Organizational culture artifacts

Shein divides culture into three levels (figure 13.2) [188]. At the top are the surface-level cultural artifacts or routine aspects of everyday practice including hazard analyses and control algorithms and procedures. The second, middle level is the stated organizational rules, values, and practices that are used to create the top-level artifacts, such as safety policy, standards, and guidelines. At the lowest level is the often invisible but pervasive underlying deep cultural operating assumptions... 

Artifacts and behavior This level is at the top of the organizational culture with regard to visibihty. Artifacts and behaviors can be seen, felt and heard. They may be the oiganization s physical facilities, offices, formation of offices (individual... 

Nathan was involved in the insurance industry for more than 20 years. As part of underwriting studies for insurance placement, it was necessary to visit prospective companies to discuss their safety process and visit operations and facilities to determine their overall risk status. In retrospect, as previously discussed under organizational culture, what was being done was an attempt to determine what the safety culture was through observation of the various Artifacts and discussions about the Espoused Values as evidenced by mission statements, policies, procedures, etc. 

When studying your organizational culture, this provides an artifact about the culture. These may be viewed as odd questions, but we want you to stop and think about this for a moment. Do you associate with the same employees every day or do you make an effort to meet with diverse employees, non-peers, and others outside your immediate social circle If it is a multishift operation, how often do you visit with the various shifts See Figure 3.2, How Important Is Your Social Networking ... 

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