Kunda Engineering Culture and Commitment in a High-Tech Company PDF

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Notes for Organizational Culture: Kunda, Normative Control......

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Kunda: Engineering Culture and Commitment in a High-Tech Company Sunday, 23 September 2018

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Gideon Kunda: Engineering Culture Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Company", pp. 351-368

Culture and Organization, pp. 351-352 Introduction to the tech-industry's culture - social norms, dress-code so forth…

Tech Culture: A Managerial Perspective, pp. 352-355 -

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Culture describes social characteristics of work behaviour ○ But it's deeper than this ○ Also includes articulated rules for thought and feelings, "mindsets" and "gut reactions" The culture has a dual nature: ○ Not only implicit and explicit rules to shape behaviour ○ Also the "vehicle" that influences behaviour and experiences of others The culture is a mechanism of control "You can't make them do anything; they have to want to." Designing a member role that employees are expected to incorporate as an integral part of their sense of self.

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Culture and Control, pp. 355-359 Etzioni - Normative Control -

Members are driven by internal commitment, strong identification with company goals, intrinsic satisfaction from work Under normative control it is the employee's self that is claimed in the name of the corporate interest The essence of this trend is found in the increased managerial interest in the psychological absorption of workers by organizations Shaping the employees' selves in the corporate image is thought to be necessary

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in order to facilitate the management and increase the efficiency of large-scale bureaucratic enterprises

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Relation to Mintzberg, Hypothesis 9: The more dynamic the environment, the more organic the structure ○ It is important in bureaucratic organizations facing "turbulent environments"

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The essence of the ideology of strong cultures is a restatement and a reaffirmation of the doctrine of normative control.

Pro's of normative control -

Increased freedom and autonomy ○ Not tyranny Individualism ○ Not groupthink Creativity ○ Not conformity Technically feasible

Seen as an antidote to the bureaucratic "diseases"

Con's of normative control (?) -

Are the people of i.e. Lyndsville "happy automatons? Brainwashed Yuppies? Self-actualizing human-beings? Is the Lyndsville facility a prison or a playground? "You get to choose which 20 hours you work a day" Burnout The company is like an "acquarium" - everyone is watching Feeling of being used, betrayed, manipulated, even oppressed (p. 358)

How far are people willing to go? Designed ambuigity § "sucks people in" § There's constant pressure, invitations to stuff - always some interesting stuff going on, but hard to say no

Normative Demands

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Members are never passive objects of control; they are free to react They will at various times: Accept, deny, react, reshape… They (the employees) create themselves within the constraints imposed on them The employees appear to share is a profound ambivalence about their involvement ○ The designed ambiguity ○ They show signs of acceptance, good work-ethic and so forth, but they also indicate even a degree of cynicism about the company's expectations, even as they are investing their efforts planning to get ahead, or contemplating the price of failure (p. 359, top)

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Ideology: Tech Culture Codified, pp. 359-360 A pervasive "organizational ideology" - This section is in short about all the small examples of culture at the techcompany's site. - Trivial stuff, but influences the members - "The Company Philosophy" - For some it's a useful guide to survival, others see it as "Big Brother shit"

Top Management: The Voice of Leadership, pp. 360-362 The leadership expresses itself by written documents, speeches and so forth - One could vaguely relate it to propaganda - "Standards" / "opportunities" employees should fulfill - The documents (see example p. 360) are regarded as apple pie and motherhood statements - They reflect managements desires, wishful thinking - Managers rephrase these in everyday interaction to try to elaborate and explain, validate etc. The main themes of this corporate culture and the managerial perspective. Senior Managers Speak - Great examples of real life situations regarding real people's experience, evidence for the managerial perspective's applicability - Newsletters most wide-spread information that consist of their thoughts etc. - "We are one" speech as a great example - The internal social organization: "people-oriented" commonly used to d ib thi

describe this ○ Newsletters and such provide information about a company's "people orientation"

Conclusion: Culture Decoded -

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All this talk about the corporate culture, how they are a family who looks out for each other etc., can become background noise Metaphors used to characterize the company as a social entity; family, or morally sound institutions: religion, science Control is thought of as internalization of discipline reflected in attitudes, orientations and emotions of committed members Members are not constrained or forced to anything ○ The pressure is not from supervision and reward, but from peer pressure and internalized standards for performance. Unity and similarity are emphasized, authority and power deemphasized Behavioural rules are vague, i.e. "do what's right!" - wtf?? Not concrete Blurring of boundaries between self and organization

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Presentational Rituals: Talking Ideology, pp. 362-365 Rituals act like mechanisms of normative control - Cause members to internalize the culture and the right mind-set + "gut reactions" - Rituals transform abstract formulations of the organizational ideology into the lived experience of members.

Bootcamp: Learning the Culture Just one big example of real life situations, where rituals are acting as normative control

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Self and Organization, pp. 365-368

Managing Role Responses Role Embracement - Submitting to the company's definition on one's self How does the management 'enforce' this role embracement? - Impact of speeches, videotapes, newsletters - talking about i.e. morality and responsibility - Using metaphors - Stressing the many good things the company does for employees Unqualified role embracement: - Leads to cognitive and emotional distancing, often expressed as cynicism, "Tech watching" --> cultural commentary Cognitive distancing: - Disputing popular ideological formulations, they're fully cognizant of their underlying meaning - thus free of control - Modes of cognitive distancing ○ Cynicism § Debunking assertion that reality is very different from ideological claims ○ Detached theoretical observation -> "Tech watching" § Employee's may view all the "soft" side of the company's reality and view it with scientific detachment § They may interpret it as "part truth and part lie" - they act critical towards the system ○ Denial of emotional involvement - Internalized ambiguity ○ Employees having this question the authenticity and find irony in the dominant discourse of corporate culture Distancing could also have something to do with what "homo" you identify yourself as. - Defining yourself as homo oeconomicus would probably make you a "tech watcher", meaning, you don't really experience the value of all these talks, seminars and such. - As homo gregarious or actualis you thrive and grow in this environment There are lots of examples of critique of the corporate culture, by employees and

former employees....