Corporate Culture

There continues to be disagreement over the nature and impact of corporate culture. Some writers believe it can be reasonably managed and modified, while others insist that it is inflexible and very difficult, if not impossible, to change. Nonetheless, as a concept it presents a new and useful way of looking at and understanding the nature of organizations.

?FL? The culture of an organization is part of its identity, ideology, philosophy and style. In many respects, "culture" has the same meaning whether it is applied to an organization or to an individual. It is based on a pattern of beliefs and values that provides direction and helps to shape behavior. It is not entirely internal because it is influenced by the expectations of others -- knowledge of customary behavior tempers individual impulses. Gen-erally, clture is the complete set of values, beliefs, and expectation

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ircumstances." Guiding beliefs are used to form strategy, and are about "the way things ought to be." But daily beliefs are about "the way things are on a daily basis," and determine how and whether strategies get implemented. Both sets of beliefs are part of corporate culture, whether the two are in harmony or not.?FN1Stanley M. Davis, ?MDUL?Managing Corporate Culture?MDNM? (Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1984) pp. 2-3. ? It is easy to see how the two sets of beliefs may not be in harmony. Management may project its beliefs, but that is not enough to get people to act on them. Consider the firm mentioned earlier, where employees believe that management is dishonest and unethical. Suppose it projects its desire to sell a line of products which are known to have defects. Customer service reps who have a personal desire to build long-term customer relations may find it difficult to promote the items, especially if they know a more reliable product at a better price is on the market. Employees of a company often learn of organizational values through interaction with others. As they attempt to integrate personal values with those of the organization, they tend to set priorities. This process "sets the stage
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Approximate Word count = 4009
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)

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