Organizational culture

About: Organizational culture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 31507 publications have been published within this topic receiving 926787 citations. The topic is also known as: corporate culture & organisational culture.

Populations, natural selection, and applied organizational science.

Abstract: ? 1983 by Cornell University 0001-8392/83/2801-01 01 /$00 75 This paper proposes that organizational science could be applied more widely if the field were more concerned with the conditions under which research findings are valid. Papers in the field generalize about organizations as if they were all alike, or refrain from generalizing at all, as if they were all unique. The population perspective presented de-emphasizes the all-alike and all-unique approaches, placing emphasis instead on research methods that improve the description and classification of organizational forms, define more homogeneous groupings, and specify the limited conditions under which predictions may be expected to hold true. The principles of the population perspective are reviewed, and an outline is presented for developing a classification of organizational forms. Suggestions are then made on how to use the perspective to increase and improve the application of organizational research.

Does organisational culture influence health care performance? A review of the evidence.

Abstract: Objective: To review the evidence for a relationship between organisational culture and health care performance.Methods: Qualitative comprehensive review: all empirical studies exploring a relationship between organisational culture (broadly defined) and health care performance (broadly defined) were identified by a comprehensive search of the literature. Study methods and results were analysed qualitatively to provide a narrative review with integrative discussion.Results: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. There was considerable variation in the design, study setting, quality of reporting and aspects of culture/performance considered. Four of the ten studies reviewed in detail claimed to have uncovered supportive evidence for the hypothesis that culture and performance are linked. All the other studies failed to find a link, though none provided strong evidence against the hypothesis.Conclusions: There is some evidence to suggest that organisational culture may be a relevant factor in health care p...

Vanquishing virtue: the impact of medical education.

Abstract: North American physicians emerge from their medical training with a wide array of professional beliefs and values. Many are thoughtful and introspective. Many are devoted to patients’ welfare. Some bring to their work a broad view of social responsibility. Nonetheless, the authors contend that North American medical education favors an explicit commitment to traditional values of doctoring—empathy, compassion, and altruism among them —and a tacit commitment to behaviors grounded in an ethic of detachment, self-interest, and objectivity. They further note that medical students and young physicians respond to this conflict in various ways. Some re-conceptualize themselves primarily as technicians and narrow their professional identities to an ethic of competence, thus adopting the tacit values and discarding the explicit professionalism. Others develop non-reflective professionalism, an implicit avowal that they best care for their patients by treating them as objects of technical services (medical care). Another group appears to be ‘‘immunized’’ against the tacit values, and thus they internalize and develop professional virtue. Certain personal characteristics of the student, such as gender, belief system, and non-medical commitments, probably play roles in ‘‘immunization,’’ as do medical school features such as family medicine, communication skills courses, medical ethics, humanities, and social issues in medicine. To be effective, though, these features must be prominent and tightly integrated into the medical school curriculum. The locus of change in the culture of medicine has now shifted to ambulatory settings and the marketplace. It remains to be seen whether this move will lessen the disjunction between the explicit curriculum and the manifestly contradictory values of detachment and entitlement, and the belief that the patient’s interest always coincides with the physician’s interest. Acad. Med. 2001;76:598‐605.

Levels of Culture and Individual Behavior: An Investigative Perspective

Abstract: In an organizational setting, national culture is not the only type of culture that influences managerial and work behavior. Rather, behavior is influenced by different levels of culture ranging from the supranational (regional, ethnic, religious, linguistic) level through the national, professional, and organizational levels to the group level. The objective of this study is to integrate these different levels of culture by explicitly recognizing that individuals’ workplace behavior is a function of all different cultures simultaneously. It is theorized that the relative influence of the different levels of culture on individual behavior varies depending on the nature of the behavior under investigation. Thus, for behaviors that include a strong social component or include terminal and moral values, supranational and national cultures might have a predominant effect. For behaviors with a strong task component or for those involving competence values or practices, organizational and professional cultures may dominate. These propositions are illustrated with examples from the IS field. This paper is a conceptual study and therefore extends theory and the current understanding of how culture is examined by not only explicitly recognizing that behaviors are simultaneously influenced by multiple levels of culture but by also specifying conditions under which certain levels of culture dominate. Such an approach has the potential to inform researchers and practitioners about the generalizability or universality of theories and techniques across national, organizational, and professional borders.