The Culture of the Organization

For most people organizational civilization is something they can- not describe but will recognize when they see it. It can perhaps best be defined as the set of relaxed rules, relationships, and norms that determine what satisfactory and unacceptable performance within the association is.  Organizational culture can often have a more influential influence on performance than the formal structures and systems. If you view the association as a very huge group, then all the factors we discussed in the group level of analysis section can apply at the organizational level with esteem to the informal systems in operation.  An example of how the relaxed culture can undermine  the intentions of your formal systems is the role that peer weight plays in presentation:  however great the incentive pay, how- ever good the reward  system, if the culture has norms of low effort and low recital, then that is what you will get.

A manager needs to pay as much consideration to the informal association as to the official structure and systems. Management by walking around, keeping in touch, and by listen by with the "grapevine" all help you to bring together information on this element of the association.  Culture can be maintained: modeling and reinforcing certain behaviors can set a different tone, and in many association  you will see many different "subcultures" operating, showing how different managers  can extend different informal systems-whether they propose to or not.