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To What Extent Can Organisational Culture Be Managed? Is Organisational Culture Critical to the Success of an Organisation?

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To What Extent Can Organisational Culture Be Managed? Is Organisational Culture Critical to the Success of an Organisation?
To what extent can organisational culture be managed? Is organisational culture critical to the success of an organisation?

Within the field of management, the success and failure of the modern business organisation has been largely depicted by the intricate concept of culture. Organisational culture, a concept borrowed from borrowed mostly from anthropology typically is defined as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions and symbols that define the way in which an organisation conducts and manages its business (Barney 1986). Management is not just an act of change, but the responsibility for and control of a company or similar organisation (Willmott 1983). It is the management of organisational culture that merely drives the organisation to success however the management of an organisation culture is a difficult one with arising problems. This critical notion can be derived from Taylor’s view of labour whereby the culture assumptions have lead to the development of informal organisation. These changes over the decade have emphasized successful workplace dynamics and positive aspects in the work environment as well as within the individual. However, managerial prerogatives have encountered problems between strong culture and unified cultures. Strong culture is impervious to change and thus, cannot be manipulated to change in response to different demands, and over time the word ‘culture’ have been debated to be over-used and under defined (Preston 1993).

Organisational structure is socially created and bounded by the values, stories, myths, rituals and ceremonies that is influential to the success of an organisation. However problems arise as to whether the studies of organisational culture can be created, measured or manipulated. This is distinguished through the borrowed concept of culture derived mostly from anthropology and sociologists. This theoretical notion underlines the danger, that the borrowed concept of culture can be stereotyped and

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