Difference between revisions of "Organizational Culture"

{{Term|ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE|Refers to a set of norms, beliefs, principles and ways of behaving that together give each organization a distinctive character <ref>Brown, A. Organizational Culture, Pitman Publishing. London, 1995.</ref>. A key aspect of organizational culture is  willingness to embrace change, which includes challenging the status, scanning the environment for new knowledge  and commitment to continuous improvement. Although there is no definitive link between an organization’s culture and its success, a manifest  pattern of behavior  can distinguish one organization from the other. For example  The Ritz-Carleton's famous service motto "we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen" explains the behavior pattern of its employees in delivering customer service and which explains its success as a brand. In an organizational sense, the term culture  describes patterns of cross  individual behavioral consistency e.g. when people say that culture is “The way we do things around here,” they are defining consistent a way in which  people perform tasks, solve problems, resolve conflicts, treat customers, and treat  employees. Evaluation can provide evidence upon which to base change and improvement initiatives. Evaluators can cooperatively work with organizational staff to instill a culture that routinely accepts evaluation as a input to learning and decision making.<ref>Owen M. John in Mathison, Sandra. Encyclopaedia of Evaluation, pp 286, Ed. University of British Columbia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005.</ref>}}