How does an organization's informal culture influence effectiveness of formal culture?
Answer:
Hi Bobette!
Good question. Culture refers to the many ways that evolve within a group that help that group survive and do what they must to evolve. Culture can be seen in the way people interact, the taboos that regular certain types of interactions, communicate, manage their relationship, get work done, dress, etc.
The formal culture refers to what a group of people agree is the way to do things, and informal culture refers to what actually happens.
As an example of formal culture, in a financial organization, people wear one type of clothes, whereas in the trades, they may wear other types of clothes. Organizational reward and incentive systems may reward certain behaviors and ignore others. Organizations have formal procedures and channels that they follow to get work done, though they may differ from each other within an industry.
Informal culture often refers to that part of organizations that have to do with power, influence, "organizational politics", stereotypes and unspoken prejudices, and "favorite relationships" that affect the decisions and how things actually get done.
All organizations, for example, have an organizational structure, with certain people in power, such as executives and managers, professionals, non-professionals, etc.
Here are some examples of informal culture affecting the formal culture:
Stereotypes of a group of people may pigeon-hole certain people in an occupation that does not use their actual talents and abilities.
An organization chart, shows a manager to have a high degree of power to get things done, but in real life, this person relies heavily on the administrative assistant. The Assistant has much informal power to control who gets to see the manager and who doesn't; the manager actually relies on this person to understand how the nuts and bolts of the department works, the assistant give priority to the work of people she or he likes, and might delay the work of others, etc.
Anyone who needs to get something done in a hurry and know how to, might "pull strings" to work outside of formal procedures to get it done. It often depends on the person's particular expertise or who the person knows who has the ability.
Subject matter experts in one organization may share expertise openly, whereas in other organizations, they may tend to hold expertise closely.
Some women have complained that many organizational decisions are made among men in the mens room. Obviously women in that situation are sometimes shut out from the decision making influence.
You can see that what people actually do (informal culture) that is not necessarily documented and agreed upon, can influence the effectiveness of formal culture. I hope this helps. Other Questions and Answers: