Organisational Culture And Organizational Culture

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perceive the risks of the same technology differently?” This has caused a significant shift in research focus and redirected attention of many researchers from the nature of risk as such to risk as a social phenomenon. (Boholm & Corvellec 2011) Following Hilgarter’s work, Rosa (1998) further elaborates on the subject of risk as a cognitive construct. The researcher defines risk as “a situation or event where something of human value (including humans themselves) has been put at stake and where the outcome is uncertain” and claims that “our perceptions of risk, our choices of which risks to be concerned about, are equivalent to risk itself” (Rosa 1998). Hansson (2010) acknowledges this contribution, concluding that there is no risk unless something …show more content…

It has generated a large amount of literature and many debates among theorists, what brings a variety of views on organizational culture. This dissonance, though, testifies the importance of the concept as such. (Schein 2004) One of the first researchers to explore and and outline organizational culture was Edgar Henry Schein, whose academic work is considered to be a major contribution to this field. According to Schein (1985), organizational culture is defined as: “A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.” In his research Schein insists that one of the key aspects of culture is the acknowledgment and understanding of the values shared by the members of one organization. By values Schein means beliefs and ideas about the appropriate norms or standards of behavior organizational members should choose to achieve organizational goals (Schein, 1985; Hill & Jones, …show more content…

This observation was made by Berhard (2008), who concluded that organizational culture overlaps with broader contextual imperative, such as national culture of the society in which the firm operates. (How much does national culture constraint organizational culture). Hofstede (1991), who did an extensive research in this particular field, states that “behavior that is observed at work is a continuation of behavior learned earlier.” (Hofstede 1991) People learn about cultural values and beliefs since early childhood and these values are closely entrenched in their everyday life. These adopted cultural values, which are programmed into human minds as certain norms, shape everyday behaviors. Therefore, it can be asserted that national culture has an impact on corporate culture. (Nazarian et al. 2013)
Naturally, all those definitions are valid, and all lead to one conclusion, that can be summarized by Aristotle’ saying: “we are what we repeatedly do”. Shared values and beliefs govern the behaviors, while consistent pattern of behaviors is the core and reinforcing point of culture. (Watkins 2013) A number of studies have stressed the importance of organizational culture, since its affects employee’s productivity, commitment, engagement, and shapes behavior. (Sørensen 2002; Peters & Waternman 1982)
This leads to an understanding that organizational culture is indeed an

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