Organizational Culture

I am writing a chapter on organization culture and I thought I would share two interesting quotes from Edgar Schein's book, Organization Culture and Leadership. Schein is a pioneer in the field of Organization Development.

“I will argue that the term ‘culture’ should be reserved for the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization’s view of itself and its environment.”

AND

“Organizational cultures are created by leaders, and one of the most decisive functions of leadership may well be the creation, the management, and – if and when that may become necessary – the destruction of culture.”

Hey managers, how are you shaping your organization's culture?

Comments

[Kevin Eikenberry]

Great quotations Lisa from a great book.
Quick question is there a typo in the second quote? Should it read "may well be" instead of "made well be"? I'm not trying to pick, I'm trying to uderstand - and right now I can't quite get it. Any help would be appreciated!

Kevin :)

[Lisa Haneberg]

Yep, it's a typo - thanks! Fixed!

[Terrence Seamon]

Edgar Schein is "the Man" when it comes to this topic. I remember trekking to Boston some years ago to hear him speak at a conference. It was well worth it.

In the 90's, I was the "culture manager" (aka OD) for a fast-rising telecom company (that was eventually bought by AT&T). We defined culture as "the way we do things here" and tied it to customer service, quality, process improvement, innovation, internal communication, teamwork, and leadership.

Terry

[Lisa Haneberg]

Terry - Wow, I would have driven across the state to hear him, too. I bet that was a great experience.

I felt the same way when I finally met David Cooperrider (God of Appreciative Inquiry). I had been studying his work for so long - hearig him and absorbing his tone of voice and mannerisms made a big difference.

[BlogOxide]

Yes, organizational cultures are create and destroyed (when necessary) by leaders, but I think there's a long way in between creation and destruction, and that in a nut shell is the 'change'.

[Andrew]

It's a little further of a drive than across the state, but if you want to hear Edgar Schein in person he gives a week-long seminar in the summers at the Cape Cod Institute. I attended last year and was glad I had a chance to hear some of his stories and meet other people with similar interests. More info here: http://www.cape.org/2008/schein.html.