Culture
Culture constitutes the beliefs, knowledge, attitudes
of mind and customs to which individuals
are exposed in an organization, as a result of
which they acquire a language, values, habits
of behavior and thought. The culture of an
organization both sets it apart from others, and
also binds its members together; it may work to
the organization’s advantage or to its disadvantage.
To a degree culture is a function of the
type of activity which the organization is engaged
upon, to a degree it is a function of the lifecycle
stage which the organization has reached; but
increasingly it is being recognized that an
organization’s culture is the product, consciously
or unconsciously produced, of the senior managements’
beliefs. Indeed some would argue that
the main task of senior management in the future
will be the promotion of organizational cultures
which thrive on change (Kanter, 1983).