Organisational Culture Check List

Boundaries

Who is a member of organisation

- Agency staff?

- Casual?

- Customers?

- Departed staff?

- Family members of staff?

- Permanent staff only?

- Redundant staff?

- Retired staff?

- Temps?

Change

Perceived as continuous?

Sense of stability?

Communications (see also “Words”)

Attitude towards

Frequency

How are strangers greeted

Style

Use of language

Preferred modes?

Most common modes?

Written or verbal?

- E-mail or memo?

- Telephone or face to face?

Acceptable ways of offering opinion

- Impassioned arguing?

- Rational debate?

- Shouting acceptable?

Deviancy

Is non-normative behaviour admired or deprecated?

Are ‘fools’ and ‘tricksters’ celebrated?

- Formally or informally?

Dress code

Formal or informal?

How rigidly enforced

- Are there ‘dress down’ days? How are they treated?

- How do people dress for off-site meetings?

What differentiators—how many classes?

- for example:

- Uniforms for security

- Casual for operations

- Two piece suits for middle managers

- Three piece suits for senior managers

Fixtures & fittings

Office furniture—expensive or cheap?

Differences due to status or function?

- Do managers have chairs with arms and high backs?

- Are some areas carpeted? Why?

Decor—bright? Dowdy?

Level of maintenance and decorative order

Food

Number and structure of canteens

Use of food in meetings

Working lunches

Out of office activities

Attitudes to alcoholic drinks

- Wine for managers, beer for workers?

- Wine for managers, nothing for workers?

- No alcohol on premises?

Groups and networks

Formal or informal

Rumour & gossip rate

Sanctioned or illegitimate

Strength of grapevine

History

Attitudes to history

Attitudes to past folk heroes & villains

Lots of stories? Told in public or told in corridors?

Organisation myths

Home and work

Attitudes towards child care

Role of spouse

What is the policy towards domestic crises?

How are domestic crises actually dealt with?

- More flexible than policy?

Meetings

How are new members (employees) assimilated

How often

Setting

Shape of table

Who attends

Who sits where

Who speaks

Money

Openness?

- Salary levels known? Much talk about salary?

- Business figures widely known?

Degree of thrift

- All letters first class?

Expenses

- Paid easily?

- Much querying?

Rewards and recognition

Basis of reward

- Individual-based

- Team-based

- Organisation-based

Indicators of status—grade or salary?

Private bonus system

Public reward?

- Titles

- Salesman of month, etc.

Space, use of

Allocation of office space

- Decor an indicator of social structure?

- Location an indicator of social structure?

- e.g. ‘top’ management at top of building?

- Size an indicator of social structure?

Indicators in open plan:

- Higher partitions?

- Some offices?

Labelling—how easy is it for stranger to find a specific person

- Analogue of ease of entry to organisation?

Mapping of function or process to space?

Open plan vs. individual offices

Public vs private space:

- Use of toilets

- “Executive washroom”?

- Shared toilets?

State of building—clean, in need of decoration, etc

Time

Attitudes to time

- Busy, busy or relaxed?

Attitude to past and future

- Emphasis on planning

Punctuality—virtue or vice?

Words

Jargon

- Indicator of boundary strength

- Subgroups using jargon?

Modes of address

- Different to clients?

- First name to all?

- Mr upward, first name downward?

- Sir?

- Terms of address; terms of reference

- Treatment of women different from men?

Sexual innuendo?

- Harassment?

- Pinups?

- Sexual joking?

Swear words?