Concepts of organizational culture and presumed links to efficiency

This paper provides a critical survey of some common conceptualizations of organizational culture: culture as a building block in organizational design, as the outcome of symbolic management, as a diagnostic instrument and as a paradigmatic concept. A number of well-known proponents for various views on organizational culture are critically examined, especially concerning assumptions and hypotheses on the relationship between organizational culture and various performance-related outcomes. It is argued that many writers exaggerate the central role played by corporate culture as an independent variable affecting organizational efficiency. Part of the problem is establishing the linkages between culture and other organizational phenomena and outcomes is concerned with difficulties in separating culture from non-culture. Efforts to establish outcomes of corporate culture often become unclear, speculative or tautological. The paper concludes that even though it is understandable that scholars for technical and pragmatic reasons emphasize culture as a key to organizational performance and then 'narrow down' culture to a variable or factor, this reductionistic view on culture is unfruitful. A broader view, conceptualizing culture as a metaphor for organization appears much more promising.