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The Role of Organizational Culture 237

likely to do things that eliminate dissatisfaction among employees and work hard to
increase their levels of satisfaction. When all managers of the organization share the
same mental models or theories, they are likely to make very similar decisions when
solving problems. This leads to a consistent way of doing things and solving problems
in an organization.
Cognitive schema are mental representations of knowledge. Cognitive scripts are
types of schema involving action or the way to do something. Schema are generally
enacted subconsciously, that is, we enact a script without much thought or delibera-
tion. In other words, cognitive scripts are like programs (like macros) we store and call
upon when certain stimuli are present. We develop scripts over time by performing a
certain task many times (like driving home from work). The fi rst time we perform a
task, we tend to think about every step and deliberate about the many alternative
ways we can perform each step. Over time, as we learn the best way to perform the
task, we “ lock in ” the script, or program, and do not think about each step again
(unless we experience a signifi cant problem). This is called direct schema development.
In some cases, we do not go through this deliberate step-by-step learning process; we
simply copy (or are told) how to perform a certain task from members of the reference
group (culture). This is called indirect schema development. In either case, when
schema become widely shared they are called consensual schema, and they account
for a large amount of cross individual behavioral consistency.
In summary, organizational culture:
• Establishes a set of roles (social identities)
• Establishes a set of role expectations (traits, competencies, and values) associated
with each identity
• Establishes the status or value/worth to the reference group of each social identity
• Provides values, cognitive schema, and mental models to infl uence how individuals
behave with respect to the various groups or communities they fi nd themselves a
member of (micro culture) as well as with respect to the organizational culture as a
whole

Note that organizational culture is not so much a discrete “ thing ” that can be
pointed to. Rather, organizational culture should be seen more as the medium that
the organization resides in. This medium is not only complex but it is also a moving
target — organizational culture as a whole is dynamic and always in the process of
changing. One way of studying this process is to look at the evolution or maturing of
a culture.