. This culture is typical for young commercial structures.

Role culture, or Apollo culture. It is a bureaucratic culture based on a system of rules and regulations. It is characterized by a clear distribution of roles, rights, duties and responsibilities between management employees. It is inflexible and makes innovation difficult, so it is ineffective in the face of change. The source of power here is the position, and not the personal qualities of the leader. This management culture is characteristic of large corporations and government agencies.

The culture of the task, or the culture of Athena. This culture is adapted to management in extreme conditions and constantly changing situations, so the focus here is on quickly solving problems. It is based on collaboration, collective idea generation and shared values. The foundation of power is knowledge, competence, professionalism and possession of information. This is a transitional type of management culture that can develop into one of the previous ones. It is typical for project or venture organizations.

At the same time, many practical ideas for developing an organization’s culture and creating a favorable climate in it are quite simple and effective. Thus, internal hostility tearing apart labor collectives is, alas, an international problem. It is associated with disputes and stress. Where the civil strife microbe has settled, as a rule, the microclimate is not the same, labor productivity is not the same.

What Japanese psychologists didn’t use to rid teams of unnecessary passions! But all the techniques used (calm classical music, wallpaper painted in cheerful colors, supplying air with pleasant aromatic additives to the working areas) turned out to be powerless: tension in teams was not completely eliminated. And then I was born simple idea— place a friendly, affectionate, fluffy dog ​​between the tables. The controversy disappeared as if by hand, it was as if people had been replaced.

Demand without supply is unthinkable in Japan. The country immediately formed new look paid services- rental of pets. In addition to a dog, you can order a cat, a parrot or even a pig at rental points. The time factor does not matter at all: take an animal even for a day, even for a month, the main thing is to pay. Rental prices, however, are quite high - for a dog borrowed for three days, you need to pay 300,000 yen (about $3,000). However, the Japanese do not at all believe that they are allegedly being robbed, realizing that it is not so easy to raise a playful, sociable dog that will willingly and without whims follow the commands of strangers. Yes, and it’s expensive to maintain. Therefore, before renting an animal to the workforce, a company representative makes sure that the dog or cat in the new premises will receive proper care.

At the same time, organizational culture turns into a kind of utopia, when desirable ideas are presented as reality, which in reality is completely different. Organizational culture cannot always be considered a fundamental factor of management; it cannot be given the meaning that managers associate with the word “culture.”

The reason for misconceptions about organizational culture lies on the surface. It is always flattering to describe your organization as an open and customer-oriented enterprise, believing that these two positive qualities characterize it. Often such ideas are unrealistic and do not reflect the actual state of affairs. Apparently, managers have little knowledge of what their employees think, and perhaps do not want to know.

In functional terms, organizational culture helps to solve the following tasks:

• coordination carried out through established procedures and rules of conduct;
• motivation, realized by explaining to employees the meaning of the work being performed;
• profiling, allowing you to gain a characteristic difference from other organizations;
• attracting personnel by promoting the advantages of your organization.

In principle, organizational culture is able to implement the listed and other functions, but not every one has the appropriate potential. Many enterprises have a corporate culture that not only hinders the achievement of economic success, but also does not allow them to recognize themselves and use their capabilities in the interests of the company.

To assess the effectiveness of the management system (and therefore the effectiveness of the organizational culture), the ultimate goal of which is the creation and sale of products (works, services) on the market, the resource efficiency indicator can be fully used. This is a modified indicator of resource productivity, taking into account, along with other factors, market financial and credit relations and inflationary processes.

In addition to the main general performance indicator, for a more complete assessment of organizational culture, a number of auxiliary indicators should be used, such as the level of industrial relations, management standards, the degree of personnel stability, etc.

Increasing management efficiency, along with other important factors of functioning, organizational culture.

Organizational culture is a system of collectively shared values, symbols, beliefs, patterns of behavior of members of the organization that give general meaning their actions.

Organizational culture combines the values ​​and norms of the organization, management style and procedures, and concepts of technological and social development. Organizational culture sets the limits within which confident decision-making is possible at each level of management, the possibility of using the resources of the organization as a whole, responsibility, gives directions for development, regulates management activities, and promotes the identification of members with the organization. The behavior of its individual members is influenced by organizational culture.

At the heart of organizational culture: and the needs of the organization. No two organizational cultures are exactly alike, just as no two people are exactly alike.

The performance results of any organization are related to its organizational culture, which in one case promotes survival, in another - the achievement of the highest results, in the third - leads to bankruptcy.

To the main parameters of organizational culture include:

1. Focus on external(customer service, etc.) or internal tasks of the organization. Organizations focused on customer needs, subordinating all their activities to them, have significant advantages in market economy, this increases the competitiveness of the company.
2. Focus of activity on solving organizational problems or on social aspects its functioning. One of the options for social orientation is the organization’s sustained attention to the everyday, personal problems of employees.
3. Measure of risk readiness for innovation implementation. A measure of activity orientation toward innovation processes or stabilization.
4. Measure to encourage conformity(a change or evaluation of an individual's opinion towards greater agreement with the group) or individualism of organization members. Orientation of incentives towards group or individual achievements.
5. Degree of preference for group or individual forms of decision making. A measure of centralization - decentralization of decision making.
6. Degree of subordination of activity pre-made plans.
7. Expression of cooperation or competition between individual members and between groups in an organization.
8. The degree of simplicity or complexity of organizational procedures.
9. A measure of members' loyalty to the organization.
10. Awareness level of members about what their role is in achieving the organization's goals. Devotion of members to “their” organization.

Organizational culture has a number of specific properties. TO the main properties of the organization's culture include:

1. Collaboration forms employees’ ideas about organizational values ​​and ways to follow these values.
2. Community. This means that not only all knowledge, values, attitudes, customs, but also much more is used by the group to satisfy the deep needs of its members.
3. The basic elements of an organization's culture do not require proof, they go without saying.
4. Hierarchy and priority. Any culture involves ranking values. Absolute values ​​are often put at the forefront, the priority of which is unconditional.
5. Systematicity. Organizational culture is a complex system that combines individual elements into a single whole.
6. "Strength" of the impact of organizational culture defined:
   • homogeneity members of the organization. Commonality of age, interests, views, etc.;
   • stability and duration joint membership. Short-term membership in an organization and constant changes in its composition do not contribute to the development of cultural characteristics;
   • the nature of the shared experience, the intensity of interaction. If members of an organization have worked together to overcome real difficulties, then the impact of organizational culture is greater.

Organizational culture has a significant impact on the life of a business organization.

Influence of organizational culture on the activities of the organization is manifested in the following forms:

• identification by employees of their own goals with the goals of the organization and with the organization as a whole through the acceptance of its norms and values;
• implementation of norms prescribing the desire to achieve goals;
• formation of an organization development strategy;
• the unity of the process of strategy implementation and the evolution of organizational culture under the influence of external environmental requirements.

Diagnosis of organizational culture involves studying documents, observing management style, confidential communication with employees at all levels of the organization's hierarchy. Collecting information allows you to create a profile of organizational culture, which reflects: the content of values, their consistency, and general orientation.

Organizational culture management involves its formation, strengthening (preservation) and change. Formation of organizational culture requires taking into account the gradual, evolutionary nature of its development and is carried out using the following measures:

1. The implementation of so-called symbolic leadership, i.e. the creation of symbolic figures and images of leaders who embody the best values ​​and norms of the organization.
2. Concentration of efforts on the formation of the most significant organizational values ​​and norms.
3. Creation and expansion of local “islands” in the organization, which are subject to certain values.
4. Changing employee behavior through experiencing real organizational success.
5. Creating signs of organizational culture that express values ​​and norms.
6. Combining directive and indirect methods of forming organizational culture.

Symbolic approach presupposes the presence in the organization of a special language, symbolic activity (actions), special ceremonies, a fixed history of the organization, legends, symbolic figures (people), etc.

Incentive approach attracts special attention of organizations to the employee system. In this case, the organization pays its employees the same or even higher than in other similar companies. Remuneration for achieved results is expressed in the form of providing training opportunities, development of business and personal qualities of personnel. Each member of the organization can use the services of consultants and teachers to improve their own activities. Special programs for professional and managerial careers in the organization are being developed.

It is assumed that the creation of a climate suitable for motivation depends largely on management personnel. Required condition- training and career planning is carried out “cascade”, i.e. from the very top of the hierarchical pyramid downwards, without skipping a single level.

"Culture" is a complex concept. In relation to the organization, as independent directions distinguish: the culture of working conditions, the culture of labor tools and the work process, the culture of interpersonal relations, the culture of management and the culture of the employee.

The concept of “culture” includes subjective And objective elements.

Of particular importance are subjective elements of organizational culture, since they are the basis of management culture, which is characterized by problem solving methods and leadership behavior.

Organizational values represent a system that any organization should have. This system includes: the nature of internal relationships, orientation of people's behavior, discipline, diligence, innovation, initiative, labor and professional ethics etc.

Key values ​​combined into a system form organizational philosophy answering the question of what is most important to her. Philosophy reflects the organization’s perception of itself and its purpose, sets the main directions of the organization’s activities, forms a position regarding management (style, motivational principles, conflict resolution procedures, etc.) and creates the basis for it image, that is, the ideas others have about her.

Ritual This is a standard event held at a specific time and for a special occasion.

Ritual is a set of special events (rites) that provide psychological impact on members of the organization by strengthening loyalty to it, obscuring the true meaning of certain aspects of its activities, teaching organizational values ​​and forming the necessary beliefs. Workers of many Japanese companies, for example, begin their workday by singing their anthems. Rituals can be associated with acceptance into membership of an organization, seeing off people for retirement, etc., but sometimes they turn into an end in themselves.

Images, legends and myths are an element of the sign-symbolic subsystem of culture. Myths reflect in the right light and in coded form the history of the organization, inherited values, and images- portraits of its famous figures. They inform (what the main boss is like, how he reacts to mistakes; whether a simple employee can become a leader, etc.), reducing uncertainty, advising, teaching, guiding the behavior of staff, creating role models. In many Western companies, there are legends about the thrift and diligence of their founders, who managed to get rich thanks to these qualities, and their caring, fatherly attitude towards their subordinates.

Custom, as an element of culture, it is a form of social regulation of people’s activities and their relationships, adopted from the past without any changes.

Those adopted in the organization can be considered as an element of culture norms And behavior style its members - their relationship to each other, external contractors, and the implementation of management actions.

Slogans- these are calls, in short form reflecting her leadership tasks and ideas. Today, the mission of an organization is often formulated in the form of a slogan.

Values, customs, rites, rituals, norms of behavior of members of the organization, brought from the past to the present, are called traditions. They can be both positive and negative. Thus, a friendly attitude towards all new employees coming to the organization can be considered as a positive tradition, and the notorious hazing can be considered as a negative tradition.

The way of thinking of the members of the organization, determined by the traditions, values, and consciousness of the members of the organization is called mentality. It has a huge impact on their daily behavior and attitude towards their work or official responsibilities.

The organization's culture is multidimensional. Firstly, it consists of local subcultures of individual units or social groups existing under the “roof” of a common culture. They can, as it were, concretize and develop the latter, they can exist peacefully alongside it, or they can contradict it (the so-called countercultures). Secondly, organizational culture includes subcultures of certain areas and forms of activity (relationships). It is legitimate, for example, to talk about the culture of entrepreneurship, the culture of management, the culture of business communication, the culture of holding certain events, the culture of relationships.

Each of these subcultures has its own set of elements.

So, elements of management culture, which generally characterizes the level of organization of the socio-economic system, are: competence, professionalism, skills interpersonal communication, method of organizing production, performing labor functions, technology of management and information support, office work, personal work techniques, etc.

Organizational management culture is based on the ability to organically combine and direct the development of local cultures emerging in departments and branches. The culture of the management apparatus and the production core should not be forcibly implanted in all other departments. A much more productive approach is to develop shared values ​​and, with their help, formulate the key provisions of the organizational culture, showing all employees their pragmatic usefulness for the entire organization. Thus, the goals and values ​​of employees and the organization must be aligned. This is the key to their effective operation. Otherwise, conflict in the team increases, which can lead to degradation and collapse, and the possibility of the emergence of a counterculture appears.

Therefore, managers must know the reasons for the emergence of organizational countercultures and be able to anticipate their emergence. Among organizational countercultures distinguish direct opposition to the values ​​of the dominant organizational culture, opposition to the existing power structure in the organization, as well as opposition to the patterns of relationships and interactions supported by the dominant culture.

The main reasons for the emergence of these countercultures in the organization are:

• the discomfort experienced by its employees due to the lack of the moral and material rewards they were counting on;
• inability to obtain satisfaction from work due to its low attractiveness; restrictions existing in the field of career development of employees;
• an organizational crisis or a change in business strategy, necessitating a change in habitual patterns and patterns of behavior, as well as insufficient help and support from colleagues; changes in the form of ownership and status of the organization, leading to a redistribution of power and influence in it.

As an attribute of the organizational system, organizational culture is influenced by the environment. The external environment of organizations can be considered both as a source of threats to it and as a source of opportunities.

To the negative influences of the external environment the organization and its culture include:

• lack of a clear geopolitical doctrine for the state;
• lack of stability in the socio-economic sphere;
• the process of criminalization of economic and other spheres of public life;
• lack of legality due to the imperfection of the legislative framework, as well as the low legal culture of the main state and public institutions;
• absence or poor development of basic institutions that ensure the functioning of the market infrastructure of the economy.

To the positive influences of the external environment can be attributed:

• Availability of a sufficient quantity of highly qualified over cheap labor force;
• a huge number of intellectual developments awaiting their implementation in scientific and educational centers of the republic;
• the underdevelopment of the market for intellectual services, the tourism and entertainment industry, the processing of waste and minerals, including gold and diamonds, as well as flax, vegetables and fruits;
• underdevelopment of the entire transit infrastructure and services providing it;
• the opportunity to start a business in free economic zones of the Euroregion, business incubators and technology parks;
• the opportunity to implement the company’s diversified activities in socially significant areas - environmentally friendly food products, goods and services;
• availability of cheap and sufficiently high-quality education in universities.

Since most organizations cannot change the conditions of their macroenvironment, they are forced to survive and adapt to it.

Organizational culture (OC) is one of the key categories of management; in the most general sense, it represents a system of values, beliefs, and norms of behavior that have developed in the company and are shared by employees.

A spontaneously formed organizational culture can hinder organizational development and the achievement of strategic and tactical goals. In this regard, creating effective management requires constant monitoring and targeted changes in the company's culture.

A strong OK can act as one of the foundations of a company’s competitiveness, a factor of investment attractiveness, overcoming crises, and ensuring sustainable growth.

The formation of organizational culture is influenced by both external and internal conditions. Among them highest value have:

• the identities of the first managers and owners;
• the business model and strategy implemented by the company;
• field of activity;
• stage of the organization's life cycle;
• resources available to the company, primarily human resources, etc.

The expected results of activities for the development of organizational culture are manifested in the form of:

• growth of production and management efficiency;
• increasing employee loyalty;
• creating a positive image and increasing so-called reputational assets;
• increasing the attractiveness of the company as an employer;
• stimulating and retaining the most valuable employees;
• ensuring a favorable socio-psychological climate in the team.

Management of the top and middle levels of management of the organization is called upon to play a decisive role in achieving the listed results.

So, the main sources of the formation of culture are the activities of the founders and leaders of the organization, the proclaimed business idea, and the very history of the creation of the organization.

The role and objectives of organizational culture. Among scientists and practitioners, there is a common understanding of the objectives of QA in a company, which boil down to the following:

• forms a certain image of the company that distinguishes it from any other and affects its reputation, maintains the loyalty of clients and partners;
• predetermines the degree of involvement in a common cause, unity of employees, creates conditions for the emergence of a sense of community of all members of the organization in achieving strategic goals;
• ensures the maintenance of the organization’s inherent (established) standards of behavior;
• helps employees gain a sense of organizational identity;
• influences the level of employee involvement in the company’s activities and devotion (loyalty) to it;
• stimulates employee responsibility;
• creates a sense of confidence and pride in the company among employees;
• is an important source of stability and continuity, strengthens workers’ sense of relative security in relation to labor market risks;
• for new employees it is a guideline for the integration of events in the organization, a means of assimilating the norms of behavior accepted in this organization;
• sets quality standards and self-assessment criteria in work;
• enhances competitive advantages and creates valuable intangible assets;
• helps reduce transaction costs based on streamlining relationships with the external environment.

In other words, organizational culture is a system (not

necessarily formalized) cultural, ethical, moral and other postulates generally accepted in the organization and protected by its members (not always consciously) regarding goals, organization, intra-company relationships and interaction with the environment (customers, partners, competitors, government agencies, society as a whole).

The considered postulates find their expression in the values ​​and beliefs, norms, principles, rules, procedures, standards that have developed spontaneously or consciously declared by the organization and its members, as well as in customs, traditions, manners, and rituals.

Culture is a complex phenomenon; it is always individual in relation to the organization.

Signs of an effective organizational culture. As the main characteristics, experts highlight the degree of consistency with the following parameters of the external and internal environment of the organization:

• cultural, ethical and moral postulates generally accepted in society;
• characteristics of the business (field of activity) of this organization;
• stage of development of the organization;
• the established or desired model of organizational behavior, mission, vision, strategic goals, dominant style of behavior, nature of power and influence, interests of individuals, groups and the organization as a whole.

The key parameter is consistency with regulatory internal company documents.

The rapid development of the concept of OK as a tool for increasing the competitiveness of a company began in the first half of the 1980s. Modern business theory and practice identifies three main complementary areas of analysis of organizational culture.

Firstly, OK is a specific management environment where elements of the management system interact and organizational processes are carried out. It largely determines the behavioral patterns of the organization's employees in response to changes in the external and internal environments.

Secondly, OC is currently used as a special management tool (“psychological asset” - G. Hofstede; intangible asset) that can increase the value of other assets and give impetus to the growth of the organization’s efficiency.

Thirdly, OK acts as an independent control object.

Analysis of OC from such a position shows that there are no bad and good cultures, there are only cultures that are adequate and not adequate to the current situation, both in the external and internal environment of the organization.

Richard Barrett developed a classification that includes seven types of companies, based on the criterion of the company’s level of development as an economic entity in the market in a competitive environment. The main evaluation parameters are the type of leadership and values.

For companies of the first (lowest) level, the main value is financial stability and survival. The second level is values ​​associated with the presence or absence of communications with consumers and their satisfaction. The third level are those organizations that focus on efficiency and results.

Barrett's analysis concluded that most organizations stop at these levels. Only a few continue to move towards the fourth or fifth stage, where the focus is on innovation, training and development of personnel, and a common vision.

At the highest levels of the value pyramid, the company has a need for global thinking, scenario planning for the future, and genuine socially responsible behavior; corporate citizenship, coaching other organizations.

Particular attention is paid to how to reduce the level of so-called “cultural entropy”, which manifests itself in the waste of part of the “energy” on conflicts, intrigues, experiencing grievances, i.e. being squeezed in the grip of “negative values.”

A methodology for cultural transformation based on identifying missing values ​​and corresponding correction of organizational behavior has been created and successfully tested. A close relationship has been revealed between employee satisfaction with work, their understanding of the company’s values ​​and an increase in business profitability and an increase in the value of companies.

It is the leaders who must first of all focus on the full range of values, that is, move to management, called “team leadership.”

A systematic approach to the study of culture. In modern management as a science and practical activity, a systematic approach to analyzing organizational culture is effective.

The composition of the elements of organizational culture is extensive. Most often, it is customary to include in this list the values ​​shared by the majority of members of the organization or its key employees; code of Conduct; rules and procedures that ensure (support) the reproduction of fundamental values; tools and techniques for transferring (translating) these values ​​and norms to other generations of workers; emotional information background (symbols, language, rituals, customs, management practices); information system in the organization; socio-psychological climate.

Experts believe that the basis of any organizational culture is primarily values ​​and norms of behavior.

Values ​​are objects and phenomena that are most important from the point of view of the subject, which act as goals and guidelines for his activities.

Values-concepts include both social aspect, associated with maintaining the integrity of the social organization, and managerial. In the latter case, we are talking about values ​​expressed in the strategic goals of the organization’s existence, values-means and resources that ensure its functioning and development (for example, such qualitative characteristics of personnel as valuable for the organization as discipline, initiative and creativity, stress resistance, decency and honesty, etc. .d.) and parameters and properties of the internal environment (for example, team spirit, managerial will), which make it possible to achieve the value-goal.

Values-goals with the implementation of organization-wide, group (within the organization) and individual (personal) needs of employees are usually formed at the initial stages of the organization’s position cycle. In this case, the determining role is played by the owners and managers, their property, level of competence, management style, character, etc. Ultimately, the values-goals are united in the main goal of the organization's activities - the mission, the implementation of which is possible through meeting the needs of the subjects of the external environment.

Values-means and tools(values ​​that allow achieving the goals of the organization, as well as management principles, quality of personnel, etc.) can be formed either spontaneously, by chance, by coincidence, or cultivated and implemented consciously and purposefully. As a rule, there is a stable and natural relationship between values-goals and ends-means. The latter largely depend on the activities of all members of the organization. For example, knowledge and adherence to the principles of management in an organization help employees of this organization to choose the forms of their behavior in the process of activity, thereby acting with greater success in achieving the goals of the organization (i.e., show diligence, initiative, discipline, etc.) Values -funds support (improve) the image of the organization.

In practice, there is often a contradiction between the values-goals declared by top management, formally reflected in the mission and the actually realized narrow group or personal goals of management (including selfish ones). Often in organizations there are no values-goals at all or are known only to the owners and/or top management. In other words, the importance of informing employees about value guidelines development of the organization. Under these conditions, the mobilizing role of this factor weakens.

Values ​​can be both positive and negative, i.e. in areas of influence on the efficiency of activities and management of the organization.

Organizational norms of behavior, rules and procedures. This

a kind of standards of behavior and activity adopted in a given organization. Their compliance is a condition for individual workers or a group of workers to be included in the organization as social system based on the acceptance (recognition) of the prevailing value system here. These rules serve to describe situations or circumstances in which certain rules are followed. They involve expectations of what people think in a given situation.

IN Russian model In management, most norms are implemented forcibly, including through a system of sanctions applied by management, and/or through voluntary adoption and adoption of rules. In practice, it is advisable to combine both methods depending on the specific situation, but the second, of course, is more preferable to ensure the task of sharing values ​​by the predominant part of the team.

The purpose of the norms is, firstly, to regulate the behavior of workers, which makes it easier to predict their behavior and coordinate joint actions, secondly, following the norms allows you to avoid making mistakes typical for a given situation and, finally, they contain prescriptive (and therefore motivating) elements .

Rules are closely related to norms. Rules exist to perform certain tasks or, for social reasons, encourage regulation and control of various forms of business interaction in the management system. It is believed that the rules are tied to a specific situation and concern a specific group of workers. Norms and rules are variable, dynamic parameters that require adjustment and revision if this benefits the organization, group, or even individual (usually key) employees.

The main way (technique) of assimilation of values ​​and norms is to demonstrate their significance on the part of top management, consolidate and formalize them in various internal regulatory documents, agree on the management principles implemented in the organization (especially at the level personnel policy) with accepted and desired values ​​and norms. It is the top management level that is responsible for organizing activities to develop a corporate culture project and its main characteristics. In Russian conditions, the direct implementation of measures for the formation and development of corporate culture, at best, is the personnel management services, while the best world practice in this area indicates the advisability of involving all categories of managers in this activity, relying on the main part of the team. This approach also corresponds to the mentality of Russians.

An essential element providing effective management OK, there is an emotional information-historical background. This is the most difficult tool to use to influence organizational culture. The task of the subjects of organizational culture management (managers, hired consultants) includes the development and dissemination of cultural forms that carry certain goals and beliefs among the organization’s employees. Among the cultural forms the following stand out: symbols; language; myths; legends and stories, customs and rituals of internal business and social activities(including rituals, ceremonies, prohibitions).

An information subsystem can be considered as an element of the QA management system. Within the framework of this subsystem, information is transferred and exchanged within the organization using formal, informal cultural means and channels of information for members of the organization. At the same time, a set of tasks is solved, including: providing employees with information about the established rules, requirements, structure and mechanisms of its management and changes made here, informing about achievements, successes and failures, filtering and correcting external information, determining the order of assimilation of training information, first of all managers and key employees (knowledge management, acquiring skills in mastering the company’s organizational competencies); creation and updating of an information base for making management decisions, initial informing of new employees to speed up their adaptation in the internal environment; creation of new conditions for the implementation of coordination functions (informing about strategic and current tasks, preferred techniques and methods for solving them); informing about rewards and penalties in the context of implementing the motivational function.

The socio-psychological climate is a stable system of internal connections of a group, manifested in the emotional mood, public opinion and performance results. These connections are manifested in the socio-psychological state of the team, the nature of value orientations, interpersonal relationships, mutual expectations. The socio-psychological climate, which can be favorable depending on its influence on the performance of the team, is predetermined by the environment and level of development of the team, and directly affects the activities of its members and the implementation of its main functions.

It is extremely important for a manager to prevent or mitigate manifestations of an unhealthy socio-psychological climate (for example, suppression of creativity and initiative, squabbles, gossip, sneaking, mutual protection, i.e. mutual responsibility, disrespect for colleagues, greed, selfishness, etc.)

Studying the state of the socio-psychological climate helps to assess the impact of OK on the company's activities - positive or negative.

The understanding of the structure of organizational culture has not yet been established; there are different views about the meaning of this term.

The well-known specialist E. Schein identifies such terms of structure that are at different levels, such as declared and real supported values, artifacts (they are easy to notice, but difficult to recognize the true meaning), basic assumptions (beliefs, judgments and attitudes perceived at a subconscious level). One can come across statements that OK as a system has a multiplicity of intersecting structures: value-normative, organizational (including formal and informal structures of power and leadership, written and unwritten norms and rules of internal regulations (behavior in the workplace); communication structures (direction of formalized and informal information flows, quality of communications from the standpoint of loss and transformation of information, targeted actions to build internal PR); the structure of socio-psychological relationships that determine the behavior of employees in the organization (towards management, colleagues, clients, etc.); structures of mutual sympathy, elections, preferences, distribution of roles in the organization (constructive, destructive, etc.), internal positioning of employees, conflict, attitude towards the leaders of the organization (authority), game and mythological structures (corporate legends and stories, myths and legends about the organization , its employees and managers, heroes and anti-heroes, games played by employees and bosses (“good” and “evil”, etc. Along with those mentioned, it is important to note the presence of a structure of external identification (corporate style), including internal and external image of the organization, the real perception of the company and its products (services) in society, advertising attributes: logo, slogan, etc.

Components of organizational culture. Specialists and practitioners identify the following main components of QA - management culture, production culture, external relations culture (especially with clients and investors), entrepreneurial culture, culture of relations with shareholders and other interested parties.

In turn, management culture includes such segments as the culture of negotiations, business meetings, meetings, the culture of office work and communications, the culture of advertising and public relations.

Organizational culture can be perceived differently various categories people according to their status, psychological profile, experience, qualifications, character, financial situation, etc. So, before a new employee is hired

OK appears in the form of the behavior of others, subject to as yet unknown patterns, consistent with unknown values. If adaptation work is carried out in the organization, the newcomer relatively quickly and painlessly enters the circle of responsibilities, gets to know the internal environment, which is facilitated by the communication and explanation of the rules and norms by which he must be guided, the values ​​​​by which he must be guided.

Organizational culture can influence a person’s worldview through the transformation of organizational values ​​into individual and collective ones or enter into conflicting relationships with them.

Thus, OC for employees performs a number of functions: evaluative-normative, goal-setting, instrumental, motivating (or demotivating), social and psychological protection.

For managers, OC acts as a regulator of employee behavior, a lever for stimulating (or disincentivizing) the activities of personnel, and an indicator of their ability to create a normal socio-psychological climate.

For owners, OK is a measure of the readiness of management and staff to realize the interests of the owners, competitiveness, a development resource and a factor that increases the valuation of the business (for commercial organizations).

Changing corporate culture. Practice shows that the key factor in the formation and development of organizational culture and the establishment of a favorable climate are the leadership qualities of managers associated with their awareness of values ​​and a clear idea of ​​what a competitive, innovative company should be.

The position of the owners and managers of the company is often decisive, since the written and unwritten standards and rules of business conduct that they initially established become reference standards for a long time, although they are not immune from possible erosion and deformation.

To others the most important factor changes OK is the environment of the company's immediate environment. The business model chosen by the company, depending on the state of the external environment, confronts the company with the need to share certain values. So, for example, one company can acquire and root a deep, shared commitment to the high quality and uniqueness of its products (services). Another company is characterized by the sale of products with average quality, but at a relatively low prices. As a result, the direction centered around price leadership becomes dominant. Accordingly, in a crisis, adjustments made to organizational culture that promote mobilizing leaders to fight overcoming financial and other difficulties acquire particular importance.

Important for the formation of effective OC are measures to maintain effective working relationships. IN specialized literature It is noted that different expectations and values ​​may develop depending on the nature of the business and the personality characteristics required for the job. If, for example, a company requires open and dynamic communications between its employees, as well as informal business relationships, then it will likely value free expression of points of view and collective problem solving. Conversely, completely different values, character and communication styles will dominate in companies led by authoritarian leaders. The structure of the workforce, its social, gender, age, educational and qualification composition also have a serious impact on the state of the company's organizational culture.

National traditions, cultural characteristics, methods of positioning the status position of managers (the use of C/R attributes), technologies for making strategic decisions (in a narrow circle or attracting leading specialists, including for the purpose of motivating them) have a huge impact on the formation of organizational culture and the management system of the organization as a whole.

Criteria for identifying a strong organizational culture. In scientific and practical publications, the strength of culture is determined by a number of criteria. Firstly, the breadth of coverage and perception of the organization's core values ​​by its employees. Secondly, the penetration depth is OK, i.e. the degree to which employees accept these values.

In practice, organizations with a strong culture have a set of values ​​and norms that, by connecting team members, contribute to their involvement in the process of achieving organizational goals. This provides an important competitive advantage.

Achieving a strong culture is not easy. On the one hand, newly formed organizations do not yet have experience in forming commonly shared values. On the other hand, in many mature organizations, due to the lack of targeted work to maintain core values, QA remains in a “weakened” state.

Note that a strong culture can be not only a benefit for the organization. A strong OC creates the prerequisites for successful activities in conditions of risk, dynamic changes in the external environment with a high level of competition. On the other hand, culture in this state acts as a significant obstacle to implementing urgent changes in the organization. This is because innovations in their early stages have not yet taken root and need support. In this case, the OK rejects all changes, and therefore the necessary innovations. This situation leads to recommendations for the formation of a moderately strong culture in the organization. In this capacity, OK will not transform into a stable but conservative environment.

A weak culture, as a rule, exists where its purposeful formation is not given importance. In organizations with a weak culture, coordination of organizational behavior must rely on formalized processes and structures due to the lack of shared norms of values.

Types of crops. To solve problems of managing the processes of OC formation, various classification criteria are used to distinguish (identify) types of crops. For practical problems, the most commonly used features are the following.

• 1. By management style (authoritarian, liberal-democratic and democratic, including numerous intermediate options).
• 2. By age of the organization (young (emerging), mature, degrading).
• 3. By force of impact (strong, weak).
• 4. According to the degree of innovation (innovative, traditional, archaic).
• 5. According to the degree of usefulness of the impact (functional or dysfunctional).
• 6. By efficiency (high, medium and low efficiency). The main criteria for classifying crops as a certain type

are:

• reasoned assumptions about the characteristics of workers (lazy people, focused primarily on meeting social needs, aimed at achieving individual goals, focused on staying in a protected community);
• main motives of an employee’s activity (selfish (personal) economic interest; social relations; a challenge to realize your potential; being in a team of like-minded people; occupying a convenient niche);
• the emergence and functioning within a particular organizational structure (bureaucratic; flexible (mobile); flexible adaptive; organic, team-centric; network-centric, etc.);
• form of control over formation and development (external constant and strict control by management; group influence; competition; soft corrective self-control);
• management style (authoritarian; liberal-democratic; authoritarian-initiative; democratic).

Using the above criteria, it is possible to determine to a certain extent the type of dominant organizational culture: accordingly, it will be bureaucratic, organic, entrepreneurial, participatory, etc.

Analysis of organizational culture. The content of OC is determined by those values, behavioral norms, ideas, traditions, patterns of action, myths that have historically developed and become entrenched in the organization. The substantive features of organizational culture crystallize primarily during the formation (emergence) of the organization, as well as in the process of using certain tools for overcoming crises. In other words, OC is being formed at an accelerated pace under the conditions of the need for survival and adaptation (when the factors of the organization’s existence change) and, accordingly, the need for the integration of internal processes that ensure the possibility of such a cycle of survival and adaptation.

When considering OC as an object of management, the question arises about the parameters and characteristics by which culture should be analyzed. The Dutch scientist G. Hofstede proposed a number of parameters for analyzing organizational culture (according to the characteristics “individualism - collectivism”, power distance, etc.).

In practice, to analyze and evaluate QA, a minimum set of the following seven indicators is used:

• attitude towards innovation (including organizational), risk and initiative;
• degree of orientation towards stability or justified changes;
• frequency of adjustments to the main elements of organizational culture;
• attitude towards conflicts and their level of intensity, the degree of conflict management;
• the extent to which organizational culture contributes to the development of business and professional qualities of employees necessary to achieve set goals and the growth of the organization’s value potential;
• the degree of mobilization readiness of the organization in critical situations, crisis phenomena;
• the degree of cohesion and integration of efforts in solving strategic problems.

The practice of applying G. Hofstede's methods shows that there are no normatively defined, benchmark indicators of organizational culture. Each organization is obliged to create its own, original cultural profile and a set of parameters and indicators that meet its specifics. At the same time, such tasks and projects to form (reform) organizational culture are implemented quite rarely.

Various approaches are used to assess QA and its impact on company performance. The main difficulty here is to determine those specific OC parameters, the change of which will lead to an increase in efficiency.

To assess OC, various types of effects arising from the implementation of measures to develop organizational culture can be used ( economic effect; resource related to the release of resources; technical, expressed in the appearance new technology and technology, discoveries, inventions, know-how and other innovations; social, manifested, in particular, in improving working conditions, raising the material and cultural standard of living, etc.).

Experts and practitioners identify the main elements (parameters) of QA as an object of assessment:

• the degree of coincidence of values ​​(in this case, the strength of culture is directly proportional to the degree of this coincidence);
• degree of conformity, i.e. the extent to which the organization’s employees behave in accordance with accepted formal and informal norms and rules;
• level of development and use of the information system;
• development of the system for transmitting cultural experience;
• state of the socio-psychological climate.

An acceptable (but also flawed) assessment option

organizational culture can be a system of performance indicators given in table. 10.1.

Managing organizational culture at the intra-organizational level. Quality management at this level involves taking into account and overcoming a number of typical shortcomings:

• the culture is focused primarily on relationships between employees, rather than on achieving specific goals and results;
• the presence of several opposing subcultures that generate contradictions between employees;
• the lag of organizational culture from other management elements due to ignoring the importance of culture for the organization.

Examples of successful management of organizational culture in Russian and foreign practice can be grouped into the following areas.

Table 10.1

Indicators adopted to assess the effectiveness of organizational culture

No.	Indicator name
	Staff turnover rate	If turnover is more than 20%, then the organization is most likely heading towards destruction
	Labor discipline indicator	Exceeding the level of documented violations of 10% of the number of employees will indicate an ineffective culture
	Efficiency coefficient by level of conflict	Measured from 1 to 10. The level of conflict is assessed by employees of the organization
	Degree of staff trust in management	It is determined by employees in two levels: the level of competence and the level of decency. The average score (from 0 to 10) indicates the degree of staff trust in management
	Employee qualification level	Defined as the difference between the average skill level for a certain period (or accepted as the standard skill level) and the actual skill level of workers at the moment (from 0 to 1)
	Average period of labor adaptation	It is measured by the difference: the normative (normal) adaptation period minus the average adaptation period for the organization tends to a maximum (equal to approximately 0.5 years). The greater the difference, the more effective the culture. A negative difference means an ineffective culture

• 1. Changing the leadership style (delegating greater powers and responsibilities to employees; involving employees in making management decisions; clear control of the final results of work).
• 2. Changing the reward system.
• 3. Training (conducting trainings, seminars, adaptation programs and on-the-job training, through which new values ​​and standards of behavior are introduced).
• 4. Optimization of personnel strategy and policy from the point of view of selecting for key positions employees who share organizational principles and values ​​or who are carriers of values ​​missing in the company and are able to transfer them to other employees.
• 5. Attention to the work environment, layout, refurbishment of work and public places, introduction of uniforms for certain categories of employees, etc.
• 6. Construction of an internal system PR(for example, the creation of a “Code of Ethics for Managers”, communication chains for broadcasting goals, objectives, priorities across levels of the management hierarchy and holding corporate public events).

Principles of formation of organizational culture. Experts and practitioners agree that in the process of forming an OC one should be guided by the following principles (basic rules).

• 1. The culture being created (reformed) should not contradict the basic idea of ​​the organization’s existence (for business organizations - correspond to the selected business idea and business model).
• 2. The behavior of management (primarily) and employees should not contradict the proclaimed values ​​and norms.
• 3. The culture being formed must correspond to the type, size and specifics of the organization, as well as the conditions of its existence.
• 4. Previous cultural experience must be carefully accumulated, critically analyzed and used as a basis for reforming organizational culture.
• 5. The ideas and norms embedded in the culture must carry a positive emotional charge, thereby creating the background for the application of the modern concept of “emotional leadership.”
• 6. The formation of the OC is designed to support the organization’s development strategy, increase its effectiveness, and meet the requirements of change management.

An analysis of the practice of Russian and foreign companies shows that the ways in which top management influences the formation of an effective OC can be reduced to three main schemes.

• 1. Assessment of OK by top management and owners (if they have sincere faith in the values, readiness to share them in full, and fulfill the corresponding obligations). The success of this option is due to the presence of reciprocal support and enthusiasm among the majority of members of the organization (“revolution from above”).
• 2. A scheme based on the movement of ordinary employees to change the state of OK for the better: in this case, the task of managers is to catch and take advantage of the desire of employees to achieve positive changes in the value system and, at a minimum, not to oppose this process. In Russia, for a number of reasons, it is used quite rarely.
• 3. Combined method. Combines individual elements of the above options. The most effective, but at the same time the most risky, since its application will inevitably require resolving contradictions regarding the goals and methods of innovation being introduced into the existing model of organizational culture.

As practical experience shows, the most effective tools, helping to implement the desired organizational culture are:

• models and scenarios for the implementation of leadership qualities of managers, their ability to positively influence the behavior of employees in critical situations;
• a system of incentives and motivation that takes into account ethnic, mental, religious, national, gender and other characteristics, those values, norms, rules of behavior that characterize the organizational culture of the company;
• a well-developed system of selection criteria for the organization;
• methods of training personnel in order to consolidate the desired attitude towards the business, towards the organization;
• compliance with the procedures for following the traditions, procedures and scenarios for conducting significant events established in the organization, etc.;
• methods of emotional training (systematic and targeted appeal to emotions, to the best feelings of employees to consolidate (accelerate) desirable work values ​​and patterns of behavior);
• thoughtful and widespread distribution of corporate symbols, its systematic application.