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Deal and Kennedy's Cultural Model. In their work on the subject of culture, Deal and Kennedy suggested. Deal and Kennedy's book on Corporate Culture was quite. Deal and Kennedy's cultural model. Explanations > Culture > Deal and Kennedy's cultural model. Deal, Allan A. Kennedy, Corporate Cultures.
Understanding Rites and Rituals in Corporate Culture
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Embrace the wonder of the cultures around you.
Corporate culture is one of the key drivers for the success – or failure – of an organization. A good, well-aligned culture can propel it to success. However, the wrong culture will stifle its ability to adapt to a fast-changing world. So, how do you attempt to understand your corporate culture? And what steps can you take to create a strong corporate culture that will best support your organization's activities?
In their classic 1982 book, 'Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life,' Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy proposed one of the first models of organizational culture. When the book was published, it had many supporters, although there were also many who felt the idea of corporate culture would be just a passing fad. Now that we are in the next century, the notion of corporate culture is widely accepted to be as important a business concept as financial control and employee satisfaction.
Deal and Kennedy's Cultural Framework
In their work on the subject of culture, Deal and Kennedy suggested that the basis of corporate culture was an interlocking set of six cultural elements:
- History – A shared narrative of the past lays the foundation for corporate culture. The traditions of the past keep people anchored to the core values that the organization was built on.
- Values and Beliefs – Cultural identity is formed around the shared beliefs of what is really important, and the values that determine what the organization stands for.
- Rituals and Ceremonies – Ceremonies are the things that employees do every day that bring them together. Examples include Friday afternoon get-togethers or simply saying goodbye to everyone before you leave for the day.
- Stories – Corporate stories typically exemplify company values, and capture dramatically the exploits of employees who personify these values in action. Stories allow employees to learn about what is expected of them and better understand what the business stands for.
- Heroic Figures – Related to stories are the employees and managers whose status is elevated because they embody organizational values. These heroes serve as role models and their words and actions signal the ideal to aspire to.
- The Cultural Network – The informal network within an organization is often where the most important information is learned. Informal players include:
- Storytellers, who interpret what they see happening and create stories that can be passed on to initiate people to the culture.
- Gossipers, who put their own spin on current events and feed people a steady diet of interesting information. Employees know not to take the information at face value; however, they enjoy the entertainment value of a gossip's story.
- Whisperers, who have the ear of the powerful people in the organization. They can be used by anyone with a message they want taken to the top but who doesn't want to use formal communication channels.
- Spies, who provide valuable information to top management, and let them know what really happens on a daily basis.
- Priests and priestesses, who are the guardians of cultural values. They know the history of the company inside out, and can be relied on to interpret a current situation using the beliefs, values and past practices of the company.
Tip:
When thinking about this, see also our article on Johnson and Scholes' Cultural Web, which was developed about 10 years later. In total, they identified six elements that together provide a picture of corporate culture: stories, rituals and routines, symbols, organizational structure, control systems and power structures.
Deal and Kennedy's Culture Types
By examining these cultural elements across a variety of organizations, Deal and Kennedy identified four distinct types of cultures. They also identified two marketplace factors that they felt influenced cultural patterns and practices. They were:
- The degree of risk associated with a company's key activities.
- The speed at which companies learn whether their actions and strategies are successful.
They believed that the risk involved in making a poor decision and the time it takes to find out whether a decision is the right one both have a bearing on how cultural elements develop and influence an organization's employees.
Deal and Kennedy present these factors in a 2 x 2 matrix that identifies the four culture types, as shown in Figure 1 below.
Tough-Guy, Macho – This culture contains a world of individualists who enjoy risk and who get quick feedback on their decisions. This is an all-or-nothing culture where successful employees are the ones who enjoy excitement and work very hard to be stars. The entertainment industry, sports teams and advertising are great examples of this cultural type.
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Read our Privacy PolicyTeamwork is not highly valued in this culture, and it's a difficult environment for people who blossom slowly. This leads to higher turnover, which impedes efforts to build a cohesive culture. Thus, individualism continues to prevail.
Work Hard/Play Hard – This culture is the world of sales (among others). Employees themselves take few risks; however, the feedback on how well they are performing is almost immediate. Employees in this culture have to maintain high levels of energy and stay upbeat. Heroes in such cultures are high volume salespeople.
Interestingly, this culture recognizes that one person alone cannot make the company. They know it is a team effort and everyone is driven to excel. Contests among employees are common here, as they drive everyone to reach new heights.
Bet-Your-Company – Here, the culture is one in which decisions are high risk but employees may wait years before they know whether their actions actually paid off. Pharmaceutical companies are an obvious example of this culture, as are oil and gas companies, architectural firms and organizations in other large, capital-intensive industries.
Because the need to make the right decision is so great, the cultural elements evolve such that values are long-term focused and there is a collective belief in the need to plan, prepare and perform due diligence at all stages of decision making.
Process – In this culture, feedback is slow, and the risks are low. Large retailers, banks, insurance companies and government organizations are typically in this group. No single transaction has much impact on the organization's success and it takes years to find out whether a decision was good or bad.
Because of the lack of immediate feedback, employees find it very difficult to measure what they do so they focus instead on how they do things. Technical excellence is often valued here and employees will pay attention to getting the process and the details right without necessarily measuring the actual outcome.
Tip:
You may not feel that your organization fits with any of these culture types. If this is the case, don't try to force it into one of these boxes: Pick and choose the parts of this model that work for you.
Using Deal and Kennedy's Cultural Model
The Deal and Kennedy cultural model is descriptive. It argues that no cultural type is better than another, because the types emerge as a result of circumstances. Its value lies in using it to understand how culture evolves and how to manage the various elements that influence it. The following steps will help you to do this:
Corporate Culture Pdf File
- Think of your corporate culture as an asset that needs to be managed.
- Take a look at the four types of culture and determine, generally, which category your organization fits best.
- Identify critical risk factors associated with each different type:Tough-Guy, Macho
- Is the degree of individualism appropriate within your company?
- Is organizational cohesiveness hampered by culture, and is this important?
- Are there ways to build teams without neglecting the importance of individual performance?
Work Hard/Play Hard- How can you make sure that employees aren't relying on good team performance to mask poor individual performance?
- Are contests and other forms of recognition rewarding the right kinds of behavior?
Bet-Your-Company- Can the company react quickly enough to environmental changes?
- Are the values so long-term focused that short-term gains are neglected?
Process- How can you make sure that employees don't get so bogged down in paperwork that action is unnecessarily slow?
- Are there ways to measure how well a job is being performed and reward success?
- Go through each of the cultural elements that Deal and Kennedy identify, as well as ones from other models like Johnson and Scholes' Cultural Web, and analyze what is happening on a cultural level within your organization. Ask yourself:
- Are the elements working positively within your organization?
- Are elements congruent? Are they well-aligned?
- Does your history cause you to get stuck in out-dated ways of dealing with contemporary issues?
- Are company values and beliefs embraced by your employees, or simply written as words on a mission statement or plaque?
- Do your values match your actions, so that you are not compromising them for short-term gains?
- Do you have ceremonies that honor employees who model the values you want?
- Are you able to balance the social need for ceremony and rituals with more task-oriented behavior?
- What stories are passed around, and what heroic figures emerge? Are these stories shared effectively with new employees through orientation or other rituals?
- Do your heroes solidify and reinforce your cultural values?
- Who are the key players in your cultural network? Do you have methods for monitoring what they are doing and how? Do they exemplify positive values and beliefs, which are consistent with what your organization stands for? Does their presence help or hinder your strategy and objectives?
- Revisit your cultural landscape regularly and be aware of what is happening. Make it a habit to ask yourself whether your culture is cohesive and consistent with your organizational goals.
Key Points
Corporate culture is very important to the success of a business. The social side of work requires as much attention as the financial side: If you neglect your cultural influences, your long-term economic performance will suffer.
Using Deal and Kennedy's cultural elements and cultural types, you can start the process of thinking about your workplace and shaping it into one where human interactions thrive. By creating and encouraging a consistent and cohesive culture, you build a strong foundation for meaningful and enjoyable work. That is the type of culture that breeds high performance, loyalty and commitment.
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- Hi JimFinegan,
Welcome to the Club and thanks for your feedback.
We hope you enjoy more of our resources here and look forward to meeting you in the Forums with questions or contributions to other discussions. We are here to help you get the most from your membership, so if you have any questions, just let us know.
Midgie - Good advice for a new enterprise.
- Hi Elie,
Deal and Kennedy's book on Corporate Culture was quite revolutionary when it was first introduced. Today, we understand corporate culture to be a key competitive differentiator.
Michele
Mind Tools Team
Table of Contents
Korg pa50 oriental styles download free. Executive Summary
List of Abbreviations
List of Figures
1 Introduction
Deal And Kennedy Corporate Culture
2 Problem Definition
3 Objectives
4 Methodology
5 Main Part
5.1 Theoretical Models of Corporate Culture
5.1.1 Deal & Kennedys Four Cultures Model
5.1.2 Edgar H. Scheins Three Levels of Culture
5.2 The Need for Culture Change
5.3 Ways to Change Culture
5.3.1 Cycle of Cultural Evolution in Organizations, Dyer
5.3.2 Culture-Management-Process
5.4 Problems and Limitations of Changing
5.5 Business Case “Credit Mutuel Group”
5.1 Theoretical Models of Corporate Culture
5.1.1 Deal & Kennedys Four Cultures Model
5.1.2 Edgar H. Scheins Three Levels of Culture
5.2 The Need for Culture Change
5.3 Ways to Change Culture
5.3.1 Cycle of Cultural Evolution in Organizations, Dyer
5.3.2 Culture-Management-Process
5.4 Problems and Limitations of Changing
5.5 Business Case “Credit Mutuel Group”
6 Results and Conclusion
Bibliography
Executive Summary
Corporate culture is an important phenomenon of organizations. Values, visions, norms, language, beliefs and habits of the organization are fixed in the cultures contents. A good working culture is important for the company’s success and profit situation. The globalization leads to a dramatic process in the economic markets. Takeovers, cooperation and mergers are typical consequences of the new economic era. This market process is also responsible for the collision of corporate cultures. Different needs justify that willful intervention in the culture system after a takeover. Dissatisfaction, isolation and inefficiency are only a few reasons why a cultural change is recommendable. For a successful change it is decisive to know everything about the old culture and to know what to do for changing it. Several theoretical models and strategies have been developed for this issue. The most reason why a change fails is that problems and limitations have not been taken into consideration or have not been handled the right way. Culture-guides should lead the employees thru the changing process and should help orientating. The change of a culture is a long way and many do are not patient enough to wait. The success of a change is based on many task but the important task is to recognize that problems occurring during the changing process are usual and the solving of these problems lead to the new culture. Problems are indicators for mistakes or wrong planning which have to be solved. Changing operators have to recognize problems as chance for succeeding.
List of Abbreviations
illustration not visible in this excerpt
List of Figures
Figure 1: Deal & Kennedy “Four Cultures Model”
Figure 2: Edgar H. Scheins Three Levels of Culture
Figure 3: Cycle of Cultural Evolution in Organizations, Dyer
Figure 4: Culture-Management-Process https://keenastro391.weebly.com/4diskclean-gold-55-software-download.html.
Figure 5: Comparison Citigroup Inc. vs. Credit Mutuel Group
1 Introduction
In the age of globalization, markets become more and more dynamic. For reasons of synergetic potentials, improvements in productivity and possible savings many companies are looking for investments to make themselves more efficient[1]. Today, takeovers or mergers and acquisitions are usual part of economic life and make a high demand on the work of the Human Resource Department. In the first half year 2012 over 20.000 transactions were counted in this sector in spite of the Financial Crisis we are facing these years[2]. Beside the legal and bureaucratic complexity, the HR department has to manage the whole personnel consequences resulting from the merger. Integration of employees, cancellation and change of employment agreements, renegotiation of collective agreements and restructuring of work time schedules are only a short enumeration of the multiplicity of demanding duties and responsibilities, which have to be handled. One important challenge for the HR department is the right exposure with different corporate cultures. The integration of companies in organizations can fail, if cultural differences are not considered[3]. On these grounds identification and influence of organizational culture are critical factors which decide over success or failure of an acquisition. Comparable to domestic political problems within the integration of foreigners with different cultures and religious faith, the establishment or change of an existing organizational culture is a sophisticated and sensitive issue, especially when the responsible people do not even know about their own cultural structure.
2 Problem Definition
The reason why the integration of a company after a takeover fails is not only the ignorance of organizational culture; it is also the lack of knowledge about how to change an existing culture. The changing process is also a complicated and often nontransparent case with many possible problems and limitations which have to be considered. That means that there is no general roadmap of changing or establishing a culture, rather every single cultural change needs its own new roadmap developed. This new roadmap evolves from solving different kind of problems during the changing process. And sometimes there are limitations of change which have to be accepted.[4]
3 Objectives
The objective of this assignment is to discover what problems and limitations could occur during the changing process of an organizational culture after a takeover. It will be also seek to identify how to handle typical problems and to recognize insuperable limitations. Theoretical models for recognizing a culture type and models for changing an organizational culture should help identifying this problems and limitations.
4 Methodology
The main part of this assignment will start with a theoretical overview of different models, developed to describe different indicators of corporate culture. It will begin with the model of Deal and Kennedy which is based on four different types of organizations. These types vary in how quickly the organization receives feedback, the way members get a return on their investment, and the level of accepted risks[5]. Afterwards, the Three Levels of Culture Theory by Edgar Schein will be explained. This model defines the organizational culture as something observable, but also as a result of values and basic assumptions[6]. After the specification of the named models, needed for identifying cultural structures within the community, possible methods aiming for a cultural change will be defined. At the same time problems and limitations will be discussed in this part. A short example of a failed changing try and the appeared problems and limitations will be given to establish a practical relevance. This example will be based on the takeover of the Citigroup retail banking subsidiary company in Germany. In a following chapter the results will be discussed and afterwards a conclusion of this issue will be set.
5 Main Part
5.1 Theoretical models of Corporate Culture
In the past many theoretical models have been established to explain organizational cultures. They all try to explain the different types and groups of the settled culture and the behavior aspects of their members. As a definition can be said, that corporate culture is something common, that counts for every member of the organization. Through values, standards and believes it leaves its marks on their behavior. For the member of the culture community the culture itself is something which is simply there. The members do not reflect the situation and everything happens unconsciously. An important fact is that corporate culture growths from the past. It is established from the unit of the members and it can be changed by them. Another important detail is that corporate culture is influenced by other culture types. The culture of a country, of an industry-sector and organizational sub-cultures affects the acting of the culture members.[7] As mentioned, many theories were established to explain this phenomenon. For reasons of clearness only the models of Schein and Deal and Kennedy will be explained in the following text. These models are well-known an important explanations for this issue.
5.1.1 Deal & Kennedys Four Cultures Model
Deal & Kennedy established in 1982 a model, which tries to describe corporate culture with the aim of two dimensions. The first dimension focuses on the level of risks taken and the second on how quickly the organization receives feedback. With this framework and the examination of hundreds of organizations Deal & Kennedy could distil four generic cultures.[8] Figure 1 shows the identified cultures. The Process Culture takes low risks and receives slow feedback. This type is usually to find in banks, insurance companies, in government agencies or in strong regulated industries. The strong work regulation leads to an inflexible work flow system. There is a given work flow for nearly every issue, so that there is no decision making risk for the employees. But problems or new challenges cannot be handled in time; usually it will take time until a new work flow is settled to manage the new task. An advantage is that the employees have no big responsibility for their decisions if they follow the given map and as a result no regular decision will endanger the company.
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Figure 1: Deal & Kennedy “Four Cultures Model”
Source: Deal & Kennedy (2000), pp. 107 – 108
On the other hand the workers do not know how effective they work, because they are not getting a fast feedback. They are forced to concentrate on how to do something and not on what they are doing. Efficiency and innovations are hard to establish in this culture type. Typical rites and rituals are long and structured meetings, ceremonies like for retirement and a strong hierarchy structure.[9]
The Work Hard / Play Hard Culture takes low risks and gives fast feedback. This type is hardly to find in typical sales organizations. Activity and strong leaders are the way to success. Reports and action plans minimize the risks and drive the success of the employees. Quick feedback helps the workers to check their efficiency and to set corrective plans to succeed. Typical rites are after work parties, contests meetings and promotions. The motivation of the employees is one of the biggest tasks which have to be handled by the management. A big advantage of this culture type is the fast and strong activity of the culture members. Through a high self-motivation, employees work fast and hard to reach their goals and to get one of the top performer. Within this culture the members want to succeed and to be one of the best, this attitudes lead to an economic growth without any effort of resources. Disadvantages of this culture type should also be named. Product and service quality can decrease if everything is going too fast. People have a fast success, but they do not ask themselves if the work had the right quality. Fast decisions can also deliver bad results and lead into a crisis, which means that activity is not a guarantee for success.[10]
The next culture type describes companies which have a high risk in decision making but the return on their investment (feedback) comes very slow. The Bet-Your-Company Culture usually appears in the industry sector. Companies spend millions of dollars for a project, they even do not know if it works. Big oil companies are a good example. They build off shore oil rigs to explore a new source, but they do not know if it is efficient or if they will find enough oil to make a profit out of the investment. This example shows the risk of a project and the time of regarding feedback. Making right decisions is very important for the organization. Typical rites are project meetings and a high qualification of the staff. Solving problems or making decisions can take a long time. It has to be sure that everything has been calculated before a decision will be made.
Last but not least the Tough-Guy / Macho Culture can be described by a fast feedback and a high level of risk. This culture type is typical for the entertainment industry, police departments or consulting companies. The financial investments are high and the feedback comes quick. The high level of risk for the investments is a reason why the pressure in this sector is so high. A made decision decides over success or failure and consequently over the future of the decision maker. As a result it can be noticed, that this culture consists of individualists and tough guys who can impose their will. The advantage of this culture type is the high motivated individualists. Their self confidence can change results and turn developments around. A disadvantage is that decisions are made by those who can get their own way best. No clear arguments and calculations decide over decisions, but those who can sell them best.[11]
These culture types describe the relationship between market conditions within the company moves and the corporate culture. It can be noticed that some market sectors depending on the level of risk and the time of feedback, have independently developed the same culture type.[12]
[..]
[1] Deal & Kennedy (1999), pp. 111 – 117.
[2] Borell & Jager (2012), n.p.
[3] Cameron & Quinn (2011), pp. 1 – 2.
[4] Deeg & Weibler (2008), pp. 127 – 133.
[5] Deal & Kennedy (2000), pp. 107 – 108.
[6] Schein (2010), pp. 23 – 32.
[7] Deeg & Weibler (2008), pp. 103 – 104.
[8] Deal & Kennedy (2000), p. 107.
[9] Deal & Kennedy (2000), pp. 119 – 123.
[10] Deal & Kennedy (2000), pp. 113 – 116.
[11] Ibid., pp. 108 – 113.
Deal And Kennedy Corporate Culture Pdf Merger
[12] Deeg & Weibler (2008), p. 109.