Organizational Culture Quarter

Organizational Culture Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is a lecture introducing the learners to organizational design primarily through key topics related to organizational structure. The Quarter is the third of four lectures of Organizational Quadrivium, which is the last of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi (hereinafter, the Course). The Course is designed to introduce the learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

Enterprise Intelligence Quarter is the predecessor lecture. In the enterprise design series, the previous lecture is Workforce Arrangements Quarter.

Concepts

1. 

   Organizational culture
   Organizational culture. A system of the shared meaning, values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing things held by members of the organization that influence the way organizational members act and that distinguish the organization from other organizations. Every organizational culture can be divided in four parts: (1) historical organizational culture or the culture envisioned by the founders and others that is no longer executed, (2) operational culture or the culture exercised by an enterprise today for its operations, (3) change culture or the culture related to change in the enterprise, and (4) risk culture or the culture related to handling risks.
   • Strong organizational culture. An organizational culture in which the key values are intensely held and widely shared.
   • Positive organizational culture. An organizational culture that emphasizes building on employee strengths, rewards more than punishes, and emphasizes individual vitality and growth.
   • Organizational subculture. A miniculture within an organization, typically defined by department designations and geographical separation.
2. Organization. A consciously coordinated social unit, usually a legal entity, within an enterprise under the management of a single individual or board, with a clearly defined boundary that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Organizations operate on a continuous basis, as opposed to an organizational unit or project team, which may be disbanded once its objectives are achieved.
   • Manufacturing organization. An organization that produces physical goods.
   • Service organization. An organization that produces nonphysical products in the form of services.
3. 

   Organizational orientation
   Organizational orientation. The degrees to which organizational culture focuses on enterprise outcome, people, and organizational structure.
   • Profit orientation. The degree to which organizational culture focuses on profits rather than on how these profits are achieved.
   • People orientation. The degree to which organizational culture takes into account the effects on people in the organization rather than on the enterprise outcomes.
   • Structure orientation. The degree to which organizational culture takes into account organizational structure rather than enterprise outcomes or the effects on people.
4. Organizational structure. The formal arrangement of jobs within an organization. In other words, an organizational structure is the way in which job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated.
   • Open innovation. Opening up the search for new ideas beyond the organization's boundaries and allowing innovations to easily transfer inward and outward.
   • Organization modeling. The analysis technique used to describe roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that exist within an organization.
5. Organic organization. An organization with organizational structure that's highly adaptive and flexible.
   • Boundaryless organization. An organization whose organizational structure is not defined by, or limited to, the horizontal, vertical, or external boundaries imposed by a predefined structure.
   • Lean organization. An organization that understands what customers want, identifies customer value by analyzing all activities required to produce products, and then optimizes the entire process from the customer's perspective.
   • Learning organization. An organization that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change.
   • Skunkworks. A small group within a large organization, given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by corporate bureaucracy, whose mission is to develop a project primarily for the sake of radical innovation.
6. Mechanistic organization. An organization with organizational structure that's rigid and tightly controlled.
   • Simple structure. An organizational structure characterized by a low degree of departmentalization, wide spans of control, authority centralized in a single person, and little formalization.
   • Bureaucracy. An organizational structure characterized by division of labor, a clearly defined hierarchy, very formalized rules and regulations, highly routine operating tasks that are grouped into functional departments and achieved through specialization, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command. Impersonal relationships usually play a vital role in making decisions in bureaucracies.
   • Circular structure. An organizational structure in which executives are at the center, spreading their vision outward in rings grouped by function (managers, then specialists, then workers).
   • Matrix structure. An organizational structure that (1) creates dual lines of authority and combines functional and product departmentalization or (2) assigns specialists from different functional departments to work on one or more projects.
7. Organizational unit. Any recognized association of people in the context of an organization or enterprise.
   • Virtual organization. An organization that consists of a small core of full-time employees and outside specialists temporarily hired as needed to work on projects. A virtual organization usually outsources major business functions.
   • Divisional structure. An organizational structure made up of separate, semi-autonomous units or divisions. These units or divisions group employees by product, process, customer, or geographical market area.
   • Functional structure. An organizational structure that groups employees by their similar specialties, roles, and tasks.
   • Team structure. An organizational structure that replaces departments with empowered teams, and which eliminates horizontal boundaries and external barriers between customers and suppliers.
   • Project structure. An organizational structure in which employees continuously work on projects.
8. Organizational design. Creating or changing an organization's structure including identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships.
   • Organizational chart. The visual representation of an organization's structure.
   • Organizational plan. A document that outline how organizational goals are going to be met.
9. Performing organization. The enterprise whose employees are most directly involved in doing the work of the project.
   • Functional organization. An organization structure in which staff are grouped hierarchically by specialty (e.g., production, marketing, engineering, and accounting at the top level; with engineering, further divided into mechanical, electrical, and others).
   • Projectized organization. Any organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign priorities and to direct the work of individuals assigned to the project.
   • Matrix organization. Any organizational structure in which the project manager shares responsibility with the functional managers for assigning priorities and for directing the work of individuals assigned to the project.
10. Organizational survival. The degree to which an organization is able to exist and grow over the long term.
    • Sustainability. (1) An organization's ability to achieve its business goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental, and social opportunities into its business strategies; (2) Organization practices that can be sustained over a long period of time because the tools or structures that support them are not damaged by the processes.
    • Institutionalization. A condition that occurs when an organization takes on a life of its own, apart from any of its members, and acquires immortality.
11. Entrepreneurial venture. An organization that pursues opportunities, and characterized by innovative practices, and have growth and profitability as their main goals.
    • Self-employment. Individuals who work for profit or fees in their own business, profession, trade, or farm.
    • Licensing. An organization gives another organization the right to make or sell its products using its technology or product specifications.
    • Franchising. An organization gives another organization the right to use its name and operating methods.
    • Strategic alliance. A partnership between an organization and foreign company partner(s) in which both share resources and knowledge in developing new products or building production facilities.
    • Joint venture. A specific type of strategic alliance in which the partners agree to form a separate, independent organization for some business purpose.
    • Startup stage. The stage of development a startup company is in. There is no explicit rule for what defines each stage of a company, but startups tend to be categorized as seed stage, early stage, mid-stage, and late stage. Most venture capitalists' firms only invest in companies in one or two stages. Some firms, however, manage multiple funds geared toward different stage companies.

Roles

1. Entrepreneur. “An entrepreneur is an individual who accepts financial risks and undertakes new financial ventures. The word derives from the French “entre” (to enter) and “prendre” (to take), and in a general sense applies to any person starting a new project or trying a new opportunity.” (Source: wiseGEEK)
2. Intraprenuer. “Coined in the 1980s by management consultant Gifford Pinchot, intrapreneurs are used by companies that are in great need of new, innovative ideas. Today, instead of waiting until the company is in a bind, most companies try to create an environment where employees are free to explore ideas. If the idea looks profitable, the person behind it is given an opportunity to become an intrapreneur.” (Source: Investopedia) ‘Intrapreneurs’ hold many similar characteristics to ‘Entrepreneurs’ any may well leave their jobs to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. Companies seek out intrapreneurs to effect change within their organizations.
3. Lead investor. A venture capital firm or individual investor that organizes a specific round of funding for a company. The lead investor usually invests the most capital in that round. Also known as "leading the round."

Practices

Resource Planning Quarter is the successor lecture. In the enterprise implementation series, the next lecture is Iterative Development Quarter.