Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

This project provides an introduction to organisational behaviour, discussing artifacts, shared values, and basic assumptions. It explores the relationship between culture and organizational structure, and concludes with a summary of findings.

Introduction to
Organisational
Behaviour

Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
Artifacts..............................................................................................................................3
Shared value......................................................................................................................4
Basic assumptions.............................................................................................................4
Summary............................................................................................................................5
References.........................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Culture is known as a system which is present in society. It basically run on the
concept of right or wrong; connected to the thinking and behavior of people who are
living in the society (Mihaela and Bratianu, 2012). Values and rituals in an enterprise
that integrate people to work together is known as Organisational culture. This project is
based on Schein’s level of culture, it will discuss about Artifacts, Shared value and
Basic assumptions. Few organizational examples and concepts like “Iceberg metaphor”
will also become part of this file. Relationship between Culture and structure of
organization will be included in the project. Last part of this report will be summary
where overall findings of report will be presented in the form of conclusion.
Artifacts
Artifacts are those signs of organizational culture that can easily be seen by
anyone. They basically manifest culture of a company and one can hear or feel it.
Outlook of offices, dress code etc. are few examples of artefacts; although they are
visible to anyone but this does not mean that they are easy to understand (Hogan and
Coote, 2014). Companies like Google allow their employees to wear casuals because
they want to give a clear message that their organization cares more about employee’s
performance; dress code is irrelevant to them. It also develop some other ideas in
people’s mind like Google prefer flat organizational structure as things that are not
related to work does not get importance in corporation.
From outer world, people see Google as an organization which is known for
innovation in technology. They are considered as employee oriented company because
giving health workplace environment and taking care of workers is part of enterprise’s
culture. Their structure, unwritten rules and tradition is that part of iceberg which is not
visible to outer world. People can only see, read and feel the outcome of their work.
Every organization has mantras, inside jokes and sometime free food also, these are
few perfect example of artefacts and they can be seen by outsider as well.

Shared value
Most of the companies, nowadays, talk about their core value in public domain
after communicating about these values to the members of organization. Espoused
values are beneath artifacts and they contain goals, strategy and philosophies of an
enterprise (Schein and Schein, 2019). Corporations repeat these shared values among
members as it assist firm in attaining set targets. Facebook always talk about
connecting people and creating a social world on internet. They have acquired many
social media firms because of their core value i.e. more fast and build social values.
People can see their strategies like aggressive growth through acquisition and dominate
whole social media industry. This world is aware of aggressive behavior of Facebook
and its founder but Espoused values of organization are real reason behind their
success. Their vision came from that part of the Iceberg which is under the water.
If an enterprise, like Facebook, has matrix organizational structure then they can
stick to their core values because it allows them to make fast decision without losing
focus from key activities. It is difficult Function and divisional organizational structure to
make a balance between fast growth and movement in right direction. Perceptions,
feeling and norms are few factors that can make a huge impact on individual as well as
group behavior. These factors are rarely visible to outer world because companies only
share core values but they are significant for all corporations (Babnik and et al., 2014).
Basic assumptions
In an organization, there are few basic assumptions which depict core value of
company’s culture. Sometime they can be seen easily by workers and outsider,
sometime they are not visible. These core values make a huge impact on organizational
culture; they might be deeply embedded that even do not come in notice of employees
but they are essence of enterprises culture. Basic assumption and values are generally
present at an unconscious level but sometime they can be seen in Artifacts and Shared
value. Founders, decision makers and experienced employees are aware of these
invisible values as they have already ‘’fit-in’’ the corporation. These assumption are not

said or written by management, their existence depend on deeper dimension like reality
and truth (Alfes and et al., 2013).
Apple is among most valuable companies that are currently working in the world.
People are aware about their core values like deep collaboration and working on
aggressive goals but beside these strategies they also have some basic assumptions in
their organization culture which are not visible to this world. Apple may offer most
advanced technology in their products as services but they always like to “keep things
simple”. iPhone is company’s one of the best offering. Their phone has latest features
and many new improved offerings but they only promote one thing in their
advertisements i.e. Camera of the phone. Company does believe in deep collaboration
but they want to own everything that is required to make their products (Taylor, 2014).
They do not want dependency on others which sometime contradict their “shared
values”. If there is major difference between Basic assumption and Shared value then
company will definitely face trouble especially in long run. Although this level of Schein
triangle is always at the bottom of Iceberg i.e. below the water. People can see other
level but this part of the triangle is not visible to outer world.
Summary
Three level given by Schein concentrate on culture of visible as well as invisible
culture of organization. Like an Iceberg, people can only see strategies and vision of
company; they do not concentrate on shared values, norms, unwritten rules and
tradition as they aren’t present above the water. Organisational structure and culture
relates to each other and they play crucial role in success or failure of an enterprise
(Laforet, 2016). Culture of a corporation impact behavior of individuals and groups; it
happens because working style of whole organization is dependent on company’s
culture. Few other factors like individual’s expectation, skills and external environment
can also influence individual’s behavior. Firms can only attain their objective if invisible
values are strong and does not contradict with Artifacts and Espoused Values.

References
Books and Journals
Alfes, K. and et al., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management
practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model.
The international journal of human resource management. 24(2). pp.330-351.
Babnik, K. and et al., 2014. The mission statement: organisational culture perspective.
Industrial Management & Data Systems.
Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014. Organizational culture, innovation, and
performance: A test of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research. 67(8).
pp.1609-1621.
Laforet, S., 2016. Effects of organisational culture on organisational innovation
performance in family firms. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development.
Mihaela, V. and Bratianu, C., 2012. Organizational culture modeling. Management &
Marketing, 7(2). p.257. Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014
Schein, E.H. and Schein, P.A., 2019. The corporate culture survival guide. John Wiley &
Sons.
Taylor, J., 2014. Organizational culture and the paradox of performance management.
Public Performance & Management Review. 38(1). pp.7-22.
Zhu, C., 2015. Organisational culture and technology-enhanced innovation in higher
education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education. 24(1). pp.65-79.