Culture Types (Deal and Kennedy)

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What are Culture Types?

Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy were among the first to write about corporate culture. In their 1982 book Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, they define organizational culture as the way things get done around here.

Deal and Kennedy argue corporate culture is based on an interlocking of six elements: history, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, stories, heroic figures and the informal cultural network of storytellers, gossipers, whisperers, spies and priests. Their Culture Types model distinguishes four corporate culture types, based on two elements:

• Feedback Speed: How quickly are feedback and rewards provided (through which the people are told they are doing a good or a bad job).
• Degree of Risk: The level of risk taking (degree of uncertainty).

The combination of these two elements results in four types of corporate cultures:

1. Tough-Guy Macho Culture (Fast feedback and reward, high risk):
   • Stress results from the high risk and the high potential decrease or increase of the reward.
   • Focus on now, individualism prevails over teamwork.
   • Typical examples: advertising, brokerage, sports.
2. Work-Hard, Play-Hard Culture (Fast feedback and reward, low risk):
   • Stress results from quantity of work rather than uncertainty.
   • Focus on high-speed action, high levels of energy.
   • Typical examples: sales, restaurants, software companies.
3. Process Culture (Slow feedback and reward, low risk):
   • Stress is generally low, but may come from internal politics and stupidity of the system.
   • Focus on details and process excellence.
   • Typical examples: bureaucracies, banks, insurance companies, public services.
4. Bet-Your-Company Culture (Slow feedback and reward, high risk):
   • Stress results from high risk and delay before knowing if actions have paid off.
   • Focus on long-term, preparation and planning.
   • Typical examples: pharmaceutical companies, aircraft manufacturers, oil prospecting companies.

Book: Terrence E. Deal, Allan A. Kennedy - Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life (1982)

Book: Terrence E. Deal, Allan A. Kennedy - The New Corporate Cultures (2000)

Forum Forum discussions about Corporate Culture. 🔥 Building Blocks of Organizational Culture: The Six Components of Corporate Culture (Coleman) Culture, unlike its short and easy definition – the way we do things here – isn't as easy a concept to get the hang of. Yet every complex thing relies on a foundation and in case of culture, as obser... 20   10 comments Perfect Definition of Corporate Culture (Uttal, 1983) In an article in Fortune magazine (Oct. 17, 1983 - pp. 66-72), writer Bro Uttal defined 'corporate culture' as follows: "A system of 'shared values' (what is important) and 'beliefs' (how things wo... 9   14 comments Creating an Innovative Organizational Culture Innovative cultures are greatly valued because they are not only good for a company's bottom line, but also largely depicted as fun and characterized by easy-to-like behaviors such as tolerance for fa... 7   7 comments Another Culture Type: the Yes Culture Schmidt and Rosenberg recommend to establish a "Yes Culture" in order to establish an innovative firm. It is a culture in which the default answer to innovators asking if they may proceed with their i... 5   How to Deal with a Culture of Gossip and Backbiting? Hi all, I am in the following situation: - I am the deputy of a Team Manager (TM). - The team consists of people with low- or very low education. They love to gossip and backbite either the other te... 4   2 comments Innovation in a Target / Performance Culture Many organizations today have a 'target culture', which is characterized by strong performance management, performance monitoring, individual target setting. Furthermore, such organizations are behold... 4   Do Competitive Work Cultures Lead to Better Performance? I am searching for information and sources (books or articles) to give me information about differences between competitive and cooperation cultures at work. And what types of cultures are competitive... 4   2 comments The Effects of Leadership on Organizational Culture Hi, I am currently researching on "The effects of leadership on organizational culture" for my thesis. I am enrolled for the MSc in leadership and change management. Your ideas and comments will be h... 3   1 comments Culture Types Useful Model This model on culture types makes it easy to understand why certain results can be attained, particularly when efforts are made to enforce cultural change.... 3   1 comments High Performance Work Culture Of what does a high performance work culture consists...?... 2   Connecting Culture and the Dominant Strategy The flaw in the Deal and Kennedy model is that it does not connect culture to the strategies being implemented by the organization. In my book, The Alpha Strategies, Understanding Strategy, Risk, and... 1   2 comments International Culture Types I think that the four culture types model has now become too limited. Not many of the types work well for third-world country or current developing nation cultures.. Who knows of a corporate culture ... 1   3 comments Start a new topic about Corporate Culture Sign up for free

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Best Practices The best, top-rated topics about Corporate Culture. Here you will find the most valuable ideas and practical suggestions. 🥇 Eight Types of Organizational Culture (Groysberg) Culture is the social order of an organisation. It forms people's attitudes and behaviours in a wide range of ways. Cultural norms determine what is encouraged or discouraged and what is accepted or r... 10   5 comments 🥈 12 Culture Factors of Drennan? Has anyone heard of Drennan and his 12 factors in which you can recognize a corporate culture? He is the one who said culture is 'The way we do things around here'. There's so little on him and his th... 8   3 comments 🥉 Culture of Accountability Any experience with a Culture of Accountability? There are different books and suppliers of the concept, workshops and consultants. I was wonderng about how effective it is.... 6   9 comments

Expert Tips Advanced insights about Corporate Culture. Here you will find professional advices by experts. Consultancy Tips Teaching Tips Practical Implementation Tips Establishing an Organizational Culture of Perpetual Crisis Corporate Culture Best Practice An interesting article in the issue of Fortune (Sept. 5, 2005, no. 15) explains how Jong-Yong Yun, CEO of Samsung, is re... Strategies to Change Employee Habits, Hearts and Heads Changing Organization Cultures According to J.E. Kee and K.E. Newcomer ("Why Do Change Efforts Fail? What Can Leaders Do About It?", The Public Manager... Pitfalls and Best Practices in Culture Change Changing Organizational Cultures, What to DO and what NOT According to Jon Katzenbach and Ashley Harshak ("Stop Blaming Your Culture", strategy+business, Spring 2011, Issue 62), ... Top-5 Reasons for Burnouts are All Management-related! Burnout Causes, Burnout Reasons, Causes of Burnouts A 2018 Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found that no less than 23% replied they feel burned out at work... Why is Changing an Organization Culture So Hard? The ASA Model (Schneider) Organization Culture, Culture Change, Corporate Culture, Change Management, Recruitment Why is changing an organization culture so difficult? Because, once it is established, a culture has the tendency to str... How Culture Levels Explain Failures in Organizational Learning and Innovation Improving Organizational Learning, Organizational Innovation, Changing Organization Cultures Schein (as cited by Bertagni et al., 2010) tries to elaborate on the question why organizational innovations often fail ... The Importance of Culture in Organizational Performance Organizational Culture, Corporate Culture, Employee Behavior, Organizational Performance John Connolly, former CEO of Deloitte UK, argues that one of the most critical determinants of organizational performanc... 7 Mechanisms to Change Corporate Cultures Change Management, Organizational Change, Culture Change Management can choose from this menu of actions to change a problematic corporate culture: 1. Making a compelling case... PROs and CONs of a Strong Corporate Culture Corporate Culture Change, Change Management, Organizational Change Implementing a significant change is generally easier when the corporate culture is not strong. By strong Corporate Cult...

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