Understanding the unwritten rules
Organisational culture models and theory.
Three hours on the unwritten rules of organisations: what culture is, why strong does not mean healthy, and the models that help you read it.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 3 hours
- Where
- Culture in Organisations
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Leaders wanting a grounded vocabulary for organisational culture
Overview
Every organisation runs on rules nobody wrote down. This programme gives leaders a grounded vocabulary for that hidden layer, starting with Schein's definition of culture and the difference between culture, climate and employer brand, then exploring why strong does not mean healthy through Enron, Sull, Sull and Zweig's toxic attributes and Rousseau's psychological contract. It then compares the lenses that help you read culture: Hofstede, Handy, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, Schein's three levels, Deal and Kennedy, the Competing Values Framework and Denison, with guidance on choosing the right model for the purpose in hand.
Aims
This programme aims to help leaders see the culture they actually have rather than the one they describe, developing the confidence to name healthy and unhealthy patterns and to choose the right model for the conversation their organisation needs to have.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain what organisational culture is, using Schein's definition and three levels, and distinguish it from climate, employer brand and stated values.
- Assess whether a culture is healthy or sliding towards harm, using the attributes of toxic culture, the psychological contract and a positive culture audit.
- Choose and apply the most suitable culture model, from Hofstede and Handy to the Competing Values Framework and Denison, for a specific leadership purpose.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Explain what organisational culture is, using Schein's definition, and distinguish it from climate and from employer brand.
- Identify the features of a healthy culture and the signs of an unhealthy one, and tell a subculture from a counterculture in your own organisation.
- Distinguish a strong culture from a healthy one, and a positive culture from a merely comfortable one, using the Enron case.
- Identify the five attributes of toxic culture and the early warning signs that a positive culture is sliding, and explain how they break the psychological contract.
- Describe Hofstede's dimensions, Handy's four culture types and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner's seven dilemmas, and explain what each lens is built to show.
- Explain Schein's three levels of culture and why underlying assumptions, rather than espoused values, predict what people actually do.
Built from 2 parts.
3 hours of learning.
- 01How things really get done hereOrganisational culture: positive and toxicBitesize2 modules
- 02Lenses on cultureCulture models: Hofstede, Schein and DenisonBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the Culture in Organisations topic, also sold whole as The way we do things here.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 3 hours, £69
- Next stepExplore, Reading culture, 4 hours 30 minutes, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
- The whole topicImmerse, The way we do things here, 8 hours 30 minutes, £249. Already own the Focus? You pay £180.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms