21st Century Culture in Organizations

21st Century Culture in Organizations - Nu Leadership Series

Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. The sin is limitations. As soon as you once come up to a man’s limitations, it is all over with him.

Emerson

In many businesses, the primary problem for leaders is not competition but a lack of understanding their own corporate culture. Few organizations spend any time understanding their culture. Organizational culture relates to the underlying set of key values, beliefs, and norms shared by the workforce. Malphurs, a value expert, maintains that organizational values co-exist on two planes: personal and corporate. Core organizational values guide an organization while an individual operates on a set of core values that dictate his or her actions. Therefore, creating good culture in a business is complicated due to the fact that different people have varying values.

Since culture is a crucial factor in long term success, leaders should study and measure key dimensions of culture. This cultural awareness will help organizations develop more effective business strategies. Unfortunately, many organization initiatives fail due to the lack of cultural understanding.

Cameron and Quinn, authors of Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture, explain “The failure occurs in most cases because the culture of the organization remained the same.” Unless a change, there is little hope of any long lasting improvement in organizational culture. Therefore, 21st organizations recognize thee the important of understand their own corporate culture.

References:

Cameron, K. & Quinn, R. (2006). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ciulla, J.B. (1998). Ethics: The Heart of Leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Draft, R. (1995). Organization Theory & Design. Congress gets low ratings on ethics, honesty.

Malphurs, A. (2004). Values-Driven leadership. Grand Rapids, MI: Bakers Books.

© 2007 by Daryl D. Green

Examine the role of culture in organizations of the future. Nu Leadership is a column that explores the changing workforce and social environment as it relates to leadership development.

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making and leadership. Mr. Green is an author of several books, including More Than A Conqueror. He has been noted in USA Today and AP. For more information, you can email him at www.darylgreen.org.

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