Organisational Culture:

Problem investigated: The concept organizational culture has assumed a very prominent place within the management literature and has been analysed from diverse multidisciplinary perspectives. Central to the importance attributed to the concept is the fact that it acts as a perceptual and behavioural determinant, which implies that it will have a significant impact on all human related institutional activities and thus the interest in the concept and its management. Researchers and management practitioners have come to assume that while the concept is difficult to manage in practice, it is possible to determine the prevailing culture of an institution, identify what is termed to be a desired culture for an institution and then analyse the cultural gap that exists. Based on the analysis conducted, it is further frequently assumed that the transition from the prevailing to a desired culture can be managed. A more contemporary management perspective, based on complexity theory, would appear to challenge the assumption of being able to actively manage the organisation’s culture transformation process to ensure that a desired culture is manifest within the institution. The traditional and more contemporary approaches for dealing with the concept “organisational culture” are the focus of discussion and analysis in this paper.