Formal elements of an organization such as structure, strategy and technology have gained a lot of importance in past. Success of Japanese corporation in the 1980’s got the focus to other side of an organization. Values, belief and attitudes held by management and organization, which form informal elements, play a significant role in an organization. An organization can be best represented by an iceberg. The part which is visible above the water and easy to spot can be viewed as formal aspect of an organization. The part beneath water is difficult to be moved and can only be understood by exploring the deeper structures below it. This represents organizational culture. A range of definitions of culture can be found in literature. They are defined around characteristics such as artifacts, language, behaviour patterns, heroes, symbolic actions, beliefs, values and attitudes. (Senior & Fleming, 2006)
Louis (1980) defines culture as, “A set of understandings or meanings shared by a group of people. The meanings are largely tacit among members, are clearly relevant to the particular group, and are distinctive to the group. Meanings are passed on to new group members.” Thus organizational culture is a behavioural pattern that is formed implicitly within an organization. Peters and Waterman argue that it is not necessary that culture may always be formed implicitly. According to them, culture could be built by making values clear, transmitting them widely, reinforcing them in practice and backing them up. If they are constantly preached by use of mission statements or symbols, it could lead to a strong culture. (Senior & Fleming, 2006; Clegg et al., 2005)
An organization’s culture develops gradually over a period of time. Organization culture is importan ...