Meaning and function of organizational culture

Theories of organizational culture explain patterns of behavior within organizations in terms of relatively shared mental structures that influence how people make sense of their workplace reality and of the symbols and symbolic practices that maintain and reproduce these understandings. In 1983, Laura Smircich drew connections between different research themes on organizational culture and different concepts of culture rooted in anthropological research. In this entry, I combine Smircich analysis with insights from later work to outline a socio-anthropological theory of what organizational culture is and how it affects organizational behavior. Understanding cultural processes in organization is important to correctly interpret organizational phenomena and anticipate collective responses to managerial action