Organizational Culture: Readings on Theory and Practice

Organizational culture is one of the most frequently employed yet least understood constructs of organizational behavior and management.  Organizational culture includes the common values, beliefs, assumptions and norms that govern the interactions between persons in an organization and how they work.  These often run beneath the surface, often unwritten and yet enormously powerful in influencing day-to-day performance and execution of long-term strategy.  Organizational culture cannot be a peripheral concern of leaders but instead must be acknowledged and treated as a foundational determinant of organizational effectiveness. There is no single culture that is universally appropriate for all organizations and there is clearly substantial diversity with respect to the dominant cultural attributes among successful and effective organizations.  For example, the core cultural values at a relatively conservative company, such as General Motors in the early 1980s, might include loyalty, hierarchy, and conformity, and expected behaviors from managers and employees in that environment might include deferential respect for authority, open expressions of loyalty to the company and strong discouragement of opposition, and conservative choices with respect to dress and office furnishings.  In contrast, an upstart company created by founders disenchanted with the culture and practices of traditional companies might emphasize a very different set of core values such as rewarding productivity and performance over acts of deference and conformity, encouraging employees to act independently and challenge decisions and beliefs rather than simply continue to act based on blind loyalty, adopting contemporary styles of dress and office decoration and designing and maintaining flat organizational structures to facilitate rapid decision making. In this collection of links to works by the author, readers are introduced to topics that need to be understood in order to understand how culture shapes today's organizations.  The readings include an in-depth examination of the leading definitions, conceptual frameworks and analytical models used by scholars and practitioners to understand organizational culture.  The collection also breaks down the key dimensions through which culture is expressed and perceived, such as communication, power structures, decision-making norms and rituals, and provides a rigorous introduction to the internal and external determinants that shape culture—from leadership and strategy to social norms and national context. The book includes links to articles and cases studies on the most common organizational culture types.  Finally, chapters and articles in the collection provide guidance on managing and changing organizational culture.