6. Organizational Culture

We will begin by defining culture in an anthropological and historical sense, according to Stoner: “it is the core of a specific group or society; what distinguishes the way members interact with each other and with foreigners”.

To explain in more detail and start with an own reflection of what the concept of culture encompasses more deeply, which in itself is very broad, some situations within the following companies will be mentioned, which Stoner talks about in his book on Administration.

A number of companies cultivate a particular culture. At Mary Kay Cosmetics, ceremonies, awards, decorations, and other symbolic forms of communication are characteristics of a corporate culture that guides the actions of members of an organization. At Apple Computer, as the company rose rapidly to the position of industry leader, managers struggled to maintain the informality and personal relationships characteristic of a small business. Tandem Computers emphasizes a culture of incentives that turn around employees. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing(3M) drives its corporate culture toward innovations.

Equally, Stoner mentions that some researchers in the early 1980s were investigating how things that seemed like a very different way of organizing a company could be successful, even if they opposed all the "knowledge" of organizations. Some thought the answer would be in the culture.

Now, speaking particularly of organizational culture, we have the following companies, mentioned by Stoner, as examples of what goes on inside them: Why do managers at IBM wear white shirts? Why do Procter & Gamble members write one-page memos? Why do most DuPont meetings start with a straight talk about safety? Is it about mysterious rituals?

Additionally, we have Edgar Shein's definition of culture that says: "it is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group when solving its problems to adapt to the outside and integrate into its interior, which has worked well enough so that is considered valid and therefore desirable to teach to new members as the right way to perceive such problems, to analyze and feel them”.

Within the topic, we have the Iceberg of Organizational Culture, mentioned by Stoner and adapted from Stanley N. Herman, which tells us that the formal (open) aspects are: goals, technology, structure, policies and procedures, and financial resources. And the informal (hidden) aspects are: perceptions, attitudes, feelings (anger, fear, pleasure, despair, etc.), values, informal interactions and group norms

Equally, Shein mentions that there are three levels in culture: artifacts, adapted values ​​and fundamental basic assumptions. The first are visible processes and structures of the organization (difficult to decipher). The second are: strategies, goals, philosophies (justifications adopted) and the third are: beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and unconscious feelings, which are taken for granted (ultimate source of values ​​and actions).

Finally, as mentioned in Stoner's Administration book, multiculturalism, applied to Administration, is defined as: the concept that establishes the existence of many antecedents and cultural factors, which are important for organizations and also that people despite from their different backgrounds, they can coexist and success in an organization. As a general rule, multiculturalism refers to cultural factors such as ethnicity, race, gender, physical ability and sexual preferences, although age and other factors are sometimes added.