Tangled Web

There are many things that may affect the culture of an organization. The very nature of what an organization does may affect the culture within the organization. For example, if an organization is composed of younger IT professionals it is likely that this organization will be much different than that of a organization that produces steel. Every organization has its own culture and the culture of the organization is defined by several things. Here are my thoughts on a few aspects of organizational culture.

* People – First and foremost the culture of an organization is defined by the people of the organization. The variety of people, or lack of variety, help to define how an organization will get things done. A diverse organization may include input from a wide variety of people and organizations with less diversity may tend to agree on how business should be handled. People, more than anything, influece the culture of an organization.

* Leadership – The leadership of a company can affect the culture of the organization from the top down. A great example to look at for leadership in an organization is Southwest Airlines (SWA). From its’ inception SWA was conceived as a more entertaining way to fly. This has carried through to today and is still conveyed through all of the employees and in the commercials. Leadership drives the employees in the right direction to create the culture.

* Industry – It is safe to say that a small IT firm will have an entirely different culture than that of a steelmill. The type of business that an organization does will greatly affect the culture of that organization. Many organizations that are focused on productivity such as UPS or FedEx may have a “Get it done” type attitude, where a small independent developer may desire to get it done, get it done right, and make the customer happy attitude. The type of industry will always have an impact on the culture within the organization.

There are probably many large organizations that even have different cultures for each of their different sectors. This could be a rather large challenge for such a large organization to make sure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal. The culture of an organization is defined by the leadership, people and the type of industry.