Culture of an Organization

In a context of organization and leadership studies, culture can be defined as the shared patterns of behaviors that are learned through a process of socialization in the organization. It is the outcome of degree of shared-ness of beliefs and values of an individuals & the organizations'. Many times, these shared patterns are not in synch with the inscribed values of the organization.

Culture of an Organization

Employee notices what leader react to and what they doesn't react to. And all these clues create the perception and beliefs about the organization and lead to the culture. Culture in itself is neutral i.e. culture in itself cannot be classified as good or bad. It is the alignment between expectation versus actual that lead to perception of good or bad culture. Competing value framework is one of popular framework to deal with conflicting values and integrate them so that the organization is open to collaboration and growth.

Though there is no empirical linkage exist, but culture impacts growth, performance and every other aspects of the organization. As Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. says, Culture is everything.

“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success—along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”

Book: Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? By Louis V. Gerstner, Jr

Research study shows, unpredictability and centered-ness around leader are very common source of creation of bad culture in the organization. Leader should understand the power of humility and after accomplishing a reasonable stage, they should learn to let the things go, so to continue.

Step out of yourself... Let it go..

Competing Value Framework

Competing Value Framework