Organizational Culture: What it is and How to Change it

Abstract

A few years ago the concept of corporate or organizational culture was hardly mentioned by anyone but a few social scientists. Today it is one of the hottest topics around because, it is alleged, a better understanding of how to build the “right” kind of culture or a “strong” culture will solve some of our productivity problems. Several recent books, most notably the Peters and Waterman (1982) report on the McKinsey study of excellent American companies, emphasize that “strong cultures” are a necessary ingredient of excellence. So the hunt is on to find strong cultures, and thereby fix our problem.

This chapter is based on a talk originally delivered to the Convocation of Sloan Fellows (MIT, October 14 1983). Most of its material was later incorporated in the book Organizational Culture and Leadership (1985). It has been specially revised and updated for this volume.