Basically, organizational culture
is the personality of the organization. Culture comprises the assumption,
values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their
behaviours (Cater Manamara, 200: 143). Organization members soon come to sense
the particular culture of an organization. Though culture is difficult to
express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it.
For example, the
culture of a large profit-making corporation is quite different from that of a
hospital, which is also different from that of a polytechnic. You can tell
culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what
they brag about, what member wear etc. Corporate culture can be looked at as a
system. Inputs include feed-back for example from the society, professions,
laws, stories, heroes on the competition or services etc. The process is based
on our assumptions, values and norms, example our values on money, time,
facilities, space and people. Output or efforts of our culture are for example
organizational behaviours, technologies, strategies, images, products,
services, appearances etc (Cater Manamara, 200: 144).
Culture is particular importance when
attempting to manage organizational wide change. Practitioners are coming to
realize that despite the best-laid plan, organizational change must include not
only changing structures and processes but also changing the organizational
culture as well. Since organizational member, have no instinct to direct their
actions, their behaviour must be based on guide-lines that are learned. In
other for organization to operate effectively, these guide-lines must be shared
by its members. Without a shared culture, members of the organization would be
unable to communicate and cooperate, which invariably will result to confusion
and disorderliness among members martin Holborn et al, 2006: 416). This implies
culture has two essential qualities,
Viz:
. It is learned and
. It is shared.
Without it, there would be no
human society let alone organization.