Leader and Organization Culture: Navigating the Tricky Currents

摘要

The thesis of this paper can be summarized as follows: (1) Organization culture can and should be managed; (2) the process of culture management cannot be understood, nor specified, as a directed, instrumental approach; (3) instead, the process involves a long-term adaptation of organization culture and strategy with organizational leadership playing the driving role in the process of culture management. A popular, instrumental view that culture offers the levers for the shrewd general manager to pull, is review and assessed. Subsequently, a different perspective--a navigational view--is proposed. According to this, the process of culture change is long-term, energy-intensive, and leader-driven. At best, a slight nudge to organization culture is the probable outcome, but this may be sufficient to ensure implementation of a strategic change. A rudimentary model for strategic leadership is then developed, and a case study about leadership and organization cultures is recounted to exemplify the proposed roles of leadership and culture in managing strategic change.