Cultural Web

The Cultural Web, developed by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes in 1992, provides one such approach for looking at and changing your organization’s culture. Using it, you can expose cultural assumptions and practices, and set to work aligning organizational elements with one another, and with your strategy.
Elements of Cultural Web as seen Figure 1:

The cultural web contains 6 inter-related elements that help to make up what Johnson and Scholes call the “paradigm” – the pattern or model – of the work environment. By analyzing the factors in each, you can begin to see the bigger picture of your culture: what is working, what isn’t working, and what needs to be changed. The six elements are:

• Stories - within the company focus upon past events in the organisation and are told to people both outside and inside the organisation. They communicate something of the organisation's culture. Company 'heroes', such as charismatic leaders of the past, and mavericks can be perceptions of 'normal' behaviour.
• Rituals and Routines - The daily behavior and actions of people that signal acceptable behavior, Rituals such as training programmes or personnel procedures can reinforce the perception of how things are done, and demonstrate to staff what behaviour is desirable and valued by senior management.
• Symbols - The visual representations of the company including logos, how plush the offices are, and the formal or informal dress codes.
• Organizational Structure - Both the formal structure (as found on the organisation chart) and the informal structure are likely to reflect power structures and play an important part in influencing the core values of an organisation.
• Control Systems - The ways that the organization is controlled. These include financial systems, quality systems, and rewards (including the way they are measured and distributed within the organization.)
• The Paradigm - Basic assumptions and beliefs that an organisation decision makers hold in common and take for granted. It is essentially conservative since it is based on collective experience. It is closely linked to the strategy as experience lens.

USEFUL QUESTIONS TO TRY IN YOUR OWN SETTING:
Stories
What core belief do the stories in my place reflect?
How pervasive are these beliefs (through the levels of the organisation)?
Do stories relate to: strengths or weaknesses? successes or failures?
conformity or mavericks? Who are the heroes and villains?
What norms do the mavericks deviate from?

Routines and rituals
Which routines are emphasised in my organisation?
What behaviour do routines encourage? Which would look odd if changed?
What are the key rituals? What core beliefs do they reflect?
What do training programs emphasise?
How easy are the rituals/routines to change?

Organisational structures
How mechanistic/organic are the structures in my organisation?
How flat/hierarchical are the structures? How formal/informal are they?
Do structures encourage collaboration or competition?
What types of power structure do they support?

Control systems
What is most closely monitored/controlled in my organisation?
What reports are issued to keep control of operations, finance, etc...?
What process or procedure has the strongest controls? Weakest controls?

Power structures
What are the core beliefs of the leadership in my organisation?
How strongly held are these beliefs (idealists or pragmatists)?
Who makes or influences decisions?
How is this power used or abused?

Symbols
What language and jargon are used in my place of work?
How internal or accessible are they?
What aspects of strategy are highlighted in publicity?
What image is associated with your organization, looking at this from the separate viewpoints of clients and staff?

Overall
What is the dominant culture? How easy is this to change?

Reference:
Johnson, Scholes, Whittington : Exploring Corporate Strategies , 7th edition.