Organizational Culture
There is another overriding reason for the concentration of leaders on a specific domain or strategy. This overriding reason concerns organizational culture. It is a less rational reason and often harder to justify. However, it is just as compelling as tangible demands of the task being performed by the organization. Culture tells an organization what should be important, even if this imperative defies all reason and tangible evidence.
Just as each member of the organization has her own distinctive personality that is exhibited in predictable patterns of behavior in various settings and over time, so an organization has a distinctive culture that is exhibited in predictable patterns of organizational behavior. The culture of an organization, like personality, tends to be immune to time or space. It remains unchanged or it slowly changes. Despite shifts in the membership of an organization, the culture endures. Despite new product lines or services being rendered by the organization, the culture of an organization remains fundamental and immutable.
Despite shifts in leadership and leadership personalities, the culture of an organization is sustained. When leadership and organizational culture are in conflict, the culture is likely to win. Successful leaders will shift their personality or, more often, engage a latent aspect of their enduring personality, to accommodate the culture. Just as they accommodate to task demands and employee needs, successful leaders accommodate culture. Unsuccessful leaders don’t accommodate and become alienated from the organization in which they supposedly have great influence.
There is considerable confusion regarding the ability of leaders to change organizational culture. Many projects are underway in 21st Century organizations that are seeking to improve culture, change culture, or embrace a new culture. They are unlikely to be successful if they are really intended as vehicles for shifting culture. Linguistic confusion often attends these ill-fated attempts to change culture. This confusion concerns the use or misuse of two terms: organizational climate and organizational culture.
