Organizational behavior assignment on

Organizational Culture

Submitted by: - Sagar guptaFd1 (ISBE-A)

Index

Definition of organisational culture

Characteristics and functions

Types of culture and culture cluster

Cultural change and myth about organisational culture

Impact of organisational culture in general and on employee morale

Corporate culture

Case study

Conclusion

So what we think is organizational culture?

A single definition of organizational culture has proven to be very elusive. No one definition of organizational culture has emerged in the literature. One of the issues involving culture is that it is defined both in terms of its causes and effect. For example, these are the two ways in which cultures often defined.

Outcomes- Defining culture as a manifest pattern of behavior- Many people use the term culture to describe patterns of cross individual behavioral consistency For example, when people say that culture is “The way we do things around here,” they are defining consistent way is in which people perform tasks, solve problems, resolve conflicts, treat customers, and treat employees.

Process- Defining culture as a set of mechanisms creating cross individual behavioral consistency- In this case culture is defined as the informal values, norms, and beliefs that control how individuals and groups in an organization interact with each other and with people outside the organization.

Both of these approaches are relevant to understanding culture. It is important to know on what types of behavior culture has greatest impact (outcomes) and how culture works to control the behavior of organizational members. We will address these two questions later in the module.

Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large, for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different than that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what members wear, etc. -- similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someone's personality.

Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. Inputs include feedback from, e.g., society, professions, laws, stories, heroes, values on competition or service, etc. The process is based on our assumptions, values and norms, e.g., our values on money, time, facilities, space and people. Outputs or effects of our culture are, e.g., organizational behaviors, technologies, strategies, image, products, services, appearance, etc.

The concept of culture is particularly important when attempting to manage organization-wide change. Practitioners are coming to realize that, despite the best-laid plans, organizational change must include not only changing structures and processes, but also changing the corporate culture as well.

There's been a great deal of literature generated over the past decade about the concept of organizational culture -- particularly in regard to learning how to change organizational culture. Organizational change efforts are rumored to fail the vast majority of the time. Usually, this failure is credited to lack of understanding about the strong role of culture and the role it plays in organizations. That's one of the reasons that many strategic planners now place

as much emphasis on identifying strategic values as they do mission and vision.

Characteristics of Healthy Organizational cultures

Organizations should strive for what is considered a “healthy” organizational culture in order to increase productivity, growth, efficiency and reduce employee turnover and other counterproductive behavior. A variety of characteristics describe a healthy culture, including:

Acceptance and appreciation for diversity Regard for and fair treatment of each employee as well

as respect for each employee’s contribution to the company

Employee pride and enthusiasm for the organization and the work performed

Equal opportunity for each employee to realize their full potential within the company

Strong communication with all employees regarding policies and company issues

Strong company leaders with a strong sense of direction and purpose

Ability to compete in industry innovation and customer service, as well as price

Lower than average turnover rates (perpetuated by a healthy culture)

Investment in learning, training, and employee knowledge

Additionally, performance oriented cultures have been shown to possess statistically better financial growth. Such cultures possess high employee involvement, strong internal communications and an acceptance and encouragement of a healthy level of risk-taking in order to achieve innovation. Additionally, organizational cultures that explicitly emphasize factors related to the demands placed on them

by industry technology and growth will be better performers in their industries.

Elements of organizational culture may include:-

Stated and unstated values. Overt and implicit expectations for member behavior. Customs and rituals. Stories and myths about the history of the group. Shop talk—typical language used in and about the

group. Climate—the feelings evoked by the way members

interact with each other, with outsiders, and with their environment, including the physical space they occupy.

Metaphors and symbols—may be unconscious but can be found embodied in other cultural elements.

Morgan proposes four essential strengths of the organizational culture approach:

It focuses attention on the human side of organizational life, and finds significance and learning in even its most mundane aspects (for example, the setup in an empty meeting room). 

It makes clear the importance of creating appropriate systems of shared meaning to help people work together toward desired outcomes. 

It requires members—especially leaders—to acknowledge the impact of their behavior on the organization’s culture. Morgan proposes that people should ask themselves: "What impact am I having on the social construction of reality in my organization?" "What can I do to have a different and more positive impact?"

It encourages the view that the perceived relationship between an organization and its environment is also affected by the organization’s basic assumptions. Morgan says: 

We choose and operate in environmental domains according to how we construct conceptions of who we are and what we are trying to do. . . . And we act in relation to those domains through the definitions we impose on them. . . . The beliefs and ideas that organizations hold about who they are, what they are trying to do, and what their environment is like have a much greater tendency to realize themselves than is usually believed.

FUNCTIONS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

A growing organization cannot neglect its human side. Employees are the real fortune makers who make the organization a strong and growing unit.  It becomes necessary for management to nurture the spirit of oneness and to develop an organizational entity.  Organisational culture performs four different types of functions.

(I)  the fooling of organisational identify

No Organization can grow without strong commitment of its employees to the cause of organization.  Organisational culture has its own ability to attract develop and keep talented people.

(ii)  Collective Commitment

Organisational development is the result of group efforts.  Culture is that invisible bond of emotions and feeling that ties employees at various levels to develop collective commitment.

(iii)  Socialization of Members

The organizational culture develops uniform system of promotions, remuneration and behavior patterns which can socialize the employees without any group conflicts and ideological clashes.

(IV)  Desired Behavioral Pattern

The employees must understand their surroundings; they should learn to behave according to basic philosophy of business.  No organization can succeed for a long if it has not given proper understanding of its surroundings to its employees.

Types of Culture:-

There are different types of culture just like there are different types of personality. Researcher Jeffrey Sonnenfeld identified the following four types of cultures.

Academy Culture

Employees are highly skilled and tend to stay in the organization, while working their way up the ranks. The organization provides a stable environment in which employees can develop and exercise their skills. Examples are universities, hospitals, large corporations, etc.

Baseball Team Culture

Employees are "free agents" who have highly prized skills. They are in high demand and can rather easily get jobs

elsewhere. This type of culture exists in fast-paced, high-risk organizations, such as investment banking, advertising, etc.

Club Culture

The most important requirement for employees in this culture is to fit into the group. Usually employees start at the bottom and stay with the organization. The organization promotes from within and highly values seniority. Examples are the military, some law firms, etc.

Fortress Culture

Employees don't know if they'll be laid off or not. These organizations often undergo massive reorganization. There are many opportunities for those with timely, specialized skills. Examples are savings and loans, large car companies, etc.

Some More Type Of Cultures Are:-

This Types of Organizational Culture Organisational culture can vary in a number of ways. It is these variances that differentiate one organization from the others. Some of the bases of the differentiation are presented below:

1. Strong vs. weak culture: Organizational culture can be labelled as strong or weak based on sharedness of the core values amongorganisational members and the degree of commitment the members have to these core values. The higher the sharedness and commitment, the stronger the culture increases the possibility of behaviour consistency amongst its members, while a weak culture opens avenues for each one of the members showing concerns unique to themselves.

2. Soft vs hard culture : Soft work culture can emerge in an organisation where the organisation pursues multiple and conflicting goals. In a soft culture the employees choose to pursue a few objectives which serve personal or sectional

interests. A typical example of soft culture can be found in a number of public sector organisations in India where the management feels constrained to take action against employees to maintain high productivity. The culture is welfare oriented; people are held accountable for their mistakes but are not rewarded for good performance. Consequently, the employees consider work to be less important than personal and social obligations. Sinha (1990) has presented a case study of a public sector fertilizer company which was established in an industrially backward rural area to promote employment generation and industrial activity. Under pressure from local communities and the government, the company succumbed to overstaffing, converting mechanised operations into manual operations, payment of overtime, and poor discipline. This resulted in huge financial losses (up to 60 percent of the capital) to the company.

3. Formal vs informal culture: The work culture of an organization, to a large extent, is influenced by the formal components of organisational culture. Roles, responsibilities, accountability, rules and regulations are components of formal culture. They set the expectations that the organisation has from every member and indicates the consequences if these expectations are not fulfilled.

4. Power Culture

Within a power culture, control is the key element. Power cultures are usually found within a small or medium size organisation. Decisions in an organisation that display a power culture are centralised around one key individual. That person likes control and the power behind it. As group work is not evident in a power culture, the organisation can react quickly to dangers around it as no consultation is involved. However this culture has its problems, lack of consultation can lead to staff feeling undervalued and de-motivated, which can also lead to high staff turnover.

5. Role Culture

Common in most organisations today is a role culture. In a role culture, organisations are split into various functions and each individual within the function is assigned a particular role. The role culture has the benefit of specialization. Employees focus on their particular role as assigned to them by their job description and this should increase productivity for the company. This culture is quite logical to organize in a large organization.

6. Task Culture

A task culture refers to a team based approach to complete a particular task. They are popular in today's modern business society where the organization will establish particular 'project teams' to complete a task to date. A task culture clearly offers some benefits. Staff feels motivated because they are empowered to make decisions within their team, they will also feel valued because they may have been selected within that team and given the responsibility to bring the task to a successful end. NASA organizes part of their culture around this concept i.e. putting together teams to oversee a mission.

7. Person culture

Person cultures are commonly found in charities or non profit organizations. The focus of the organization is the individual or a particular aim.

What are the Culture Clusters?

Constructive Cultures, in which members are encouraged to interact with people and approach tasks in ways that help them, meet their higher-order satisfaction needs.

Passive/Defensive Cultures, in which members believe they must interact with people in ways that will not threaten their own security.

Aggressive/Defensive Cultures, in which members are expected to approach tasks in forceful ways to protect their status and security.

The Constructive Cluster

The Constructive Cluster includes cultural norms that reflect expectations for members to interact with others and approach tasks in ways that will help them meet their higher order satisfaction needs for affiliation, esteem, and self-actualization.

The four cultural norms in this cluster are:

Achievement Self-Actualizing Humanistic-Encouraging Affinitive

Organizations with Constructive cultures encourage members to work to their full potential, resulting in high levels of motivation, satisfaction, teamwork, service quality, and sales growth. Constructive norms are evident in environments where quality is valued over quantity, creativity is valued over conformity, cooperation is believed to lead to better results than competition, and effectiveness is judged at the system level rather than the component level. These types of cultural norms are consistent with (and supportive of) the objectives behind empowerment, total quality management, transformational leadership, continuous improvement, re-engineering, and learning organizations.

The Passive/Defensive Cluster

Norms that reflect expectations for members to interact with people in ways that will not threaten their own security are in the Passive/Defensive Cluster.

The four Passive/Defensive cultural norms are:

Approval Conventional Dependent Avoidance

In organizations with Passive/Defensive cultures, members feel pressured to think and behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way they believe they should in order to be effective. People are expected to please others (particularly superiors) and avoid interpersonal conflict. Rules, procedures, and orders are more important than personal beliefs, ideas, and judgment. Passive/Defensive cultures experience a lot of unresolved conflict and turnover, and organizational members report lower levels of motivation and satisfaction.

The Aggressive/Defensive Cluster

The Aggressive/Defensive Cluster includes cultural norms that reflect expectations for members to approach tasks in ways that protect their status and security.

The Aggressive/Defensive cultural norms are:

Oppositional Power Competitive Perfectionist

Organizations with Aggressive/Defensive cultures encourage or require members to appear competent, controlled, and superior. Members who seek assistance, admit shortcomings, or concede their position are viewed as incompetent or weak. These organizations emphasize finding errors, weeding out “mistakes,” and encouraging members

to compete against each other rather than competitors. The short-term gains associated with these strategies are often at the expense of long-term growth.

Factors and elements influencing organisational culture

Elements that can be used to describe or influence Organizational Culture:

The Paradigm: What the organization is about; what it does; its mission; its values.

Control Systems: The processes in place to monitor what is going on. Role cultures would have vast rulebooks. There would be more reliance on individualism in a power culture.

Organizational Structures: Reporting lines, hierarchies, and the way that work flows through the business.

Power Structures: Who makes the decisions, how widely spread is power, and on what is power based?

Symbols: These include organizational logos and designs, but also extend to symbols of power such as parking spaces and executive washrooms.

Rituals and Routines: Management meetings, board reports and so on may become more habitual than necessary.

Stories and Myths: build up about people and events, and convey a message about what is valued within the organization.

These elements may overlap. Power structures may depend on control systems, which may exploit the very rituals that generate stories which may not be true.

The two main reasons why cultures develop in organizations is due to external adaptation and internal integration. External adaptation reflects an evolutionary approach to organizational culture and suggests that cultures develop and persist because they help an organization to survive and flourish. If the culture is valuable, then it holds the potential for generating sustained competitive advantages. Additionally, internal integration is an important function since social structures are required for organizations to exist. Organizational practices are learned through socialization at the workplace. Work environments reinforce culture on a daily basis by encouraging employees to exercise cultural values. Organizational culture is shaped by multiple factors, including the following:

External environment Industry Size and nature of the organization’s workforce Technologies the organization uses The organization’s history and ownership

Organizational values, role models, symbols and rituals shape organizational culture. Organizations often outline their values in their mission statements, although this does not guarantee that organizational culture will reflect them. The individuals that organizations recognize as role models set, by example, the behavior valued by the organization. In addition, tangible factors such as work environment act as symbols, creating a sense of corporate identity.

The founding of an organization is a critical period in the life of the organization and the development of its culture. An organization’s founder or chief executive has an influential

impact on the development of the organization’s culture since that person is likely to have control in hiring people with the same values and influence the choice of strategy. By screening candidates for a cultural fit, organizations select those employees that will be able to uphold the organizational culture. Additionally, leaders embed culture in organizations by what they pay attention to, measure, and control; how they react to critical incidents and crises; the behaviors they model for others; and how they allocate rewards and other scarce resources.

Additionally, the legacy of an organizational founder may be reflected in the culture long after that person leaves through the processes of cultural transmission (e.g. rites, stories) where the culture perpetuates itself. The values of founders and key leaders shape organizational cultures, but the way these cultures affect individuals is through shared practices.

What Types of Behavior Does Culture Control?

Using the outcome approach, cultures are described in terms of the following variables:

Innovation versus Stability- The degree to which organizational members are encouraged to be innovative, creative and to take risks.

Strategic versus Operational Focus- The degree to which the members of the management team focus on the long term big picture versus attention to detail.

Outcome versus Process Orientation- The degree to which management focuses on outcomes, goals and results rather than on techniques, processes, or methods used to achieve these results.

Task Versus Social Focus- The relative emphasis on effect of decisions on organizational members and relationships over task accomplishment at all costs

Team versus Individual orientation- The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals

Customer Focus versus Cost Control- The degree to which managers and employees are concerned about customer satisfaction and Service rather than minimizing costs

Internal verses External Orientation- The degree to which the organization focuses on and is adaptive to changes in its environment.

Cultural change

There are a number of internal and external factors which are responsible for cultural change in an organisation.

Composition of the workforce: Overtime, the people entering an organisation may differ in important ways from those already in it, and these differences may impinge on the existing culture of the organisation.

Mergers and acquisitions: Another source of cultural change is mergers and acquisitions, events in which one organisation purchases or otherwise absorbs another. In such cases, rare consideration is given to the acquired organization’s culture. This is unfortunate because there have been several cases in which the merger of two organisations with incompatible cultures leads to serious problems, commonly known as culture clashes. In such cases, the larger and more powerful company attempts to dominate the smaller acquired company.

Planned organisational change: Even if an organisation does not change by acquiring another, cultural change still may

result from planned changes. One important force in planned organisational change is technology. Technology affects the behaviour of people on the job as well as the effective functioning of organisations.

Cultural Change Programme

1. A cultural change programme involves the following

steps:

2. Identify the basic assumptions and beliefs and

challenge them if necessary.

3. Define or re-define the core values - stated or unstated.

4. Analyse the organisational climate.

5. Analyse the management style.

6. Plan and implement what aspects of the culture need to

be changed and what aspects should be maintained or

reinforced.

Specific approaches to achieve a cultural change are:

1. Recognition to facilitate integration, to create

departments or jobs which are responsible for new

activities or to eliminate unnecessary layers of

management.

2. Organisation development to improve the effectiveness

with which an organisation functions and responds to

change.

3. Communication to get the messages across about the

values and to achieve the objectives.

4. Training to help form new attitudes to such matters as

customer service, quality, productivity, managing and

motivating people.

5. Recruitment to set out deliberately to change the type

of people recruited.

6. Management by objectives to ensure that managers

know what they are expected to do.

7. Performance management to ensure that managers,

supervisors and staff are assessed on the basis of the

results they achieve and that performance

improvement programmes are used to capitalise on

strengths or overcome weaknesses.

8. Reward management to enhance the cultural

assumption that rewards should be related to

achievement by introducing performance-related bonus

schemes and remuneration systems.

Myths about the organisational culture:

1. Organisational culture is same as organisational climate: In management literature there is often ambiguity about the two concepts – organisational

culture and organisational climate. As explained earlier, organisational culture is a macro phenomenon which refers to the patterns of beliefs, assumptions, values, and behaviors reflecting commonality in people working together. However, organisational climate is a micro phenomenon and reflects how employees in an organisation feel about the characteristics and quality of culture like morale, goodwill, employee relations, job satisfaction, and commitment at the organisational, department or unit level. It refers to the psychological environment in which behaviour of organisational members occurs. It is a relatively persistent set of perceptions held by organisational members about the organisational culture. Another viewpoint about climate is that various variables get subsumed under the concept of climate, whereas has unique indicators like symbols, rites, myths, and stories.

2. Culture is same as ‘groupthink’: Since culture refers to shared assumptions and beliefs, it is likely to cause confusion. Groupthink refers to group members hiding any differences in how they feel and think and behave in a certain way. The phenomenon of groupthink is mostly used in a face – to – face situation when dealing with small groups. Culture, on the other hand, is a much larger phenomenon characterised by historical myths, symbols, beliefs, and artifacts.

3. Culture is same as organisation: Culture is a result of sustained interaction among people in organisations and exists commonly in thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of people. Organisations on the other hand, consist of a set of expectations and a system of reward and punishment sustained by rules, regulations, and norms of behaviour.

4. Culture is a social structure: Social structures in various collectives exhibit tangible and specific ways in which people relate to one another overtly. However, culture operates on a system of unseen, abstract, and

emotionally loaded forms which guide organisational members to deal with their physical and social needs.

Impact of organisational culture:

Research suggests that numerous outcomes have been associated either directly or indirectly with organizational culture. A healthy and robust organizational culture may provide various benefits, including the following:

Competitive edge derived from innovation and customer service

Consistent, efficient employee performance Team cohesiveness High employee morale Strong company alignment towards goal achievement

Although little empirical research exists to support the link between organizational culture and organizational performance, there is little doubt among experts that this relationship exists. Organizational culture can be a factor in the survival or failure of an organization - although this is difficult to prove considering the necessary longitudinal analyses are hardly feasible. The sustained superior performance of firms like IBM, Hewlett, Proctor and Gamble, and McDonald's may be, at least partly, a reflection of their organizational cultures.

Culture has a significant impact on an organization’s long-term economic performance. The study examined the management practices at 160 organizations over ten years and found that culture can enhance performance or prove detrimental to performance. Organizations with strong performance-oriented cultures witnessed far better financial

growth. Cultural traits such as risk taking, internal communications, and flexibility are some of the most important drivers of performance, and may impact individual performance.

Culture contributes to the success of the organization, but not all dimensions contribute the same. It was found that the impacts of these dimensions differ by global regions, which suggests that organizational culture is impacted by national culture. Safety climate is related to an organization’s safety record.

Organizational culture is reflected in the way people perform tasks, set objectives, and administer the necessary resources to achieve objectives. Culture affects the way individuals make decisions, feel, and act in response to the opportunities and threats affecting the organization.

Job satisfaction was positively associated with the degree to which employees fit into both the overall culture and subculture in which they worked. A perceived mismatch of the organization’s culture and what employees felt the culture should be is related to a number of negative consequences including lower job satisfaction, higher job strain, general stress, and turnover intent.

It has been proposed that organizational culture may impact the level of employee creativity, the strength of employee motivation, and the reporting of unethical behavior, but more research is needed to support these conclusions.

Organizational culture also has an impact on recruitment and retention. Individuals tend to be attracted to and remain engaged in organizations that they perceive to be compatible. Additionally, high turnover may be a mediating factor in the relationship between culture and organizational performance. Deteriorating company performance and an unhealthy work environment are signs of an overdue cultural assessment.

IMPACT OF ORGANISATIONSAL CULTURE ON EMPLOYEE MORALE

The nature of corporate culture that exists in a company is going to decide the degree to which the desired results from the employees are obtained.  The common perceptions of the individual members about the organisation determines the types of the organisational culture, individuals with realm of universal truths and are broad enough to accommodate any variety of circumstance.

An organisation culture consists of two primary components.

(I) the primary value of the organization.(ii) The existing management style and systems.

These two components significantly determine the degree to which the desired result from the employees is obtained.  The value system to which the employees support directly or indirectly or by their behaviour indicates the direction in which organizations are likely to move in the future.  A strong culture is a powerful lover for guiding behaviour.  It helps the employees to do their job better.

The essence of the organizational culture can be stated in its five characteristics namely.

(i) Individual autonomy (ii) Organisational Structure (iii) Reward organisation (iv) Consideration (v) Conflict

Organisationals culture is concerned with how employees perceive each of the five characteristics slated above whether it may be positive or negative.  An effective culture is a system of informal rules that spell out how employees are behaving most of the time.  It also enables people to feel

better about what they do, so they are more likely to work harder.  It provides a sense of common direction and guidelines for day to day behaviors.

Corporate culture:

Corporate culture has been defined as the personality of an organisation. It encompasses the company's goals and dominant ideologies. It is a system of shared values that interact with a company's people, organisational structure and control system to produce behavioural norms. The interest in corporate culture is derived from the organisational behaviour specialists and from the empirical studies.

The corporate culture underlines much of the way in which things get done in the organisation. It encompasses the company's goals and dominant ideologies. Environmental influences will make a strong impact on the corporate culture. The organisation has to survive and thrive in an external environment which could be turbulent or steady. Against this background, corporate culture is created by organisational members with the values, philosophy, beliefs, assumptions and norms, with the top management playing a dominant role.

Corporate culture contains assumptions about the nature of the business and its markets and customers, the way in which business should be carried out, how work should be organised, the sort of people the organisation needs and how they should be treated. Among the factors that affect corporate culture are work groups, organisational characteristics, supervision, and administration.

Culture influences behaviour in three areas:

Corporate Values: Belief in what is best or good for the organisation and what should or ought to happen. They

are expressed by reference to both ends (goals) and means (action plans for achieving goals).

Organisational Climate: The working atmosphere of the organisation as perceived and experienced by its members. This will encompass how people feel about and react to the characteristics and quality of the corporate culture and its values.

Management Style: It is the way in which managers behave and exercise authority. They may be autocratic or democratic, tough or easygoing, formal or informal. It also describes the way in which managers behave.

Corporate culture vs organisational culture:

Corporate culture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions, and meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called "the character of an organization", since it embodies the vision of the company’s founders. The values of a corporate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior.

Senior management may try to determine a corporate culture. They may wish to impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of the organization. In addition, there will also be an extant internal culture within the workforce. Work-groups within the organization have their own behavioral quirks and interactions which, to an extent, affect the whole system. Roger Harrison's four-culture typology, and adapted by Charles Handy, suggests that unlike organizational culture, corporate culture can be 'imported'. For example, computer technicians will have expertise, language and behaviors gained independently of the organization, but their presence can influence the culture of the organization as a whole.

Organizational culture and corporate culture are often used interchangeably but it is a mistake to state that they are different concepts. All corporations are also organizations but not all organizations are corporations. Organizations include religious institutions, not-for-profit groups, and government agencies. There is even the Canadian Criminal Code definition of "organized crime" as meaning "a group comprised of three or more persons which has, as one of its primary activities or purposes, the commission of serious offences which likely results in financial gain." Corporations are organizations and are also legal entities. Organizations often have very differing cultures as well as subcultures.

Conclusion

Culture helps the organization to accomplish what it desires to achieve.  The corporate culture as a management programme has great motivating impact to motivate employees to improve their own and organizational performance. Culture spans the range of management

thinking and organizational culture has been one of the most enduring buzzwords of popular management. Why? What is the appeal of the concept? Organizational culture is apparently unifying and this strongly appeals to management’s concern with projecting an image of the organization as a community of interests. Perhaps most importantly culture penetrates to the essence of an organization – it almost analogous with the concept of personality in relation to the individual and this acute sense of what an organization is – its mission, core values – seems to have become a necessary asset of the modern company. There is the vexed question of whether or not organizational culture can be managed. Academics interested in understanding and analyzing culture tend to say no. While there may be no definitive answer to the question, the critical and the managerial sides of the debate and inform and renew each other so it remains important to explore both.

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