What Is Organizational Culture

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What is culture? Culture can be defined as how society perceives the world and how it should operate. It is the beliefs and expectations for behaviour that society believes to be good, effective, desirable and beneficial. This provides limits to individuals and ultimately prevents chaos. Culture is passed from generation to generation via parenting, religious activities and education. (D.G. Gardner, J.L.Pierce, R.B.Dunham, (2001)). Cultures are instilled in the everyday lives of employees and are visible in the dress codes, language and jargon of individuals. (D.C.Wilson, R.H.Rosenfeld, (1999)) Edward Taylor (1871) defined culture as “knowledge, belief, art, morals,law, custom and any other capabilities and habits’ acquired through membership …show more content…

Atkinson explains organisational culture as “reflecting the underlying assumptions about the way work is performed, what is acceptable and not acceptable and what behaviour and actions are encouraged and discouraged.” A more in depth definition is “the collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation” (L.J.Mullins (2004)) Deal and Kennedy describes organizational culture as being “the way things get done around here” in their book, “Corporate cultures: The Rights and Rituals of Corporate Life”, (1982). Hellriegel et al (1999) goes on to describe cultural diversity as “the full mix of the cultures and subcultures to which members of the workforce belong.” (C.Sales, (2006) Organisational cultures in multinational organisations, Journal of contemporary management, Vol.3, …show more content…

Such objectives are obviously met by challenges as the organisations previous organisational culture, which all employees have been already adapted to, may subjugate the new proposed culture due to the old culture being the overpowering capacity of the organisation. Several studies on adaptive culture suggest that a workforce’s ability to adapt is directly proportional to the success of an organisation and inability to adapt results in underperformance. This indeed creates a direct link between an organisations culture and its

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