Organisational Culture--What Is It?

When people once talked about culture, they meant knowledge, belief, art, morals, law and customs--the content of civilization. The word is still used in this way, for example, when referring to the cultures of different ethnic groups or nations. Today, when people talk about culture within organizations they often mean something more complicated. Culture within an organization usually means the customary and traditional ways of thinking and doing things, which are shared to some degree by its members, and which new members must learn in order to be accepted into the workplace. Many people now consider that it is simplistic to see culture as a single entity, as many sub-cultures can co-exist in an organization. Some people even regard it as a weakness for one particular culture to dominate in an organization. This fact sheet has been produced by the Consortium Research Program's research activity 4: Cultures and structures. Its aim is to help Registered Training Organization's (RTOs) develop a greater understanding of the impact of cultures on their organizational capability. The fact sheet examines how respected writers describe culture and the importance of organizational culture to the RTO. It also presents a checklist that can be used to think about what cultures exist in one's organization or to examine a culture within a specific area of one's organization. Resources for further reading and questions for discussion are also presented herein. [This consortium research program is funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).]