consensual schema, and they account

consensual schema, and they account for a large amount of cross-individual
behavioral consistency.
In summary, organizational culture


s
s


s


s


Establishes a set of roles (social identities).
Establishes a set of role expectations (traits, competencies, and values) asso-
ciated with each identity.
Establishes the status or value/worth to the reference group of each social
identity.
Provides values, cognitive schema, and mental models to influence how indi-

viduals behave with respect to the various groups or communities they find
themselves a member of (microculture), as well as with respect to the orga-
nizational culture as a whole.

Organizational culture is not so much a discrete “thing” that can be pointed
to as the medium in which the organization resides. This medium not only is
complex but is also a moving target—organizational culture as a whole is
dynamic and is always in the process of changing.



CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION TO A
KNOWLEDGE-SHARING CULTURE

How is culture developed, reinforced, and changed? It is often said in orga-
nizations that “we need to change the culture around here.” What is usually
meant is that someone desires a behavioral change, such as employees paying
more attention to customers, or that they want managers to come to meetings
on time, or some other set of behaviors. Although these patterns of behavior
can be changed by changing the organization’s structure (rules, regulations,
rewards systems), altering these behaviors through culture involves changing
the underlying mechanisms that drive these behavioral patterns: namely,
norms, social values, or mental models. Since these underlying culture control
mechanisms are often taken for granted and are subconscious, they are diffi-
cult to change.
Changing structure by changing a rule and its enforcement mechanism is
rather simple when compared to changing a social value. Culture is resistant
to change because many of the cultural control mechanisms become internal-
ized in the minds of organizational members; that is what makes culture such
a strong control mechanism. Changing culture often means that members have
to change their entire social identity. Sometimes the statuses of various roles
or identities change, causing even more resistance among high-status role
holders.
While changing behavior by changing structure may have more appeal
because it appears easier, this type of change is often not successful because
managers have not changed the underlying culture and so they find that the
culture and structure are in conflict. Although organizational change is diffi-
cult and often lengthy to undertake, it is a critical requirement for most, if not