ABSTRACT
Building a culture which sustains team members, encourages an active and consistent response to service users, based on commonly agreed goals, and is a part of a first-line manager's job. The culture affects the organisation's ability to respond and change, and its management is crucial to effective management of the organisation as a whole. A culture contains the guiding principles and the diversity created by everyday practices and assumptions. Charles Handy and Roger Harrison describe the various types of organisational cultures. These are power culture, Role culture, and task culture. Culture is the context within which change takes place, provides continuity and strength as much as obstacles to change. The culture forms the base from which people learn new ways of working, and thus the culture changes. The culture of the organisation and of the team provides the context within which a manager operates, and an understanding of the culture is crucial to team development.
