INLS 131:  Management for Information Professionals

Week 11: March 26 - April 1, 2002
Organizational Culture/Climate;
Diversity Revisited

Assignments

Tasks 19, 21, and 22 are due. On the whole, most of you are keeping up very well. We have now only about a month to go. Take courage! The end is in sight, although I, for one, will miss your constant company and keen insight once the class is over.

We journey backward a bit in our textbook this week but not very far. Chapter 14, your assigned reading for the week, discusses the intangible but deeply felt phenomenon of organizational culture. Some folks refer to this dimension as "organizational climate." It refers to the norms of the organization, many of which are unwritten and even unspoken, although others are emphasized in the form of "We are..." (for example, "...a fun company," "...a hard-working group," "...a caring bunch"). The chapter describes the process of socialization and other methods that select, emphasize and strengthen a particular culture (through rites and rituals, heroes and heroines, value statements, and the like).

A culture is highly resistant to change, although it is often the first and biggest target of a new manager. Through your examination of this absorbing topic, you will be able to apply the techniques of changing a culture to organizations of which you are a part (family, clubs, work organization, volunteer groups, etc.), and you will also learn how difficult the process of change can be (unless change is a part of the organizational culture, and, even then, some changes are more welcome than others).

I have a second reading on the topic of the organizational life cycle, treated in the latter part of this chapter. I call it a "classic" as it's about 20 years old. It's available at http://ils.unc.edu/daniel/131/cco4/Greiner.pdf. The article is by L.E. Greiner and is entitled "Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow". It appeared in Management Science in 1983 (29:33-51). I see that our textbook authors cite it as one of several references. Please attend to the "crises" that Greiner predicts as the signals that the organization needs to evolve to the next stage.  You might relate these ideas to Case Study 3.

You may also want to revisit Chapter 12 on managing diversity, as this is another important aspect of organizational climate. It's important to know how well an organization provides hospitality to people who are "different". The organization may enjoy a competitive advantage by welcoming and building on diversity. Our learning objectives for this week are to:

• understand the concept of organizational culture
• identify and explain the "stages" in an organizational life cycle
• consider how a leader can "manage" the culture
• apply the concept of organizational culture to the diversity dimension.

Since you've been working hard and need to continue to work on Case Study 3, you have only one task to do this week, although it has multiple steps.

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Task 23: Organizational Culture

Seven organizational cultural dimensions are described in Chapter 14 and incorporated into an "Organizational Culture Questionnaire" on pages 303-304. I'd like you to add an eighth dimension to this questionnaire entitled "Diversity," anchored on the left-hand side by "Distinctions are made within the organization based on race, gender, ethnicity, age, or other discriminating factors" and anchored on the right-hand side by "Differences are celebrated in the organization. Employees are diverse and proud of their differences."

Your task is to write a short paper based on the three steps outlined below:

1. Select an organization that you know well enough to analyze its culture. Rate and report the results on the eight dimensions of the augmented Organizational Culture Questionnaire. Please substitute a 1-5 scale (1 = lowest) in place of the 1-10 scale. I think a 1-5 scale is easier to work with and equally informative.
2. Turn to the twenty questions on pages 322-324 that ask you to consider some of the factors that may explain or reinforce the organizational culture. Answer the questions relative to your organization and then provide your analysis of what you believe the organizational culture to be.
3. Return to the Organizational Culture Questionnaire with the addition of "Diversity" and answer it (on a 1-5 scale) on the basis of what would be an ideal organizational climate for you. Think about what kinds of organization or work settings might approximate this climate for you.

Post your paper on or before April 8 to the Organizational Aspects. Entitle your entry "Task 23. Org. culture.". If you would prefer a reading alternative, check out Task 23a below.

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Task 23a: Reading Alternative

You may substitute a set of readings on organizational culture/climate if you prefer. Select two or three substantitve and/or research-oriented articles from the LIS literature (or from that of a related field). Summarize the key points from the articles and follow that with your own reflection/observations on these points. You may wish to compare and contrast the ideas from these articles with the content from the textbook (or from your own experience). Include a complete citation to the readings and post your comments to the Organizational Aspects forum with the entry entitled "Task 23a: Readings on Culture." The due date is the same -- April 8.

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Week 12