What is Organizational Culture?

It is typical in our commentaries to begin our discussion with a definition of one or more important concepts associated with the lesson's subject matter. Interestingly, our textbook avoids presenting a definitive statement of what we might believe to be "organizational culture." The author quotes Edgar Schein and then Joanne Martin, each of whom describes the concept in somewhat (although not entirely) different ways. He then adds additional information from Martin which he describes as "another perspective." Luthans finally concludes that, "…organizational culture is quite complex."

Each of you might want to take a moment and conduct an Internet search on the term, "organizational culture defined." Review the first five or so entries. Are any two identical?

Notwithstanding the complexity, let's think of organizational culture in contrast to organizational structure. Structure represents the "formal organization," that set of relationships that one might display on an organizational chart.

On the other hand, how would stakeholders behave if no formal expectation existed? Suppose a group of people were tasked with solving a problem. They are given no other instructions except, "solve this problem." How would these individuals organize themselves? How would they speak to each other? How would they make decisions? How would they convey the results of their deliberations? How would they behave if there were no explicit instructions concerning the formal expectations of individual and group behavior?

In addition, culture refers to the symbolic or expressive side of human life. Culture encompasses actions, objects, and ideas that carry specific meanings to particular groups and hence stand for something. It also provides a template on which meanings are read and actions are based.  One of the keys to understanding organization culture is symbolism. Symbols:

• are cultural objects or artifacts whose form, appearance, logic, and type can be categorized.
• produced and used by people and groups within organizations for certain purposes.
• always put forth in a particular period and context.
• mean different things to different people.

And in the end culture matters because it represents a powerful force on our behaviors.