Dr Thomas Reader

This course is available on the MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Psychology of Economic Life, MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology and MSc in Social and Public Communication. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

It is also, subject to availability, available to students on the MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Organisational Behaviour).

Students from the MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology will be prioritised for the course, because the half-unit is associated with this MSc. 

The course teaches students on the concept of Organisational Culture, its relationship with success and failure in institutional settings, the factors that shape organisational culture, and methodologies for studying and changing it. The course has a particular focus on risk and resilience, and examines culture at the level of teams and institutions. A key objective of PB457 is that, once completed, students have developed knowledge and expertise on organisational culture that they can use in academic (e.g., research) or practical work (e.g., running a culture assessment programme in a company). Course content will include the following:

Part 1: Organisational culture: what is it, and why does it matter? In this first phase of the course, the concept of organisational culture will be introduced. We will explore and familiarise key models on organisational culture and methodologies for culture assessment. We will explore how a strong organisational culture is often a decisive factor in determining whether an organisation has capacity to succeed and adapt.

Part 2: What creates an organisational culture, and how is it experienced? Here, the course will examine more precisely how organisational culture influences behaviour and performance. In particular, we will examine how ‘cultures’ of decision-making, risk-taking, ethical practices, teamwork, and citizenship activities emerge within organisations. We will consider how these cultural properties shape outcomes at the group and institutional level.

Part 3. Changing organisational culture. Here, we consider how culture change emerges. Specifically, we will focus on the role of leadership, regulation and policy, and collaborative activity as a catalyst to culture change. We will consider how to design a culture measurement and change strategy for an organisation.

The course primarily draws on research on organisational risk and resilience (e.g., in aviation, heavy industries, finance, healthcare), but also considers broader topics (e.g., innovation, well-being). It combines classic and state-of-the-art academic material, case study analysis, and research and practice by the course leader at LSE.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the WT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.

Students will prepare for the summative assignment through a formative essay, which is a plan of the larger essay. This involves: i) considering the relevance of organisational culture to their own (or a relevant) intuition, ii) designing a culture measurement battery, and iii) outlining a culture change strategy. Students will also engage in seminar tasks (e.g. producing culture change strategies), that will contribute to their formative learning.

• Boyce, A. S., Nieminen, L. R., Gillespie, M. A., Ryan, A. M., & Denison, D. R. (2015). Which comes first, organizational culture or performance? A longitudinal study of causal priority with automobile dealerships. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(3), 339-359.

• Chatman, J. A., & O’Reilly, C. A. (2016). Paradigm lost: Reinvigorating the study of organizational culture. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, 199-224.

• Hartnell, C. A., Ou, A. Y., & Kinicki, A. (2011). Organisational culture and organisational effectiveness: a meta-analytic investigation of the competing values framework's theoretical suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 677.

• Hald, E. J., Gillespie, A., & Reader, T. W. (2021). Causal and corrective organisational culture: a systematic review of case studies of institutional failure. Journal of Business Ethics, 174(2), 457-483.

• Hofstede, G. (1983). The cultural relativity of organisational practices and theories. Journal of international business studies, 14(2), 75-89.

• Guldenmund, F. W. (2000). The nature of safety culture: a review of theory and research. Safety science, 34(1-3), 215-257.

• Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Ohayv, D. D., & Sanders, G. (1990). Measuring organisational cultures: A qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, 286-316.

• Jung, T., Scott, T., Davies, H. T., Bower, P., Whalley, D., McNally, R., & Mannion, R. (2009). Instruments for exploring organizational culture: A review of the literature. Public administration review, 69(6), 1087-1096.

• O'Reilly, C. A., Chatman, J., & Caldwell, D. F. (1991). People and organisational culture: A profile comparison approach to assessing person-organisation fit. Academy of management journal, 34, 487-516.

• Reader, T. W., & Gillespie, A. (2021). Stakeholders in safety: Patient reports on unsafe clinical behaviors distinguish hospital mortality rates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), 439.

• Reader, T. W., Gillespie, A., Hald, J., & Patterson, M. (2020). Unobtrusive indicators of culture for organizations: A systematic review. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 29(5), 633-649.

• Reader, T., Mearns, K., Lopes, C. & Kuha, J (2017). Organisational support for workforce health and employee safety citizenship behaviours: a reciprocal relationship. Human Relations

• Schein, E. H. (2010). Organisational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.

• Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013). Organisational climate and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 361-388.

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the period between WT and ST.

The course will be assessed through a 3000 word case study essay. Submission of the summative assessment will be in break between Winter and Spring Term. Students will be asked to i) identify a real-life institution where organisational culture is the ‘ingredient’ for success or failure, ii) to explain - using the concepts taught on the course - why this is the case (with a particular focus on behaviour), and iii) to identify a strategy for measuring (and improving) culture within that organisation.