organizational CHAnGE

The article about organizational culture places emphasis on the role of the individual in relation to the overall organization and external environment. This constant play between defining how one fits into an organization and how the organization fits to the individual eludes to the article's concept of creating and recreating the world in which we live. The compliance to create and recreate assumes that individuals within an organization have shared assumptions and beliefs--also known as CULTURE.

Morgan's 3 basic questions for cultural analysts include:
**What are the shared frames of reference that make organization possible?
**Where do they come from?
**How are they created, communicated, and sustained?

Answers to these questions may be best ascertained by conducting qualitative methodological studies. As Schein notes, there are multiple layers of systems and cultures/sub-cultures within an organization. It is up to the leadership to be mindful of the cultures in which they are embedded. Failure to do so may ultimately lead to organizational failure.

If culture is so important and essential to an organization, how do leaders attempt to reform an organization? How do you become an effective change agent within an organization? All too often job openings become vacant due to some reason within an organization. Regardless of the reason, change will occur under new leadership within an organization. The key is how mindful, or aware, will we be to the culture that pre-existed and the culture that exists in our presence, and the cultural legacies that we leave when we transition out of organizations--the "adjourning" mentioned in last week's reading?