Organizational Culture

A culture can be strong (think of Disney) or weak. A strong culture is not necessarily an asset to the organization. An organization's culture will start with the founder's values and preferences and respond to industry demands. However, the culture is shaped over time as it deals with external and internal challenges. Additionally, the culture is shared with new employees. Companies can use a formal orientation program and mentoring to instill the organizational culture during the onboarding process. We can learn about an organization's culture by looking at its mission statement, rituals, rules and policies, physical layout, and stories. Read this text to consider organizational culture in more depth and provides some different perspectives to help us understand corporate culture, including how it forms.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

Aggressive Cultures

Bill Gates

Figure 15.5 Microsoft, the company that Bill Gates cofounded, has been described as having an aggressive culture.

Companies with aggressive cultures value competitiveness and outperforming competitors: By emphasizing this, they may fall short in the area of corporate social responsibility. For example, Microsoft Corporation is often identified as a company with an aggressive culture. The company has faced a number of antitrust lawsuits and disputes with competitors over the years. In aggressive companies, people may use language such as "We will kill our competition". In the past, Microsoft executives often made statements such as "We are going to cut off Netscape's air supply.…Everything they are selling, we are going to give away". Its aggressive culture is cited as a reason for getting into new legal troubles before old ones are resolved. Recently, Microsoft founder Bill Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and is planning to devote his time to reducing poverty around the world. It will be interesting to see whether he will bring the same competitive approach to the world of philanthropy.