Marcelo, Irene M.

Signature:
CEIT-15-901E
Chapter 4 Summary
Social Systems and Organizational Culture

In this chapter, we will understand the – (1) The Operation of a Social System; (2) The
Psychological Contract; (3) Social Culture and Their Impact; (4) The Value of Cultural
Diversity; (5) Role and Role Conflicts in Organizations; (6) Status and Status Symbols; (7)
Organizational Culture and Its Effects; and (8) Fun Workplaces.
When people join a work group, they become part of the organization’s social system.
A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Possible
interactions are as limitless as the star in the universe. Each small group is a subsystem
within larger groups that are subsystem of even larger groups, and so on, until all the world’s
population is included. Within a single organization, the social system includes all the people
in it and their relationships to one another and to the outside world.
Two points stand out in the complex interactions among people in a social system.
First, the behavior of any one member can have an impact, directly or indirectly, on the
behavior of any other. Simply stated, a change in one part of a system affects all other parts,
even though its impact may be slight. And a second important point resolves around a
system’s boundaries. . Any social system engages in exchanges with its environment,
receiving input from it and providing output to it (which then becomes inputs for its adjacent
systems).
The variables in an organizational system operate in a working balance called social
equilibrium. Equilibrium is a dynamic concept, not a static one. Despite constant change and
movement in every organization, the system’s working balance can still be retained.
Employees can also have functional or dysfunctional effects on the organization. They
can be creative, productive, and enthusiastic and actively seek to improve the quality of the
organization’s product or service. On the other hand, they can be tardy, absent frequently,
unwilling to use their talents, and resistant to organizational changes.
Individuals make a psychological effect contract that defines their personal relationship
with the system. The psychological contract defines the condition of each employee’s
psychological involvement - both contributions and expectations - with the social system.
If the organization honors only the economic contract and not the psychological
contract, employees tend to have lower satisfaction because not all their expectations are
being met. They may also withhold some of their work-related contributions. On the other
hand, if both their psychological and economic expectations are met, they tend to experience
satisfaction, stay with the organization, and perform well. A desirable sense of mutuality has
been reached.
The broad environment people live in is their social culture. Social cultures are often
portrayed as consistent within a nation, thereby producing a so-called national culture. People

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learn to depend on their culture. It gives them stability and security, because they can
understand what is happening in their cultural community and know how to respond while in
it. Problems may persist because of a key difference in this context between discrimination
and prejudice.
People need to accept and appreciate the value that a diversity of cultural
backgrounds can contribute to the success of an organization. Employees in almost any
organization are divided into subgroups of various kinds. Formation of groups is determined
by two broad sets of conditions. First, job-related (organizationally created) differences and
similarities, such as type of work. However, a second set of non-job-related conditions arise
primary from an individual’s personal background. This cultural diversity raises the issue of
fair treatment for workers who are not in positions of authority.
Other important culture facts include the work ethic and corporate attitudes toward
social responsibility. For many years the culture of much of the Western world has
emphasized work as a desirable and fulfilling activity. This attitude is also strong in parts of
Asia, such as Japan. The result of this cultural emphasis is a work ethic for many people,
meaning that they view work as very important and as desirable goal in life. They tend to like
work and derive satisfaction from it. They usually have a stronger commitment to the
organization and to its goals than do other employees. These characteristics of work ethic
make it highly appealing to employers. On the social responsibility, every action that
organizations take involves costs as well as benefits. In recent years there has been a strong
social drive to improve the cost-benefit relationship to make it possible for society to gain
benefits from organizations and for the benefits to be fairly distributed. Social responsibility is
the recognition that organizations have significant influence on the social system and that this
influence must be properly considered and balanced in all organizational actions.
Role is the pattern of action expected of a person in activities involving others. Related
ideas are: (1) Activities of managers and workers alike are guided by their role perceptions,
that is, how they think they supposed to act in their own roles and how others should act in
their roles; (2) A mentor is a role model who guides another employee (a protégé) by sharing
valuable advice on roles to play and behaviors to avoid; (3) When others have different
perceptions or expectations of a person’s role, that person tends to experience role conflict;
and (4) When roles are inadequately defined or are substantially unknown, role ambiguity
exists, because people are not sure how they should act in situations of this type.
Status is a social rank of a person in a group, and it leads to status systems and
possibility status anxiety. In a work organization, status provides a system by which people
can relate to one another as they work. Status symbols are sought as if they were magical
herbs, because they often provide, external evidence of status for their possessors.
Education and job level are two important sources of higher status. A person’s abilities, job
skills, and type of work also are major source of status. Other sources of status are amount of
pay, seniority, age, and stock options. Status is significance to organizational behavior in
several ways.
Organizational cultures reflect the assumptions ad values that guide a firm. They are
intangible but powerful influences on employee behavior. Participants learn about their

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organization’s culture through the process of socialization and influence it through
individualization. Organizational cultures can be changed but the process is time consuming.
Organizational cultures are important to a firm success for several reasons. They give
an organizational identity to employees. They are also important source of stability and
continuity to the organization, which provide a sense of security to its member. At the same
time, knowledge of the organizational cultures help newer employees interpret what goes on
inside the organization, by providing an important context for events that would otherwise
seem confusing. More than anything else, perhaps, cultures help stimulate employee
enthusiasm for their tasks. Culture attract attention, convey a vision, and typically honor high-
producing and creative individuals as heroes. Cultures are distinctive, stable, implicit, and
symbolic.
Measuring organizational culture is to survey employees directly and seek their
perception of the organization’s culture. One of the more interesting method is to become a
member of the organization and engage in participant observation.
Fun at work can be legitimate part of a firm’s culture and can produce personal and
organizational benefits. A fun work environment is a unique and increasingly popular
organizational culture in which supervisors encourage, initiate, and support variety of playful
and humorous activities. A fun workplace culture has several key features: (1) It easily
recognize (by observing the presence of laughter, smile, surprise, spontaneity); (2) It means
different things to various people; (3) It is relatively easy to create at work; and (4) It elicits
broad range of personal and organizational payoffs.

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