ABSTRACT
The phenomena referred to as organizational culture, after early charges of mysticism and faddism, has become both popular and legitimate, and has a growing literature. Regardless of its evolving sophistication and contemporary stature as a field of study by scholars and as a source of inspiration for practitioners, organizational culture continues to be sidetracked by numerous, vigorously debated questions. Is culture something organizations are? Is organizational culture an independent or a dependent variable? For an organization, is there one culture, a set of subcultures, or both? Can organizational culture be known through objective assessment or only through interpretation or inference? Is each organizational culture unique, or does each have features in common that permit comparative analysis? Behind many, if not most, of the debated questions is a more fundamental, double barreled one: is organizational culture amenable to change? If so, can organizational culture change be managed? To date, responses have been polarized.
